File:Reading Transport 69.JPG

English: Preserved Reading Transport bus 69 (reg. YJB 69T), a 1979 Leyland Titan (B15), at the 2009 Cobham bus rally at Wisley Airfield.

Along with its sister vehicle, 68 (YJB 68T) & 69 (YJB 69T) were the 38th and 39th production Titans respectively, part of the the early batch built by the British Leyland subsidiary Park Royal Vehicles in Park Royal, London (later ones were built at Leyland's expanded factory in the Lillyhall Industrial Estate, Workington). They were one of the very few Titans that were not built for London Transport as part of their dual door T-class, instead being delivered new to Reading Transport, the council controlled operator for Reading, Berkshire.

Unlike other non-London batches such as West Midlands or Manchester, 68 & 69 were provided to the London dual door layout & specification, although they entered service with three part destinatoin displays rather than the large London one-peice. Reading later took delivery of a further 10 Titans in early 1983 - five dual-door buses (70-74) and five single door examples with coach seating (75-79). (One ex-London Titan, T1067, was also purchased in 2003, but as a spares donor not a service bus).

68 & 69 entered service in the Reading livery of white with maroon skirt & roof. Surviving well into the de-regulated era still in the Reading fleet, in late 1996 they were transferred out of the main bus fleet to work on the Thames Valley Park Shuttle, a contract service linking Thames Valley Business Park with the town centre. For this work, they were refurbished and painted in a dedicated branded livery, on an allover white base.

When the Thames Valley contract was converted to Optare Excel single-deckers in October 2000, 68 & 69 were then transferred to the Goldline Travel fleet, which was the Reading company's private hire, tours & excursions division. For this work, 68 & 69 were converted to single door configuration, and painted in a cream livery with blue skirt (applied up to the bottom of the lower deck windows), with large GOLDLINE fleetnames, and a gold line applied at low level. (Not to be confused with Reading's use of the coach seated Titans from new until 1989 on the GOLDLINE X1 London Express route, which used a branded version of the maroon livery, as seen in this image of an MCW Metrobus on the X1 in 1982).

68 & 69 were withdrawn from the Goldline fleet in May 2002, being replaced by the later 1983 Reading Titans 78 & 79, which by then had been working in the main bus fleet with bus seating (78 & 79 were also painted into Goldline blue & cream, but with the blue skirt finishing lower than that on 68 & 69).

From this point, the shared history of 68 & 69 diverges, as both were then sold on by Reading to different operators.

69 was sold via a dealer to Smiths Coaches, who were then taken over by Abbey Coaches of High Wycombe in September 2003. After that company folded in June 2005, 69 was purchased for preservation a month later.

It's pictured here partially restored into the base colour Goldline livery, awaiting the gold trim and fleetnames (this stage had been reached by at least 2008, as seen in this image of 69 at the Alton bus rally).