Created 15-Aug-19
Modified 8-Mar-24
National Welsh had inherited a very large fleet of Leyland Leopards from its predecessors, including some from Rhondda Transport, and National Welsh also bought a large number themselves. However, by the time of the formation of Rhondda Buses many of these had been withdrawn and only four entered the fleet on formation in 1992. The lives were very much characterised by a series of renumberings.
369 (WUH 186T) was a Leyland Leopard PSU3E/4R with a Plaxton Supreme Express C49F body and had been new as National Welsh UC878 in December 1978 although actually ordered by Red & White. It was fitted with a G2 automatic gearbox, along with the rest its batch and was equipped for one-man operation from new. It was renumbered UC1169 in January 1983 and further renumbered UC169 in February/March 1986, shortly afterwards being downgraded to dual-purpose as UD169. Around the end of 1987 it was renumbered again as UD369. It was part of the initial Rhondda Buses fleet and then lost the prefix letters becoming plain 369. It remained in the fleet until mid-1994.
388, 391 and 392 (KWO 556,560,561X) were Leyland Leopard PSU3F/4R chassis with Willowbrook C47F bodies new in early 1982. New as National Welsh UC8202/8205/8206 they became UC1188/1191/1192 in the January 1983 renumbering. They were rapidly downgraded to dual-purpose with UC1192 becoming UD1192 in May 1983 and the rest in September 1983. Renumbering happened again in February/March 1986 when they became UD188/191/192 and on 27-Mar-1988 they became UD388/391/392.
UD388 and UD391 were fitted with replacement fronts from the Plaxton Supreme IV in Feb-1990 and Dec-1988 respectively, which gave a different headlamp and grille arrangement. In Rhondda days (in theory) they lost the prefix letters to their fleet numbers although, as the photos show, in practice this started happening beforehand. They were withdrawn in 1994 and 1995, with 392 spending a period on loan to Golden Coaches, Llandow before withdrawal.
© David Beilby
