FodenNC

01

Origins

Foden of Sandbach — steam-wagon pioneers turned diesel truck stalwarts — made a final bus-market attempt with the NC of 1976: a rear-engined double-decker chassis with Gardner power, pitched at municipal fleets as the National Bus Company era reshaped British purchasing. A few dozen were built as Foden's finances tightened toward the Paccar takeover; operators liked the engineering, but the volume battle belonged to Leyland's political scale. The NC thus closed a Cheshire tradition that had begun with steam charabancs. Its survivors are preservation favourites, cherished as the last buses to carry one of British engineering's proudest family names. Sandbach steam had begun the story; a diesel double-decker, dignified and outnumbered, ended it.