Midland Red: Ford R192 in Rugby

In the early Seventies Midland Red having ceased construction of it's own advanced but also quite unsophisticated single-deckers and it needed a no-frills equivalent to replace it's 30ft long S14 and S15 types buses on country routes. Lightweight Ford R192's with Plaxton Derwent bodywork seemed to be the answer and the company built up a large fleet of them with an initial large batch of one-hundred. However they were not intended for a long and busy life and operator's who chose them paid for it later with increased downtime and higher running costs. They looked what they were and made an interesting contrast with the bus at the other end of the spectrum, the integral Leyland National pictured behind it in Rugby. Perhaps the ideal single-decker was something in between the crude and the contentious, and fortunately Midland Red had those in the bucket load too the rugged and reliable Leyland Leopard.