Corgi 1:50 Bedford Type OB Coach, Red/White 'Wallace Arnold Of Leeds'

Diecast metal with plastic parts

The Bedford OB was a bus chassis manufactured by Bedford from 1939.

The Bedford OB was designed as a successor to the Bedford WTB. It had a wheelbase of 14 feet 6 inches (4.42 m), and was a semi-forward control model, designed to carry 26 to 29-passenger bodywork. It was fitted with a 27.34 horsepower petrol engine, and had a four-speed manual gearbox and fully floating rear axle. The brakes were of the vacuum servo-assisted hydraulic type.

Although only 73 were built prior to the cessation of production due to World War II, it reappeared in a largely unchanged form at the end of the war, continuing in production until 1951. A total of 12,766 were produced, making it one of the most popular buses of its type ever.

Bedford co-developed with Duple the "Vista" coachwork for the OB, fronted by a classic bullnose. The ash framework was reinforced with steel, and the floor made from hardwood with softwood tongued and grooved boarding, with the exception of the cab area which was finished with alloy chequerplate. Seating capacity was normally 29 with overhead luggage racks provided for passengers, whilst the rear luggage boot was also used to store the spare wheel. The price of a complete coach, including finishing in a two-colour livery, was £1,314.10s for a 27-seater, and £1,325.10s for a twenty nine seater.

Geared to reach speeds of at least 40 miles per hour (64 km/h), which was fast for its day, the OB is remembered by many for its characteristic gearbox whine.

Wallace Arnold was one of the UK's largest holiday motorcoach tour operators.

Wallace Arnold was founded in 1912 and was named after its founders Wallace Cunningham and Arnold Crowe.

In February 1969, the Evan Evans tour business in London was purchased. In the late 1970s, Wallace Arnold commenced operating services under the Euroways banner to Europe.

By 1980 it operated 290 coaches from its headquarters in Leeds, and owned a subsidiary based in Devon.

When coach services were deregulated by the Transport Act 1980 in October 1980, Wallace Arnold was a founding member of the British Coachways consortium that competed with the state-owned National Express.It left after a year and briefly ran its own service from London to Torbay.

The business was owned by the Barr & Wallace Arnold Trust. In 1997, Wallace Arnold was sold.

In April 1994, the company gained infamy, when five of their fleet, transported all of the audience members of an episode of Don't Forget Your Toothbrush to Disneyland Paris, after the two selected audience members won the "Light Your Lemon" game.

In April 2005, Wallace Arnold merged with Shearings to become WA Shearings. In 2007 the Wallace Arnold name was dropped and now the company is known as Shearings Holidays. The merger included eight travel shops in Yorkshire, rebranded from Wallace Arnold Travel to WA Shearings. These kept the WA Shearings name until 2010, when they reverted to their original Wallace Arnold Travel name.

Wallace Arnold was the largest operator of the Bedford VAL 3 axle coach. After becoming a large Leyland Leopard and Volvo B58 customer, in later years it standardised on Volvo B10M and Volvo B12Ms, mostly with Jonckheere and Plaxton bodies.