Tidy Titan
Taken at last weekend's Winkleigh event when this and a whole host of other buses took part in shuttling and giving free rides to hordes of keen visitors.
YLJ 147 was formerly a Bournemouth Corporation bus and survived into preservation as a result of some pretty novel thinking. The operator saved one vehicle from almost every delivery for posterity when they'd finished with them in normal service and stored them at their cavernous Mallard Road depot. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and the forced sale of council fleets and deregulation saw the collection looking for a new home. After weathering several storms followed by threats of scrapping if nobody came forward to take them on, herculean efforts in a short time by Dan Shears and his small team saw the entire bunch, some in very poor condition, arrive at the West of England Transport Collection, Winkleigh a couple of years ago.
Since then, several buses have been loaned out to fellow enthusiasts as a means of kick starting their restoration, indeed my good friend 'Berresfordsmotors' and I are currently custodians of three for example. Anyway, back to YLJ 147, she too latterly found a new home and even received a re-paint there, but bizarrely was returned shortly afterwards as unwanted. The bus is an MCW bodied 'tin fronted' Leyland Titan PD3 with twin entrance and staircases built in 1959.
Tidy Titan
Taken at last weekend's Winkleigh event when this and a whole host of other buses took part in shuttling and giving free rides to hordes of keen visitors.
YLJ 147 was formerly a Bournemouth Corporation bus and survived into preservation as a result of some pretty novel thinking. The operator saved one vehicle from almost every delivery for posterity when they'd finished with them in normal service and stored them at their cavernous Mallard Road depot. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and the forced sale of council fleets and deregulation saw the collection looking for a new home. After weathering several storms followed by threats of scrapping if nobody came forward to take them on, herculean efforts in a short time by Dan Shears and his small team saw the entire bunch, some in very poor condition, arrive at the West of England Transport Collection, Winkleigh a couple of years ago.
Since then, several buses have been loaned out to fellow enthusiasts as a means of kick starting their restoration, indeed my good friend 'Berresfordsmotors' and I are currently custodians of three for example. Anyway, back to YLJ 147, she too latterly found a new home and even received a re-paint there, but bizarrely was returned shortly afterwards as unwanted. The bus is an MCW bodied 'tin fronted' Leyland Titan PD3 with twin entrance and staircases built in 1959.