Leyland PD1
AHE 163
Leyland Titan PD1, AHE 163 was new in 1946 to Yorkshire Traction or “Tracky”, as it was known locally.
At the end of World War 2, in its haste to get ahead of the game and back into the bus building market Leyland built just one test chassis which it coded PD1 – standing for Postwar Double Deck – and after the briefest of testing periods rushed it straight into production! Leyland’s gamble paid off: in the early post-war years Leyland Titan PD1’s found their way into quite a number of municipal fleets, one of these being Lincoln City Transport who bought five but they were bought in far greater numbers by BET fleets up and down the country of which they would become a mainstay.
One such BET fleet was Yorkshire Traction which operated out of Barnsley in an area stretching as far as Doncaster, Huddersfield and Rotherham. Of the 500 PD1’s manufactured, 94 were bodied by Charles H Roe of Leeds and it was to Roe that Tracky went for the 5 PD1’s they bought. The second of the PD1’s delivered was AHE 163, fleet number 726H, the H standing for Highbridge. 726 worked out of the Barnsley and Doncaster depots giving 15 years’ service to Tracky before being withdrawn and sold to the North Yorkshire Motorcycle Racing Circuit as a club room before ending up in a similar role in Aintree.
LVVS society chairman Steve Milner had been on the lookout for a Roe bodied Titan for a number of years when 726 came to his attention in 1982 and he snapped it up. Fortunately Tracky had stipulated that their PD1’s should be constructed with the much sturdier teak frames rather than the cheaper ash framed bodies which other BET operators like Tracky’s near neighbour East Yorkshire Motor Services used. Hence 726 has survived where none of the 72 EYMS PD1’s did!
Even so, to put it mildly, the vehicle was ‘in a bit of a state’ when it passed into Steve’s ownership with accident damage all over the bodywork but he set about the long and painstaking full restoration sourcing parts from numerous sources including a domestic window and an emergency door from a Northampton Roe bodied Crossley! Some of the bodywork refurbishment took place in Elland before the bus came to Lincoln for painting in traditional 1940’s Tracky livery with help from other LVVS members.
After many hours of painstaking restoration work to the highest standard 726 presents a pristine example of what was for many the heyday of British bus building, 726 now stands proudly on display in the museum alongside a much later Leyland Titan PD2/41 which Lincoln City Transport put into service the year 726 was retired!