geordiedave66
THE BUS I LEARNED TO DRIVE ON
My bus driving skills, such as they are, were honed at Darlington on this very bus.
Like a lot of bus companies United found themselves short of serviceable buses, in the late seventies. This was due to a variety or reasons, labour unrest amongst manufacturers (Leyland in the main, who's acquired companies more or less monopolised the industry). Also Gardner's,( the busmans' favourite engine) were not averse to labour unrest at that time. This lead to a dire shortage of new buses and spare parts, which caused untold difficulties.
I also suspect that operators, used to well nigh bulletproof simple front engined models, found the replacement rear engined vehicles more troulesome and generally less reliable than their forebears.
So in the late seventies United acquired a number of secondhand FLF's released by other NBC companies. Included in these acquisitions were three ex Southdown FLF6LX's FPM73/4/5, which had started life in 1965 with Brighton Hove and District.
Once the situation eased all three became driver trainers, hence the title of this posting.
Photograph courtesy of Donald Hudson.
THE BUS I LEARNED TO DRIVE ON
My bus driving skills, such as they are, were honed at Darlington on this very bus.
Like a lot of bus companies United found themselves short of serviceable buses, in the late seventies. This was due to a variety or reasons, labour unrest amongst manufacturers (Leyland in the main, who's acquired companies more or less monopolised the industry). Also Gardner's,( the busmans' favourite engine) were not averse to labour unrest at that time. This lead to a dire shortage of new buses and spare parts, which caused untold difficulties.
I also suspect that operators, used to well nigh bulletproof simple front engined models, found the replacement rear engined vehicles more troulesome and generally less reliable than their forebears.
So in the late seventies United acquired a number of secondhand FLF's released by other NBC companies. Included in these acquisitions were three ex Southdown FLF6LX's FPM73/4/5, which had started life in 1965 with Brighton Hove and District.
Once the situation eased all three became driver trainers, hence the title of this posting.
Photograph courtesy of Donald Hudson.