Bailey, Dunkirk CJG 986 and others

[Derek Jones]

A small selection of further pictures all from the camera of John Watts.  Precise dates not yet established, but these must all have been taken in late 1967 or early 1968.

John was one of the few Club members recording and photographing the fleets of independent operators during the 1960s, several years before the Club News-Sheet began reporting them comprehensively from 1975 onwards.  In 1968 he issued a monthly single-sheet newsletter which ran to just seven issues before minimal reporting by anyone else made it unsustainable at that time (a familiar story over the years) - more on that later.

Bailey was the predecessor of Queen & Harris (Donsway) and used the same premises in the old London Road site at Dunkirk later taken over by South East Coachworks.

For a while in the late 1960s Bailey ran some ex-East Kent vehicles including all-Leyland lowbridge PD1A CJG 986 and Beadle coach rebuild (from a pre-war 1938 or 1939 Leyland TD5 decker) GFN 269 as shown here, both withdrawn and scrapped soon after these pictures were taken, together with other interesting coaches of which 634 WKL was a Harrington Cavalier 36-bodied AEC Reliance, one of a batch 631-5 WKL first licensed in the UK to Anglo-Continental Tours (Torquay) Ltd but used on the continent on behalf of Leroy Tours of Tunbridge Wells, hence the Kent registrations.

Derek J

[DerekJ]

These too can now be dated to 29 February 1968.

Derek J