Bedford OB

The Bedford OB was a bus chassis built by Bedford and introduced in 1939 as the successor to the Bedford WTB. It was a semi-forward control design with a wheelbase of 14 feet 6 inches, intended to carry bodywork for 26 to 29 passengers, and it was fitted with a petrol engine, a four-speed manual gearbox and vacuum servo-assisted hydraulic brakes. Only 73 were built before the Second World War halted production, but the design returned in largely unchanged form after 1945 and stayed in production until 1951, with 12,766 made in total. Duple's Vista coachwork, with its bullnose front, became the standard body, and about 180 survive in preservation today.