IPSWICH'S SINGLE DECKERS OF THE 1980'S

Taking the story up from the previous post we have now reached the 1980's when the now General Manager and latter Managing Director Barry Moore's influence took hold, particularly with Bus orders and the dominance of Dennis as the go to company, now that dominance of AEC was over, we start at 1980 when the decision was made that some of the aforementioned AEC Reliance's were now life expired and generally disliked so in came five Bristol RE's a well known and generally liked type that was far more reliable than the Swift's and Reliance's from Leicester 118-122 TRY 118-22H already 11 years old these were withdrawn finally in 1987, 118 below being the final one in service in June 1987 seen below. When new single deckers were needed for the Chantry services in 1983 the Dennis Falcon with the rather angular East Lancs bodies were chosen these being 100-105 YDX 100-105Y, as can be seen above the later privatised livery was far more pleasing. Double Deckers became a thing of the past during the mid to late 1980's with only 3 bought one an Leyland Olympian with East Lancs body being sold on in 1987 45 B45 NDX whilst the others Dennis Dominator 82 B82 NDX and 81 F81 ODX were more successful.

Coming to the mid 1980's and the Falcon buys continued one being 106 C106 SDX with one can only describe as an livery that was not used any further although the combination of the East Lancs was 

far more pleasing than the Northern Counties bodied 107-113 C107-113 SDX, 110 seen below. The final Falcons received went back to the more pleasing East Lancs bodied with their slightly off centre grilles in 1987/88 with E114-17 KDX and 118-124 G118 -124 VDX, 118 seen below when fairly new.