PAST & PRESENT
For many, the West Riding company is best remembered for its short-lived fleet of revolutionary Guy Wulfrunian double-deckers, but it has maintained some of its individuality in the half century since they disappeared from its services
Last month’s feature about 50 years of the West Riding Omnibus Preservation Trust and its special events planned for this year were a reminder of a unique operator and the 1960s lowheight double-decker with which it was most closely associated.
As a large regional operator independent of both the British Transport Commission and the British Electric Traction group, it exercised its ability to commission a bus that met the specific requirements of its chief engineer, Ron Brooke. He tried first to persuade AEC to build his dream design, but had more success with Guy Motors, which in 1959 unveiled its prototype Wulfrunian built for West Riding.
This combined a low chassis frame, a front engine with what today might be called a door-forward layout, air suspension (independent at the front), disc brakes and the Cave-Browne-Cave engine cooling and saloon heating system.
Over the next six years, Guy built 137 of them, of which West Riding bought 126 new. It a…
