Teesside Railless Traction Board
1965
Leyland Leopard
Roe B45F

This bus looks very smart in the Dark Green and Cream livery of T. R. T. B. unfortunately it did not look all that good in the new livery of Turquoise and Cream of Teesside Municipal Transport. This drastic change of colour scheme apparently happened because of the formation of Teesside County Borough in 1968. Thus causing Middlesbrough Corporation, Stockton Corporation and the Tees-side Railless Traction Board to join together to form Teesside Municipal Transport. Another snippet of information gleamed during research was that fleet No. 34 a ‘Leopard’ similar to above was written off after an accident in 1975.
One good thing was that due to another local government shake up 6 years later the Turquoise and Cream livery was soon changed to Green and Jasmine which sounds much better.

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16/11/12 – 14:54

It’s curious that even the best body builders occasionally built ‘ugly ducklings’.
IMHO this looks very strange, almost as though it has been made up of parts that were in stock for other purposes. The windscreen looks fabulous on double deckers and would probably have looked well on a coach.
But here, the roof doesn’t match up with the windscreen. The side windows (and the rear window) just look old fashioned. And the front elevation isn’t enhanced by the heavy bumper or the trim around the Leyland badge (why did they do it?).
But for all that, it exudes a certain charm and the first livery style helps it. A delightful rarity.

Peter Murnaghan

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16/11/12 – 16:54

You pays your money as the saying goes. The best looking ‘bus’ versions of the Leopard? for me it had to be the Alexander ‘Y’s even the ‘Corporate Image Experts’ found it hard to make them look bad, as for coaches, that’s a far harder choice.

Ronnie Hoye

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17/11/12 – 07:11

Whatever else it is, that vehicle highlights just how interesting the industry was.
I can see elements of Roe, Plaxton, Alexander and even East Lancs in that Frankenstinian monster. The colour scheme helps – I thought both the schemes which followed were insipid, but the fact remains it’s a bit of a monster.

Phil Blinkhorn