working life
LFT 5X was ordered from new for delivery in February 1982 alongside five sisters (LFT 1X to 6X) followed by six more the following year (XEF 7Y to 12Y) by the then-MD of OK Motor Services, Charles Marshall. He is now retired and living in the Midlands; and I have been privileged to be in regular contact with him about my project.
Charles has an encyclopaedic knowledge and amazing memory in respect of all of OK’s operations and vehicles. He identified the location of one archive picture from the scantiest of background detail, including that it was the last stop on a Magical Mystery Tour (every Sunday March to October) on which a Mrs McGuigan rode every week, pre-booked in seat A1.
In respect of another picture, he identified the motorway slip road, the route being taken and that “judging by the sun, it’s the 12.15”.
Mary’s regular working life was primarily as a long distance bus rather than a touring coach; Peterlee to Middlesbrough, Darlington to Sunderland, Newcastle to Carlisle etc. At the time, there was a government grant available to operators to buy new buses but not coaches. One of the distinguishing factors is that coaches of that era had a narrower, single-leaf door because luggage etc. was loaded into the boot and then for the passengers it was just a case of ‘on at the beginning, off at the end’ with few if any intermediate stops.
Buses had to have wider doors for shopping, children and the general to-ing and fro-ing at the many stops so Mary benefits from the double or ‘grant’ doors – not, as I originally thought, doors designed by a Professor Grant!
Another unique feature on this coach, hardly noticeable to the layman, is the reduced height windscreens taken from Plaxton’s previous body style, the Elite. This allowed for a deeper destination box above showing multi-destination routes – another feature of the long-distance nature of many of OK’s services.
By the way, the bodywork housing the upper destination box is known as a Bristol Dome. This is because Bristol-manufactured chassis had large radiators at the front, preventing the installation of a destination box under the windscreens. As you can see, Mary has such a box (O.K. MOTOR SERVICES) because she is not a Bristol, but the nickname is applied to all makes.
There were two intermediate Scottish owners before she was last operated commercially by Smith’s Contract Services (schools and works journeys) of Brenzett, Kent (see the page on previous owners).
The last MoT with Smith’s expired in 2007 and, after they went out of business, she lay idle until their fleet was acquired by the dealer from which I obtained her, Wealden PSV of Tonbridge, Kent.
Charles has an encyclopaedic knowledge and amazing memory in respect of all of OK’s operations and vehicles. He identified the location of one archive picture from the scantiest of background detail, including that it was the last stop on a Magical Mystery Tour (every Sunday March to October) on which a Mrs McGuigan rode every week, pre-booked in seat A1.
In respect of another picture, he identified the motorway slip road, the route being taken and that “judging by the sun, it’s the 12.15”.
Mary’s regular working life was primarily as a long distance bus rather than a touring coach; Peterlee to Middlesbrough, Darlington to Sunderland, Newcastle to Carlisle etc. At the time, there was a government grant available to operators to buy new buses but not coaches. One of the distinguishing factors is that coaches of that era had a narrower, single-leaf door because luggage etc. was loaded into the boot and then for the passengers it was just a case of ‘on at the beginning, off at the end’ with few if any intermediate stops.
Buses had to have wider doors for shopping, children and the general to-ing and fro-ing at the many stops so Mary benefits from the double or ‘grant’ doors – not, as I originally thought, doors designed by a Professor Grant!
Another unique feature on this coach, hardly noticeable to the layman, is the reduced height windscreens taken from Plaxton’s previous body style, the Elite. This allowed for a deeper destination box above showing multi-destination routes – another feature of the long-distance nature of many of OK’s services.
By the way, the bodywork housing the upper destination box is known as a Bristol Dome. This is because Bristol-manufactured chassis had large radiators at the front, preventing the installation of a destination box under the windscreens. As you can see, Mary has such a box (O.K. MOTOR SERVICES) because she is not a Bristol, but the nickname is applied to all makes.
There were two intermediate Scottish owners before she was last operated commercially by Smith’s Contract Services (schools and works journeys) of Brenzett, Kent (see the page on previous owners).
The last MoT with Smith’s expired in 2007 and, after they went out of business, she lay idle until their fleet was acquired by the dealer from which I obtained her, Wealden PSV of Tonbridge, Kent.