swifts
The 36 foot BET single deck body was obviously associated with big area-agreement fleets in England and Wales but in Scotland the only new buyers were independents, the most regular purchaser being Hutchison, of Overtown Lanarkshire.
Hutchison standardised on small engined AEC Reliances for the most part, and favoured a short life policy for its service buses, generally selling them on after four or five years.
In 1967 Hutchison were briefly controlled by Scottish Bus Group, but it is not clear from a documented source whether this affected the content of the 1968 orders, but they were unlike what came before or since, unlike any SBG purchases of the time too.
NVD310-1F were AEC Swift MP2Rs with Alexander W Type bodies, NVD312-3F were Reliance 6MU3R with Alexander Y type Bodies and NVD314-5F pictured above were Swift MP2R and carried Willowbrook bodies. Both sets of Swifts were single-door 51 seaters, Hutchison's Reliance buses sat up to four more and had manual transmission, whilst monocontrol semi-automatic was standard on the Swift; the two Y type Reliances had manual transmission and brought the total of Y types purchased by Scottish independents to six, the other four being sold to the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (t/a Majestic) in 1965 and 1967.
In 1971 all four Swifts were sold to Dundee Corporation and this picture taken in 1975 shows the two Willowbrook bodied examples 68 in the Dundee two tone green livery and 67 in the blues and white of the new Tayside Regional Council. The original Hutchison livery was blue and cream to a similar layout but in different shades.
Original Colour picture Ron Doig copyright Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust, monochrome scan courtesy Brian Longworth.
swifts
The 36 foot BET single deck body was obviously associated with big area-agreement fleets in England and Wales but in Scotland the only new buyers were independents, the most regular purchaser being Hutchison, of Overtown Lanarkshire.
Hutchison standardised on small engined AEC Reliances for the most part, and favoured a short life policy for its service buses, generally selling them on after four or five years.
In 1967 Hutchison were briefly controlled by Scottish Bus Group, but it is not clear from a documented source whether this affected the content of the 1968 orders, but they were unlike what came before or since, unlike any SBG purchases of the time too.
NVD310-1F were AEC Swift MP2Rs with Alexander W Type bodies, NVD312-3F were Reliance 6MU3R with Alexander Y type Bodies and NVD314-5F pictured above were Swift MP2R and carried Willowbrook bodies. Both sets of Swifts were single-door 51 seaters, Hutchison's Reliance buses sat up to four more and had manual transmission, whilst monocontrol semi-automatic was standard on the Swift; the two Y type Reliances had manual transmission and brought the total of Y types purchased by Scottish independents to six, the other four being sold to the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (t/a Majestic) in 1965 and 1967.
In 1971 all four Swifts were sold to Dundee Corporation and this picture taken in 1975 shows the two Willowbrook bodied examples 68 in the Dundee two tone green livery and 67 in the blues and white of the new Tayside Regional Council. The original Hutchison livery was blue and cream to a similar layout but in different shades.
Original Colour picture Ron Doig copyright Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust, monochrome scan courtesy Brian Longworth.