The LONDON TRANSPORT Maudslay Buses and Coaches

This page created 13th December 2016 using Wordpad, by Ian Smith.

The name "Maudslay" is probably best known by gentlemen of a certain age who had Dinky Toys as boys, as the passenger coach in that range was a Maudsley coach with a full-front body. But London Transport's connection with Maudslays was of 1930s coaches and buses taken over from other operators, notably Bucks Express and the Great Western Railway. The latter may also ring bells among railway modellers, and bus model collectors as the prototype for Peco's Great Western Maudslay bus model.

The Bucks Express Maudslay coaches, M1-M3

M (Dodson) sketch The three Bucks Express coaches, Maudslay ML3s with C32D Dodson bodies, were secondhand, having originated with Enterprise of London SE22 in October 1929. They made the move to Watford to operate express services into London, and were taken over by Green Line in February 1932. Green Line numbered them as M1-M3. They were moved into Leavesden Road garage and continued to operate the Green Line services until replaced by Regals in October 1934.
ML (Strachan) sketch

The Great Western Maudslay coaches: ML2,4

In 1932 The LGOC came to an agreement with the Great Western Railway to take over their Slough area operations. Two Maudslay coaches with Strachan bodywork were part of the deal, and were taken into Green Line stock as ML2 and ML4, based at Slough Alpha Street. They survived long enough to be taken over by the LTPB in July 1933 before sale in February 1934.


ML (Buckingham) sketch

The Great Western Maudslay buses

Also from the GWR Slough deal came three buses with rear entrance bodies, two by Buckingham (1928), one by Vickers (1929). These continued on Slough area bus work, repainted first in LGCS red/white, then in "General" green and black. At first they retained their GWR roof racks, but these were later removed.
ML (Vickers) sketch

The other single-deck Maudslay coaches

Following the London Transport Act the LPTB took over the vehicles of a number of operators, including five Maudslay coaches, one from The Essex Omnibus Co, East Ham, which was sold after six months and four from Price Omnibus Co of north London which were either withdrawn immediately or after six months.

MY1 sketch

The Gordon double-decker: MY 1

The only double decker Maudslay to come to London Transport was a 1931 Maudslay Mentor with a nice (for its time) Dodson 52 seater body with enclosed staircase. An improvement on the body on the Redline Daimler DST5, it had curved edges to the window pans and a piano front, with a V-shaped upper windscreen. The piano front held a roller blind for the destination display.

Gordon ran it on the 511 to Chingford until takeover by the LPTB in December 1933. They allocated it to the Country Area as MY1. It spent time in green and black livery in the Windsor and Leatherhead areas, and then in green/green at Grays (I think: although I can't find the reference).

After withdrawal it spent time with Seamarks and United Counties, until December 1937.


Ian's Bus Stop Maudslay text. histories photo refs