Sheffield Corporation
1960
AEC Regent V 2D3RA
Roe H39/30RD

This is July 1974 and South Yorkshire PTE has been in operation for just over three months. The bus looks a little uncared for, no fleetname, no destination and generally a bit shabby. It is at Bents Green terminus of the 81/82 Cross City services. At 14 years old, the bus still exudes an air of quality, these were really smart buses in their heyday when they were used on various B fleet services to Bradway, Low Edges, Castleton etc.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Ian Wild

08/12/14 – 15:58

This bus would have been an unusual sight on this route in 1974- which may account for the lack of a destination- some lazy crews would not bother trying very hard to find destinations on a strange bus. At certain times of day a bus would have been available in the City Centre to cover for breakdowns etc. – this may have been it.
SYPTE was very slow at repainting the fleet until extra paintshop capacity at Rutland Way was acquired c1980- some vehicles were running around in Sheffield livery until c1979 and looked pretty deplorable at the end.

Phil Drake

09/12/14 – 11:53

I remember these buses from our days in Sheffield Ian. From memory, as you say, they were mainly used on the longer routes outside the city boundary. I seem to remember that they had or were later fitted with saloon heaters and together with the platform doors this made them almost luxurious in the cold weather!

Stan Zapiec

10/12/14 – 06:27

Ian did of course post a photo of 1331 when brand new at Roe’s factory at Leeds. This shows how superb these splendid vehicles looked in their heyday. You can view it at this link.

John Darwent

13/12/14 – 06:34

I would rather have the blue & cream Sheffield livery, even in a poor sorry state, than the horrendous brown & cream.

Andy Fisher

16/12/14 – 06:35

Andy, I agree with you but I don’t know if you’ve seen the Sheffield Volvo B7TL painted in SYPTE brown and cream – it actually looks quite stunning!

Ian Wild

16/12/14 – 10:01

The worst livery was when SYPTE hastily overpainted the blue bands with whitewash to eradicate the Sheffield connection.

Dave Farrier

22/12/14 – 07:40

I am not saying all later brown & cream busses looked bad, just the SCT busses repainted did nothing to enhance the appearance of a wonderful bus. Notice the wheel rim on this one. It seems to be the smaller grooved type fitted to the input of 1959 tram replacement fleet from Roe (not shown outside the factory), not the full chrome ones fitted on the Alexanders & most other forward control busses in the fleet. It also seems to have a blue back wheel. With all the Atlantians in service, they obviously did not care about these older, beautiful busses.

Andy Fisher

25/12/14 – 07:00

23rd, saw a Wrights 08 plate painted in the brown & cream. Pass the bucket!

Andy Fisher