Plastic surgery
Following its unhappy flirtation with Daimler's Roadliner model, the Potteries Motor Traction Co. Ltd of Stoke on Trent, moved on to place orders for the manufacturer's new stretched Fleetline chassis in single deck form. It is believed by those on the ground that these buses were to have been 33ft long OMO double decks, but union pressure dictated the change to 36ft long standee saloons.
Whilst the new single deck Fleetlines didn't suffer from the mechanical vageries of the Roadliners, even with Alexander bodywork, they did suffer structurally in the body frame from chassis flexing. Their pedestrian performance however didn't endear them to drivers either.
Beyond that, they were a stunning looking bus when new, their Alexander 'W Type' bodies were quite unlike anything which had gone before. Of the 21 delivered, BEH 160H seen here was numerically the last. Clem Smith photographed on this occasion at Stafford bus station when just out of the first flushes of youth. The old company livery had had the longstanding PMT decals replaced by the new master's NBC corporate style. Of note also is that the normally heavily contoured fibreglass front panel had been replaced by a much simpler affair constructed in the company's body shop which altered its 'face'. 160 must have been involved in some sort of front end fracas.
Plastic surgery
Following its unhappy flirtation with Daimler's Roadliner model, the Potteries Motor Traction Co. Ltd of Stoke on Trent, moved on to place orders for the manufacturer's new stretched Fleetline chassis in single deck form. It is believed by those on the ground that these buses were to have been 33ft long OMO double decks, but union pressure dictated the change to 36ft long standee saloons.
Whilst the new single deck Fleetlines didn't suffer from the mechanical vageries of the Roadliners, even with Alexander bodywork, they did suffer structurally in the body frame from chassis flexing. Their pedestrian performance however didn't endear them to drivers either.
Beyond that, they were a stunning looking bus when new, their Alexander 'W Type' bodies were quite unlike anything which had gone before. Of the 21 delivered, BEH 160H seen here was numerically the last. Clem Smith photographed on this occasion at Stafford bus station when just out of the first flushes of youth. The old company livery had had the longstanding PMT decals replaced by the new master's NBC corporate style. Of note also is that the normally heavily contoured fibreglass front panel had been replaced by a much simpler affair constructed in the company's body shop which altered its 'face'. 160 must have been involved in some sort of front end fracas.