Foden bus for
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Manchester
PTE
THE FIRST Foden-Northern Counties double-deck bus is now nearing completion. The chassis section of the integral vehicle will be finished by Foden in December and Northern Counties will have it bodied by this March.
The bus will then enter trial service for evaluation by Greater Manchester PTE. A second bus under construction is intended purely as a test vehicle for engineering research.
The technical specification Is as originally announced with Gardner engine and Allison fully automatic gearbox, but an interesting new inclusion is "a Ferodo mechanical retarder. This device is still under development at present.
Production of the Foden decker could start in late 1976 at the earliest, depending on the success of the trial buses. Northern Counties stress that the chassis will be available to any bodybuilder and not be restricted to themselves.
While the engineering of the chassis is a Foden responsibility, the marketing will be undertaken by Northern Counties. They have appointed Mr Guy Lawson as sales manager with specific responsibility to promote and sell the Foden chassis.