Yorkshire Woollen District Tigers and Arabs

When new, the Willowbrook bodied PS2s (697-725) and OPD2s (728-733) of Yorkshire Woollen District were painted in the old livery of maroon with cream bands above and below the windows. (The maroon was not quite the standard shade). They were unusual in that they were fully lined out with black edging to the cream and a gold and a white coach line below the lower cream band. These details had been dropped by YWD by that time. Some were painted in 'reversed' livery of cream with a single maroon band below the windows, maroon mudguards, radiator grill and dog rail and with the coach style YWD winged crest instead of the usual Yorkshire fleet name. Lengthening to 30 began with 705 in June 1954 and all were done by June 1955. They were initially B32F, with single seats alongside the rear wheels, and afterwards the rear part of the saloon was on a raised platform so that all the seats could be double and they then seated 38. All were painted in reversed livery after lengthening as described above. This was at a time when the YWD bus livery was all-over red. Later in their lives the maroon was replaced by red and they had a small version of the underlined Yorkshire fleet names instead of the crest.

Several of the Brush bodied PS1s were also painted in the reversed livery including 565, 580, 586, 591, 608, 609, 612, 621 and 622. To my surprise, I saw the first of these, 608 and 612, emerging from the Dewsbury paint shop in May 1954 painted cream and red and never discovered why but I think they might have been going on hire to Hebble for the summer. All were cream and maroon when operated by YWD.

The Utility Guy Arabs were re-bodied by Roe with three different styles of body, although superficially they all looked alike.

The first style began with 500 and 509 which re-entered service in December 1952 followed, in order, by 495, 506, 508, 490, 494, 516 (ex-County 67), 514, 482, 512, 510 and 484. All of these were in the then current maroon with three cream bands and no lining-out except 484 which was the first of these in the all-red livery. The cream bands below the windows were defined by beading. They had conventional bus seats and were H31/25F, weight 7.15.1.

The second style entered service between 1953 and 1954. In order they were 485, 492, 493, 486, 497, 487, 513, 501 and 507. The bodies were of the same style as the first but with the omission of the beading for the cream bands and they had high backed seats in both decks. These weighed 7.16.2.

The final style entered service from the end of November 1954 and were of a different design although the overall outline was unchanged. They had shallower windows and a differently shaped staircase window. The interior window trim was of pressed metal rather than the polished wood of the earlier types. They had bus seats downstairs and high backed seats in the upper deck. Again, in order, they were 488, 489, 498, 496, 511, 499, 505, 515, 504, 491, 502 and 503. The weight for these was 7.12.3.

I have been told that the high backed seats used came from the bodies of the Brush PS1s which were currently being rebodied as double deckers. (I think this is true but I am puzzled because I also know that some of these seats were used to increase the seating capacity of the Brush bodied Royal Tigers,693-6 (not734) and MCW Olympics, 688-692, 735-9, from B42F to B44F and the numbers do not quite add-up.)

The nearest match to the cream used at this time that I could find is actually Broken White.

YWD changed paint suppliers at the time when the lining-out was dropped from Williamsons to ICI Dulux and the maroon was slightly lighter. (This made me think very hard about the shade to paint 622, and it ended up half way between the two!).

Dr Gordon Brooke (owner of ex Yorkshire Woollen District 622, Leyland Tiger PSU1)
11/2009

To see a photograph of 622 click here

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