Created 17-Jan-20
Modified 8-Mar-24
This gallery shows photographs of Rhondda Transport vehicles working from other than Porth depot whilst still in their original ownership, so many of them are actually in the Western Welsh era.
In the late 1960s maintenance problems elsewhere found AEC Regent Vs on loan to City of Oxford Motor Services and South Wales. City of Oxford had 411 (TTX 989) and 418-421 (TTX 996-998, UNY 4) on loan from July to September in 1969 and gave them temporary numbers R5, R3, R1, R4 and R2. These never returned to Rhondda as they were sold directly from Oxford.
South Wales took similar 406-408/410 (TTX 984-986/988) a few months earlier in February 1969 and operated them until October 1969. In this instance they used the same fleet numbers with South Wales. These almost certainly also never ran again for Rhondda.
South Wales also took some earlier Leyland Tiger Cubs on loan, all after the absorption of Rhondda by Western Welsh and renumbering. 2356 (SNY 234) was on loan from June to July in 1971, whilst in July 1973 2371, 2374, 2375, 2378 and 2379 (XTG 371 etc) were loaned. 2379 returned the same month but was loaned again in October 1973, whilst the remainder returned in August 1973.
The remainder of the gallery shows how many vehicles bought by Rhondda ended up transferred to other Western Welsh or even Red & White depots. As a consequence former Rhondda vehicles could be found working in Bridgend, Brecon, Hereford, Gloucester and Barry. Certain batches seemed to be popular for moving to other depots. The Weymann-bodied Tiger Cubs were mainly surplus at the time they were loaned, whilst the Park Royal-bodied Tiger Cubs were particularly popular with the whole batch moving away. The first batch of Atlanteans I believe were moved so that they could be employed on one-man services - there was much union resistance to this at Porth. The last batch of Tiger Cubs from 1968 were widely scattered, including one transferred to the Jones Aberbeeg fleet where it received NBC blue livery.
Another vehicle to receive Jones Aberbeeg blue livery was Leyland Leopard coach UC170, which had been 324 in the Rhondda fleet. The other two of the trio had been sold very early but this vehicle remained for a long time wearing several liveries but never, to my knowledge, returned to Porth.
The very last batch of Rhondda buses (actually delivered to Western Welsh in 1971) were Leyland Leopards and these had stayed very much on their home turf in normal service, but three were converted to become recovery vehicles and can be seen working from Aberdare, Bridgend and Cwmbran depots.
© David Beilby
