GRT 61 was the first vehicle new to Grampian Regional Transport in June 1975. It was a solitary coach which was joined by two more coaches of exactly the same ilk in 1977. From new, 61 was usually deployed on the “Tour of City & Suburbs” services during the summer, and off season it was available for private hires but at this stage not on service work. However, where vehicles suitable for coach work had been bought with “Bus Grant” under the1968 Transport Act they had to be deployed on service work for a portion of the year. During winter months, 61 and its ilk were on hire to W Alexander (Northern) where they were often used on express work between Aberdeen and Glasgow.
The chassis of 61 is a Leyland Leopard, Leyland’s designation PSU4C/4R, and is one of the many variations of Leyland’s heavier weight horizontal underfloor engined chassis that was in production from 1959 to 1983. The “Leopard” was an upgrade of the earlier Leyland “Tiger Cub” chassis (see ACT 10) and was one of the chassis designs meant to be displaced by the Leyland National (see GRT 74) but never was. The majority of Leopard chassis from the 1960s were for 36’0” bodywork (or longer) but 61 is shorter. This chassis design offered manual or semi-automatic transmissions, 61 having the latter, plus air brakes but no power steering.
The bodywork is by Alexander of Falkirk to their ‘AY’ design, ie, a “Y” type design with aluminium framing. It has a single door at the front, and has coach seats for 45 passengers. Saloon heating is circulated warm air from an oil fired heater; at a later stage, a separate coolant fed cab heater was installed.
When GRT Ltd expanded its contract and private hire work through the acquisition of GE Mair Hire Services Ltd of Dyce, it became practice to transfer vehicles to the separate Mair fleet as part of an upgrading process. Accordingly, 61 was transferred to the Mair name in 1988 and remained there until coming to the GRT Ltd heritage fleet in 1997.