The Type B51 body from Eastern Coach Works originated as a rebuild project on the Bristol RE chassis,
making extensive use of glass-fibre mouldings, to a rounded style that always makes me think of a jelly mould.
Then Leyland offered cheap end-of-line Leopard chassis, and B51s were built on the new chassis for United Counties.
They were not a great success,
as on the Leopard chassis there was no provision for supporting the large boot that National Express work required.
They wobbled. After a couple of weeks the boot fell off one in service, spilling luggage over the motorway. Not good.
Flimsy fibreglass mouldings supporting enormous glass windscreens were also found wanting.
London Country ordered 42 for 1982, mounted on the new Leyland Tiger chassis with TL11 engine, which offered a performance boost as well as air suspension. Delivery was a little erratic, as the boot and windscreen problems were sorted out by ECW with reinforcing kits, and most of the coaches had to receive post-August WPH *** Y registrations, having originally been built with TPC *** X plates. But after an inauspicious beginning the coaches had long lives with Green Line, some being bought after the initial six-seven year leases from Leyland expired.
TL 1-6 received Flightline 757 livery for the London to Luton Airport service,
and after receipt at Reigate went to St.Albans for a July start on the service.
They stayed on the airport run until the spring of 1986, when it was taken over by Luton & District,
TL1-4 then being transferred to Dorking and used on the Brighton and Hove service (still in Flightline livery!).
TL5 moved to Dartford, with a new paint scheme, of pale green with dark green combing -
another attempt by National Bus Company to impose a common identity in the face of burgeoning livery variations among its subsidiaries.
TL6 remained at St.Albans, and received a repaint to Green Line livery in October 1987.
TL 7-30 arrived in Green Line livery, with a white base and three Lincoln green bands.
They were divided between Windsor, Reigate and St.Albans, all garages with motorway Green Line express routes.
The Windsor contingent were perforce transferred to Slough in July 1984,
when Windsor closed and Slough opened. There was a small amount of swapping between the garages,
and TL14 went to Dorking in 1986 (in place of TL6?).
TL 31-42 were 53-seaters, lacking the large luggage rack, and went mainly to Northfleet and Reigate (with the last to Leatherhead),
for commuter traffic and private hire. They too wore the same Green Line livery.
A couple were allocated to Dartford, a couple to Slough and one to Dorking, with the others remaining at Northfleet.
September 1986 saw the politically inspired break-up of London Country into four small companies
that were expected to fight tooth and nail for whatever business there was.
The GreenLine brand crumbled a bit with it, as the central control of image and policy vanished.
The remaining fragments of Green Line with the new companies were in some cases too small to be worth
the extra effort of inter-company co-operation, even if that were legal.
The TLs were divided, by their allocations, to all four companies: Slough was with LCNW; St.Albans with LCNE; Reigate and Dorking with LCSW and Northfleet and Dartford with LCSE. These last were soon renumbered into the Kentishbus coach numbering scheme.
Ian's Bus Stop
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