Subject: National Welsh N2978 (WUH 171T)
Chassis: Leyland National 11351A/1R
Body: Leyland National B49F
Location: Bedlinog, High Street
Date: 21-Jun-1980

Despite it being the longest day, I recall this as being a rather dull one. N2978 is carefully descending the rather steep High Street in Bedlinog.

It is on the 177 service to Merthyr which had only been introduced in 1977/78. It ran every two hours, co-ordinated on the sections common with the 178 (Cardiff to Merthyr) and 184 (Pontypridd to Bedlinog) to give approximately an hourly service on all sections. This involved connections at Nelson and the day after this photograph the 177 was re-timed to leave Bedlinog a few minutes earlier to improve the reliability of those connections.

The Cynon-Dare markings were quite a recent innovation, introduced along with the MAP service revisions in April 1980. The 177 wasn't really affected by these changes.