RAU 804M (originally OTO555M)
1974 Leyland Atlantean AN68/1R
As Built East Lancs H43/31D
Rebodied as East Lancs Sprint B45F
OTO 555M
Chassis No. 7304429
Body No. EL2516 H47/30D (as built)
Body No. EL B5201 B45F (rebodied)
555 entered service on 28th January 1974. During the first part of its working life it was allocated to Parliament Street, Trent Bridge and Bulwell.
It was withdrawn from service towards the end of 1992, and was selected to be rebodied as a single decker. NCT had a large number of similar age vehicles approaching the end of their useful lives, and East Lancs had rebodied a number as single deckers for other operators. It was depatched to East Lancs in February 1993. The original double deck body was removed, the chassis overhauled and the wheelbase lengthened around 4 feet.
A new East Lancs Sprint body was then fitted, with a seating capacity of 45.
It returned to Nottingham in December 1993, and is seen in the picture below being worked on in Trent Bridge Works. Here the chassis was mechanically overhauled, and fully rewired.
It returned to East Lancs towards the end of January 1994 for completion of the bodywork.
On return to NCT, it was painted at Trent Bridge into South Notts livery, and renumbered 55.
It entered service on 31st March 1994 from Gotham garage, operating on route 1, Nottngham-Loughborough.
This could have led to a number of such coversions, but it turned out to be a unique, as the lengthened chassis made the vehicle difficult to manouvere, and 45 seats was not felt to be sufficient for a large bus.
In Service with South Notts
55 is seen here in Loughborough Bus Station
Hulleys Of Baslow
55 was withdrawn from service in February 1999, and was re-registered RAU 804M in March. The reason for this number change is given below.
It was sold to Hulleys of Baslow in March 1999 and became their fleet number 21. In June 2000 Hulleys partly repainted the vehicle, by painting the lighter blue band in the same shade as the darker one, and applying Hulleys fleetnames.
Into Preservation
55 was sold in August 2002 to a J. Lilley of Chapel-en-le-Frith. It was kept at the premises of Bowers Coaches, in the same location.
The bus was used occasionally by Bowers on school runs.
It was sold on again in March 2003 to Shamrock Buses (Dorset Heritage) of Poole. Whilst with them 55 was loaned out to Clark of Wimborne, and when returned from them with a defect, was parked in the garage until 2007....!
As Removed from shed
55 remained in the garage, until Shamrock had to vacate the premises. It was put up for sale, and aquired by NHV. The picture shows 55 on the day it was collected from Shamrock.
The dust on the windows made it impossible to see out, and since the doors had been left open, the seats were a similar colour.
Under the dirt........
Once it had arrived at our storage facility, 55 was washed outside and hoovered out internally, and actually started to look presentable.
As it had not been painted since Feb 94 (Hulleys had only painted the blue band where their name was) it was decided to repaint the vehicle.
Body Repairs
All of the skirt panels were replaced, along with a couple of main panels. A lot of work was also done on the rear bustle and engine access doors, as the vibration in this area had caused a lot of cracking. The fuel tanks and the body framing were also painted whilst accessible. An air tank was also replaced, the leak on this tank being the reason for 55's lack of use.
Ready for the Paintshop
Once all the repairs has been completed, 55 was driven to the paintshop.
In The Paintshop
55 seen here in the paintshop during its repaint. The vehicle was brushpainted as we believe this gives a better finish.
Painted!!
55 is seen here outside the paintshop being collected. The reason for the gap in the white stripe is that this is where the South Notts names go.
Its first outing - South Notts Running Day
Completed.
55 is seen here during a photo shoot for Bus and Coach Preservation, with all of the fleet names and numbers applied.
Where did the Registration Number go?
The registration originally carried was transferred to an ex Kentish Bus Scania owned by NCT, fleet No. 355. It was previously F702 JCN.
Upon withdrawal of this bus from NCT it was sold to First Manchester as part of their dedicated School Bus fleet.
When withdrawn by them in July 2004 it went to PVS Barnsley for scrap in September 2004.
It was still registered OTO 555M at this time, which means that we cannot get the original number back for 55.