Whatever may or may not happen as a result of Mayor Johnson’s design-a-London-bus competition, the Routemaster and its potential successor Nu-Routemaster are not the only company-designed buses. Here, we take a look at three well known examples of individual vehicles for specific operations.
The Mancunian 
Said to be the first double deck design specifically for one man operation, the Mancunian was a standard set by Manchester City Council, first appearing in 1968 on a Park Royal bodied Leyland Atlantean, and adopted by successor Selnec PTE. The product later appeared on the Daimler Fleetline.
Manchester & Selnec PTE ordered 400 of these bodies, by Park Royal, Roe, East Lancs and MCW, the East Lancs version being similar, the remainder identical. Their key feature was that deep front window that, together with the design’s angularity, lent a very upright appearance. The design also featured a three-way destination indicator and long passenger side windows. Their treatment in Selnec’s sunglow orange & white meant they were incredibly up-to-date looking; at the time, no other double deck design could touch it for modernity. There followed the more discrete Selnec Standard Northern Counties or Park Royal-bodied Fleetlines or Atlanteans, in even larger number.
BET Fronts 
Single deck designs for the British Electric Traction group first appeared to a standard in the early 1960s on Willowbrooks and Marshalls and was later adopted by ECW when it built large numbers of modified RE bodies for BET’s indirect successor, National Bus. It petered out in the wake of the all-consuming Leyland National, from the mid-1970s. The BET design was not only very pleasing, it was functional. Its double curvature reduced reflection and glare. It was generally difficult to distinguish between Marshall and Willowbrook bodywork. With the design came the attractive peaked dome.
Nottingham Specials
The desire to shoehorn as many passengers into a standard double deck while retaining its inherent strength and introducing an element of streamlining resulted in a curious body style adopted by Nottingham City Transport. The so-called Nottingham “Specials” grafted an individualistic front onto what was often standard East Lancs or Northern Counties bodywork. The front featured a series of characterful curves, including a double-curvature windscreen. Then there was that heavy, clumsy American looking front bumper. Although the design to the bodywork behind the front was more traditional, Nottingham opted for a seven-bay approach on an otherwise long chassis, thereby increasing the vehicle’s strength.
Image credits (all used with permission): Selnec Preservation Society; National Bus Compnay 1970-86
3 comments:
A couple of points.-
I must confess I don't really share your enthusiasm for the Mancunian styling - rather too crisp and box-like to my eyes, with a fine array of different window levels around the front/offside which looks rather un-coordinated. Ralph Bennett, who was responsible for the design, went on to have some input into the DMS which was perhaps a slightly softer-styled version. On the whole I think the bodybuilders' own contemporary standard versions were better looking - certainly post-1968.
I think that ECW's use of the BET windscreen on its range from 1970 was also driven by NBC's desire for standardisation. This approach also resulted in ECW's 1972 coach body having contemporary Plaxton screens. In that respect, the standardisation policy faltered when NBC decided to buy Duple Dominants as well! I understand that the glare and reflection problems resurfaced when the first Leyland Nationals appeared!
The Nottingham double deckers also used the BET windscreens, generally using the BET front screen for the lower deck, and the shallower rear screen for the upper deck front; although I think some of the later Nottingham design vehicles had the same (deeper) screen on both decks. You didn't mention the destination window, which was angled to face slightly downwards so that passengers, inevitably looking slightly upwards, could read it more easily. That was a feature that deserved to be copied widely, and yet now we have almost the opposite, with destination displays hidden behind the top of the windscreens, where the glass is often angled in the opposite direction. So much for progress!
The Mancunian was a superb looking vehicle - streets ahead of anything else on the road at the time. Remember, it was a contemporary of the Bristol VRT and that was deeply disappointing. In effect it was nothing more than a rear engined Lodekka and the body on that was derived from a 1940s K type.
The BET windscreen is something of a design classic and, I suspect, a case of form following function. The BET group was not noted for splashing its money about so I imagine the windscreen came about as a result of trying to solve the problem of interior reflections. That it looked good was a fortunate side effect. It certainly made a dramatic improvement to the appearance of the VRT and RELL when it was adpoted by NBC.
Where the DMS failed and where the Mancunian succeeded was in the livery. I think the DMS might have done quite a bit better if it had had a livery like DMS 1933, or a simple two-colour job like Ensignbus.
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