Created 13-May-19
Modified 8-Mar-24
After around 1950 Rhondda vehicle buying policy changed and although AEC Regent double-deckers were still being bought, single-deck purchases changed to Leyland.
The first manifestation of this was the arrival in 1952 of twelve Royal Tiger PSU1/13 models with Weymann B44F bodies which were 315-326 (LNY 356-367), continuing the 300-series for single-deckers started with the later Regals. Whilst this type of bus could lend itself to one-man-operation (not generally even permitted when they were new) it is not believed they ever worked that way for Rhondda although they almost certainly did for subsequent operators.
Royal Tigers in general were heavy and as well as resulting sometimes in a brake performance that was less than desired on the hilly routes they worked the high weight had an adverse effect on fuel consumption. Given Rhondda's interest in that field it is no surprise that they enthusiastically welcomed the lighter Tiger Cub model once it was announced and bought no more new Royal Tigers (although they did end up with more, see The Coaches gallery).
They remained in service until 1963/64 and were far more popular in the secondhand market than the contemporary Regents as this gallery demonstrates. No less than six of them went to one operator, Simpson of Rosehearty and five of these were taken over by Alexander (Northern) with that operator in 1966.
Visually these were most easily distinguished from the otherwise-similar Tiger Cubs by the fact that they had just a destination blind, whilst the later vehicles also had number blinds.
© David Beilby
