The History

GRT 55 was the last vehicle taken into stock by Grampian Regional Transport in August 1986, less than 3 months before Grampian Regional Transport Ltd came into being. It was one of five Leyland Tiger TRCLXC/2RHs, a conventional high floor chassis design for single deckers suitable for bus or coach bodywork and had a horizontal underfloor engine along with a choice of semi-automatic or manual (synchromesh) gearbox. The design was launched in 1981 as a successor to the long lived Leyland Leopard (see GRT 61) and offered air suspension plus a more powerful engine.

Leyland had never succeeded in suppressing operator demand for alternatives to the Leyland National (see GRT 74) and its successor, and was also having to respond to increasing competition from alternative sources of coach chassis, especially from continental Europe. To add to the Leyland company’s woes, following a court ruling, Leyland had to offer engines from other suppliers as an alternative to their own turbocharged TL11 unit; GRT opted to have turbocharged Gardner engines for all five of their order. After some 53 years, 55 was thus the last Gardner engined vehicle to be taken new into the Aberdeen city’s fleet.

The five vehicles of this order all had Plaxton Paramount bodywork but 55 was to a higher specification than the others. It has 49 reclining seats, the others seated 53, and had its own livery branding when new. The Paramount bodywork featured a steel tube framework with long (treated) steel exterior panels stressed welded to the framework; saloon heating is by an oil fired hot water system.

Amongst private hire and contract duties, 55 was used in the late 1980s by GRT Ltd in the inter-operator competitive wars in the North East following bus deregulation. As frontline coaches tend to age quite rapidly, it was transferred to the Kirkpatrick of Deeside fleet in 1991 where it remained until 2003. Following a spell with Fisher Tours of Dundee, 55 was acquired for preservation in 2012.