M&D Demonstrators (2)

[Derek Jones]

A second helping of what appear to have been demonstrators visiting M&D, these are more intringuing for different reasons, partly because no orders for similar vehicles were ever placed by M&D.  Single-deck Daimler Fleetline buses did of course arrive in 1969/70, but otherwise Leylands were favoured for several years from 1966, with Panther buses followed by Leopards in coach, dual-purpose and bus form over several years till the Leyland-National arrived for the first time in the new NBC livery in 1973.

1574 DU was a Daimler/Duple of early 1960s vintage and presumably an early Roadliner - it looks very similar to pictures published elsewhere of what became CWK 641C, which was actually chassis 36005 built in the 1964/5 season and demonstrated to M&D with the latter identity later in January 1967. It had body 1195/1 and was the only Roadliner bodied at Hendon, though four others were built at Blackpool somewhat later - most coach-bodied examples were of course Plaxton-bodied including the Black & White vehicles, one of which (RDG 308G of Carr, Charing Heath/Pluckley) we hired for a Club tour to Sussex in 1985. So the question here is, does any record survive of a visit to M&D of the vehicle illustrated with this earlier identity?

The Strachans Pacesaver-bodied Bedford under trade plates 138 CG is recorded as a visitor for inspection only on a single day (23 October 1964).

The Commer LB minibus is unrecorded in fleet histories, and given the East Sussex trade plates (122 AP) is presumably a Harrington-bodied example, but I have found no information yet about its eventual identity.

Derek J