With - Halifax Corporation Transport and Joint Omnibus Committee
1965
Daimler Roadliner
Marshall B50F
I have listed this under Halifax Corporation has that is who the Roadliner was on loan to at the time
the photo was taken. I went on this bus to Brighouse on the 49 route which was normally serviced by
double deckers maybe the intention was to replace them with high capacity single deckers. Halifax didn’t
buy any Roadliners or any similar single deckers so the route must of carried on being serviced by
double deckers.
I have tried to research which operator the Roadliner finally ended up with but to
no avail, if you know, let me know, leave a comment.
By 1975 this bus was with the Transport and Road Research Laboratory at
Crowthorne Berks, and was used for "Guided Bus" experiments involving the bus being guided
by a wire buried in the road.
Derek Lucas
———
It was the Daimler demonstrator, a deal was struck with Bob Crouch at Daimler
to keep the bus in Halifax but it would be released back to Daimler when needed for demonstration
purposes, it usually worked the 5/6 circulars and later had a green roof.
The Cummins VIM V6
engine was a poor unit and lead to the early demise of these buses.
In Halifax the poor roads
lead to chassis body flexing and the long chassis severely restricted route availability, also with
long routes such as 48/9 it meant too many unhappy passengers standing up.
Finally at this
time - it had to have a Gardner 6LX - or it was out!
Christopher
08/03/11 - 15:44
I believe this bus was sold in the late 70’s through the Gov auction sales at
the OSDD at Ruddington, Nottm., I was a fitter at the time, my apprentice and I had a drive around
the perimeter, it still had the mountings for the experimental equipment and only about 4 seats were
installed.
Roger Broughton
29/08/11 - 08:14
We had a number of batches with V6/V8 engines, with Plaxton Coach Bodies for
express services, FAST/GOOD HILL EATERS, but required one driver-one coach, to keep them on the
road.
The engine sound going through a urban area at 02.00 hrs. was out of this world!!!! Went
back to LEOPARDS, after the 4th batch, that or buy a 2nd towing unit. [mind you all top management
had Daimler cars by then, buy 9 get a free car?????]
Mike 9
29/08/11 - 16:31
Here is another picture of the Roadliner under evaluation in Halifax, taken,
if my memory serves me correctly, near King Cross. Personally, I doubt that GGH seriously considered
this vehicle as a contender for the Halifax bus orders. Knowing his fascination with all things in
the bus world, I suspect that he wanted to try it out through curiosity alone.
Roger Cox
04/01/12 - 06:56
I well remember the Roadliner from my time with Eastbourne Corporation in the
1960’s. The demonstrator CVC 124C arrived in Churchdale Road depot one Sunday afternoon, I can’t
remember when, it was not used in service only inspected and must have had an impression on Mr R R
Davies the manager as one was ordered duly arriving in mid 1967 as No 86 (DHC 786E). I was the first
driver to take it out on service as a additional bus on service 6, the seafront route, the first one
man operated bus for the Corporation which I must say did not go down too well with the residents of
the Meads section of the route. Two more similar vehicles arrived the following year as No’s 90/91
(EJK 890/91) all three having two door East Lancs bodies and fitted with the Metalastik suspension.
As many others have commented they were very raucous both inside and out the suspension also I seem
to remember chattered quite a lot but their performance was a revelation. I believe all three had to
have new engines before they had covered 30,000 miles. I recall that when selecting 1st gear when
stationary the N/S front corner dipped quite noticeably. My lasting memory of these buses is of
stopping on the seafront to pick up passengers when the engine cut out for no obvious reason and
would not restart I then noticed in the N/S mirror smoke coming from the engine bay upon
investigation I found the main electrical control box and master switch had broken loose and was
swinging on it’s cables with terminals shorting on the exhaust pipe after very carefully switching
off the master switch I found the short circuit had burnt a hole in the exhaust pipe. Meanwhile
orders had been placed for Leyland Panthers, I left the Corporation in 1969 and the Roadliners quite
soon after, it has to be said the Panthers were only marginally better.
Diesel Dave
