Gozo, May 1998 FBY-037 Photo 392-26

FBY 037
Operator: Unknown
Chassis: Leyland Royal Tiger (1953)
Body: Schembri (1973)
Chassis new as Ribble Motor Services, England 902 (FCK 402), one of their 145 Leyland bodied coaches.

Seen in the bus station in Victoria (Rabat). With a childhood fondness for Ribble’s Royal Tiger coaches I waited to see which service the bus had been assigned with a most certain intention of taking a ride on it wherever it might be heading. All the other buses departed and in a deserted bus station the driver asked where I wanted to go. I replied ‘Wherever this bus is going’. He said it wasn’t going anywhere today so I never got a ride and never saw it again during my holiday. Buses magazine April 2016 carried a feature that Heritage Malta had invited bids for a number of old route buses made redundant in the sweeping changes of 2011. The list is said to include ‘a rebodied Leyland Royal Tiger with chassis new to Ribble’. I think it could only be this gem now 62 years old!