Halifax 232 - Leyland Leopard  - ( PJX 232 )

Huddersfield A9 - AEC Mandator Tower Wagon - (MVH 388)

Various experiments were tried, notably the side engined AEC Q and the rear engined Leyland REC, but these were not built in any quantity. The Second World War then stifled further development. The Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company (better known as Midland Red) brought out an underfloor engined chassis in 1946 for its own use and it was not long before other major chassis manufacturers brought out similar designs.

The standard layout adopted featured a horizontally mounted engine with a high chassis frame, enabling bodywork capable of seating up to 45 passengers to be fitted. It was not until the early 1960s that attempts were made to lower the floor level of single deckers by repositioning the engine at the rear of the chassis, thus allowing a flat floor to be constructed in order to dispense with the steep steps associated with underfloor engine designs. PJX 232 is typical of the breed and has the flat featureless front often used by bodybuilders on this type of chassis, producing a "box on wheels" look. Only in later years did the availability of wrap-round windscreens bring about a change in frontal design.

Halifax's first underfloor engined buses were a batch of unusual Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmasters - normally an export only model - with Weymann bodies supplied in 1958. Leopards, with Weymann bodies, followed in 1961/62, including 232 new in September 1962.

As a joint Omnibus Committee bus, 232 passed to the merged Calderdale Joint Omnibus Committee fleet in 1971 and was subsequently absorbed into the West Yorkshire PTE fleet as 3232 in 1974. On withdrawal it was acquired for preservation in 1981 and extensively rallied. It passed to the West Yorkshire Transport Museum in 1984. It was acquired by Keighley Bus Museum from the administrators of Transperience in September 1998 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Science Museum PRISM Fund and Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council.

PJX 232: Leyland Leopard L1 Weymann B44F 1962

From the earliest years of motorised public transport, the standard bus chassis had its engine mounted vertically at the front of the vehicle, the radiator being the most prominent feature of the bus as well as acting as the means of identifying the chassis manufacturer as each had their own distinctive design. By the 1930s chassis manufacturers were looking at ways of redesigning bus chassis to enable more people to be carried within the available legal limits for bus size.

MVH 388: AEC Mandator Tower Wagon 1958

MVH 388 is one of a pair of tower wagons acquired by Huddersfield Corporation in 1958, replacing two pre-war AEC Monarchs, as part of the ancillary fleet for its trolleybus system. These duties included maintenance of the overhead, recovering disabled trolleybuses and towing pole and wire trailers. It had towing fitments at both ends, a trailer brake and an air brake take-off to enable trolleybuses to be towed as their own brake compressors would not work without a DC electric supply. Both tower wagons gave service until 1964 when MVH 387 was converted to tow motor buses. MVH 388 continued as a tower wagon until closure of the trolleybus system in 1968 and was then used to dismantle the trolleybus overhead. From then until 1983 it was used at Longroyd Bridge depot to tow motor buses. Although passing to the PTE in 1974 it escaped repaint and was acquired by the West Yorkshire Transport Museum in 1984 still wearing Huddersfield colours. It was acquired by Keighley Bus Museum from the administrators of Transperience in September 1998 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Science Museum PRISM Fund and Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council.