This Midland Red Leyland Leopard LS18 once looked extremely smart with a black top as it was one of twenty Willowbrook bodied vehicles from this 1962-3 batch of one-hundred fitted with coach seats to work the operator's long X-Services that covered much of the system. Tamworth Garage together with Coalville had several of these fast nice to drive buses for the long X99 from Birmingham to Nottingham which passed through the town. Shortly before it was withdrawn perhaps early in 1980 No.5182 was still working hard as it powered along the busy A5 Watling Street near Two Gates returning home from Birmingham on the 110.
What a wonderfully atmospheric moment!
ReplyDeleteAndrew
Yes it was one of those slightly ambitious photos where one pulls up hastily at the side of the road and points the camera at the bus as it speeds by. Usually one presses the trigger when it's still too far away or as in this case slight blurred. But the slow busy A5 here now by-passed was very much like this, all up and down with bits of untidy farmland, small factories like Reliant, and the odd row of houses or an old pub.
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