The Panther Cub was maybe not a bus Leyland's engineers wanted to
build, but Leyland's sales team promoted it heavily sending a
Strachans-bodied demonstrator round the country.

The second customer was Sunderland who had three bodied by Marshall
in 1965, they were Sunderland's first rear-engined saloons-117 were
to follow in the next nine years, no more of them Panther Cubs.
Marshall also bodied sixteen for East Yorkshire, twelve for
Portsmouth and four each for Oldham and Brighton; all forty-one were
to its standard outline. Metro-Cammell bodied Portsmouth's other
fourteen. Park Royal completed its batch of twenty for Manchester in
1965 then built another four for that arch fan of Park Royal,
Stockton Corporation. Besides East Yorkshire the only other BET
customer for the Panther Cub was Thomas Bros of Port Talbot who had
three with Strachans bodies, which looked like scaled-down M&D
Panthers. Strachans also bodied three for Brighton Corporation and
the Leyland demonstrator, which was sold to Eastbourne. Warrington
had four with East Lancashire bodies (then switched to Bristol REs),
Ashton-under-Lyne also had two (between batches of Atlanteans) and
Middlesbrough's two had Northern Counties coachwork (they then
reverted to lowheight Fleetline double decks). Massey Brothers final
design before the Northern Counties takeover was on two Panther Cubs
for Wigan, one of which survives, but sadly not the one registered
EEK 1F. Ninety-seven Panther Cubs (including the demonstrator) sold
in the five years from 1964. Warrington, Manchester and Portsmouth
examples also survive.

If the Leyland Motor Corporation were disappointed in the Panther
and particularly its cub, they must have been happier with its
stable-mate from Southall. The AEC Swift sold an impressive 2,230.
Even if its reputation was tarnished by London Transport's 1,513
these owed at least part of their bad name to LT's structural,
mechanical and body layout preferences. The Swift was top seller in
the municipal market, 587 against 416 REs and 413 Panthers, and also
sold to BET/NBC fleets and independents. The AH505 (8.2 litre)
engine outsold the AH691 (11.3 litre) and Swifts always seemed to do
well within sight of the sea. It attracted thirteen out of the
fifteen bodybuilders and continued in production until 1975.

Although all W-types, Alexander's production on Swift was notably
varied. These 105 buses were built for municipal, independent and
BET/NBC fleets with both lengths, three different front-end designs,
single and dual doors, panoramic and short windows, 505 and 691
engines. (See table 3) Aberdeen and Green Line examples are
preserved.

ECW's Twenty-two Swifts went to hometown Lowestoft (later Waveney
District) who had ten in 1969-73 and Nearby Great Yarmouth who had
twelve in 1973-4 (later buying Waveney's last two). All twenty-two
were B45D buses on 36ft 505-engined chassis. Great Yarmouth's had
BET-style windscreens; Lowestoft's had flat screens. The Great
Yarmouth buses lasted a long time with their original owner. One
from each fleet survives.

East Lancashire's Swifts were built between 1967-75 but there
weren't that many of them. West Bridgeford had three, four went to
Southampton, five were for Ipswich and Grimsby-Cleethorpes had
three. All had 505 engines. Southampton's were 36ft, the rest 33ft.
West Bridgeford's and Grimsby-Cleethorpes had one door. The rest had
two.

The Marshall Swift story neither starts nor ends with the 324 10m
505s built to LT specification. A 1966 36ft demonstrator worked for
Ulsterbus alongside a Bristol RE. It later joined the Ulsterbus
fleet when they took over Coastal Bus Service of Portrush. Outside
London the most common Marshall Swift was the 36ft 505. Fifty-five
of these went to Blackpool; eighteen were ordered by Sunderland (and
delivered to Tyne & Wear PTE); five went to Bradford (with single
curvature windscreens which were also fitted to Blackpool's 1969
batch); these all had dual-doors; Similar single –door buses went to
South Wales (twelve), East Midland (ten), City of Oxford (nine) and
West Riding (six). Portsmouth followed its Panther Cubs with twelve
33ft dual door Marshall Swifts, St Helens established a fleet of
seventy-two similar buses and the Cambridge firm also bodied twenty-
six 691s with single door bodies for East Kent. One of these has
recently been restored. Also surviving are one St Helens and two
Blackpool Buses and a Marshall-bodied non-PSV Swift, a racing car
transporter built for Lotus.

MCW bodied 650 11m 691s and 200 10m 505s for London. They also did
thirty two-door 36ft 505s to a distinctive style for Leeds,
combining a BET front and an antipodean side elevation. There were
eighteen plain looking two-door 36ft buses for Birmingham (twelve
505s and six 691s). No `provincial' MCW Swifts survive.

Northern Counties bodied only nine Swifts. All had the 505 engine.
Nottingham's six had the BET-style windscreen, a high straight
waistrail and closely spaced window pillars-they were memorably
described in a Buses Annual (maybe 1978) as `unusually tall-
looking'. In 1975, when six years old, they went to Grimsby-
Cleethorpes (for the sea air). Morecambe & Heysham had the other
three, which had large split-depth windows and deep, flat
windscreens. All nine were dual door. Neither sort still exists.

Park Royal built fifty 36ft 505 two-door buses for Leeds and forty
36ft 691s for Sheffield. Oh yes, they also did 324 10m 505s for
London Transport. Again, there are no non-London survivors.

Pennine, like their parent Seddon, were based in Oldham, which town
was mainly buying Leyland double-decks with Roe bodies and would do
to the end of their days, but they worked hard on neighbouring
Rochdale and received an order for fourteen 33ft 505 Swifts. The
last ten of these were delivered to SELNEC. Another seven rather
oddly styled Swifts (looking more NCME than Pennine) were sold to
Morecambe and Heysham. Neither sort survive.

Plaxton bodied two 36ft 505 Swifts with Derwent single-door bodies,
one each for Hutchings & Cornelius of Somerset and York Pullman. One
of these is now preserved.

Potters when not bodying Leopards for Ulsterbus built Fleetline
double-deckers for Belfast Corporation. When in 1968 that city
ordered 36 11m single decks Potters bodied them too. Eighteen of
them were Swift 691s.

Roe's Swifts included forty for Leeds, which were 36ft and dual-
door. A 36ft one-door bus went to York Pullman, Huddersfield had two
33ft one-door buses and Grimsby-Cleethorpes had nine with dual-door
33ft bodies.

Strachans started London's Swift story with fifteen 36ft 691s. They
also bodied eleven 36ft 505s with similar looking bodies; five were
for Wolverhampton (a major customer and six for Southampton (the
nearest municipal fleet to the factory). Ten 36ft 505s went to
Sunderland, to that undertaking's style.

Willowbrook's Swifts were all 505 powered and all to the BET style.
Like Alexander it sold to BET/NBC, independent and municipals. 10m
dual-door examples went to Aberdare (six) and Ipswich (five). South
Wales (three), and Great Yarmouth (twenty-one) had 36ft dual-door
versions. The single door 36ft version went to City of Oxford (nine)
Red Rover, Aylesbury (two), Hutchison (two) and W.R. & P. Bingley
(one). Gelligaer had a single-door ex-demonstrator and two dual door
buses bought new that later had a door removed.

Whadham Stringer also bodied Swifts for British Overseas Airways
Corporation, one of which survives at the RAF Museum Hendon. These
however were not road-legal having a large front-loading platform
and offside and nearside centre doors. As a result, these are not
included in the survey.