Photo © Chris Stewart. Please do not re-post without permission.

ALJ340B is a Daimler Fleetline CRG6LX whose chassis was, as far as can be ascertained, assembled in Belfast by MH Cars Ltd from a CKD kit and bodied by the associated MH Coachworks, as were all the second batch of similar vehicles for Belfast Corporation Transport.
Although finished in Belfast livery (without fleetnames/coat of arms or numbers), it was sold to Bournemouth Corporation together with a second such vehicle and the pair became Bournemouth 40/1 (ALJ340/1B). Bournemouth was short of new vehicles following a prolonged strike at Weymanns and it is said that Daimler offered these two, subsequently being given an order for Fleetlines which arrived the following year.
40/1 were modified with Bournemouth destination layout on arrival and repainted in fleet livery. 40 passed into preservation on withdrawal and eventually, in a rather deteriorated state, was acquired in 2011 by Richard and Bobby Shannon in Northern Ireland who carried out a painstaking restoration, reinstating the original screens and finishing the bus in Belfast livery (complete with coat of arms) but carrying fleet number 40. These two did not form part of the second batch of 64 for Belfast (their chassis numbers being well after these), but research has established that they were intended as 'all Irish built' Daimler demonstrators for CIE in the Irish Republic - a plan which was scuppered by Leyland, who threatened to enforce an unwritten agreement to be monopoly supplier to CIE.
None of the original Belfast examples (88 bodied on complete chassis and 64 built up from CKD kits) survived, the majority having been destroyed in the 'Troubles' and any examples which escaped this fate being too badly corroded to warrant retention at the time.

Photo taken by Chris Stewart, Saturday 26 April 2025, Holywood, Co.Down (during an Irish Transport Heritage rally at Galwally)

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