Truck & Bus Forum - Commer-Harrington Coach

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Commer-Harrington Coach

Hello everyone,
I've just watched an old British comedy (The Runaway Bus 1954) and I understand the coach featured in it was a Commer/Harrington integral coach. Was this a production vehicle or simply a one off? It's just that I can't seem to find anything much out about it on the internet.

The bus used was MYV617 the original Commer-Harrington integral coach, still with BOAC at the time. It had previously been more(?) famous as an exhibit at the 1952 Motor Show.

The Contender integral vehicle range had been running since 1952 and ceased production as Crusader started in 1958.

http://www.busesonscreen.net/screenim5/runbus48.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgeupstairs/4315837176/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roadtra...os/6288407743/

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/BUS-COMMER-HARRINGTON-CONTENDER-AVIONS-BOAC-DINKY-TOYS-1956-/00/s/OTYwWDEyODA=/z/JisAAOxy0QtR737I/$T2eC16d,!y8E9s2fk3T9BR737HqgWQ~~60_12.JPG

http://www.sct61.org.uk/se27

http://www.sct61.org.uk/zzxka262

Quote:

Harrington employed units from the Avenger together with a mid-mounted TS3 engine in its Contender range of integral buses and coaches of the mid-1950s.
BOAC took 28, of which nineteen were used overseas making them the largest customer for the Contender, Maidstone and District were second with 11 buses and one coach.
There was a special design built for BOAC this had a straight waistrail and a multi-paned lantern-type windscreen.
One at least of these were powered by an eight-cylinder Rolls-Royce petrol engine of military pattern, driving torque-converter transmission.

From (and more at):- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_...racting_market

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Commer Harrington

Thanks for taking the time to send me all that info G-CPTN, very interesting, I wonder if it still exists?

MYV 617 no longer appears in the registration database (nor can I find any recent photographs) so I suspect it is 'gone'.

Thanks again G-CPTN, a great pity.

Check my original post - there may be more that I have added that you haven't read.

Thanks again G-CPTN, The TS3 link is always a very interesting line to follow, as I'm a massive 2 stroke diesel fan. There was until very recently on utube, one of the few prototype TS4s that somehow managed to escape the Chrysler axe. It would have been a world beater, but Chrysler Europe had different ideas and killed off that well proven version of THE most efficient form of diesel engine in the world, a design that many manufacturers are now looking at once again with great interest!