Bedford VAL

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Bedford VAL70 with Plaxton Panorama Elite II body
A restored Bedford VAL14 coach with a Plaxton body
A Bedford VAL70 with a Duple Viceroy body (1970)

The Bedford VAL was a touring coach manufactured by Bedford in Great Britain in the 1960s . As a three-axle bus with two front axles, it was a rare phenomenon in its time.

Originally, a six-cylinder Leyland O 400 diesel engine served as the drive. With this machine the bus was called VAL14 .

Over 900 examples of the VAL14 were built from 1963 to 1966; the largest orders came from Wallace Arnold in Leeds , Seamarks in Westoning, Everall in Wolverhampton and Bartons .

From 1967 there was the VAL70 with the slightly larger Bedford machine with 466  cu.in. (7,636 cm³) displacement. He quickly outstripped the VAL14.

Superstructures

The VAL was delivered with superstructures from various body shops. Most of the VAL14 were fitted out by Duple or Plaxton . But there were also other body manufacturers such as B. Harrington and Yeates . Some VAL14 also received bus bodies from Marshall Bus (10 pieces) for the BEA , some from Strachan (10 pieces) for North Western.

Appearance in movies

The Bedford VAL also became internationally known in 1969 for a role in the film Charlie Dusting Millions (The Italian Job) . This bus was a Harrington Legionaire with the registration number ALR 453B , which was delivered to Batten in April 1964 . After the modifications for the film, the bus resumed normal travel and was only scrapped in the 1990s.

A karossiertes of Plaxton copy bearing the registration number URO 913E is the Beatles film The Magical Mystery Tour to see from the 1967th This bus was delivered to Fox in Hayes that same year. Another bus with the registration number SCK 56K , also a VAL, is used in Liverpool in the 2000s for the “Magical Mystery Tour”, a city tour in the footsteps of the Beatles.

Web links

Commons : Bedford VAL  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Photos of a Bedford VAL14 with Willowbrook construction ( Memento of the original from November 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.busstation.net
  2. ↑ Vehicles in the movie "The Italian Job" (Charlie dusts off millions)