Berliet PLR

The Berliet PLR was a bus built by Berliet from July 1953 to May 1956 according to the lead of its French article, shown at the 1952 Paris show as a coach and a city bus in PLR 8 and PLR 10 versions, though a later passage says the last PLR was made in 1963. It was a flat floor design on a platform chassis with the engine laid horizontally under the floor, a first for Berliet, laid out by the German coach specialist E. M. Haug. The PLR 8 had a five cylinder MDUH engine of 125 horsepower and the PLR 10 a six cylinder MDZH of 150 horsepower, with a 180 horsepower supercharged option. The Lyon operator OTL ordered only 15, but the Chilean national transport company bought 200 PLR 10, which paid for industrialisation. It was heavy, 10,400 kg empty against 7,780 for the Chausson, and thirsty, and it sold mostly to regular lines in Algeria and as a tourist coach in mainland France. The PLR 8U and 10U were the last buses with two crew, withdrawn in 1976 and 1977, and the design also gave the three axle PBR bus and the ELR trolleybus.