Mercedes-Benz 811D, 709D, 711D / Plaxton Beaver

This page created 18th August 2006 by Ian Smith. Best on 800*600.

London & Country

London & Country's vehicle-buying policy in the early 1990s was hardly type-consistent, not helped by the chaotic state of the bus manufacturing industry in those Thatcherite years. Small lots of vehicles were acquired as and when required, according to what was available at the time. With midibuses, at the start of the decade they had Mercedes Benz 608Ds, mostly acquired from London Country North-West, two separate lots of Renault Dodge S56s, Iveco Dailys, and a remnant Sherpa. Some buses had just numbers, some had type codes.

But Mercedes_Benz 709Ds and 811Ds began to be acquired for specific jobs, a few 811Ds with Carlyle bodies, a sizeable number of 709Ds with Dormobile bodies, some with tail-lifts, and then a number of 709Ds with Alexander bodywork, some with tail-lifts.

Having settled on Alexander for the short buses (after the demise of Dormobile), London Country chose the Plaxton Beaver for its longer midibuses.

It had acquired two of the original Reeve Burgess - built Beavers in 1992, secondhand from Danks & Gaymer of Coseley. 189 and 190 had rear-lifts and just twenty seats.

Londonlinks Beaver 430-437 were bought for a specific contract in March 1994: the 367 between Bromley North and West Croydon, the back-roads route that took in Bromley South, Shortlands, Park Langley, Elmers End on the way. This - with the buses - was eventually handed over to Londonlinks in January 1995, in one of the many reorganisations that bedevilled the organisation at that time. Later of course it was handed back - to become part of Arriva Croydon & North Surrey. In the meantime the route had required another bus: 438 was bought by Londonlinks in September 1996 (ignoring the fact that London & Country already had a 438). It replaced fire-victim 432. Later it was renumbered MM438.

438-439 were a follow-on order in April 1994, and went to the Guildford end of the organisation. As 23-seaters I suspect that they were tail-lift fitted. London&Country 709D

461-464 came in February 1995. They were 31-seater 811Ds except for 464, which was a 23-seater 709D. This was used on the Hounslow-funded H28.

466, 467 and MM471 were also 709Ds. They came towards the end of 1995, and were used in the Gem Fairtax subsidiary at Crawley for a while.

MM476 in Redhill MM473-477, 479-480 were newer 711Ds, mostly 27-seaters except for 474, which seated 18 and had a tail-lift. These newer buses survived with London & Country until its demise at Easter 2001. Five (475-480) went to Arriva Kent & Sussex, where they settled at Tunbridge Wells. 473 went to join many of its brethren in Wales. 474 hung on in the Guildford area briefly, before coming a staff bus at Guildford.

In the last days of London Country in Redhill, in March 2000, MM476 is seen working in Redhill

Bus Stop Beavers Capital Citybus histories photo refs T-GM