UPDATE 31.08.20 Save Val! '71 coach Ex Sam Glover/Edd China + related questions...

[mercrocker]

The simple, non-bus expert, answer is that Duple offered a range of similar body style on various Ford and Bedford "chassis" layouts.   

 

However, there is some proper knowledge base on here which will hopefully elaborate!

[busmansholiday]

Same body, was fitted to various sheds of this era ( you may gather my dislike for Fords and Bedfords of this era).

 

Basically both were front engined and classified as 'lightweight' chassis compared with AEC (designed by God himself), that crap from Lancashire, Daimler and Bristol. They were cheap, so popular with independent operators but also ended up in NBC fleets for the same reason.

 

I had the pleasure* of driving these things in the late 70's onwards. I chose to preserve AEC's.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Same body, was fitted to various sheds of this era ( you may gather my dislike for Fords and Bedfords of this era).

 

Basically both were front engined and classified as 'lightweight' chassis compared with AEC (designed by God himself), that crap from Lancashire, Daimler and Bristol. They were cheap, so popular with independent operators but also ended up in NBC fleets for the same reason.

 

I had the pleasure* of driving these things in the late 70's onwards. I chose to preserve AEC's.

Thanks for the info. As mentioned before, it's still a learning curve for me. Shame you didn't rate the things - aesthetically, I reckon they look spot on. If I had the space/facilities/skills/time machine etc...

[Inspector Morose]

Duple were incredibly confusing with their bodies at times. The Viceroy was for the lighter weight chassis and looked like the photos above. The body for heavyweight was called the Commander and looked slightly different. Unless it didn't as you could mix and match front or side window layout you wanted on your personal whim. 

Bedfords and Fords always get a bad press. Rudimentary they were but they were the mainstay of many a coach company who wouldn't be with us today if it was not for the simple to repair, cheap to run Bedford or Ford. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Duple Commander? I've just searched for it, and it's thrown up this AEC Reliance Duple Commander. Another one to add to the confusion?!

 

[quicksilver]

Duple were incredibly confusing with their bodies at times. The Viceroy was for the lighter weight chassis and looked like the photos above. The body for heavyweight was called the Commander and looked slightly different. Unless it didn't as you could mix and match front or side window layout you wanted on your personal whim. 

Bedfords and Fords always get a bad press. Rudimentary they were but they were the mainstay of many a coach company who wouldn't be with us today if it was not for the simple to repair, cheap to run Bedford or Ford. 

Just to muddy the waters still further, Duple discontinued the Commander a season or two before the all-new Dominant range appeared. In the meantime they built a few Viceroy bodies on AEC and Leyland chassis. Earlier on there was an alternative to the Commander called the Commodore that looked like the Bella Venture body for the Bedford VAM, and the Astrocoach, a Commander with a glass roof (but they only made one of those).

[Dick Cheeseburger]

^ Indeed, it does seem even muddier! 

I wonder how many Duple-bodied coaches of the same basic style as in the photos I shared are still around today, regardless of chassis type?

[Asimo]

If you go to the first post in a thread that you started and click edit, there you can edit the thread title.

[quicksilver]

^ Indeed, it does seem even muddier! 

I wonder how many Duple-bodied coaches of the same basic style as in the photos I shared are still around today, regardless of chassis type?

Very few. Duple build quality of that era wasn't much better than cardboard panels on a balsa wood frame. The ones that have survived have no doubt been very heavily rebuilt.

[busmansholiday]

^^^ Very true. Being built in Blackpool, not that far from the sea, they did have a severe tendancy to rot. And if you think old BL cars could rot, Duple were way, way better at that.

 

The later Dominants, were even better at that, the frames were built in advance and stored outside, without any form of protection so were rotten to fuck before completion.

 

But then, they, and Plaxton, handled well, in the days of no tachographs and drivers hours.

Willowbrook on the other hand really were a bag of shite. The 007 body, and I've driven Bedford, AEC and Leyland versions, really took shite handling and design to a new level utter shiteness.

[Inspector Morose]

As an ex-Burlingam body builder once said to me while removing nails from the frame of a seagul we were rebuilding “we built ‘em to last five years. It’s you stupid fuckers who want ‘em to last forever”

[Zelandeth]

Being honest, having helped a mate drag a few old sheds out of goodness knows how long in hibernation, we've never come across an old Bedford that we couldn't get going and moving under its own power with what we had in the tool box and some bodging. They're crude and underpowered, but plucky little buggers, which always just seem to want to live.

 

Early late Volvo B58 is my choice as a driver probably. Essentially a B10M intended for the larger, heavier bodies like the Van Hool Alizee, but with the likes of a Plaxton Supreme IV body on can really bloody fly.

 

My choice though as an owner would be a mid 70s Bedford YNT with a Duple Dominant II body on it. If I could ever find one that hadn't totally dissolved. Why? That's the worst of all worlds surely? Because it's thanks to STA380R, one of those, which I ended up with the interest in these things.

[busmansholiday]

^^^^^ Jesuuuus, fuuuuuk meee.

 

That body was designed to rot an an incredible rate. The only good thing I can say is that the chassis, despite being shite, was resistant to the best attempts of drivers to fuck it up. I'm not saying how I know.....

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Still getting sidetracked trying to sort our mortgage. I wonder what happened to this one? 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Answering my own question above, just seen on anti-social media that the chap who sold the Val in 2016 was Ed China. The chap who bought her is Mike Lucas and she's sat at his place in Norfolk ever since. 

@Six-cylinder Still keen? There must be plenty of spare room in the FOD. Are your pockets quadruple length and then some? ?

This is the old girl as of August 2020

And in happier times...

 

And finally, owner list. 

 

[beko1987]

Shotgun driving it round the fod when it arrives... 

[LightBulbFun]

funnily enough I was just saying at the last FoD gathering how I hope someone would buy a/turn up in a bus so I can drive it around the field...

and @Mrs6C did mention slight regret at not buying a bus in the past, maybe its finally time to not make that mistake again and make a much more financially ruinous one instead?

[Dick Cheeseburger]

15 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Shotgun driving it round the fod when it arrives... 

I'd make the journey up from Cornwall just to drive the thing. How bumpy is the field though? There could be bets on what drops off first...

 

[Zelandeth]

I really wish someone in this corner of the world I actually know would get involved in something like this as I deeply miss getting to mess around with them back up north...

Suspension on these is pretty squidgy so I'm sure it would handle the field just fine (so long as it's bone dry...you do NOT want to have to drag a coach out of a muddy field).

[Ghosty]

THIS IS THE BUS PRESERVATION SOCIETY

Chinese six too, for added win. 

[somewhatfoolish]

I forget; did all the Harringtons rot away/fall apart due to being terminally shonky? 

[Dan the van]

Back in the late 80's I used to crew for a mate who drag raced.One of our competitors had a red Harrington Legionnaire as race transport.It had double doors at the back,six bunks,kitchen,shower and a large comfy seating area which we all piled into waiting for the inevitable  rain to stop.Wayne was a fitter on the buses in Nottingham so maintaining it was no problem plus he had somewhere to park it for free.He let me have a drive at Long Marston one day,it was a bit like driving your house with rather heavy steering.No idea if it still exists.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

45 minutes ago, Dan the van said:

Back in the late 80's I used to crew for a mate who drag raced.One of our competitors had a red Harrington Legionnaire as race transport.It had double doors at the back,six bunks,kitchen,shower and a large comfy seating area which we all piled into waiting for the inevitable  rain to stop.Wayne was a fitter on the buses in Nottingham so maintaining it was no problem plus he had somewhere to park it for free.He let me have a drive at Long Marston one day,it was a bit like driving your house with rather heavy steering.No idea if it still exists.

Legionnaires are unicorn poo now. I'm sure some others on here may know more accurately, but I was under the impression that there are only two or three surviving. See if you can find out the registration/story of the red one? 

[Six-cylinder]

10 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

funnily enough I was just saying at the last FoD gathering how I hope someone would buy a/turn up in a bus so I can drive it around the field...

and @Mrs6C did mention slight regret at not buying a bus in the past, maybe its finally time to not make that mistake again and make a much more financially ruinous one instead?

This was the Bus Mrs6C is referring to, it belonged to our freind's son and was a big project. It still drove but had a suspected problem with an engine valve. I got to drive it around their field and lists as the only bus I have driven.

[chaseracer]

There is a precedent here, of course... ?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

48 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Legionnaires are unicorn poo now. I'm sure some others on here may know more accurately, but I was under the impression that there are only two or three surviving. See if you can find out the registration/story of the red one? 

Possibly as many as four still extant, according to a very distracted Google search involving The Italian Job

[Dan the van]

58 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Legionnaires are unicorn poo now. I'm sure some others on here may know more accurately, but I was under the impression that there are only two or three surviving. See if you can find out the registration/story of the red one? 

All I remember was it was on a 'B' reg,1964.No pictures from back then sadly.It was in decent condition but that was in c1987.

[rml2345]

Not that many Legionnaires were built as Harrington ceased bodybuilding in 1965 and were never a major volume builder like Plaxton or Duple. 

There's a good website about them here;

https://www.thcoachwork.co.uk/

[Dick Cheeseburger]

20 minutes ago, rml2345 said:

Not that many Legionnaires were built as Harrington ceased bodybuilding in 1965 and were never a major volume builder like Plaxton or Duple. 

There's a good website about them here;

https://www.thcoachwork.co.uk/

Great link, thanks. Only 58 Legionnaires built? No wonder they're a rare breed now!

[Six-cylinder]

1 hour ago, chaseracer said:

There is a precedent here, of course... ?

If our field was dry I would have been begging David Fowler to let me drive his bus round our field.