South Wales Transport Co Ltd 1955 AEC Regent VMD3RV Weymann H33/26R
Seen at the Swansea Bus Museum Running Day was this AEC Regent V MD3RV010 bearing Weymann body M6709 H33/26R and new to South Wales (447) in 1955. South Wales were loyal AEC customers over the years. For several years the livery was all-over red without the cream waistband.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Les Dickinson
02/09/16 – 06:48
A lovely photograph Les, and thank you for posting it, as it brings back happy teenage memories. Sister vehicles MCY405/8 were acquired by Samuel Ledgard in late 1966, closely followed in early 1967 by NCY453/5 from the 1956 batch. When “Sammie’s” was taken over by West Yorkshire in October 1967, the South Wales quartet were among the vehicles retained by the Company, and were given fleet numbers DAW1-4. Initially allocated to WY’s Otley depot, the vehicles were later transferred to Harrogate, where they soon settled down to duties on local services 1/2 Bachelor Gardens-Woodlands, and 9 New Park-Oatlands, plus occasional stints on the 11 Roche Avenue-Cawthorn Avenue and 12 Fountains Avenue-Starbeck routes. Their delightful melodic tones and wonderful throaty exhaust notes immediately endeared my brother and I to their charms, and at every opportunity we would endeavour to catch one into town, even though this meant a five minute walk up to Skipton Road from our usual stop on King Edward’s Drive. As I had a morning paper round covering Bilton and Bachelor Gardens, I was also party to ‘The Regent Symphony’ early each day, when often the only other sounds to break the stillness were birdsong or the occasional car. The sound of the AECs barking away up Bachelor Gardens or the Hill Tops could be heard quite a distance away, and gave an indication of whether I was running late, or to time on my busy round. I’m not sure if the residents living along the route would have shared my love of such sound effects, but as a 14/15-year old, I no doubt felt that “sometimes there’s just no pleasing some people!”
Brendan Smith
02/09/16 – 14:08
My word, surely one of the best ever pictures of a superb preservation achievement. To think that our Ledgard quartet, as described above by Brendan, once looked like that !! Much as I loved them in Ledgard territory I was never as lucky as Brendan in hearing them bellowing their lusty way up the steep Skipton Road from the A 61 Ripon Road – and in one of the lower gears the contralto/soprano accompaniment from the gearbox must have been glorious !!
Chris Youhill
03/09/16 – 06:28
I would imagine that the use of these Regent Vs by West Yorkshire must have been a rare case where drivers preferred buses from an operator taken over to their own native stock!
Peter Williamson
06/01/17 – 11:10
After service with South Wales, MCY 407 went to Whippet Coaches of Cambridgeshire and then between 1968 and 1978 was with Charlton-on-Otmoor Services of Oxfordshire. I passed my PSV test on her in 1975! It went back to Wales for preservation from C-on-O
Southampton Corporation 1967 AEC Regent V 3D2RA Neepsend H40/30R
KOW 909F was in the last batch of AEC Regents delivered to Southampton, in 1967. It is of the 3D2RA variety and the body was built by Neepsend, to the H70R formation. It was decorated in the early 1980s as being the Transport Department’s last rear entry bus, but then came Deregulation and it was returned to service. In this view, it is in Highfield Lane, on a special running day to mark the closure of Portswood Depot. It’s 30 May 2010.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Pete Davies
27/02/17 – 07:54
When all the perfect ingredients come together you get the perfect end result as in this case, having the best chassis of it’s type with elegant well balanced bodywork finished with a simple and tasteful livery, to me proves the point. All that is missing, understandably are the sound effects of the AV691 engine and the Monocontrol gearbox the thought of which brings me over all nostalgic. AAAh happy days.
Diesel Dave
27/02/17 – 16:000
Glad you liked it, Dave!
Pete Davies
27/02/17 – 16:02
I could not agree more with Diesel Dave, with one exception. Who came up with the idea of those front indicators above the mirror line. I can see the logic of not reflecting in the mirrors, but those particular light units were the same as Duple fitted on later model Super Vegas (I think) – one on the side & one on the lower front corner. They were not very efficient on the coach, & next to useless on the Regent V on a sunny day (we used to get those in Southampton, don’t know about now though!)
David Field
27/02/17 – 16:46
Those indicators worked on my Dinky VAL!
Joe
28/02/17 – 16:37
The reason I asked was that, Southampton being quite conservative (small c) in it’s view to change (Late model Arab III’s, etc), it seemed an odd thing to do when the rest of the fleet (Arab III’s, Arab UF, PD2, PD2A, Regent V) were fitted with a different type of side indicator, mounted at waist height, just behind the cab door. These lights were quite ornate in shape, and had been used since the first buses were fitted with flashers (on the front only as I recall). I think they might have been made by Rubbolite, they were the same as fitted to Dodge 500 series trucks. I can imagine the Stores having boxes of these in stock, looking up at the new buses & saying “there goes the budget”!! I think the next change must have been to the teardrop shape Lucas flashers on the Atlanteans.
David Field
01/03/17 – 06:35
Comparing this with a photo of an earlier example, I notice that an emergency window has appeared immediately aft of the cab. It could be that the relocation of the flasher from that position had something to do with that. Alternatively it might just have been a a belief that the flashers would be more noticeable on the front of the bus than at the side, possibly following some sort of incident. And of course nobody would have known that they were going to be useless on a sunny day when they ordered them from the catalogue!
Peter Williamson
01/03/17 – 06:36
The indicators were one of two versions offered by East Lancs/Neepsend at the time. The other type was fitted at the same height but on short arms protruding from the body with round orange plastic covers so the indicator could be seen from both front and rear. An exception were Reading’s East Lancs bodied Lolines which had the traditional side indicators fitted on the very front of the between decks panels.
Phil Blinkhorn
02/03/17 – 07:11
The comments about the type and positioning of the front indicators reminds me that Eastbourne Corporation’s two batches of PD2’s had different types, the 1966 batch No’s 71-80 BJK 671-680D had two a teardrop shaped fitted at lower deck window level behind the cab door and a round flat lense mounted on a shaped housing low on the front wing, the latter looking something of an afterthought. The second batch No’s 81-85 DHC 781-785E had the same type of high mounted type as the Southampton Regents I don’t recall any problems with them.
Diesel Dave
21/12/17 – 11:40
I remember the Ramsbottom East Lancs PD3s had that arrangement of flashing indicators.
Huddersfield Corporation 1960 AEC Regent V 2D2RA East Lancs. H37/28R
192 (PVH 992) was an AEC Regent V 2D2RA with East Lancs. H37/28R bodywork, one of a pair (192/3) added to the Huddersfield Joint Omnibus Committee fleet on 1st February 1960. They had the AV590 engine and Monocontrol semi-automatic gearboxes. The traditional exposed radiator arrangement had remained an option for the Mk. V and the JOC had taken eight Roe-bodied examples (182-189) a couple of years previously, but this pair must have been amongst the last examples before the option was withdrawn. With their sturdy and well finished East Lancs bodies they were in my opinion the most handsome of buses, so typical of the Huddersfield fleet in that period – oozing real quality. The Corporation/JOC system at Huddersfield had worked in a different way to the one at neighbouring Halifax, not being based on whether the services operated outside the borough or not, but on what type of vehicles were used. Tram and then trolleybus routes had all been run by the Corporation whilst all motorbuses were the responsibility of the JOC. However when trolleybus abandonment in favour of motorbuses began in the early 1960’s the old arrangement would have eventually meant the JOC would have operated all the routes so a new agreement was reached such that former trolleybus routes would remain in Corporation hands and a separate fleet of buses was gradually built up carrying a more streamlined trolleybus-like livery and numbered from 101 upwards. From the 1st October 1969 the Corporation took over the former railway company’s share of the JOC (by then owned by the NBC) as well as the local stage service of Hanson’s Buses, and from then until the formation of the West Yorkshire PTE in April 1974 all services were Corporation operated. 192 and 193 passed into the PTE fleet as 4192/4193 and were withdrawn shortly afterwards and scrapped. 193 is seen here in Huddersfield’s Manchester Street Bus Station in the latter all-Corporation days having just been treated to a magnificent repaint.
Photograph Peter Berry – Copy John Stringer
20/09/17 – 06:08
The exposed radiator AEC Regent V seemed to be very much a Yorkshire thing. In addition to the Huddersfield examples, Leeds, Doncaster and East Yorkshire also had them. The only non-Yorkshire examples I can recall were some for City of Oxford and Rhonda. As we’re talking Yorkshire here where the natives have a reputation for thrift, could it have been that the exposed radiator version was cheaper!
Philip Halstead
20/09/17 – 08:22
But in Sheffield we had 86 Regent III with Regent V fronts!
David Oldfield
20/09/17 – 08:24
Thrift, nowt wrong wi that lad, after all, it is easy for anyone to identify a Yorkshire man abroad; he is the one at the till saying loudly “How Much”? However, the real reason for the exposed radiators is some Yorkshireman appreciate beauty more than tin fronts (the manager in Bradford who bought hundreds of tin fronted Regents, was not, after all, a native thee knows).
Stuart Emmet
20/09/17 – 14:34
I suspect that it was more an accessibility issue. I can remember in my far off preservation days what an awkward and painful experience it was just trying to remove and refit the lift-pump on my AEC Renown, standing precariously on a step ladder slumped over the wing with the bonnet edge trying to crush my ribcage as I reached down into its innards. With the exposed radiator you just lifted the bonnet and there it all was, and if the job was a bit bigger you just unbolted the wing, lifted it off and you could get right in there and reach everything with ease.
John Stringer
20/09/17 – 14:36
Nottingham City Transport had a little matter of 65 exposed radiator Regent Vs – nos. 209-273 (UTV 209-238 and XTO 239-273). Park Royal 62 seat bodies. Delivered 1955-56.
Stephen Ford
20/09/17 – 14:37
Huddersfield also had two Guy Arab IV with exposed radiators, and nearby County Motors had four.
Don McKeown
20/09/17 – 14:42
A small correction to the caption – motorbus deliveries to the Corporation fleet were numbered 401 up, 101 being reserved (at that time) for JOC double-deckers.
David Call
22/09/17 – 07:20
Don’t forget the elegant Guy Arabs of Exeter Corporation which took delivery of 20, all with exposed radiator, between 1956 and 1960.Five had Park Royal bodies, five had MCW, but the best looking were the Massey-bodied ones – the first five and the last five. Fortunately number 50, TFJ 808, the first of the Masseys, survives in superb condition. It was chosen for preservation by Colin Shears as it was ‘the most musical’!
David Chapman
23/09/17 – 07:07
An exposed-radiator Mk.5 that is easy to overlook is the most individual one of all, Longwell Green bodied PWO783, number 9 in the fleet of Bedwas & Machen UDC. Of the fleets that have been mentioned, only Doncaster and Nottingham failed to go on to buy concealed-radiator equivalents.
David Call
25/09/17 – 13:36
True, David: Doncaster returned to Daimler in the 60’s and had to buy concealed radiator CVG6’s but amongst its last half-cabs were some exposed radiator PD3s around 1963. I used to wonder if exposed radiators were seen as more macho in the Council Chamber- like Atkinson coal lorries or even Peterbilts. There was not a lot else Macho about a PD3 and Doncaster transport seemed to be about eking out, so cost was probably the answer: although making an exposed radiator look respectable cannot have been so cheap compared to a glass fibre moulding.
Joe
27/09/17 – 06:19
As John Stringer says the exposed radiator arrangement made it much easier to access the engine and its ancillaries than with a tin (fibreglass or aluminium) front. Also the view of the nearside kerb from the driver’s seat was better. The big snag was, I suspect, the exposed radiator was deemed old fashioned in the eyes of the fashion police of the time. Plus the fact accident damage was probably easier to repair on a “tin” front with the use of plastic filler.
John Anderson
02/10/17 – 07:29
In Manchester the issues were certainly engine accessibility and driver sightlines, to the extent that, when Daimler refused to supply chassis with exposed radiators, Manchester worked with them to redesign the alternative.
Leeds City Transport 1957 AEC Regent V MD2RA Roe H33/27R
Leeds was one of several operators initially not persuaded by the AEC “new look” front end (a preference with which I entirely concur), and its first Regent V deliveries retained the classic radiator design and hence the outward general appearance of the Regent III. These buses were of the MD2RA air braked specification of which Leeds became the largest customer, being powered by the AV470 7.7 litre engine driving into the four speed Monocontrol transmission. They were delivered in two batches, all with handsome, traditional Roe H33/27R bodywork. WUA 760 to 839 (with corresponding fleet numbers) came into service from January to November 1956, and XUM 840 to 894 arrived between March and October 1957. In the photo above, XUM 888 is seen in April 1970, four years before Barbara Castle created the heavy and inefficient hand of the West Yorkshire PTE that was to fall upon the municipalities of Bradford, Calderdale, Huddersfield and Leeds. I understand that these buses did not long survive in PTE ownership. Geoffrey Hilditch paints a revealing picture of the dire financial performance of the PTE in his “Steel Wheels and Rubber Tyres, Volume 3”. Later still, of course, another dogma driven politician of the opposite persuasion, a certain N. Ridley was to wreak even greater devastation upon the entire bus operating industry outside London, a saga that has previously been discussed at length on this forum.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Roger Cox
21/05/18 – 06:39
These buses were all withdrawn before PTE days. The last of the WUA batch had gone by April 1973. The XUM batch had perished earlier, all bar one (accident damaged) in 1971.
Dave Towers
23/05/18 – 06:44
These small AECs flattered to deceive they had an attractive body but were of light weight construction and when idling in later years the rattles were almost syncopated. In addition because Leeds were frugal with fuel a fully laden example could really struggle on the most gentle of inclines For some reason they always seemed to really lean into corners perhaps due to their lightweight construction I well remember one occasion when one really heeled over at the bottom of New York Street in the city centre so far over did it go that the platform was causing sparks to fly from the road surface and was leaving gouges in the roadway!
Chris Hough
24/05/18 – 07:34
Chris, I recall that our highly respected and informed contributor, Chris Youhill, once commented on this forum about the distressing propensity of Leeds City Transport to cut down the engine fuel pump settings on this fleet of Regent Vs. These buses, with their modest AV 470 power units, must have been truly pathetic performers after the fuel pumps had been reset to “economy” levels. Yes, for years, a great many Bristol double deckers got along (albeit steadily) with the 94 bhp 5LW, but, in my experience, AEC motors were never remotely in the same low speed torque league as the Gardner.
Roger Cox
24/05/18 – 07:36
A feature of Leeds buses of yesteryear which always mystified me on visits to the city as a young lad was the unpainted bonnet cover on PDs & Regents of LCT. Nobody has ever given me a proper explanation as to the reason for this, somebody said it was so the fitters did not scuff the paintwork if the bonnet had been painted when working on the engine, but I do not know how true this is.
Andrew Spriggs
28/05/18 – 06:42
This was always given as the reason It survived three managers so was certainly a proper policy rather than a managerial whim and was in use in prewar days. Even the last batches of enclosed radiator AEC Regents with enclosed radiators had the feature The nineteen fifties and afterwards Daimler’s and the PD3As had green bonnets oddly the Crossleys also had painted bonnets.
Upminster & District 1961 AEC Regent V 2D2RA Park Royal H38/31F
In 1961, London Transport bought a Regent V on behalf of BEA to test the practicality of using double deckers on the service between Cromwell Road Air Terminal and Heathrow. The vehicle had a Park Royal H38/17F body, the restricted seating figure arising from the adaptation of the rear section of the lower deck to serve as a large luggage carrying compartment. The 2D2RA chassis had a 9.6 litre AV590 engine coupled with a Monocontrol gearbox. Proving that the double decker concept was feasible, it wore several liveries as it served with BEA for a number of years alongside RMF1254 and then the RMA fleet with their luggage trailers. It was sold in 1968 to Super Coaches (Upminster) Ltd., one of whose trading names was Upminster & District, and the new owner converted it back into standard bus configuration with windows and 31 seats on the lower deck. It is seen here on the HCVC Brighton Run in 1971, where it seemed to be functioning as a support vehicle rather than as an entrant itself.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Roger Cox
09/04/19 – 09:13
Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be any references to this vehicle after 1971. Super / Upminster & District were rather fond of AECs and ex London vehicles, probably due to their traffic manager, a young man called Peter Newman. In 2019, as chairman of Ensign Bus, his fleet suggests that he is still very fond of AECs and ex London vehicles.
Nigel Turner
11/04/19 – 06:16
I’m pretty sure that this Regent V was destroyed not long after this picture was taken. I cant recall now if it was a fire or an accident that put paid to it, but think it was the former. I’m sure someone with better knowledge will confirm my thoughts
Malcolm Pelling
13/04/19 – 06:00
I don’t believe that this was taken on the 1971 rally, since by then it had been sold from Super Coaches to City Coaches and on to Ementon, Cranfield. It’s history is:- B.E.A, Ruislip 6501 12/61 P.V.S. (London) Limited (dealer), Upminster 5/67 Super Coaches, (Upminster) Limited, Upminster 1/68 re-seated to H37/31F as no 681 City Coach Lines (Upminster), Limited, Upminster No, 506 2/69 S.M. Ementon, Cranfield 10/70 Withdrawn 6/72 after an accident and to Paul Sykes Organisation (dealer), Barnsley 12/72 for scrap. I photographed it with the identical destination setting, including the paper insert, on the 1968 rally as seen in this link.
John Kaye
14/04/19 – 06:11
You are right, John. As you suggest, it was the previous year. My mistake.
Roger Cox
21/04/19 – 07:18
I am not really a bus person (more into coaches) but to me the rather square Park Royal body on 220 CXK looks very similar to the bodies supplied to East Kent also on Regent V chassis, perhaps 220 CXK was tagged onto an EK batch?. I like the coach style wheel discs, Delaine used to have them on their Atlantean d/ds.
Andrew Spriggs
22/08/19 – 10:45
Does anyone know the colours when it was with BEA with BEA Titles? as only B&W pics seem to be available.
Yorkshire Woollen District 1961 AEC Regent V 2D3RA Northern Counties H39/31F
Yorkshire Woollen was fundamentally a Leyland operator, apart from a few Guy Arabs in the early post war years. The first YWD Regent Vs appeared when ten Metro Cammell H39/31F bodied buses of the LD3RA type were delivered in 1958, to be followed by fifteen more in 1959, but these were of the 2LD3RA variety. The following year saw the arrival of another nine, still with Metro Cammell bodies, but the chassis was now the 2D3RA. Early in 1961 came a further ten, FHD 116 to 125, with the original fleet numbers 842 to 851, but these had the much superior Northern Counties bodywork of similar capacity. By 1966, with fleet numbers approaching 1000, the fleet was renumbered, and the Northern Counties batch became 89 to 98 inclusive. Photographed in August 1970, Yorkshire Woollen Regent V FHD 121, now carrying the number 94 is seen in Bradford in the company of others of its kind operated by Bradford Corporation. By this time, in NBC ownership, this nine years old bus is beginning to look rather shabby at the front end.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Roger Cox
23/06/20 – 06:41
It may be worse for wear at the front but a plus point is that it has reverted to a chrome radiator surround. Previous models of this batch prior to the cream band addition (mid sixties?) had the radiator surround painted red.
John Blackburn
24/06/20 – 06:29
Is this bus unusual in having the original YORKSHIRE signage in pre-NBC style, or was this common to the fleet and unique in NBC?
Chris Hebbron
25/06/20 – 07:16
Taken in August 1970 this picture would predate the corporate identity that didn’t begin to appear on buses until 1972
Eastbourne Corporation 1961 AEC Regent V 2D3RV East Lancashire H32/28R
Having been a satisfied user of the AEC Regent III in its 9613A crash gearbox form, in 1956 Eastbourne Corporation turned to the Regent V D3RV with the dry liner A218 9.6 litre engine, synchromesh gearbox and vacuum brakes. DHC 649-655 had H30/26R bodies from the Corporation’s long favoured supplier, East Lancashire Coachbuilders, but these bodies were equipped with Auster window ventilation throughout. The next Eastbourne Regent V deliveries were of the 30 ft 2D3RV version, now with the wet liner AV590 engine. HJK 156-160 were fitted with East Lancs H32/28R bodies, and again had Auster window vents. The first of this batch, HJK 156, fleet number 56, is seen at the entrance to Eastbourne pier, and the impeccable standard of presentation of the bus ten years after its 1961 delivery is of great credit to the Corporation. This batch of five Regent Vs was withdrawn between 1978 and 1981, No.56 surviving to the end after some twenty years of service.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Roger Cox
28/03/21 – 17:25
Are you sure it was 30′ long? I had thought that all of Eastbourne’s Regent Vs were of the shorter variety; and the seating capacity would tend to support that assumption. Southampton also had short Regent Vs with East Lancs bodies (numbered 343-372), and these seated 66; so the Eastbourne vehicles would have provided very generous leg room if they were 30′ long!
Is the location correct – Bournemouth Pier? The adjacent vehicle also appears to have an Eastbourne registration.
Nigel Frampton
29/03/21 – 07:39
The Eastbourne Regent V’s were all 27ft long. The ‘2’ in the designation means a later model of the D3RV not necessarily 30ft long.
Philip Halstead
30/03/21 – 05:26
My mistake. I stand corrected; thank you gentlemen.
Roger Cox
30/03/21 – 05:27
I can certainly confirm that the setting of the photo is Eastbourne Pier which was the starting point of the Town Tour. As Philip says all Eastbourne’s Regent V’s were 27ft long as for the designation the number 3 indicates that they were synchromesh manual gearboxes, if the designation had a 2 in that position they would have been the semi automatic Monocontrol gearbox. The 2 in the 2D3RV indicates the later AV590 engine and other changes to update the model, the R indicates right hand drive and the V vacuum brakes.
This shot is from the Ray Soper gallery contribution titled “Smith’s Luxury Coaches of Reading” click on the title if you would like to view his Gallery and comments. The shot is shown here for indexing purposes but please feel free to make any comment regarding this vehicle either here or on the gallery.
This shot is from the Ray Soper gallery contribution titled “Smith’s Luxury Coaches of Reading” click on the title if you would like to view his Gallery and comments. The shot is shown here for indexing purposes but please feel free to make any comment regarding this vehicle either here or on the gallery.
Samuel Ledgard 1950 AEC Regent III RT Park Royal H30/26R
Before this bus arrived at Samuel Ledgard it was owned by Super Coaches of Upminster who acquired it from of course London Transport. The fleet number whilst at London Transport was RT 4265. All the information for this entry came from Peter Goulds excellent website, I hope he doesn’t mind, to visit his site click here
Bus tickets issued by this operator can be viewed here.
