Subject: Crosville CVT684 (NFM 684E)
Chassis: Bedford VAM5
Body: Duple (Northern) Viscount C45F
Location: Cardiff bus station
Date: c.1970

Another predecessor of the 701 service was Crosville's X72 from Aberystwyth to Cardiff which just ran on Saturdays. I used this service to get from Aberaeron to Carmarthen in 1966 when memory tells me it was worked by an RELH. Here one of Crosville's Bedfords makes an appearance.

After the war Crosville bought quite a large number of Bedford OBs but these were long gone when ten of these VAMs joined the fleet in 1967. Along with a further four new in 1969 they were the only Bedfords bought new by Crosville apart from those OBs.

Of these ten 1967 Bedford VAMs, six had the Duple Viscount body as seen here and four were fitted with Plaxton Panorama 2 bodies. Unusually they received NBC-style dual-purpose livery and then later were painted in National white. The whole batch lasted until 1977.

From an original negative in the David Beilby collection, photographer unknown