Willowbrook Spacecar

Some innovative bus designs look good when kept in pristine condition but once standards slips they soon look tatty and sad like the Leyland Lynx ore even the more loved Routemaster Bus once it looses the metal trim off it front grill. No doubt some of the square and angular products from manufacturers like Wright, East Lancs, and now Alexander-Plaxton will not enjoy a happy old age unlike say a Northern Counties GMT Standard or a ECW bodied VR. This old Leyland Leopard coach seen at Blackpool visiting from Birmingham and belonging to Central Coaches looked in quite nice condition but it's rather unflattering livery made it's once futuristic Willowbrook Spacecar coachwork look like some old nail that might have been bodied somewhere lacking our traditional tastes like Portugal. Plaxton on the other hand led the market for many years and the conservatively painted high-floor Plaxton 3500 Volvo coach of Yeoman's of Canon Pyon looked a very acceptable British coach. But as is often the case a few cosmetic tweaks to the livery would have made all the difference and had KIB 7256 had it's grill painted black it might have looked quite nice. By the mid-Nineties these Willowbrook bodies which once numbering I guess some 150 to 200 examples were getting quite scarce so I think this one deserves tagging as a 'rare bird'.