Been doing some more digging on the subject and a logical conclusion could be that what I remembered was actually the LS, being run on the 285 route, as part of the documented London Transport evaluation of it to replace the Swift.
Ray(Smyth) OP on this thread hasn’t been on for a while so I had a chat with him yesterday, he is well but struggles to get his head round this version of TruckNet and there’s a bit on Past and Present regarding pre-selector gears so a couple snaps from 1958 and my shift bus RC13 at Maddiston terminus and no I didn’t have two clippies there was an overlap of 10mins or so one bus arriving before the other left. Nearby was the yard of Smith of Maddiston. The first photo at Callander Riggs bus station Falkirk.
Oily
Looks awful!
Even the bus looks sad.
The heartening thing is that some of those helping are probably kids from the school bus. That bus hails from about 1963 when it was not unusual for secondary-age children to get out and push in the snow. Today they’d on the upper deck stabbing their i-phones for get support for their impending post traumatic stress disorder.
I wonder if that photo was taken during the '62/ '63 winter (I’m just old enough to remember it).
I remember it well - the sea froze up! But I’m thinking that this was some years later because they tended to put old buses on the school routes, not brand new ones like they do today. Also, the indistinct cars in the background and the hooded anoraks worn by the boys rather post-date the early '60s. I’d go for '73 if I had put money on it!
Is that a two tone 4x4 behind the bus?
I’m thinking a Shogun or Colorado with dark paint and silver plastic wheel arch protection lower down?
1980’s? 90’s?? That bus would have been getting on by then.
They lasted well, those Leyland Titans. One of them, just a few numbers away from the one in the picture, and registered PCW 946 was built at the end of '63 and entered service at the start of '64. I bought it straight out of service (school relief) in late '90 with a fresh ticket on it. It had done 26 years of service and was still good to go.
Didn’t see the cars behind, but now I’ve found my specs and looked again, you’re right.
That’s a majestic beast! Is that local bodywork?
Yes, very local to me being built in Brisbane.
As with so many industries and commodities, WW ll forced manufacturing independence onto Australia. For fifty years from the post war years we had a healthy, quality and innovative manufacturing industry. Political decisions allowed cheap tat from mainly SE Asia and other third world countries, decimating local manufacturing.
One of those manufacturers was, Brisbane based, Denning bus and coach who built the Rolls Royce of coaches, the Denning Landseer.
When Denning went bust, three fellows of the upper management started up on their own, using the same premises and workforce. GBW was an amalgamation of their initials. The picture is of a GBW built Landseer with a MAN engine in place of the Denning preferred 6V92.
When Brisbane City Council bought their first MAN busses, there was a joke in the depots, “women bus drivers demand a good man” and “women bus drivers demand longer routes” (colloquially root being uncouth slang for sex).