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Cook of Westcliff's well travelled Comex 8 Bedford YMT - Plaxton SNM73R Army & Navy, Chelmsford 1978

The famous landmark of the Army and Navy on the former a12 in Chelmsford has now been demolished. It deserved its fate, as it never allowed coaches to stop there. In the background, Van Diemans Road. I would have loved to live there

This was an interesting coach....it was one of 7 , SNM70-6R variously Bedford YMT/YLQ Plaxton/Duples bought for the 8th Commonwealth Expedition, starting February 1977.

which were driven overland to India and back...see pictures here.....(a few of the Duple bodied vehicles on the expedition)

valinor.ca/comex8pictures/comex8pix.html

Read about the expedition here...

valinor.ca/comex8c.html

Not many Essex coaches had been on the streets of Kabul.

The Army & Navy hotel, a famous A12 landmark, was demolished in march 2007 and replaced in 2008 by a Travelodge.

The coach was originally a 40 seater for the expedition, but I suspect it was re-seated to 53 on acquisition by Cook. SNM73R passed to Linkfast (S&M Coaches of Benfleet) prior to moving to M&E Jones in nearby Rochford or variously Shoeburyness, with whom it was still operating at the end of the 1980s. 72 also appeared in East Anglia with Galloway (Braybrooke) Mendlesham, and 74 with Beardon of Colchester.

 

The roundabout's grass looks very unkempt, the subway seems to have some kind of temporary block on it - I guess the flyover was shortly to arrive.

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Uploaded on December 11, 2008
Taken on December 8, 2008