Canvey Island 14th October 2001

TPD 103X was new in April 1982 to LONDON COUNTRY NORTH EAST as their LR3.

In January 1989 it passed to COUNTY BUS & COACH still numbered LR3. Here it operated for a time in an overall advert for 'MacMullens'. It lost this at the end of 1994 when it gained fleet livery. During 1995 along with others of the batch LR3 was refurbished at 'Leaside's' Enfield depot.

Ownership changes in February 1996 occurred when County Bus & Coach passed from WMT to COWIE ownership. From early 1996 LR3 was allocated to the Ware depot and used on the 310 group of services in the Enfield area. The final quarter of 1997 saw it reallocated to the Harlow depot where it remained until it was delicenced in October. A month later it was stored at Grey-Green's Barking depot until January 1998 when it was sold to FLEETMASTER, Horsham.

On 7th March 1998 LR3 joined the NU-VENTURE fleet and arrived in a darker shade of blue than normal. It lost this during August 2000 in favour of the standard Nu-Venture blue colourscheme. On joining the Nu-Venture fleet it was initially used on school contracts and as a back up vehicle for the fleet of Titan's operating from both Hoo and Aylesford depots until the Summer of 1998 when service 82 was revised. 'TPD' was to become the regular vehicle on this route for the next three years. Spring 2001 saw the arrival of a further two Leyland Titans and the transfer of one of Hoo Titans to Hoo to replace 'TPD' on service 82. From July 2001 the Olympian was relegated back to spare status and can now be found on a variety of routes and school contracts from both the Hoo and Aylesford depots.

During May 2001 CCTV cameras were fitted inside the vehicle