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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BREAKING RECORDS ON THE BUSES!

• The most Bedford OB buses ever in one place gather in Luton
• Event marks 70 years of a British manufacturing icon
• Vauxhall Heritage Centre plays host

It’s not every day that records are broken, nor is it every day that 32 icons of British road transport gather in the same place to mark a significant motoring milestone.

Yet on August 16th, the Vauxhall Heritage Centre played host to the largest ever gathering of Bedford OB buses and coaches – with owners travelling from all over the UK and even Belgium to exhibit the iconic vehicles that served Britain best when she needed them most.

Built between 1939 and 1951, the distinctive Bedford OB was once a very common sight on British roads. Yet today, there are only 75 known survivors across the world, and even fewer that are roadworthy.

So for 32 of them to get together at the Vauxhall Heritage Centre in Luton to mark the OB’s 70th anniversary was a milestone, the like of which is unlikely to be repeated again.

Organiser Tim Wooton, of the bedfordob.com website, said: “This is truly fabulous – never before have we seen this many OBs in the same place at the same time, yet together they make a truly incredible sight.”

The buses and their owners arrived in Luton on the Saturday, many of them in period dress, for a slide show of Vauxhall’s own OB archive images and a private screening of the Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt, in which an OB is the star turn. The following day, the buses set out in convoy to Bletchley Park, home of the WW2 code breakers, on a separate road run, accompanied by GM UK Chairman and Managing Director Bill Parfitt, in the centre’s restored 1970 Vauxhall Viscount.

To view more pictures from the day, or to find out more about the Bedford OB and its history, visit www.bedfordob.com

ENDS

Craig Cheetham                     01582 427612             craig.cheetham@gm.com

20/08/09 (10009)

58427/200809