PRESERVED BUSES & COACHES
| FLEET No | GS 32 |
| REG | MXX 332 |
| MAKE | GUY |
| MODEL | GS |
| YEAR | 1953 |
| BODY | Eastern Coach Works, Lowestoft. |
| OWNER | J Clarke of Aylesbury |
| HISTORY | At the beginning
of the 1950s, London Transport needed to replace its aging fleet of small
single decker buses. They needed small buses for the sparsely
populated country areas, and only small buses would be allowed to have
one-man operation. AEC and Leyland were not making small vehicles,
so LT turned to the Guy Special . Guy produced 84 chassis with
Perkins P6 diesel engines, and the Eastern Coach Works body seated
26. They were introduced from late 1953. They remained in use
until the 1960s (a few into the 1970s), but were gradually replaced by new
larger vehicles. Large numbers were sold to private operators, and
many have survived into preservation.
GS 32 entered service for London Transport in 1953, operating from Dunton Green garage, Kent, subsequently operating both north and south of the Thames, until June 1961 when it was sold on. She entered service immediately with a small operator, and was bought and sold several times until 1967. In that year the engine suffered serious frost damage, and she was sold on to become a builder's yard hut, later becoming a farm shed. In December 1992 she was purchased for preservation, and after 6 years of restoration, returned to the road in 1998. |
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| Above photos taken at: | Oxford Bus Museum Running Day |
| Taken: | 17th October 2010 |
Photographs © Mike Smith 2010
None to be reproduced elsewhere without permission
mjs@onlineweb.com