Midland Red Express (Midland Red Coaches)
Leyland Tiger — Overview
Introduction
Midland Red (Express)
Limited formed on 6th September 1981 to take over
operation of long distance Midland Red coach services following the brake
up of MROC.
Throughout the company’s short history the majority of the fleet was
comprised of coaches built on the Leyland
Leopard chassis. However, always keen to modernise the fleet,
the company had operated 23 examples of newer Leyland
Tiger coaches by the time Midland Red West Limited took control
of the business in December 1986.
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In early May 1985, Midland Red (Express) Limited renamed to Midland Red Coaches Limited, and then on 22nd December 1986, the business and operations were taken over by Midland Red West Limited. Fourteen Leyland Tiger coaches survived in the Midland Red Coaches fleet at this time, and all these passed to Midland Red West, who renumbered them in line with their own fleet and operated them with “Midland Red Coaches” branding.
Vehicles Acquired from MROC at Formation
At the formation of the company on 6th September 1981, Midland Red (Express) Limited acquired 82 coaches from MROC. However, only one of the vehicles, fleet number 832, was a Leyland Tiger, with all the others being Leyland Leopard coaches.
832 (R/No: LOA832X), Renumbered to 532
LOA832X was one of the first examples of Leyland’s Tiger mark 2 chassis built, and is famous among Midland Red enthusiasts for being the last vehicle bought by the MROC before the company split on 6th September 1981. Plaxton finished the vehicle with C51F Supreme IV bodywork, and Midland Red allocated type code C25 to this vehicle type. She was the only type C25 bought by Midland Red and thus the only Leyland Tiger owned by the company, however Midland Red never operated her as delivery was in September 1981, just a few days before the company split, and she had not been made ready for service in time.
With the brake up of MROC on 6th September 1981, LOA832X passed to Midland Red (Express) Limited, which was the newly formed company set up to take control of former Midland Red long distance coaching operations. She entered service with the company in September 1981 at their headquarters at Birmingham (Digbeth) depot, Birmingham, carrying overall white NBC coach livery. Midland Red (Express) retained her original Midland Red fleet number of 832 until 1st January 1983, when they renumbered most of their fleet, and she received the fleet number 532 at this time.
While in service with Midland Red (Express), she was repainted into National Holidays livery, but otherwise had an uneventful time with the company. Midland Red (Express) Limited renamed to Midland Red Coaches Limited in May 1985, and on 23td December 1986, merged with Midland Red (West) Limited. At this time, LOA832X transferred to Midland Red West with the new fleet number of 1008. See the “Midland Red West - Leyland Tiger” section of this website for details of this vehicle after this time.
Vehicles Acquired New
553–553 (R/Nos: SOH553Y–554Y)
SOH553Y-554Y were very short lived in the Midland Red (Express) fleet. They were acquired new by the company in April 1983 with C50F Plaxton Paramount 3200 bodywork carrying white National Holidays livery, and entered service with the fleet numbers 553 and 554.
Only four months later, they were withdrawn and passed to Midland Red (North) Ltd as fleet numbers 1506 and 1507. Details of these vehicles’ service after passing to Midland (North) can be found in the “Midland Red North - Leyland Tiger” section of this website.
555 (R/Nos: SOH555Y)
In June 1983, Midland Red (Express) Limited took delivery of a Leyland Royal Tiger coach with C50F bodywork by Roe. This vehicle was registered as SOH555Y and allocated the fleet number 555, being numbered in the same sequence as fleet numbers 553 and 554 (see above). Like those two vehicles, 555 also arrived in white National Holidays livery; however, this vehicle was not withdrawn after a few months and remained in service with the company until it was taken over by Midland Red West in December 1986.
556–558 (R/Nos: A656–A658VDA)
In August 1983, Midland Red (Express) Limited acquired three new Leyland Tiger coaches, all fitted with Plaxton Paramount bodywork. These three vehicles had originally been ordered for various other subsidiaries within the National Bus Company (NBC), but were all diverted to Midland Red (Express) Limited before entering service.
A656VDA and A657VDA were fitted with a C48Ft Plaxton Paramount 3500 body, being diverted from Midland Red (North) Limited and entered service with Midland Red (Express) Limited with fleet numbers 556 and 557. A658VDA was fitted with C46Ft Plaxton Paramount 3200 bodywork and diverted from National Travel (West) where it would have been registered CDG216Y, it entered service with Midland Red (Express) Limited as fleet number 558. The information I have suggests that all three vehicles entered service in overall white livery with red Midland “Red” fleet names, however this is by no means certain so if anyone can provide further details I would be pleased to hear from you. Both 556 and 557 carried National Express “Rapide” livery by 1986, while 558 was painted into white, red and black Midland Red Coaches livery in May 1986.
All three vehicles passed to Midland Red West Limited with the Business of Midland Red Coaches Limited on the 23rd December 1986. As with all vehicles passing to Midland Red West at this time, they received new fleet numbers, 1014–1016, to bring them into line with existing vehicles in the Midland Red West fleet. Details of these vehicles service after passing to Midland West can be found in the “Midland Red West - Leyland Tiger” section of this website.
566–568 (R/Nos: B566–B568BOK)
In December 1984, Midland Red (Express) Limited purchased three more Leyland Tiger coaches. These had C50Ft Duple Caribbean bodies and were delivered in National Holidays livery, entering service with fleet numbers 566, 567 and 568.
On 23rd December 1986 control of Midland Red (Express) Limited, renamed to Midland Red Coaches Limited by this time, passed to Midland Red West Limited. B566–B568BOK were transferred to the Midland Red West fleet with the new fleet numbers 1017–1019. See the “Midland Red West - Leyland Tiger” section for details of this vehicle after this time.
Note: The fleet numbers 566–568 had previously been used by Midland Red (Express) Limited on three MCW Metroliner double-decker coaches (registration numbers A666–A668XDA) which the company acquired new in June 1984 and passed to Eastern Counties in September 1984.
585–587 (R/Nos: C985–C987HOX)
In March and April 1986, Midland Red Express, renamed to Midland Red Coaches Limited by this time, took delivery of another three coaches built on the Leyland Tiger chassis. These vehicles were fitted with Duple 340 bodies and licensed to seat 51 without a toilet. However, in reality they were fitted as C49Ft from new, although two of these vehicles, registration numbers C986HOX and C987HOX, were re-seated to C51F in 1988, after they had passed to Midland Red West Limited.
These vehicles were allocated the fleet numbers 585–587 by Midland Red Coaches but were soon renumbered to fleet numbers 1020–1022 when they were transferred to Midland Red West on 23rd December 1986.
Vehicles Acquired Second-hand
559–561 (R/Nos: YGY638Y–640Y)
YGY638Y–640Y were new to National Travel (London) Limited, London in March 1983 with C50F Plaxton Paramount 3500 bodywork. They passed to Midland Red (Express) Limited in November 1983 as fleet numbers 559–561, carrying overall white National Holidays livery. 559 and 561 immediately went on loan to Shamrock and Rambler Limited of Bournemouth, returning in February 1984.
559 carried white, red and black Midland Red Coaches livery from November 1985, but the other two vehicles remained in National Holidays livery throughout their time with the company. Midland Red Coaches withdrew all three vehicles in October 1986, shortly before deregulation, and they passed to Milton Keynes City Bus Limited as fleet numbers 1559–1561.
590, 595 & 596 (R/Nos: EAH890Y & A895–A896KCL)
In September 1984, Midland Red (Express) Limited acquired three Leyland Tiger Coaches with C50Ft Plaxton Paramount 3200 bodywork from Ambassador Travel (Eastern Counties) Limited, Norwich. These vehicles had been new to Eastern Counties Omnibus Company Ltd, Norwich, in February 1983 (registration number EAH890Y) and November 1983 (registration numbers A895–A896KCL) with fleet numbers LT890, LT895 and LT896. They initially came to Midland Red (Express) on loan on the 15th August 1984, and while still on loan in September 1984, they passed to Ambassador Travel, an Eastern Counties subsidiary. Ambassador Travel never operated these vehicles, and they passed to Midland Red (Express) while still on loan as fleet numbers 590, 595 and 596.
Midland Red (Express) repainted 595 and 596 to National Express “Rapide” livery and re-seated them to C48Ft in December 1984. These two vehicles were again re-seated in October 1986; this time to C44Ft, while 590 received normal National Express livery but remained unchanged as C50Ft while in service with Midland Red (Express) Ltd.
The company renamed to Midland Red Coaches Ltd in May 1985 and, along with all vehicles in the fleet, they received minor livery changes to show the new company name.
All three vehicles passed to Midland Red West Limited with the Business of Midland Red Coaches Limited on the 23rd December 1986. As with all vehicles passing to Midland Red West at this time, they received new fleet numbers to bring them into line with existing vehicles in the Midland Red West fleet, with EAH890Y becoming fleet number 1010, and A895–A896KCL renumbered to fleet numbers 1011 and 1012. Details of these vehicles service after passing to Midland West can be found in the “Midland Red West - Leyland Tiger” section of this website.
598 (R/No: A678KDV)
A678KDV was originally ordered with C49Ft Plaxton Paramount 3500 bodywork for Midland Red (East) Ltd but was diverted to Devon General Limited, Exeter. She entered service with Devon General as fleet number 2202 in August 1983, carrying Greenslades livery.
In November 1984, she passed to Midland Red (Express) Limited as fleet number 598, and was repainted to National Express “Rapide” livery before entering service. The company renamed to Midland Red Coaches Limited in May 1985 and, along with all vehicles in the fleet, she received minor livery changes to show the new company name. With the business of Midland Red Coaches Limited passing to Midland Red West on 23rd December 1986, she passed to the Midland Red West fleet as 1013. Details of her service after passing to Midland West are found in the “Midland Red West - Leyland Tiger” section of this website.
Vehicles Operated on Loan
3102 & 3103 (R/Nos: BPR102Y–103Y)
In January and February 1984, Midland Red (Express) Limited operated two Leyland Tiger coaches with C50F Duple bodywork, that were on loan from Shamrock and Rambler Coaches Limited of Bournemouth. These vehicles operated with their Shamrock and Rambler fleet numbers of 3102 and 3103, and came to Midland Red Express from National Travel (London) Limited where they have been on loan since October 1983.
KGS489Y
KGS489Y was new to Travellers Coach Company Limited in June 1983, and passed to Arlington Motor Company of Potters Bar in January 1984. She went on loan to Midland Red (Express) Limited in March 1984, operating without a fleet number.
Further Information on Leyland Tiger buses and coaches
For information about Leyland Tiger buses and coaches operated by other “Midland Red” companies, visit one of the links below.
Related Pages
- Midland Red North: Leyland Tiger – Type Overview
- Midland Red South: Leyland Tiger – Type Overview
- Midland Red East: Leyland Tiger – Type Overview
- Midland Red West: Leyland Tiger – Type Overview