Subject: Southend Transport 282 (MUH 285X)
Chassis: Leyland Olympian ONLXB/1R
Body: ECW H45/32F
Location: Southend Central Bus Station
Date: Sep-1996

A co-ordination scheme was set up in the Southend area in 1955 involving Southend Corporation, Eastern National and Westcliff Motor Services (later absorbed by Eastern National). In this era the 1 service ran from Southen to Rayleigh and was mainly operated by Southend. In the post-deregulation era the 1 still survives, with just a short extension from Rayleigh High Street to the station, where Olympian 282 is heading in this view.

New as National Welsh HR8211 it was later renumbered HR1855 and then HR855 and was one of the last National Welsh buses to remain operational. It worked from Barry where the depot survived three months after the collapse of the rest of the network. It passed through Rhondda Buses, who may have used it very briefly, to Southend in 1992 along with three others from the batch. After the date of the photograph Southend were taken over by Arriva. It retained the same fleet number with them at first but was later numbered 5375.

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