Thursday, 23 April 2015

#TBT Great Yarmouth Atlanteans

This week's ThrowBack Thursday posting features the first of Great Yarmouth Leyland Atlanteans

DEX701 operates a service to the town's racecourse from the Britannia Pier - a bargain at 20 pence!
Great Yarmouth Corporation acquired a batch of four of these new Leyland Atlantean PDR1/1s with a Metro-Cammell H44/33F body during July1960

Registered DEX701-4, they received fleet numbers 1-4 and were designed to introduce one man operation to the fleet. However, the Transport & General Workers Union would not agree to one person operation on double deck vehicles at the time of their arrival

DEX702 leaves the Regal bus stop for Gorleston's Magdalen Estate - note Freddie Starr appears in the summer show
As can be seen from the photo, DEX702 had a different front end when photographed - it was rebuilt at Lowestoft's Eastern Coach Works following accident damage

I remember these deckers very well as I often travelled on them to my grandparents in Newtown and they were easily recognised by their rear bustle

They gave some twenty years of service to Great Yarmouth before being withdrawn
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. suffolkraider23 April 2015 at 09:57

    Remember them too had to be on the top deck ! As for Freddie Starr lol he used to pass us on Burgh Rd in his Roller as we waited for the 403 to Fritton and St Olaves after school always got a grin out of him lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. NorfolkBoy23 April 2015 at 16:15

    I remember as a 16 year old being excited that these were among the first "modern" deckers in East Anglia. One thing I really did not like was the livery application. So little cream, and when new the relief was even less as it did not extend over the rear bustle as in later repaints.

    Of course, these were the first of 15 of the type, including the handsome Roe bodied 5-9, one of which is being released in model form by EFE next month I believe.

    Then there were the "specials" 3 short ones 55-57 and those dratted saloons - oh how I loathed them and to this day could never see the reasoning behind all that engineering for 39 seats.To make matters worse, one of them even turned up in one of my wedding photos whilst passing St. Mary's church on Regent Road!

    I also seem to remember that together with London Country, GYCT was the first operator to use a decker as one person operated (with the top deck closed off). No doubt others will correct me if I'm wrong.

    Mick
    North Carolina

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steve W23 April 2015 at 21:19

    Just loved those Metro Cammell Atlanteans. had hundreds of them in Kent, and I worked on a preserved one for a couple of years. Right up there with best buses ever built.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)