Photo © Peter Hadfield. Please do not re-post without permission.

OUH177G is a preserved Leopard PSU3A/4RT with Plaxton Panorama Elite body new as Western Welsh 177 in 4/69 as part of a batch numbered 173-8.

The info I've obtained is that the coaches were 36 feet long, had Eaton 2-speed rear axles, 5-speed semi-auto transmission and fluid flywheel, could cruise at 70 m.p.h. and were powerful climbing hills. They were the first coaches in the WW fleet to have exhaust brakes and 176-8 were experimentally fitted with Webasto supplementary interior heaters. The coaches did not have power steering and were BET ordered, but delivered in the NBC era and wore a new version of the Peacock Blue/Royal Ivory livery with the blue on the upper panels and had small fleetnames. They followed on from 167-72 (LUH167-72G), which were predominately Ivory but had blue in the centre of the panelling.

Subsequent deliveries 179-90, had much larger and prominent fleetnames and 173-8 were also given the new style fleetnames in 1970.
This coach worked from Bridgend and Barry depots. Bridgend was the largest WW depot as it housed up to 100 vehicles and was in the town centre and adjacent to the bus station. By 1976 173-8 had been repainted to National Express corporate white livery and after the merger of the WW and R&W fleets, the coaches were renumbered UC3869-4369. They became part of the National Welsh set up in 1978 and were not downgraded to dual-purpose and bus work later in life, because they did not have power doors.

After withdrawal OUH177G was bought by Dunvant School, Swansea, before entering preservation in the early 1990s with the Gwent Diecast and Model Club. It was rallied and entered for 1996 Showbus and was kept at Swansea Bus Museum, but was again sold for use as school transport with a school in Wiltshire. The Cardiff Transport Preservation Group then acquired it and after much restoration work, presented OUH177G to its original guise and it was attending its first rally following the completion of the work in this photograph. Originally it had blue tartan seat trim but is now fitted with a 1980s-style trim with brown/orange/red. It is kept at CTPG's premises at Barry, from where it once operated.

Photo taken by Peter Hadfield, Sunday 28 April 2013, Bristol Harbourside

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