East Yorkshire 644 (VKH 44) at the Hull garage – 6 Mar 2000 (434-21)

Monday 6 March 2000 (approx. 1440) – East Yorkshire Motor Services retains this Willowbrook bodied AEC Regent V in its heritage fleet which wears the well respected indigo blue livery relieved with two bands of cream and, at roof level, a band of white. This livery disappeared when the company was absorbed into the National Bus Company.

644 (VKH 44) was one of fifteen similar buses (634-648) which entered service in November 1956 most of which were allocated to Driffield garage for operation on service 12 (Hull-Beverley-Driffield-Bridlington-Filey-Scarborough).

Like most of the double deckers operated by EYMS this bus had the ‘Beverley Bar’ Gothic profile to negotiate a key obstacle on its route network in the form of the 15th century North Bar at Beverley.

The Bar has a Gothic shaped arch under which the buses had to pass. Using single deckers was possible but in order to use higher capacity double deckers EYMS met the challenge by having them built to match the shape of the arch. In the early 1970s a by-pass was constructed in the town and buses had no longer a need to pass under the arch thus enabling normal profile buses to be purchased thereafter.

These photos depict buses passing through the arch:
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