East Yorkshire Motor Services
1966
Leyland Panther PSUR1/2R
Marshall B49F
A pair of Panthers owned by East Yorkshire with Marshall bodywork. If you click on Daimler or Halifax Corporation in the side navigation and scroll down to the Daimler Roadliner you can see the similarity of the Marshall bodywork somehow the Daimler has one more seat. The Panther was available with either a low or high frame chassis these two by the height of the seats have the high frame version.
Even though this pair of Panthers may be a bit modern for some, you surely must admit that glorious dark blue and primrose livery sets them off a treat. It’s a shame Peter Shipp, respected owner of EYMS, still can’t be persuaded to return his buses to this stylish scheme, smart as the present cream and dark red may be.
Brendan Smith
I do so agree. Blue, and cream, are such neglected shades. You can’t beat EYMS indigo and cream.
David Oldfield
I work for EYMS and totally agree that the blue livery looks much nicer than the red and cream.
If you look at the new Wrightbus which has been repainted into the old livery you will see that it looks great.
Terry Malloy
Absolutely! The old EYMS indigo and primrose was something very special. Living in York as a kid, I was used to seeing West Yorkshire’s and United’s standard Tilling red, the occasional green and cream of West Riding and Reliance, as well as York Pullman’s very smart magenta, yellow and cream. But EYMS livery was quite outstanding; just the sight of it made one wish to get on board. As Terry Malloy says, it was great. How about starting a petition to Mr Shipp?
Roy Burke
Odd that EYMS bought the PSUR1/2 coach chassis (straight frame) for these buses – rather than the PSUR1/1 low floor bus chassis.
Peter G Greaves
I must agree, concerning the Indigo & Primrose traditional livery, as this was the livery that I grew up with, taking it for granted, until the advent of NBC red (ugh!), however I do think that the Burgundy & Primrose is as good (if not better..)
Keith Easton
Burgundy and Primrose is excellent – but why not Indigo? Rather like my post at Rawthenstall PD2 about Sheffield trying green out. There was nothing wrong with the green – it just wasn’t cream and blue.
David Oldfield
Agreed David, but I’m an Aries, a fire sign, so I prefer shades of red, but indigo isn’t.
Just an afterthought… I wonder what PD1A number 509 (JRH 982) which was painted in the experimental purple and primrose livery, which it received in the early 1950’s, actually looked like. I’ve seen black & white photos, but never any colour ones.
Keith Easton
Keith, the purple and primrose PD1 looked absolutely awful – it remains in the memory still – an thankfully cut no ice. It would have been bad with any operator but the contrast with the proud and dignified EYMS image was distressing to say the least. The large fleet of EYMS PD1s really were the tops for me, and carried an interesting departure from the usual Roe polished wooden window surrounds, having mid blue gloss paint finish instead – equally pleasing. I was in Bridlington when the changeover from Williamson’s fascinating and well loved vehicles on their two town services gave way to the EYMS PD1s and smartly uniformed staff with metal “EYMS” badges on the lapels – a week of two equally interesting extremes that was, and I was sad and glad at the same time to witness it.
Chris Youhill
By a weird coincidence this is the same vehicle referred to in my article on Lower Mosley Street Bus Station. It really stood out amid all the red vehicles of NWRCC, Ribble, etc. Made my day!
Neville Mercer
29/01/12 – 16:58
Yes I agree the blue livery would suit modern day EYMS vehicles.I remember these working into Leeds on the Yorkshire Coast services when wellington street was a riot of colour. Did they make it into the so called NBC blue?
Tony Greig
13/02/12 – 07:32
These Marshall bodied Panthers were some of the most elegant vehicles in the EY fleet, and it is a shame that none exist in preservation. To me, as with the other correspondents in this article, indigo and primrose was and always will be the true EY livery. I agree that it would be good to have todays fleet returned to traditional livery. As far as I know, there are no colour pics of JRH 982 in existence.
John Eggleton