When is the last, not the last?

[DunsBus]

@GusB, on the thread about vehicle badges, mentioned about the two X-reg South Notts Fleetlines having dual Daimler and Leyland badging as they were the last Fleetlines built. However, they weren't the last Fleetlines to enter service, that honour going to Cleveland Transit's H150-157 (VEF150-157Y) which did so in 1983. Their chassis had been built a few years earlier and then stockpiled by Cleveland when the end of Fleetline production was announced.

Similarly, although Lancaster City Transport Atlantean 223 (A223MCK), new in July 1984 had the highest-numbered Atlantean chassis for the UK market, it was trumped as the last new UK Atlantean to enter service by Fylde Borough 75 (B75URN), on an earlier-built chassis, which took to the road that October and was one of only four Atlanteans with a B-prefix registration.
There were also the late-model Metrobuses for Strathclyde which had the highest chassis numbers but again were beaten to the honour of being the last new ones on the road by the residue of the West Midlands order which were being built at the same time.

Perhaps an honourable mention must go to the various Plaxton Elite and Supreme III-bodied coaches built on Bedford and Ford chassis for Hughes the dealer in the mid-seventies (and then stored) which finally entered service in 1987-88, after Bedford and Ford had exited the coach market and long after production of these particular body styles had ceased.

Are there any further examples of when the last-built wasn't the last to enter service?

Over to you.

 

[Strathclyder]

The Volvo B7TL is a good, fairly recent example of this.

The last example built by chassis number - Eclipse Gemini-bodied SN56 AHK (824) for Lothian - was registered and entered service in February 2007, but the last example to enter service period was First Glasgow's SF07 FDX/37185 (also a Gemini), which was registered and entered service in April 2007 as the last of a batch of 20 such vehicles (also the newest and highest-numbered B7TL in the First UK Bus fleet as a whole), although I believe a few members of that batch had SF56 plates reserved for them that ended up being voided.

 

[Titfield]

Sadly what would have been 304LJ the UKs last trolleybus for the home market (a Sunbeam MF2B with Weyman bodywork for Bournemouth Corporation Transport) destroyed whilst the body was being built at Weymans Works.

 

[greenline712]

RML2760 was delivered to London Transport in February 1968, and entered service soon after.

RM8 was delivered to London Transport in March 1961 (although actually constructed in September 1958, it was retained until then by AEC/Park Royal), being the first production Routemaster constructed, and eventually entered service in March 1976. It spent the intervening 18 years in Chiswick Works being used for various experiments.
The first production RM to enter service was actually RM9, in November 1959.

To extend the timeline further, the last production RM-length Routemaster was RM2217, delivered in May 1965, so the timeline there would be almost 11 years.

 

[joieman]

Arriva Midlands 4579 is numerically their last ADL E400MMC to date, but 4578 entered service after 4579