Registration Number OJD376R (we
don't know the registration of the one behind). Built
April 1977 (Body No. B60975); for London Transport. This Daimler Fleetline is one of a huge batch built for LT between 1976 &
78 now, in August 2005, being used as a
sightseeing bus around Philadelphia.
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Jeffrey Ornstein sent me a link to a YouTube video of Leyland Atlanteans in New York, USA. PRV built eight of these for the New York City Transit Authority in August 1976. They were body numbers B62061-8 (type H43/29D) and were on Leyland Atlantean chassis type AN68.
Click here for Leyland Atlanteans with PRV Bodywork in New York City
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And now for a real rarity - an AEC Regent III - or what's left of it!
The
registration CDX513 confirms this is an AEC Regent III with PRV H30/26R body
(No. B37080) built in May 1954, the first of a batch of four destined for Ipswich
Corporation, Suffolk where, in the Corporation's green & cream livery, it ran
on Route #13. Below are links to
images of it at various points along it's route:
[Outside
a Westminster Bank, Ipswich] [In
the Constantine Road depot, Ipswich] [Opposite
a Tolly Cobbold pub in Ipswich]
[Seen in Westgate Street, Ipswich]
[Somewhere
else in Ipswich]
After less than 20 years service in and around Ipswich CDX513 was withdrawn in 1973 and eventually exported, finding its way to Great Falls, Montana, where (name withheld for privacy) the seating was ditched and it was converted to an RV; at sometime before which its Ipswich green & cream livery had been over painted in the red livery of a London Transport vehicle.
But now it looks like this! Gutted and rebuilt by Chameleon Concessions, Minneapolis, now without any running gear, it's a static 'food truck'. Here is CDX513 undergoing reconstruction:
And
on November 12th 2021 CDX513 began its long journey from Minneapolis to the Capital
One Centre, Tyson's Corner in Virginia, (not far from Dulles Airport - alight
here for Washington, D.C.), in readiness
on the 16th to be ignominiously hoisted
by crane (from
just about here) onto "The Perch" rooftop venue (11 storeys high) to
begin its new life in 2022 as
a static food
truck.
(Also see below the start of the hoisting kindly sent in by Mark Palm.)
(see
more of Chameleon Concessions work here)
The
last image shows the Regent III being lowered into position between two other
static vehicles already in situ.
There are more
images of the venue to be found below; (the Regent 3 cannot be missed with the
Union Jack painted on its roof):
The
Perch at the Capital One Center - (Greenroofs.com)
'Question is, is it really so ignominious? Well for a great PRV body to be slung about (even so carefully & accurately) maybe, but hey, CDX513 can't fly and didn't reach the scrap heap either; instead she has begun a new sedentary life befitting of her years. There she will remain in service to the community as a great talking point, especially over the little mistakes here and there that the more Anglicised (perhaps I should write Anglicized) will appreciate. And it's great fun isn't it. If there be a next time I fly into Dulles, I'll stop off for lunch. Ed.
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