In 1963, Portsmouth was one of the first major customers for the Atlantean. Their like had not been seen previously and so the reaction from the public was , not suprisingly, a little mixed.
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They were "too large to fit the streets" (at 30 feet in length, they were only a little longer than most of the existing half-cab fleet). |
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The door "is at the wrong end" - curiously, front entrance single deck buses had been in operation for several years without this point being raised as an issue. Southdown had introduced a large fleet of "Queen Mary" buses a few years earlier - these were also front entrance vehicles. |
On the other hand, from the crew's viewpoint, there were a few advantages:
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The semi-automatic gearchange was much better suited to the increasing traffic levels in the city. |
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Electric doors kept out the worst of the weather - and they were fitted with heating (passengers also found that the long back seat in the downstairs saloon was the warmest place to be on a cold winter morning). |
Compared with the types of vehicles being operated by Southdown, Hants and Dorset and in Southampton (see images below), the Atlanteans were like something from a different age
The picture to the left is a Leyland PD3 with Northern Counties body as supplied to Southdown Motor Services Ltd. These vehicles were supplied from 1958 to 1967 and formed the bulk of the Southdown fleet that operated alongside the Atlanteans in the Portsmouth area. Despite the full-front appearance, these vehicles were totally traditional and were really "half-cab" buses.
At
the time that the Atlanteans were being introduced into Portsmouth, Hants &
Dorset, who operated services that reached to the boundary of CPPTD services
were introducing the Bristol F models in various formats. This picture
shows a typical vehicle of the type, although this is from the fleet operated by
Southern Vectis on the Isle of Wight
And in comparison, just along the coast, Southampton City Transport stuck with the totally traditional AEC Regent V with Neepsend bodies. "361" is also in the CPPTD collection and is the same age as 236, almost to the day. THe difference in appearance is remarkable
