Photo © Roger Cox. Please do not re-post without permission.

Seen here entering Victoria Coach Station in the summer of 1961, Aldershot & District AEC Reliance No. 274, MOR605, with gawky high waistline Strachan Everest C41C body was the highest numbered (though not carrying the highest chassis number) of the batch of 25 such vehicles delivered between August 1954 and May 1955.
274 was not one of those withdrawn in 1965 to be rebodied by MCW as B40F. These coaches had the AH 410 engine of 6.75 litres yielding a modest 98 bhp (barely more than a Gardner 5LW and with much inferior torque) and gave a rather wallowing ride in a less than sparkling performance. By my driving time at A&D the survivors retaining Strachan bodies had been relegated to bus work which is where I encountered them.


I have always been intrigued by A&D's apparent devotion to Strachan bodywork, which seems to have begun with the purchase of its earliest Strachan & Brown bodies in 1922. By 1926 it had become the major supplier of bodywork to the company, and in the course of time, as Strachans (Acton) and then Strachans Successors, remained a major supplier of psv bodywork to A&D until the deliveries of these Reliances, and a batch of Dennis Falcons at around the same time. By the late 1930s Strachans quality was becoming somewhat suspect, and the bodywork on the 1937 batch of A&D Dennis Lances had begun to deteriorate by 1944 after a mere seven years in service. These were all ultimately rebodied by East Lancs between 1944 and 1948. A&D then went on to acquire a host of utility Guy Arabs with Strachans double deck bodywork, the last A&D 'deckers from that firm, presumably pressing its utility choice on the basis of 'the devil you know'. Most were rebodied by other manufacturers in later years. Surprisingly A&D continued to persevere with Strachans for coaches and saloons right up to the 1954-56 Reliance and Falcon deliveries.

Photo taken by Roger Cox, Summer 1961, Victoria Coach Station

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