Through consolidation in the industry, modern manufacturers are by-and-large set up for volume production, and coupled with the trend towards integral type vehicles (think Streetdeck) rather than coachwork on 3rd party running units (eg Volvo B5/Wrightbus), this leads to a situation whereby specials or one-offs are now much much rarer than in previous times. Looking back at local (to me) manufacturers, Alexander Belfast produced only 10 Fords with N-type bodies and 20 on Dennis Javelin, with a further 10 Javelins having Q-type bodies. Similarly the ungainly AS-type on Ford AO609 only totalled less than 30 units, with a solitary prototype built at Falkirk.
The early history of Wrights is littered with rare types, such as the 2 Leopards with TT coachwork and 7 Tigers with Contour bodies for Ulsterbus. Another interesting hybrid was Ford R1014 HIB2138 for which Wrights supplied the frames, but was finished by Sureline Coaches of Lurgan. Sureline also had 2 further Fords which had Seddon frames, but finished by Wrights.
Going further back in time, Potter produced only 16 single deck bodies on AEC Swift and another 16 on Daimler Roadliner (both for Belfast Corporation) whilst they also supplied 5 Leopards (to Y-type style) and 10 Bristol LH's to Ulsterbus. Earlier still, MH Cars built a solitary 3 Atlanteans for Belfast Corporation whilst when the UTA were building their own bus bodies the produced a solitary Bedford VAL, 7 VAS1s and 3 Austin T200s. One other local example which comes to mind is Cannon of Strabane, who produced a BEL150 midi-type chassis which received an E200 lookalike body.
