In 1949 EVD 406 was delivered to Baxters of Adrie in Scotland and carried a lowbridge body built by Scottish Commercial. By 1953 Baxters had decided to move the vehicle on south of the border and it was acquired by local operator Joseph Wood of Mirfield West Yorkshire.
In late 1954 the original body fitted to the chassis was scrapped and Joseph Wood decided to send the original chassis to local coachbuilders Charles H Roe of Crossgates Leeds where a new 56 seat full height body was fitted.
EVD 406 returned to service with the Wood family in March 1955 and spent the majority of its life on their Dewsbury to Mirfield via Knowle service where it could be seen delivering reliable service until its retirement in 1967.
J Wood (Mirfield) 20 (EVD 406)
Technical details;
Chassis – Crossley
Body – Charles H Roe 94758
Power – Crossley 42/7 with crash gearbox
Having been a favourite of the family, it was decided to store the bus at the family premises and for many years it was tucked away at the side of the garage in the hope that it could be returned to the road at a later date. When Mr J Colin Wood son of the company founder made the decision to place it back on the road, work was undertaken to bring it back up to roadworthy condition and in 1999 it was once again seen on Huddersfield Road heading towards Dewsbury after an absence of 22 years.
She was restored to a very high standard as can be seen today with minimal work being required since J Colin Wood completed the original restoration, this being a credit to him and the Wood family.
Having restored the bus and showed it at various events, J Colin Wood decided to pass the vehicle on to a friend in the south of England and for many years EVD 406 was once again hidden away from its former passengers and Yorkshire fans.
However, a return home back to Dewsbury was on the cards in 2014 when the owner decided to sell the vehicle and it was fortunately purchased by a Trustee of Dewsbury Bus Museum. In September 2014 it was acquired as part of the Dewsbury Bus Museum collection and in November 2014 it took centre stage at the Museum Open Day, carrying passengers once again on its former route of Dewsbury to Mirfield via Knowle.
It is a unique vehicle in the collection and provides a good comparison to our lowbridge half cab double deck vehicles BHL 682 & TWY 8. If you have the chance take a look upstairs in all three vehicles and you will see the quite radical differences in the design of the upper deck layout.
It is hoped that EVD 406 can now remain in Yorkshire for the foreseeable future providing the general public with the opportunity of a really authentic heritage experience being operated on her original routes around Ravensthorpe, Mirfield and Dewsbury.
Click on this image to see more photographs of EVD406
