Western Welsh waited until 1969 for it's next delivery of 36' service buses.
These duly arrived in the form of 20 PSU3A Leyland Leopards with 51-seat BET-style bodies by Marshalls of Cambridge. Again, the 9.8 litre 0600 engine was specified with 4-speed semi-automatic transmissions, though of the recently-introduced variant. Allocated fleet numbers 619-638, they were registered PKG 619-638G, and all were equipped for one man operation.
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Here's Neath-allocated 620 leaving Port Talbot in 'as delivered' condition, crew-operated, and heading for Porthcawl.
It's journey had started almost two hours earlier at Merthyr Tydfil, with around 20 minutes still to go before it reached it's outward destination at the coastal resort. It was dovetailed-in with the 603 service which started from Aberdare, and provided a half-hourly frequency along the Vale of Neath.
Heavy Summer season traffic justified the use of maximum-capacity single-deckers on these routes, as double-deckers could not be used, due to low bridges.
602, like all Neath (or Aberdare)-based buses carried a red diamond affixed above the side and rear fleet number transfers.
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Here's the former 635 at Crosskeys depot in the Summer of 1978.
Western Welsh was, by now, part of the National Bus Company and adopted the corporate Poppy Red livery, and the Red & White-inspired fleet numbering system. 635 had been renumbered as U1669, which indicates that it was the 16th underfloor-engined saloon of 1969. In an effort to improve the bland-ness of their appearances, this bus had received a significant amount of Herzim aluminium mouldings to it's bodywork. Although an improved appearance was evident, the experiment was discontinued. The black rectangular units were illuminated in darkness hours, and extolled in amber colour "Pay as you enter" whilst one on the rear displayed "One man operated" in red.
The long 156 route linked Newport with Merthyr Tydfil via the Western Valley and Tredegar, and was jointly operated with the Red & White company.