Tesside Buses

Middlesbrough Corporation took delivery of 16 Guy Arab Mark 3 in 1950, which carried a style of ECW body unique to that batch. It incorporated some features of the contemporary prototype Bristol Lodekka body. I took the photo at Middlesbrough Exchange in the summer of 1967, when this one, no.75, was the only survivor still in stock. The bus was soon to be renumbered 5 to make way for a new no.75, and, surprisingly, it was painted in the new Teesside turquoise livery early in 1968. It was scrapped a few months later.
I have made a 1:24 scale model of this type, and my photo shows this model in company with my model of another Middlesbrough bus, 1956 Guy Arab Mk 4 no.95 (GDC 295). The Northern Counties body of this shape and with standee windows was also bought by Stalybridge and by Stockton. My other models-photograph shows GDC 295 with my model of the Stockton version of the body, 1958 Leyland PD2/40 no. 36 (XUP 475).
The combination photos show the model of Middlesbrough 95 with a picture of the actual vehicle on service in Bridge Road, Stockton taken by RHG Simpson. The Stockton Leyland combination shows my model with the actual bus, taken by Philip Battersby in April 1964 at Billingham.
The models are made of sheet steel, with wheels and seats from the Revell Routemaster kit.

Andy Wood
05/2022

04/06/22 - 10:46

Andy, my congratulations on your superb models. Your attention to details is excellent. I'm particularly intrigued to learn that ECW-bodied 75 (then 5) was repainted in the hideous Teeside turquoise - that must have looked very strange. My infrequent visits to Teeside in those days were for the final days of trolleybuses, so I failed to capture examples of the pre-turquoise municipality buses.

Paul Haywood

12/06/22 - 05:36

Thank you, Paul. I only saw AXG 675 once after it was painted turquoise, at Middlesbrough Exchange early in 1968.
The only photo I have seen of it so painted is this one by Photobus, taken at Stockton depot awaiting the scrap man, with the autovac removed.

Andy Wood

14/06/22 - 06:20

Thank you Andy for this photo of the ECW in turquoise. It doesn't look quite as bad as I had imagined it would. Nevertheless, perhaps because of poor depot washing procedures, they often looked dirty - not helped by the industrial fallout of the period. The one saving grace is that none of these buses were vandalised with the commercial graffiti we have nowadays.

Paul Haywood

16/06/22 - 06:19

Paul - yes Teesside buses looked tatty in those days, with staff shortages and, as you say, industrial pollution. I remember the trolleybuses often looked as if their livery was brown and turquoise. Yes, all three constituent fleets of TMT had no external advertising on their buses, but the new Teesside authority changed that with adverts starting to appear a few days before TMT took over on 1.4.68.

Andy Wood

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