Bournemouth:Open Toppers

Tradition had it that seaside operators converted their oldest buses to open-top to work the short Summer Season. But with new lightweight metal bodies in the Sixties it became feasable to do away with the old crash-gearbox half-cabs and employ modern buses fitted with detachable roofs. In reality though these were not always re-fitted in winter as out-of-season there was not enough work for these buses anyway. Of course it was something of a tragedy as the old semi-retired relics of the past were usually the most interesting buses in the fleet. Stragely enough though examples of buses like Southdown's Queen Mary's and these detachable roofed Daimler Fleetline's seen in in Bournemouth in 1992 enjoyed long lives as not only were they still good enough to go along the prom they could be used for driver training and tree-lopping and well paid work like providing elevated viewing platforms at race meetings etc...