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1968 Daimler Fleetline CRG6LX GYJ495G

 

Year

1968

Registration

GYJ495G

Fleet number(s)

295

Chassis

Daimler Fleetline

Engine

Gardner 6LX diesel

Body

Alexander J Type H44/34F

Previous owner(s)

Dundee Corporation

Current owner(s)

John Fraser

Current livery

Dundee Corporation

  • 1968 Daimler Fleetline CRG6LX GYJ495G

 

 

Further information

 

Daimler Fleetline was delivered new to Dundee Corporation Transport in 1968. It is fitted with Alexander J-type 78 seat (H44/34F) single door bodywork. This vehicle was one of a batch of 25 such buses, fleet numbers 281 to 305. Because of a protracted dispute over the introduction of one-man operation, only 281–285 entered service initially with their planned registrations (FTS 881–885F), in March 1968, while the remainder of the batch were placed in storage.

 

Fleet numbers 286 to 295 were re-registered GYJ 486G to GYJ 495G before finally entering service: 295 entered service on 12 August 1968. The final batch, 296–305 (GYJ396–405G) entered service in March 1969. The single-door Fleetlines were withdrawn in the late 1970s; most members of the earlier batches were scrapped, but many of the G-registered vehicles survived for longer. Withdrawn on 26 March 1980, 295 was converted for use as a driver training bus later that year, painted into a yellow livery and renumbered T4. Sister bus 293 was given the same treatment and renumbered T3. Because of their conversion and subsequent sale, both buses survived for many years longer than the other buses in the batch. 293 ended up on a farm near Errol and was scrapped there in 2004. Meanwhile, later Fleetline 305 was converted to open-top, re-entering service in this form in 1981 and lasting until May 1985, at which point it was the last Daimler vehicle in the fleet (the first one having been delivered in 1931). It ended up as a London tour bus with Ensign.

 

295 remained in use as a training bus until being withdrawn and sold in March 1983 to Earnside Coaches of Glenfarg, then it passed to a farmer in Longforgan near Dundee two months later for use as a berry bus. It remained in use until it was sold to another farmer in Laurencekirk in April 1992, being used to transport daffodil pickers between Dundee and Laurencekirk. With 295 still sporting yellow livery from its days as a training bus, the farmer decided the bus was in need of a repaint, so it was painted allover green.

 

In July 1998, 295 was purchased from the farmer for preservation by a Taybus Vintage Vehicle Society member, and on collection from Laurencekirk the bus made the journey back to Dundee. It was then housed in the workshops at Travel Dundee’s depot, where it remained stored until August 2001, when it was moved to G & N Wishart’s depot at Friockheim, for a six month period. Finally it moved to its new home at the Taybus Vintage Vehicle Society’s premises in February 2002, staying here when the premises were taken over by the Angust Transport Group in October 2019.

 

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