D9 anniversary

07/01/2020 WebSupport Buses, Features, Industry Heritage
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Two D9s attended the 2019 event and provided free rides for visitors. The Transport Museum Wythall’s 5399, in NBC poppy red livery, and Roger Burdett’s 5424 are photographed at Scraptoft, served by the last D9s in 1979. MIKE GREENWOOD

Forty years after the last examples of a legendary Midland Red double-decker built by the operator ran in Leicester, the type was back on the city’s streets, reports Nick Larkin

A BMMO D9 Running Day was organised by the Leicester Transport Heritage Trust (LTHT) to commemorate the vehicle believed by many to be the Midlands’ answer to the Routemaster. By the last day of D9 operation on New Year’s Eve 1979 the 345 examples of this extremely advanced front-engined double decker, once a familiar site across the vast Midland Red empire, had fallen to just six, based in Leicester.
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