A rare photo of Portsmouth Corporation's 179, CTP180, with original body, one of nine Daimler CWA6 utility vehicles, delivered in 1944 with Duple H30/26 bodies and AEC 7.7 litre engines.
My experience of travelling in them was that they were greatly abused by drivers unused to their pre-selective gearboxes and using the gear change pedal as a conventional clutch. The steel bodies and green wood used in the bodies gave them short lives, with London Transport attempting to overhaul theirs, but selling them rapidly in 1953!
Portsmouth's engineers kept them going until 1955, then had them re-bodied by Crossley, with them being withdrawn in 1965. These buses were delivered with only one side opening window on each deck and must have been modified after delivery. One unusual, possibly unique, act was the installation of a full size rear blind display after delivery.
As usual, with Portsmouth Corporation, the bus was impeccably turned out.

Photographer unknown, Chris Hebbron Collection, 1950s?, The Hard, Portsmouth, very close to the dockyard entrance

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