Chausson Urbas No. 59 bus
Description:
- Registration no.: B-104610
- Make: Chausson
- Bodywork: Chausson
- Model: APU (35-59 series)
- Brought into service: 1955 (owner: URBAS, with no. plate 59)
- Reconditioned: 1970 (incorporated by TB with the same number, 59)
- Taken out of service: 1976
- Withdrawn: 1991 (on loan to the Catalan Museum of Transport, Castellar de n'Hug)
- Reconstruction: 2003. Reconstruction started.
- Recovered by TMB: 2006. Reconstruction continued in 2007
- Reconstruction completed: 2009 (the engine was incorporated)
Brief history
This is part of a consignment of buses imported from France and manufactured by the Chausson company. This vehicle, no. 59, is the only one surviving of the 25 that arrived in Barcelona in 1955. The lower half was dark green and the upper section was cream. It was registered on 1 June 1955 and was used originally by Transportes Suburbanos de Barcelona S.A. and later by Urbanizaciones and Transportes S.A. (URBAS), which used it on the suburban lines between Barcelona and Badalona (BS), Santa Coloma (SC) and Cornellà (CO). Some years later, its use was extended to the urban lines in Sant Adrià de Besòs.
In the early seventies, with the same number, it became part of the fleet belonging to Transports de Barcelona (TB), and ran on different lines. It was finally withdrawn in 1976. Between 1991 and 2006, the bus was in Castellar de n'Hug, in the care of the Clot del Moro Transport Museum Foundation. In 2003, the Foundation’s school of restoration began to restore it, but the work was not finished. In 2006, after the Museum was closed, it became the property of TMB. In 2007, the company Consman Truck, S.L. (Castellbisbal) was commissioned to reconstruct the vehicle. It was subsequently decided to fit an engine. The vehicle was presented to the public in 2009, coinciding with the presentation of the TMB Foundation.