The Duple Britannia, manufactured in 1955, makes its entrance in the well-known livery of Wallace Arnold whose coach tours were particularly successful in the era before package holidays became affordable to the nation.

The history of Duple goes back to 1919 when the bus and coach bodybuilding company was funded by Herbert White in Hornsey, London. In the ensuing years, it survived two world wars, amalgamations with other companies and relocation to both Kegworth and Loughborough. The Duple Britannia belongs to the era following this decentralisation when the company became known as Duple Motor Buses (Midland) Limited, Manufactured between 1956 and 1962, It was based on its immediate predecessor the Elizabethan with underfloor engine chassis but with modified vertical pillars. Duple lasted exactly 70 years until 1989 when the Duple body designs were sold to the Carlyle Works of Birmingham.

The Wallace Arnold story goes back even further to 1912 when the company was named after two of its three founders, Wallace Cunningham and Arnold Crowe. The third founder, Robert Barr was to form the Barr & Wallace Arnold Trust in 1926. He also became Chairman. With its headquarters in Leeds, it was to become one of the industry’s foremost coach tour operators throughout the UK and in the 1970s even ventured into Europe under the Euroways banner. In 2005 the company merged with Shearings to become WA Shearings before the Wallace Arnold name was dropped in 2007.

Highly detailed in every respect, our Duple Britannia is decorated in the signature cream colour scheme of Wallace Arnold with orange masked roof skylights. The flat fronted coach has the two windowed passenger door on the nearside with the driver’s door placed higher on the offside.   The interior features a beige floor and red seating. Registered 4324 UA, the coach has a wealth of external silver sprayed detail including bumpers and window surrounds. The destination plate above the chrome radiator grille shows our coach on its way to Blackpool. Note too the Britannia name masked in silver centred below the split windscreen, as well as the Duple name etched along the top edge of the radiator. To the rear, the Wallace Arnold name and key towns and cities are printed in red while on the coach sides, the WA crest with the words Industriae Nil Impossible is printed in gold.  The coach company address in Leeds headed by R Barr, Chairman is printed behind the front wheels.

Throughout its history, Wallace Arnold transported thousands of happy coach tour trippers and for coach enthusiasts everywhere, this superb replica will be another nostalgic journey.