< View previous picture - View next picture > Photographer / Copyright Derek Everson Images should not be reused without permission. View vehicle details  H489BND Location Link/s Date added to site 21/06/2020 Printer-friendly version of this page

Details: Another operator to use minibuses as ferry vehicles for bus drivers was Armchair, a well-established coach company that won tenders for several routes in west London. One of these was the trunk route 65 between Ealing Broadway and Kingston. This passed fairly close to Armchair's Brentford base but it would appear that changeovers actually took place at the Ealing terminus. Photographed at Haven Green on 24th June 1999, a Leyland-DAF minibus with 'CREW BUS' branding is seen parked in front of one of the company's Alexander-bodied Leyland Olympian buses. The design of the minibus is clearly descended from the Sherpa model introduced by Leyland in 1974 (although the Sherpa name was first applied in 1975). The model went through various changes of badging including Morris, Freight Rover, Leyland-DAF and finally LDV. H489BND was new to P&S Travel of Hillingdon in August 1990. In 1995 it was sold to Redwoods of Devon but it returned to London in 1999 when it was bought by Armchair. It only seems to have lasted a couple of years though. The Manchester registration is evidence that the coach conversion was undertaken by 'Made to Measure', while the lowest skirting panels are purely cosmetic, as can be seen when you compare this with a similar but 'un-pimped' minibus like 2461L.

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