SCOTTISH VINTAGE BUS MUSEUM - 1934
B34RD COWIESON BODY, SMT B124
DETAILS
Chassis: 1935 Leyland Tiger TS7, SMT H110, reg WS4522
Body: 1934 Cowieson B34RD, SMT
B124
Engine:
First
Licensed:
Refurbished Body B124 on chassis WS4522 (Jim Crichton,
April 2009)
Like many other SVBM members, Jasper Pettie was keen to get his hands on
a pre-war SMT single-decker. The possibility of finding a suitable vehicle
seemed remote, until he heard of a body that had been found in Abergavenny.
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Photo:
Jasper Pettie, B124 about to leave Abergavenny. |
An
inspection trip revealed this to be the body of FS 8584, one of 33 built by Cowieson
in 1934 and mounted on AEC Regal 4 chassis. The rear entrance bus bodies had
seats for 34. Numbered B124 in the SMT fleet and delivered in June 1934, it
was one of 22 of the batch seconded to the War Department in July 1940.
Seventeen were returned to SMT in 1942/3, but not B124, which was recorded
with a Welsh operator, S J Davies of Penygraig, in the early 1950s. Nothing
more was heard of the bus until the body was found in Abergavenny, and
rescued for its return north following a complex removal from the field that
had been its home for around half a century. |
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Now
safely at Lathalmond, the cab-less body - which appears to be remarkably
sound - will be united at some stage with a chassis, probably a Leyland Tiger
TS7, to create a typical SMT bus of the time, as Burlingham and Metro-Cammell
also built largely similar bodies on Tiger for SMT around that time. Photo:
Jasper Pettie, January 2000, the day after arriving at Lathalmond - as
passenger on a vintage lorry which in turn travelled on another lorry. |
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A
cab has also been traced and rescued. The 1933 Burlingham cab of SMT H60B (FS
5582) was found at Gordon, near Kelso, and brought back to the museum. This will
provide a cab and windows for FS 8584 and will be useful for the Leyland
offside wing outline. The view on the left seems to shows the cab built into
a corrugated building - strange! - that on the right seems to show the cab,
having toppled on being released, taking it out on Tam Loggie. |
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