Knotty St. Helens Swifts ... and an RE.
Undoubtedly one of the best buses I ever bought. EDJ 242J had been in preservation, but unfortunately for its owners at the time had to be moved on. Their loss however was Knotty Bus's gain as this ex St. Helens / Merseybus / Speak Airport Marshall bodied AEC Swift was in first class condition all round. In no time at all it was painted into a similar scheme to that which we see here on sister bus GEM 598N and was placed into service. I recall it being 100% reliable until it was sadly lost in a great garage fire in the mid 1990s.
The Bristol RE on the right was ex PMT JEH 197K which I'd bought from a local independent. It had a seized Leyland 680 engine and it had been my plan to fit an AEC 691 to replicate a factory option which Bristol planned.
Going off at a bit of a tangent, rumour has it that St. Helens Corporation wanted a further batch of AEC Swifts, but Leyland refused to supply them and a cancelled order of Bristol RESLs (as per 197 here) from PMT were sold to them instead.
Knotty St. Helens Swifts ... and an RE.
Undoubtedly one of the best buses I ever bought. EDJ 242J had been in preservation, but unfortunately for its owners at the time had to be moved on. Their loss however was Knotty Bus's gain as this ex St. Helens / Merseybus / Speak Airport Marshall bodied AEC Swift was in first class condition all round. In no time at all it was painted into a similar scheme to that which we see here on sister bus GEM 598N and was placed into service. I recall it being 100% reliable until it was sadly lost in a great garage fire in the mid 1990s.
The Bristol RE on the right was ex PMT JEH 197K which I'd bought from a local independent. It had a seized Leyland 680 engine and it had been my plan to fit an AEC 691 to replicate a factory option which Bristol planned.
Going off at a bit of a tangent, rumour has it that St. Helens Corporation wanted a further batch of AEC Swifts, but Leyland refused to supply them and a cancelled order of Bristol RESLs (as per 197 here) from PMT were sold to them instead.