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

Once upon a time this was a very familiar scene in Old Steine, Brighton, illustrated by examples of the three main operators in the town when photographed on a wet day in autumn 1967. Brighton, Hove & District No.452, HAP990, a Bristol KSW6G with ECW H32/28R bodywork delivered in October 1953 departs for Hardwick Road.
This bus passed to Southdown in January 1969 when NBC 'rationalised' its Brighton operations, and was withdrawn in 1971. Behind it, the driver inspects his cab of an unidentified Brighton Corporation Leyland PD2/27 with Weymann H37/27F body of the early 1960s. Alongside are two Southdown convertible open top PD3/4s with Northern Counties FCO39/30F bodies, 416DCD of March 1964, and 424DCD of May that same year. These PD3s, known to enthusiasts as Queen Marys, were phased out of service by 1981 as OMO (as it then was) became the norm.

Wearing my tin hat, I remain bemused by the enthusiast following that these PD3s have acquired. As a passenger I found that, on the road and particularly on hills, they were somewhat pedestrian performers, much more so than the PD3s I drove in Halifax, but Southdown had a penchant for fiddling with fuel pump settings.

Photo taken by Roger Cox, Autumn 1967, Old Steine, Brighton

©1967-2026 Roger Cox All Rights Reserved.
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