CHRIS NEWTON relates his experience of driving one of the classic single-deck designs of the past quarter century and urges aspiring preservationists to put it on their shopping list for restoration

Lancashire United T550 (V550 JBH), the Plaxton Pointer-bodied Dennis Dart SLF on which Chris Newton passed his PCV driving test.
CHRIS NEWTON
I
gained lots of reading up and absorbing of the my PCV (passenger carrying vehicle) licence back in November 2007 after spending approximately a month in the training school where Highway Code was mandatory, as was getting through as many hazard perception clips as possible to prepare me for the real life situations I would face out on the road as a professional bus driver.