Leyland CU
It’s 1979 and Leyland Vehicles have had a wheeze, let’s produce a version of the Terrier for 25 foot to 30 foot bus bodies with a full-front entrance, and sell it, like the Terrier, at a little bit less than equivalent Fords and Bedfords. Who knows? It might sell to people who are currently buying Bristol LHSs from us.
Why not use a dormant registered name?
Cub might do.
Yes, let’s use Cub.
In fact the CU-series Cub had big sales in what was then as now called the ‘Welfare’ market, buses sold to Local Authorities to transport schoolchildren or ‘the Handicapped’.
This was before the European Year for Disabled People.
The ghosted drawing shows a Wadham Stringer Vanguard body on the chassis. At least, unlike the Commer/Dodge/Renault Commando the engine has also been moved to the front of the chassis.
Lothian Regional Transport had the most PSV-licenced Cubs, like Central SMT's pair they used Duple Dominant Bus bodies. West Yorkshire had a batch with the first sort of Optare body. Most of the schools and welfare users either employed Wadham Stringer (notably the Inner London Education Authority) or Reeve Burgess (South Yorkshire MBC social services) but oddest of all perhaps was Crystal’s Coaches of Orpington who had two bodied by HCI in 1985 to work their tender for London Route 146.
The Cub was replaced by the Leyland Bus Swift in 1987, about the same time Bathgate was closed.
The CU Cub’s core market has gone three ways since, many school journeys are registered post-1986 local bus routes so use current designs of full-PCV, other dedicated scholars services and contracted hires use ‘yellow school buses’ which can be nearly as sophisticated but generally feature 3+2 seating and three-point belts. Thirdly however though the cargo are now called people with disabilities, the severely-disabled whose care and transport is up to local authorities generally travel in lorry chassis such as the Iveco Euro-Cargo or Leyland-DAF 45 series with more or less the amenity and refinement of a present day horsebox or prison van. The Cub was an improvement on what had gone before to a limited extent; the current transport for people with severe disabilities is a shame to us all.
Note that in 1979 Leyland Vehicles bus and coach sales were being run from the former ACV sales offices in Southall, rather than the prestigious central London location (Hanover Square, W5) used by Leyland Motors.
© 1979 Leyland Vehicles Ltd reproduced for scholarship and research purposes.
Leyland CU
It’s 1979 and Leyland Vehicles have had a wheeze, let’s produce a version of the Terrier for 25 foot to 30 foot bus bodies with a full-front entrance, and sell it, like the Terrier, at a little bit less than equivalent Fords and Bedfords. Who knows? It might sell to people who are currently buying Bristol LHSs from us.
Why not use a dormant registered name?
Cub might do.
Yes, let’s use Cub.
In fact the CU-series Cub had big sales in what was then as now called the ‘Welfare’ market, buses sold to Local Authorities to transport schoolchildren or ‘the Handicapped’.
This was before the European Year for Disabled People.
The ghosted drawing shows a Wadham Stringer Vanguard body on the chassis. At least, unlike the Commer/Dodge/Renault Commando the engine has also been moved to the front of the chassis.
Lothian Regional Transport had the most PSV-licenced Cubs, like Central SMT's pair they used Duple Dominant Bus bodies. West Yorkshire had a batch with the first sort of Optare body. Most of the schools and welfare users either employed Wadham Stringer (notably the Inner London Education Authority) or Reeve Burgess (South Yorkshire MBC social services) but oddest of all perhaps was Crystal’s Coaches of Orpington who had two bodied by HCI in 1985 to work their tender for London Route 146.
The Cub was replaced by the Leyland Bus Swift in 1987, about the same time Bathgate was closed.
The CU Cub’s core market has gone three ways since, many school journeys are registered post-1986 local bus routes so use current designs of full-PCV, other dedicated scholars services and contracted hires use ‘yellow school buses’ which can be nearly as sophisticated but generally feature 3+2 seating and three-point belts. Thirdly however though the cargo are now called people with disabilities, the severely-disabled whose care and transport is up to local authorities generally travel in lorry chassis such as the Iveco Euro-Cargo or Leyland-DAF 45 series with more or less the amenity and refinement of a present day horsebox or prison van. The Cub was an improvement on what had gone before to a limited extent; the current transport for people with severe disabilities is a shame to us all.
Note that in 1979 Leyland Vehicles bus and coach sales were being run from the former ACV sales offices in Southall, rather than the prestigious central London location (Hanover Square, W5) used by Leyland Motors.
© 1979 Leyland Vehicles Ltd reproduced for scholarship and research purposes.