Wakefields Motors
1955
AEC Reliance MU3RV
Weymann C41F
Am I in a minority, or was the Weymann Fanfare one of the most handsome coach bodies ever built?
Whatever chassis they were on they looked exactly what they were, well designed, well built and
comfortable. To me they fell into the same category as the first Burlingham Seagulls, nothing flash,
brash or arrogant, just a quiet understated elegance, and any subsequent ‘improvements’ usually
took the edge off something that was right in the first place. The Northern General Transport group had
16 in total, all delivered in 1955: 197 to 202 are from the Wakefields fleet; Outwardly they all looked
pretty much the same, but the six Wakefields versions, FT 8997/9002, 197/202, were C41F on an AEC MU3RV
chassis, they were mainly used for private hires, day tours and excursions. By contrast, the 10 Northern
ECN 680/9, 1680/9; were C37F on a Guy Arab UF chassis with Gardner 6HLW engines, initially they were
used primarily for extended tours and continental work, hence the smaller seating capacity. Both types
were reliable workhorses and lasted well, I think the last ones were withdrawn in 1971. When not being
used for tours the Guy’s were frequently to be found earning their keep on the express services from
Newcastle to Liverpool or Blackpool. This was the pre motorway era, and the route to Liverpool in
particular involved a long hard slog over the Pennine’s, so they didn’t exactly have an easy life. Percy
Main did not have any express routes, but at busy times Wakefields coaches with P/M crews, could often
be found displaying ‘on hire to Northern’ stickers, and working Northern express routes as
duplicates. The AEC’s were certainly not underpowered, and if anything they were a bit livelier than the
Guy’s on the flat, but once you hit the hills, it wasn’t long before the Guy would show you a clean pair
of heels.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Ronnie Hoye
23/06/13 - 08:39
Yes, Ronnie, you may very well be in a minority, but you are most certainly
not alone. The only question to me is which of the four designs was the most elegant: this one, the
Harrington Cavalier, the early Seagull, or the one Leyland produced for the Royal Tiger. One model
railway forum of which I am a member has regular polls on different topics: I wonder!!!!!!!
Pete Davies
23/06/13 - 09:31
Well, as you know, Ronnie, I’m a Seagull, Fanfare AND Dalesman fan.
i) Seagull
ii) Cavalier/Grenadier
iii) Fanfare
iv)
Dalesman
David Oldfield
23/06/13 - 14:51
North Western took the prototype which had been exhibited at the 1954
Commercial Motor Show with a long rectangular destination panel next to a three track number
indicator in the same panel as the vehicle above. Later vehicles had the indicators removed to the
roof line.
I agree that from most aspects the body was was a handsome. well designed and well
built. My only gripe would be the heavy rear corner pillars which, combined with the curve to the
roof line, from the rear made the vehicle look very round shouldered.
Phil Blinkhorn
23/06/13 - 17:21
I’m another Fanfare fan, and especially of the Northern General Guys, which
were my absolute favourite coaches on the Liverpool service.
Peter Williamson
25/06/13 - 07:42
Ronnie, I must also add my name to the list of ‘Fanfare Fans’. Your
comments about their appearance are spot on, and as a youngster I always felt privileged on seeing
one glide through Harrogate on express work. They always looked very smart in Northern’s fine cream
and rich red livery, and I can see one now in my mind’s eye, circumnavigating the floral roundabout
from Station Parade onto tree-lined Victoria Avenue, and then off into in the summer sun. Wonderful.
In those far off days, to my young eyes the Fanfare was one of those coaches that was not only
beautiful to look at, but exuded a sort of ‘cuddliness’ with its curves. Another one in that
class was the Burlingham Seagull, closely followed by the Bristol LS coach, with its bewhiskered
Bristol-ECW badge on the front. Some modern bus and coach designs do try to look friendly with their
‘smiley’ frontal styling, but this just looks like an ‘add-on’ somehow. The Fanfare
looked the part and did it without even trying.
Brendan Smith
25/06/13 - 11:51
I liked the Fanfare too, but the rear end was dreadfully old fashioned for a
design introduced in 1954 - and compare it to the contemporary Duple Elizabethan which would have
won hands down on looks. Duple, of course, only made the Elizabethan for two years before replacing
it with the first version of the Britannia (and its centre-entrance sister the Brittanic), which to
my eyes were simply dreadful. I much preferred the later versions of the Britannia built from
1959-62. Plaxton designs in the early years of Fanfare production were also fairly abysmal,
especially the front entrance version of the Consort, and Harrington’s Wayfarer III/IV were an
acquired taste - the front dome just looked wrong compared to the rest of it. And as for Yeates’
Europa and the later Burlingham Seagulls, the word "abominations" seems appropriate!
I may be eccentric (is there any doubt?) but my own favourites in coach design between 1951
and 1958 are:-
1) The original centre entrance Burlingham Seagull
2) The Whitson Grand
Prix
3) The Bellhouse Hartwell Landmaster (especially the ones with the breast shaped
headlight fairings!)
4) The Windover Kingsway
5) The ACB Coronation Land Cruiser
I’d also give an honourable mention to the Trans-United Brabazon (as supplied to Yelloway on
Regal IV and Royal Tiger chassis)
As for the Harrington Cavalier, although an attractive
design in 1960, it was rapidly overtaken by the stunning good looks of the (30ft long versions) of
the Panorama model produced from 1961-64. Longer versions of this design had a distinct droop at the
rear end which spoiled the effect.
When we’ve finished talking about underfloor engined coach
designs, who would agree with me that Gurney Nutting’s fully-fronted Mertonian design on half-cab
style chassis was impressive? I’ve also seen it described as monstrous!
Also, just a quick comment to Phil - the Fanfare prototype supplied to North
Western (FDB 570) was actually delivered to NWRCC with the standard Fanfare blind display (as above)
and was modified to show a separate route number at a later stage. North Western also modified the
blind apertures on their 1958 Harrington Wayfarer IVs to suit standard blinds.
Neville Mercer
25/06/13 - 17:00
Very rare I disagree with Neville but I don’t think the Windovers gelled and
the Bellhouse Hartwell was spoiled by the protuberances. Couldn’t agree more about Plaxton. The
half-cab/full-front design was classic followed by years of "Oh gawd, what have they done
now!?" Along with SUT (of blessed and bitter memory) I was a huge Plaxton fan in the period
1960 - 1982. [They then lost the plot in the Paramount years and the quality dropped to that of
Duple just before their demise in 1989. They say the new ones have regained the quality: time will
tell.] Question for our esteemed expert (Neville). Don’t you think the Trans United Brabazon was a
rip off of the Landmaster?
David Oldfield
25/06/13 - 17:01
Another Fanfare fan here too Ronnie! I loved the Sheffield ones and for me the
addition of a route indicator was not detrimental. These were used on the routes into the Derbyshire
Peak District and one’s destination arrived all too soon if you were on one of these! However - my
twelve points go to the Seagull, of which I rode the SUT classics, Ten points to the Fanfare, My
eight points to the Grenadier / Crusader with Grey Cars being prime examples for me, and, like David
O, the Dalesman would be next. Of the Duple designs, top contender is the "butterfly"
front.
Les Dickinson
26/06/13 - 06:00
I can understand your dislike of the Kingsway, David. It had a certain
"Marmite" quality to it. To me the design brings back memories of my first visit to
Scarborough in the early 1960s where I marvelled at the rear-entrance examples operated by EYMS and
YTC. I was heavily into sci-fi at the time, and something about the Kingsway shouted "the
future was here….and now it’s gone", a bit like TSR2 if you remember that aircraft! The
Landmaster, on the other hand, I’ll defend to the death. Mixed martial arts?
On the
front-engined front, I think that most of us would agree with Les about the butterfly front Super
Vega of the 1956-58 variety. A genuine classic and much better than the final two versions which (to
me) always looked as if they’d been eating too many pies.
Neville Mercer
26/06/13 - 06:00
Some things just seem to look right regardless, the Fanfare being a classic
example, but obviously some liveries look better than others, and what looks good to some is hideous
to others. Keep it plain and simple seems to be the secret. Just for fun and in no particular order,
here is my selection for 50’s mid 60’s classics. The following are all on an under floor chassis,
The original centre entrance Burlingham Seagull
ECW as per Bristol LS or Leyland LUT
‘United coach livery for preference’
Weymann Fanfare
Harrington Cavalier
Roe
Dalesman
All Leyland Royal Tiger
Duple Roadmaster
and the pre ‘Y’ type
Alexander used by many of the Scottish operators, I believe North Western also had a few of them. As
for front engine chassis?
Duple Butterfly front, and a strange one perhaps, the beadle
rebodies used by many BET group companies
Ronnie Hoye
26/06/13 - 06:00
Neville, if your taste in coach body-work is mirrored by your taste in ladies
then you must have dated some real rough specimens in your time! But, can we take it that Mrs Mercer
had/has "Bellhouse Hartwell Landmaster" attributes? My favourites?
1) Harrington
Cavalier;
2) Harrington Grenadier with Cavalier front panels;
3) Harrington Grenadier;
4) any other possible combination of Grenadier/Cavalier bits I may not currently recall/know
about;
5) the last real ECW coach body of the early 1970s;
6) the B51(?) ECW DP body of
the late 1980s - can this sneak in as a coach? (didn’t some of them have single piece doors anyway?
which would class them as a coach in my opinion);
7) that Willowbrook "cut-price
Plaxton/Duple" DP effort of the same period - the one that no NBC subsidiary seemed to want,
but which to me seemed to have an elegant simplicity and authenticity about it! Mrs Rushworth? alas
in the last ten years gone from Cavalier to Yeates Riviera - but don’t tell her I said that!
Philip Rushworth
26/06/13 - 11:46
Gentlemen, I know that even the mention of Midland Red has many of you running
to the barricades, but I would like to nominate their C5 motorway coach. Considering the prototype
came out in 1958, it was a mould-breaker which set the standard for high-speed coaching. No doubt
many will consider them to be little more than dual-purpose buses but, for me, so were the
all-Leylands and Duple Roadmasters.
Paul Haywood
26/06/13 - 11:47
Phillip, I suspect that you were bottle-fed as a baby! And are you really
saying that all of your favourite coaches pre-1970 were Cavalier/Grenadier variants? I notice that
you don’t list any Crusader or Legionaire models although these had many similarities to the blessed
Cavalier. Speaking of which, why has nobody produced a decent 1/50 or 1/76 scale Cavalier? EFE’s
version was done on the cheap and it shows - it’s inaccurate for almost every operator except
Yelloway because of the lack of front-dome roof-lights. And on the Yelloway version they screwed
things up by the completely inaccurate destination and "via" blinds. It’s still hard to
believe that somebody at EFE thought that "Rhyl" was spelled that way! If EFE weren’t so
reluctant to admit their many glaring errors (and to get better "experts" to check their
final artwork), they might have made amends by re-releasing their 119xx casting in Yelloway livery
but showing accurate blinds for the Torquay or London routes. And as for their "Grenadier"
model so much is wrong with it that it’s little better than a toy.
Neville Mercer
26/06/13 - 11:47
The Fanfare was as many have said an attractive understated coach The basic
design was spoilt when Weymann added a barrel windscreen and dubbed it the Castilian
Chris Hough
27/06/13 - 07:06
Neville, perhaps I’m more forgiving, but - looking at the display cases above
my desk - I’m just glad that in the last 25(?) years I’ve been able to build up a collection of
ready-built models from LAD-cabbed Albion trucks to safari-wrapped EYMS Wrights . . . although I do
agree that some of the errors have been unforgiveable - "West Yorkshire" on the back of
OOCs/EFEs(?) OB and the wrong colour red on OOCs Huddersfield CVG (and on . . . and on . . . until
we get to the white tween-decks band on EFE’s Bradford RT!). Pre-70 coach-wise I’ve done some
thinking: Alexander produced a nice design, of which Barton took some; Y-type with a single door
(Premier Travel, Venture, Eastern Scottish,); ECW produced functional products - but not that MW
body with the stepped waist-rail, and the first RE body was behind its time (Lodekka grille on a
coach?) when first released. Perhaps I was a bit tight Neville, but I’m not going to budge any
further. And yes, bottle feeding was the rage in the 1960s.
Philip Rushworth
28/06/13 - 06:20
I must agree, it certainly is a handsome coach. We had at least 1 in
Sheffield,(reg ???? WB) although it may have been a Leyland. Again used on the 8&9 routes I used at
the time. I am not familiar with some of the other styles mentioned, but imagine it stood alongside
what other buses would look like, in the mid 50s,in Sheffield, it must have been the best looking by
far.
Andy Fisher
28/06/13 - 06:22
I worked for Boddys Bridlington from 1967 who had a fleet of older coaches for
seasonal use as well as the modern fleet we had some Fanfares FDB 570, AHD 820, NCY 624,PWN 64,PWN
65,
Ken Wragg
28/06/13 - 14:18
Philip, I quite agree with all the model errors you list, and - like you - I’m
pleased to live in a world where there’s a wider variety of model buses on offer than a Routemaster
and an Atlantean with imaginary bodywork! But that can’t let EFE off the hook when they make really
basic errors that any die-cast equivalent of a proof-reader should have spotted a mile away. They
do, after all, boast about the accuracy of their models, which entitles us to whinge when they get
it seriously wrong. Especially given that they’re the ones making money and we’re the ones spending
it!
Incidentally has everyone noticed that Oxford Die-cast are planning to release a Fanfare
in 1/76? I’m still waiting to see how accurate the colours are on their Ribble all-Leyland Royal
Tiger coach given the seriously wrong shades shown in their current image on line. The second
release of the Royal Tiger (Southdown) seems to have the same front dome as the Ribble one, whereas
in reality the two versions were totally different. But I live in hope of some decent coach models.
Can somebody prod OOC into releasing more of their excellent Mk 1 Seagull?
Speaking of the
Seagull, a slightly late reply to David because I missed the original comment on first reading
(senile?). I can see what you mean about the TU Brabazon being derivative, but it seems to me like a
handsome mix of BH (the front end, minus appendages) and Burlingham (the side view aft of the cab).
I imagine that all of these Lancashire coachbuilders kept a close eye on each other’s designs.
Neville Mercer
01/07/13 - 07:33
Just so that people know what David O and I are referring to, here is a
Yelloway example of the Trans-United Brabazon. (photographer unknown - print via GMTS Archive)
Neville Mercer
01/11/13 - 07:54
One AEC Reliance 470 that ! have fond memories of is 1632 NO. It was new to
Frank Harris of Grays with a Duple body. Following an RTA, it was rebodied in 1962 with a Harrington
Cavalier C43F body. The Coach firm from Bugbrooke Northamptonshire who provided the Coaches I went
to school on acquired it in (I think) late 1974. The Harrington standard seats are the most
comfortable that I have EVER sat on. It was a smashing vehicle to ride on. It is a crying shame that
this lovely Coach is now in that great coach park in the sky.
Stemax1960
