The SC10 series has to be the classic French urban bus. It was hugely successful, and the facelifted SC10R version was still selling strongly when Renault finally ceased production of the model in the late 1980s.
SVTU,
Versailles no. 67 (3212 KY 78) - March 1994
The Saviem SC10 can trace its origins way back to 1958 when a specification was laid down for a new standard single-decker bus. One of the major driving forces behind the project was RATP, the Parisian transport authority, which needed to replace huge numbers of elderly petrol-engined buses dating from before World War II. A third contender, again similar in looks, was produced by small-scale bus builders
Verney. Verney had recently been favoured by RATP with a couple of orders for
small buses, and clearly hoped to expand their bus-building activities.
Nevertheless, the Verney prototype was quickly
out of the running as the manufacturer were judged to be too small to be able to
meet RATP's needs.
Once such a common sight in towns across France, the SC10U is now a rarity.
This one was part of a fleet operated in the Château town of Versailles by
local urban operator SVTU. SVTU now trades as Phébus and uses a mainly white
livery.
One of the major features of the specification was that the floor level throughout the bus should be only 635mm. This ruled out an underfloor-engined layout and, since at the time it was normal on
Paris city buses for passengers to board at the back and pay fares to a conductor, a rear-engined layout was also out of the question. The designers of the prototype buses came up with an unusual solution to the problem – the engine would be placed horizontally at the front of the bus, under the driver's cab where it did not affect the height of the floor in the passenger area.
With the prospect of big orders from Paris being available, both of France's major bus manufacturers were keen to
be involved. In 1962, both Saviem and Berliet supplied prototype buses to RATP for evaluation. Saviem's contender, RATP no. 4450, was the prototype SC10. The other bus, no. 4451, was the prototype Berliet PCM. The two buses looked quite similar, as both had the same three-piece barrel-shaped
windscreen designed to cut down reflections. The Berliet could be distinguished by more stylised front grille (modified
for production buses), and a squarer roof profile. The two contenders were mechanically similar too, since both used the same 7.2 litre engine supplied by German truck and bus builders MAN. However, under the skin the Saviem was a fully integral bus while the Berliet had a separate chassis and body.
Ex-TUR Reims
no. 259 (5539 RM 51) - September 2001
A typical SC10U from the rear. Earlier buses had a split rear window rather
than the single emergency exit seen here, while SC10Ls lacked the curved rear
quarterlights. The rear route number box was also an optional extra, and many
buses lack this feature. This bus started out in 1979 with the Reims
fleet painted red and white - it was still present in its home town some time
after its operating days had finished and was found outside the Reims-Champagne
Motor Museum. The extra light clusters under the rear window are not standard
and were probably added after the bus left TUR service.
Production of both the Saviem and the Berliet began in 1965. Initially, RATP seemed happy to buy both the Saviem and the Berliet, and the prewar Renault buses began to quickly disappear from the streets of the capital. However,
when all the pre-war buses had been replaced, deliveries of the Berliet to RATP ceased. The decision to favour Saviem with future orders seems to have been echoed across the country, and before long Berliet had abandoned production of the PCM in favour of the PR100.
Early Parisian two-person operated SC10s had full-width doorways at the rear and in the centre, with a two-leaf door at the front. However, as one-person operation swept throughout the country, they were rebuilt to widen the front
doorway and remove the rear one. Within a few years all SC10s were being produced with the full-width front doorway – well, it's nearly full-width, as the rearmost leaf of the door doesn't quite fit in the space available!
In the mid-1970s an interesting variation on the SC10 theme began to appear. Many of the ancient Parisian buses that the SC10s had replaced had featured an open platform at the rear. Passengers boarded and alighted via the platform, and there was room for a number of standing passengers to take in the air (and the traffic fumes!). It wasn't long before Parisians began to get rather nostalgic for this
feature of their old buses, so when an SC10 suffered a serious rear-end accident RATP's engineers decided to rebuild the bus in something approaching the traditional style. With the engine out of the way under the driver's cab, creating an open rear platform at the back of the SC10 did not prove too difficult, although there was no longer an entrance via the platform.
RATP's engineers were justifiably pleased with their creation, and convinced Saviem to supply them with two batches of new buses in the same style. The open-platform variant became a factory option, and soon they were to be found mixed with the more conventional variety in many towns.
TCL, Limoges
nos. 335 (1906 QE 87) and 329 (7953 QC 87) - August 1997
The open-back version of the SC10U soon spread out from Paris to provincial
towns. Limoges bought a pair (334/5) , followed later by another (342). By the time I caught up with them they
were near the end of their careers, 334-5 being confined mainly to schools work
and 342 having been converted to an information bus. Here 335
and fully-enclosed 329 meet at the central terminal of Place Winston Churchill.
Thankfully, this bus (along with another Limoges SC10, no. 316) has been saved
for preservation.
Apart from the open-backs, most Saviem SC10s look remarkably similar. The bus was available in both two-door and three-door form, and the only major change to the body design during the first fifteen years of production was the replacement of the original split rear window with a single emergency exit window around 1975. A so-called 'lightweight' version (the SC10L) was also produced during the 1970s - this lacked the curved rear quarterlight windows.
Renault
purchased the Berliet firm in 1976, and in 1980 merged Saviem and Berliet into a new subsidiary, Renault Véhicules Industriels. Following the merger new buses began to carry the Renault diamond logo rather than the Saviem name.
However, this was a short-lived feature, as the SC10U was replaced by the
facelifted SC10R in 1981.
SC10Us are now a distinctly rare sight in France, although open-back buses may still be found if you know where to look.
These tend to be retained for use as publicity vehicles or for summer services
with tourist appeal.
Quite a number of elderly SC10s have found willing second-hand buyers in other countries. Following the collapse of communism, many fleets in former-Eastern Bloc countries have reequipped their fleets using second-hand stock from Western European fleets. SC10s have been among these, and a number of buses redundant from the RATP fleet have turned up working in
Romania. SC10s may also be found in various African and Asian countries, often still in
their former owner's colours.
French toy manufacturer Norev produced a 1/43rd scale moulded plastic model of the SC10 – it's obviously intended as a plaything but actually captures the shape of the bus very well. The model depicts a two-door
SC10U (with the split rear window) and the doors
open and close thanks to a little lever on the side. The Norev model rivalled the real SC10 in terms of longevity of production, and can be found in many different colour schemes (including a very Parisian green and white).
A super-detailed version, modelled on an RATP's two-door open-platform bus, is
also to be found.