Celebrating a British icon 99
be withdrawn from the fleet.
Withdrawal of the 435 utility
Guy Arabs started in 1951 and
was complete by early 1953. The
newest examples were barely
seven years old and although the
bodywork was sometimes less
than sturdy because unseasoned
timber had been used in its
construction, the rugged Arab
chassis still had life in it and could
appeal to operators in the UK
looking for lower cost buses in
these difficult postwar years when
operators often had to take what
they could get their hands on to
replace time-served buses that in
normal circumstances would have
been replaced years before.
But there was a problem.
London Transport had been
taken into state ownership in
1948 and was now part of the
British Transport Commission,
formed to bring Britain’s
railways, road haulage and many
major bus companies under
public ownership. BTC had a
strict edict that buses could
not be sold where they could
reappear on local bus work.
In essence, this was to prevent
former BTC-owned buses
competing with any BTC-
controlled buses – and there
were plenty of these. One answer
was overseas sales, and London
Guys were exported to various
parts of Africa and to Belgium,
the Canary Islands, Ceylon andLives after London
LEFT: Edinburgh
Guy 346 in its
later years, with
Leyland-style front
end, heels over as
it turns from York
Place into North
St Andrew Street.
This chassis began
life as London
Transport G197.
GAVIN BOOTHMIDDLE LEFT:
Operating an
Alexander’s Perth
city service was
former London
Transport G371,
a Weymann-
bodied Arab new
in 1945 and sold
to Alexander’s in
1953 to become
its RO646.
ALASTAIR DOUGLASBELOW: Most
of London
Transport’s
‘wartime’ Guys
were delivered
in 1945, many
after the end of
hostilities, and
the Northern
Counties-bodies
examples were to
a relaxed utility
specification with
more rounded
lines. New to
London Transport
in November 1945,
G294 was sold
to Alexander’s
in March 1953 to
become its RO701
and was withdrawn
in 1962. It was
photographed on a
Perth city service.
R. F. MACK