PARK ROYAL COACHES AGAIN
Page 37
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A NEW development within the Leyland Motor Corporation which should interest
coach operators, starved as they are of the wide choice of luxury coachbuilders they once enjoyed, is the re-entry of Park Royal Vehicles Ltd. into this field. The company is building 15 41-seat coaches mounted on Albion Viking VK43L rearengined chassis.
The new coaches are being built " speculatively " for sale through Leyland group dealers—another interesting departure from normal practice for the manufacturers concerned—and will be ready for delivery between Easter and Whitsuntide next year. A road test of the Viking rear-engined chassis was published in this journal on November 12.
Park Royal have spared no pains in designing the new coaches and, in fact, called upon the services of industrial designer Mr. John Reid, responsible for the striking interior decor of Northern General's second batch of Routemasters, to advise on both interior and exterior colour schemes for the new coaches.
The exteriors will feature polished aluminium alloy mouldings with black inserts and decorative polished corrugated panels up to wheel arch level. Interior decor will include nylon-pile Debron carpet in the gangways and window finishers in " Sno-white Arborite pre-formed laminate, whilst the side lining panels will be in a fawn shade Arborite and the roof lining, coves and domes in Suwide leathercloth.
Composite construction is employed for the bodies—another interesting development as Park Royal have standardized on metal-framed bodies for quite a number of years now. Fixed windows, with .individual Jet Vents and opening roof ventilators will be standard equipment.
Whilst this new venture of Park Royal is rather modest and restricted to one type of chassis which has yet to prove itself, it could be the beginning of a fair-sized excursion into the luxury coach bodybuilding field by the Leyland group.
I feel sure many coach operators will await further developments with considerable interest. F.K.M.