Ford R1015 chassis with Wadham Stringer "Vanguard" bodywork and Allison automatic gearbox

This bus is the first example of this chassis/body combination delivered to Jersey Motor Transport Co. Ltd. (all buses in the fleet at that time having synchromesh transmission) and placed in service October 1984, withdrawn following the transfer of the Jersey bus route network to Connex in September 2002 and stored out of use until export to Guernsey for use in connection with the Island Games in June 2003, along with the five remaining survivors of the twelve buses of this type bought new until late 1986 by JMT.

Largely original throughout and retaining its 45-seater capacity, it was sold for preservation August 2003 and is to be returned to original livery of white and two-tone blue by its Edinburgh-based owner.

Believed to be the only example of the 86 Ford buses acquired by JMT between 1971 and 1987 in current preservation (30 with Willowbrook bodies, 33 Duple Dominants, 12 Vanguard automatics in addition to 10 ex-Trimdon Motor Services full-width Plaxtons and an former demonstration manual Vanguard) although with a fleet size of around sixty-five many of the Fords delivered during the 1980s directly replaced earlier examples some of which saw further service on the UK mainland.

The demonstrator and the 75 buses bought new were all constructed to slightly unusual dimensions of 7 feet 6 inches wide and about 31 feet 6 inches long to comply with Jersey vehicle size legislation.

From 1978 onwards all were of revised design with the Ford 365 Turbo engine inclined at an angle of 45 degrees between the chassis members, ahead of the front axle hence the interesting entrance arrangements.

At the time of writing (November 2004) work completed has been the replacement of three damaged offside panels and a temporary rebuild to the entrance door. A minor external tidy-up will follow at which point the vehicle will be submitted for its first ever MOT test and UK registration with a full amateur repaint coming when the owner gets a large enough gap in his work schedule probably in spring 2005.

Longer-term, any damaged seating will be repaired along with a more thorough repanelling and replacement of fibreglass front/rear end sections with new items, the correct moulds for these having been acquired in June 2004.