Hmmm going by the yardstick of introduction of service 951, it
would be 1990, the same time the Hispano DAF's were bought. I first
saw a retrofitted U31 on 951 (which was TIB313E). Much to my dismay
coz those buses were premium buses of AMKDEP at that time. I
believe some other forumnites here have the exact dates.
I dont think the headlight cover colours are reliable indicators
between R87 and U31SCN's. TIB271S, TIB282K, TIB286A, TIB287Y had
silver covers, while TIB288U, TIB301P, TIB308X had black ones, for
example. Sometimes the memory are a little blurred coz some buses
may have changed from silver to black covers (replacement) e.g.
TIB271S after faceplate reconstruction after an accident. Even the
older U31F's had inconsistent headlight cover colours, some black,
some white. TIB336P underwent faceplate reconstruction too - it too
had an accident that ripped off the whole front. When I saw it in
AMKDEP during repairs, it had *BLACK* square headlight covers, but
when it came out on the road subsequently, the black turned to
*SILVER*! So I suspect the black colour could actually be some
protective layer that is supposed to be peeled off after
installation of the cover.
