I seem to remember that a driver was killed when he was blown out of his seat & went under his own rear wheels on the motorway somewhere . I used to work for National Express in the 80s & seem to remember about it & read it also in an " in house " newsletter in a bus station canteen .
dieseldog6:
There’s a firm from Workington way, green DAF’s that carry them double decked, can’t remember the name though, see them going M/T down M40 alot.[/quote They are Boyes Transport & are still opperating as far as I know, Regards Larry, PS, Bewick will defo know.
Did one of these drivers not freeze to death some years ago ■■< Regards Larry.
In an earier post someone referred to the woodern makeshift seat the driver had to sit on, and I remember that we were invoiced as an extra for these seats in with delivery charges when we had Bedford SBs delivered to Marsden coachbuilders at Warrington where we had the pantechnicon bodies built onto these coach chassis. Lorry drivers always were a tough bunch but the drivers delivering these coach chassis, dressed like motor cyclists must have been rea heros.
I remember back in the early 1950s AEC bus chassis being driven down the Harlington Road in Hillingdon to where it met up with the Uxbridge Road just east of Hillingdon Hill. I always thought they were out on a test run but more likely they were on their way to a coach builder.
I remember them well. Not a job I would consider, even in summer.
I passed a pair of them one day when I was driving the double deck coaches for WC Standerwick on the Burnley London job, we stopped at the Blue Boar on the M1 for a break and the two chassis drivers came in and offered to swop jobs for an hour. I would have sooner walked home.
Russell.
I remember around 1977 when Ken Brindle, a driver from Oldham, was killed early one morning while delivering a chassis for Seddon Atkinson on the A628 Woodhead Pass.
He skidded in the wet conditions and hit a lorry coming in the opposite direction head on killing him instantly.
It certainly wasn’t a job for the faint hearted especially in winter.
The last time I saw chassis’s being driven this way will of been 1994 on the M1
I understand that the last Bristol double deck chassis that were driven to Lowestoft prior to the works closure in the early eighties were fitted with downrated braking systems for the journey to compensate for the lack of body weight. The parts were then changed at Lowestoft and brought back to Bristol on a completed vehicle for use again.
Some of the Bristols were fitted with Leyland engines and the local Leyland depot were responsible for any engine problems on the first part of the journey. The same applied to the Leyland engined BRS Bristol,s and some of them seized up on test before the vehicles was handed over to BRS.
Phil.
Bones:
Even i remember them coming out of Plaxton’s at scarborugh like that.
Coming out? they went IN regularly. 
Yes, it was a common sight, Leyland did a lot of this type of chassis delivery to Plaxtons.
Yes they went IN as chassis and came OUT as coaches.
We had plenty of Plaxton bodied Leyland Leopard coaches at W.C. Standerwick.
I moved to Batty Holt tours and we had similar bodies on the AEC’s.
I had to take one back to Plaxtons once for repairs when it had been involved in battle with football supporters which left in minus near side windows and badly damaged panels.
Russell.
In the late 70s I was in the cafe at Markham Moor when one of these drivers walked into the caff shut the door and dropped down dead. Not a job I would have had for a gold watch !
Barry Waddy , I rember my dad telling me in the 50s he worked in the local Dodge agent , P W Pumphrey ,the used to send the top fitter ,Sam Price ,down to Kew to fetch new chassies up ,down by train ,back up sitting on aboard gloves balaca, hat two overcoats ,in the winter some times had to prize his hands off the wheel and carry him to the warm office ,no refusing to go or health & saftey in them days, some say the good old days ?, Yours Barry Waddy
o the warm office ,to tho
I used to see them all the time. Before the Malton bypass was built in the 80s they used to come through the town regular, both ways.
dieseldog6:
There’s a firm from Workington way, green DAF’s that carry them double decked, can’t remember the name though, see them going M/T down M40 alot.
Hello dieseldog6
You mean A D Boyes of Ireby. They run a fleet of 7 DAF CF’s on bus chassis work mainly for Dennis. They started doing this work back in the 1980’s for Leyland Bus at Workington. But, when this closed in 1993, they lost the contract but quickly picked up the Dennis contract.
The most fasinating piece of infomation about Boyes is that they make there own bus chassis trailers and have done since 2004.
Kindest Regrads
■■■■■■■■ Gill
Yes Lawrence, A.D. Boyes are still delivering bus chassis. I remember when working in Carlisle on London Rd 1957-62 seeing chassis passing through each lunchtime when my mate and I stood outside watching the wagons heading both north and south as there was no M6 in those days as you know. Albion Chieftain, Clydesdale, Clansman goods chassis plus Victor bus chassis heading south with just the radiator and cab front scuttle, the export models bearing a small thin piece of board wired to the radiator grill with the shipping marks stencilled on, many labelled for West Africa with Takoradi, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Accra as the port of disembarcation. Northbound were AEC Reliance coach chassis, Leyland Leopard and Tiger Cub underfloor engined chassis also many Leyland Titan PD 3 chassis with the traditional Leyland exposed radiator shell or the fibreglass St Helens style front all heading for Walter Alexanders Coachworks firstly at Stirling then the new factory at Camelon, Falkirk. Some of the Leyland chassis had semi automatic (pneumocyclic gearbox) mounted remotely further back in the chassis with a short propshaft from the centrifugal clutch or later fluid flywheel to the gearbox, when these chassis stopped in traffic the short propshaft still revolved. Daimler CVG 5 and 6 double deck chasis also. Many Bristol Lodekkas bodied by Eastern Coachworks at Lowestoft and heading for Central SMT at Motherwell were also a regular sight. When Albion brought out the LAD cab circa 1958 for Chieftain and Clydesdales they had a Homalloy cabbed Chieftain tractor unit pulling a double deck skeletal frame trailer which carried 10 new steel cabs built by either Willenhall or Motor Panels in the West Midlands cant be sure which, this stopped many sightings of bare Albion chassis coming through as most now had cabs fitted. When rear engined chassis became more popular Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline chassis were frequent sightings but these used to flex severely on uneven road surfaces due to them relying on their eventual bodywork for additional strength. It was not unknown for drivers to dismount collapse and die during the winter something which occurred two or three times at the Jungle Cafe coming down Shap.
Hope this puts everyone in the picture. Cheers Leyland 600.
This was the way to do it way back in 1973 
Photograph courtesy of Ian Revell
Here,s the last front engined Daimler bus chassis a CVG6LX-34 being driven out of the Coventry Factory on the 23rd December 1971 to complete an order for 235 for the Kowloon Motor Bus Company,Hong Kong.Lets hope he’s only going to the docks. 
Mike
Photo T.W.Moore
Looks like Rodney of Only Fools & Horses,doing his moonlighting job.