E15117 EFE Road Leyland National Nottingham City Transport

E15117 EFE Road Leyland National Series One Dual door 11.3m Nottingham City Transport 653, NPD110L (London Country LN10 on hire), Central Area free bus service 88

An interesting development took place in October 1972 when four of London Country’s new intake of Mk 1 dual-door Leyland Nationals NPD108L–NPD111L didn’t enter service with LCBS but were loaned to City of Nottingham Transport to inaugurate an experimental free bus service in Nottingham city centre, connecting the shopping areas with car parks and bus stations.

The four London Country Nationals were delivered in standard NBC Leaf Green. In an early exercise in route branding, orange paintwork was applied to the roof pod, around the edge of the roof and between the headlamps. White bands, Nottingham fleet numbers and City crests were also added. London Country legal lettering was retained as the buses were still owned by LCBS.

Orange free bus service 88 was a success and in 1973 a second free service was introduced, route 77 featuring yellow branding. Nottingham received eight new 10.3m dual-door Leyland Nationals in July 1973 for both services, four with orange highlights for route 88 and four with yellow roof etc for route 77. These allowed the hired Nationals to be returned to London Country. Another eight 11.3m dual-door Nationals were delivered to Nottingham in October 1973 in conventional livery.

The story doesn’t quite end there. Only one of the hired Nationals stayed with London Country on return. The other three were exchanged with NBC operated Hants & Dorset for three Metro-Scanias which joined the other four examples on Stevenage Superbus duty.

The model depicts production chassis no 218, London Country’s LN10, temporarily numbered 653 with Nottingham.

• Colours/details of final model may vary from illustration
• Authentically detailed die-cast model from EFE Road
• Complementary to OO scale model railways (1:76 scale)