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Coras Iompair Eireann 1951 to 1955 (by Shane Conway)

Page last updated on 24th April 2023

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By 1951 CIE had been in existence for six years, and its new building programme had produced 452 deckers, buses and coaches and these had done much to bring new standards of bus travel to Irish roads. By 1951 most of the older petrol engined ex Great Southern bus fleet had been replaced, as well as the last ex Dublin United trams. Next in line for replacement was the mid 1930s DUTC fleet of AEC Regals and Leyland Lions, and during 1951 and 1952 55 Leyland Tigers were placed in service on Dublin City routes. For the first time these had rear entrances as opposed to the forward ones of earlier buses, and around 50 of the latter were subsequently rebuilt.

Production of double deckers resumed in 1952, these being interspersed alongside further Leyland Tiger coaches and buses, and from 1954, Leyland Royal Tigers which took the company into the space saving underfloor engined era. Again these were produced in both coach and bus format. On the bus version, the body was merely an adaptation of the P class design. The first 50 though were new touring coaches, with a stylish design based on the contemporary Harrington design. C. I. E. had briefly taken MUF 430 on loan from Southdown, and this vehicle was thought to be the basis for their own coach design for the U class. These 50 vehicles were to be the only single deck coaches to be built for CIE which had a centre entrance. Delivery of these was quite prolonged, U1 - U6 entering service in July and August 1954, U7 - U44 from May to August of 1955, and the final six in June 1956.

Included among the Titans in this period were six double deck coaches, numbered R541 to R546. These were very stylishly finished vehicles, new in 1953 for the express service to Dublin Airport. They had centre entrance and staircase, seating for 50 and a large walk in luggage compartment behind the back axle. After 11 years on the airport service, they were converted to half cab rear platform buses and replaced by Leyland Royal Tigers. Ten other Titans were fitted with platform doors from new, and 23 more were modified later in a similar fashion at overhaul. In late 1954 the six 1946 Daimler CWA6s began to be taken out of service, and the bodies in turn were removed, lengthened slightly and then fitted to new 7'6" wide Leyland Titan chassis. These re-entered service at the rate of one per month, so presumably one other bus was substituted in the route 72 schedule (on which the Daimlers had spent their lives), while the conversion programme was carried out. After rebuilding, these special Titans also worked on route 72.

7'6" wide Tigers were also built in 1953, with a total of 71 finding use on narrower roads in rural areas. Again these featured rear entrances. The same year saw the opening of the new bus station at Store Street, Dublin for provincial services, with the first departures on October 20th. By the end of 1955, the only pre-CIE era buses left in service were Leyland Titans R1 - 260 (apart from Tigers T6 - T8), and the following six years would see a complete block on production of single decks, as more new Titans were turned out to replace their pre-war counterparts.

As with other lists, the data is not complete. Any updates or corrections would be welcome, especially corrected dates for the withdrawal and disposal of P262. Some of the front entrance P class buses were rebuilt as rear entrance, so far 44 are known to have been done, 61 not converted, leaving a further 70 untraced as of now. Research on these is now underway and photographic evidence is badly needed to complete this task. Can you help? My thanks to Simon Lang for researching and correcting the rebuild dates of the U class buses.

P31-41/44/46-48/54/57-59/61/63/64/66/67/69/70/72/76/96/97, 110/12/15/20/25/30/35/44/47/48/51/55-57/59/ 72/76/83/86/88/90/93/95, 200-04/07/10/11 were not rebuilt to B39R (total 61)

P42/53/56/60/62/74/77/78/91/93/95, 102-04/08/09/21/23/24/27/28/32/34/38/41-43/50/53/71/74/80/82/85/87/ 91/96-98, 206/12-15 were rebuilt to B39R (total 44)

It is therefore currently unknown whether or not P43/45/49-52/55/65/68/71/73/75/79-85/88-90/92/94/98/ 99, 100/01/05-07/11/13/14/16-19/22/26/29/31/33/36/37/39/40/ 45/46/49/52/54/58/60/73/75/77-79/81/84/89/92/94/99, 205/08/09 (total 70) were converted to rear entrance -- can anyone help with this?

1951

P271 - 90 were named as follows, after Irish rivers:

P271 Avoca P272 Avonmore P273 Anner
P274 Bandon P275 Bann P276 Boyne
P277 Clare P278 Dargle P279 Erne
P280 Foyle P281 Feale P282 Fergus
P283 Flesk P284 Garavogue P285 Kenmare
P286 Lagan P287 Laure P288 Maigue
P289 Tolka P290 Valentia    

P281 - 90 were later re-named as follows:

P281 Glore P282 Erriff P283 Lennon
P284 Fane P285 Lackagh P286 Caldy
P287 Gowla P288 Owenea P289 Cranagh
P290 Owenduff        

1952

1953

1954

U1 - U6 were named after Irish rivers, as follows:

 
U1 The Annalong U2 The Oona U3 The Camac
U4 The Doonbeg U5 The Inny U6 The Owenmore

1955

U7 - U44 were named after Irish rivers, as follows:

 
U7 The Aherlow U8 The Bride U9 The Caragh U10 The Owvane U11 The Cummeragh
U12 The Ilen U13 The Deeragh U14 The Gweebarra U15 The Clodiagh U16 The Glenariff
U17 The Bunowne U18 The Deel U19 The Robe U20 The Unshin U21 The Liffey
U22 The Corrib U23 The Suir U24 The Lee U25 The Moy U26 The Nore
U27 The Blackwater U28 The Shannon U29 The Slaney U30 The Barrow U31 The Avoca
U32 The Avonmore U33 The Anner U34 The Bandon U35 The Bann U36 The Boyne
U37 The Clare U38 The Dargle U39 The Erne U40 The Foyle U41 The Feale
U42 The Fergus U43 The Flesk U44 The Garravogue

Total fleet = 383 (378 new vehicles and five demonstrators) with 13 survivors (P193, P220, P231, P284, P309, P324, P347, R506, R541, R567, U10, U78 and MTD 235)

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