BUS RECOVERY PART ONE

During the mid-twentieth century, bus companies either bought a dedicated breakdown lorry for the company’s own use, relied on a third-party commercial service or, increasingly, converted a redundant bus from their own fleet into a service vehicle.

Companies with a decent size fleet manifest made do with an old, time-expired model of a single or double decker bus, chopped-up around the rear to provide a working area and, if management were sympathetic, some cover for the recovery crew. Sometimes, it was done neatly with two bays of the passenger compartment retained; others had their bodywork unceremoniously hacked off with a welding torch with no attention to aesthetic detail, but usually just enough was left to offer some shelter and storage. Our 1965 picture of ex-Bradford ‘Leyland’, 296 KU, is a typical example of this practise where the original bus has been reduced in height and adapted as a service barge known as a towing vehicle, often carrying a towing sign on its destination board; the chassis was often shortened at the rear to make towing easier. Initially, we thought that this would now be a corporation lorry, but Bradford bus expert Norman Hinchliffe suggests that the ‘Leyland’ would probably have