Hants & Dorset Motor Services  
1950
Bristol LL6G
Portsmouth Aviation DP36R

A Happy New Year to you all! It seems strange to hear that in May, but it was heard several times at Winchester on 4th May! Many enthusiasts and passers by gathered to give this Running Day a welcome at this new May date. The weather was certainly an improvement.

Illustrated here is Bristol LL6G KLJ 749, new to Hants & Dorset in 1950. It is unusual in having bodywork by Portsmouth Aviation (DP36R), one of ten supplied to Hants & Dorset in this batch. It is seen at Colden Common, before returning to The Broadway. The interior shot shows the multiplicity of notices displayed on the bulkhead.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Michael Hampton

19/05/15 – 06:11

Very nice photos of a fine bus, but–at the risk of being a tiresome pedant–I’m sure it’s an LL6G. That Garner 6LW makes it really fly along!

Ian T

19/05/15 – 06:13

A very handsome vehicle only slightly let down by the indicator box which looks to be from an earlier era and the slope doesn’t help.
It looks to be beautifully restored throughout but what a pity that a modern prohibition sign has been placed on the front bulkhead pillar. ‘elf and safety no doubt rearing its ugly, pedantic head again.

Phil Blinkhorn

19/05/15 – 06:13

Thx for posting a view of this vehicle, Michael, which certainly gets around in its dotage. It’s amazing how shades of art deco remained in coach design for quite a time after the war.
Why on earth did Hants & Dorset go to Portsmouth Aviation to body these vehicles rather than ECW, one wonders, although the finished article is attractive.
What do we know of Portsmouth Aviation? I know nothing.

Chris Hebbron

19/05/15 – 07:46

The reason this didn’t have an ECW body was the length of the Gardner 6LW engine. It required the front bulkhead to be further back and this would be a major change to a standardised body that it appears ECW weren’t prepared to do.
As a consequence the numbers of K6Gs and L5Gs were rather limited and all had ‘other’ body builders. The best illustration of the difference can be found in the Pontypridd fleet as they had both Ls and Ks with 5- and 6-cylinder engines, all with Beadle bodies and the difference in engine can readily be seen in the body.

David Beilby

20/05/15 – 06:05

I agree with Phil Blinkhorn’s comment re-the indicator box. I can’t help thinking that the effect is made worse by that H&D idiosyncrasy – the sun-visor over the driver’s windscreen. Was it really all that much more sunny in their territory than, say, Southern Vectis just across the water, or Southern National a bit farther west in Weymouth? I guess someone will come up with the reason for this appendage, and the name of him who decreed that all H&D buses must have one!

Stephen Ford

20/05/15 – 06:06

You’re quite right Chris- Art Deco seemed to be the decor of choice for coaches- especially half cabs- for a long time. The story of the Gardner engine is a glimpse of the past. It at first seems amazing that fleets of buses were obliged to use one chassis/coachbuilder and then that the coachbuilder should work on what later became a British Leyland principle of- effectively- dictating what your chassis was to be. How did the economics work? Were they negotiated contracts? And how, in reality, different are things in more recent times with Government telling you what sort of vast bussernaut to run? And how appropriate was tendering anyway? And were BET in reality any better than Tilling? Is it the case that civic pride and local councillor pressure often worked to passengers’ benefit in the municipalities? Questions, questions…

Joe

20/05/15 – 06:07

What a superbly handsome vehicle indeed with a glorious traditional high quality interior too. I do agree with Phil that the slope of the destination display might make for difficulty in reading, especially in certain bright conditions, but on balance I feel that the ECW "near vertical" pattern would have spoilt the look of the bus, particularly the flow of the roofline. The ECW type did though, of course, blend perfectly well with the Lowestoft design in what were, in my view, the finest looking and most practical front engined deckers of the postwar era.

Chris Youhill

23/05/15 – 07:11

Chris Hebbron asks about Portsmouth Aviation. I know little about this company but browsed a book about it some years ago. Photographs showed rebuilding of the bodies of some of Portsmouth Corporation’s Leyland TD4’s.
Examination of the Company’s website and Wikipedia page shows that it is still in existence but not in the business of bus bodybuilding or rebuilding.

Andy Hemming

24/05/15 – 07:33

Thx, Andy, for shedding a little more light; doing work on Portsmouth Corporation’s TD4’s. They must have been under pressure to farm out work like that.

Chris Hebbron

02/08/16 – 06:54

KLJ 749 is still going strong. It is owned by two members of the Bristol Vintage Bus Group and was a star turn at the Group’s running day on the 31st July, 2016. I was privileged to act as conductor/banksman on a number of trips. Its climbing ability with a full load was quite impressive

Jerry Wilkes

04/08/16 – 09:14

In response to Chris Hebbron’s enquiry about Portsmouth Aviation, here is a bit of information, though the bus industry features only briefly in its history.
Portsmouth Aviation was formed on 6 April 1929 as Inland Flying Services at Romford in Essex before moving in May 1930 to a small airfield on the Isle of Wight at Apse Manor, near Shanklin, where it undertook light aircraft maintenance work and offered pleasure flights. Meanwhile, in response to a 1928 government suggestion that all towns with a population of 20,000 or more should provide aviation facilities, Portsmouth Airport, a municipal venture, was developed from 1930 on the north east corner of Portsea Island. The first flight into the new airfield took place on 14 December 1930, although the official opening did not occur until 2 July 1932. Inland Flying Services then transferred its base to the new mainland airport and began operating a local air service to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, adopting the new name of the Portsmouth, Southsea and Isle of Wight Aviation Company. The inclusion of Southsea in the title was purely to encourage seaside custom; there was never an airport there. The Ryde airfield was opened by PSIOWA in 1932, becoming fully operational the following year. The company used typical aircraft of the period, amongst others the De Havilland Moth, Puss Moth, Dragon, Westland Wessex and Airspeed Envoy (Airspeed had transferred its business from York to Portsmouth in 1933). Developing rapidly, the firm began serving a number of air ferry destinations around the south coast, at the same time expanding its aviation engineering, maintenance and repair facilities. With the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, PSIOWA were ordered by the government to cease the flying services and concentrate upon aircraft maintenance, repair and modification duties, and this continued for the duration of the war. With the return of peace in 1946, PSIOWA changed its name to Portsmouth Aviation to reflect its core activities, but took on a wider range of work beyond the air industry. One such new venture was the construction of commercial vehicle bodywork to meet the post war surge in demand. It did, however, design and build one example of the Portsmouth Aviation Aerocar Major, a pod fuselage, twin engined, twin boom machine for a pilot and five passengers. The 1946 prototype was flown briefly in 1947 and exhibited at the 1948 and 1949 SBAC Farnborough Shows. Not having the resources for volume output, the firm made arrangements for series production to be undertaken in India, but the plan fell through, and the machine was scrapped in 1950. The bus bodywork side of the business fared rather better, with deliveries of single deckers on Bristol chassis to Hants & Dorset and Wilts & Dorset, plus others on Bedford OB chassis to the Independent sector. Remedial single and double deck bodywork attention was undertaken, including some Aldershot & District Dennis Lances and Portsmouth Corporation TD4s. Some Hants & Dorset lowbridge utility Guys are said to have been rebodied by the firm, but it is probable that the original Brush bodywork was rebuilt. In 1950, Portsmouth Aviation, like many others, dropped out of this declining market to concentrate on aviation and military business. The firm still exists on the site today, but this is not the case with Portsmouth Airport itself which closed in 1973 after some accidents that were attributed to the its inadequate size for modern aircraft. At that time it was the last significant commercial airport still relying upon a grass runway.

Roger Cox

06/08/16 – 06:35

More than I could have hoped for, Roger, many thanks. FWIW, The airport was doomed when, during a wet summer and soggy grass, a Hawker Siddeley 748 on Channel Isles’ service skidded almost onto the dual-carriageway Eastern Road arterial road into Portsmouth, with its mate almost doing the same thing 45 mins later! Aircraft this large were banned shortly afterwards and another operator used three Twin Pioneer planes, painted red, blue and yellow, but not big enough to be profitable. This proved to be the airport’s deathknell. There was the opportunity to buy the closed Thorney Island RAF Station nearby, but Portsmouth Council said No and the more sensibly-sited Eastleigh (Southampton) Airport has taken over the mantle.

Chris Hebbron

Crosville Motor Services
1951
Bristol LWL6B
ECW B39R

Quite a number of Crosville’s L-types have survived in preservation, and this year two of them have changed ownership after many years in the same homes. This example is KW 229, later numbered SLB 229, registration LFM 810. This superb vehicle was owned by the late John Prince for forty years, but has recently been purchased by Mr. Clive Myers.
KW 229 was used on the 18th April 2015 by the Crosville Enthusiasts Club for a tour of the former network of rural Crosville bus routes in the Vale of Clwyd. Just over twenty of us had an excellent day out in beautiful scenery, in this real classic vehicle. Wherever we went, heads were turning and passers by took photographs of the bus! Here it is seen at Penycefn, on the long abandoned service M59.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Don McKeown

04/05/15 – 08:00

Nice, Don! Thanks for posting. Most of my experience with vehicles in Tilling livery had them in red (Cumberland and West Yorkshire) before I moved south, with very rare views of Crosville. Down here in the "Sunny south" – swilling down as I type this! – it was the other way, mainly Hants & Dorset in green with the occasional Wilts & Dorset.

Pete Davies

04/05/15 – 08:01

If ever there was a truly classic bus then this Bristol/ECW combination must surely be it!

Larry B

05/05/15 – 07:29

Beautiful! Brings back schoolboy memories of Hants & Dorset’s 73 and 73A, as well as the very short-lived 73B (Lee-on-Solent to Fareham direct, missing out Stubbington).

David Wragg

06/08/16 – 07:18

What a fine condition this bus looks to be in here and nice to see it’s in the hands of an ex-NBC owner! Did Crosville vehicles have green wheels in those days?

I rarely visited Crosville territory, other than Liverpool, but one swift foray on July 3, 1962 to Llandudno resulted in this photo of LFM 757 Crosville fleet no. SLB176 (formerly KW176) showing, what I now see on the classicbuses website, a unique attachment. The GPO box appears to be in a scruffier condition than the bus!
Although SLB176 has a very close registration to KW 229, it is of the 7ft 6in wide, 30ft long LL6B variety. The 8ft wide ECW body fitted to some LL chassis and the LWL chassis had two rear windows thus providing a quick identification from the rear.

Geoff Pullin

08/08/16 – 06:56

One assumes that the opening boot no longer opens on LFM 757.

Petras409

Eastern National Omnibus Co Ltd
1968
Bristol Lodekka FLF6G
ECW CH37/16F

AVX 975G is a Bristol Lodekka FLF6G from the Eastern National fleet and was new in 1968. As can be seen, she has the usual ECW bodywork, but this time it’s in CH37/16F format, so she has "reversed" livery. The Tilling Group’s answer to the Ribble White Ladies? Hardly – I’d prefer not to think about how this combination would look with a full front! She’s seen at Wisley on 11 April 2010.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Pete Davies

02/05/15 – 06:55

These coaches were some of the very last FLFs to be built. Like most people I liked them but apparently the semi auto ones were not nice to drive.

Nigel Turner

02/05/15 – 08:38

What a lovely picture – a classic very handsome vehicle of impeccable parentage showing clearly the dignity intensified by a very simple but bold livery.

Chris Youhill

02/05/15 – 09:29

A very handsome vehicle – it makes one regret that so few colour photos exist of vehicles of the era that interests us.
What express services did Eastern National operate? Was there a proper bus station at Kings Cross? Birch Bros. used to use the forecourt of St. Pancras Station as a terminus, if memory serves, from a week’s course I spent in a building opposite in 1959.

Chris Hebbron

03/05/15 – 06:40

There’s an audio clip of this vehicle on the Old Bus Sounds page of this site.

Peter Williamson

03/05/15 – 06:41

Thank you for your comments, folks.

Pete Davies

04/05/15 – 07:53

Chris H, ENOC redeveloped the Tilling depot in Northdown Street into a coach station after it assumed management responsibility for Tilling – my dates are a bit vague, but there are some photographs of Northdown Street coach station on this site that were posted in response to a question I raised about the same some time ago. The volume of "The Years Between 1909-1969" (Crawley et als’ three-volume history of the "National" companies) that deals with ENOC (II or III?) will contain a detailed route history – I’m decorating my study at the moment, but I’ll have a route through the storage boxes tonight and try to post a list of ENOC express services operating in 1968 . . . unless somebody else gets there first (please!).

Philip Rushworth

04/05/15 – 07:57

It was May 1963 when Northdown Street coach station opened – all the London express services passed-through or terminated there.
ENOC express routes operating "at some time" in 1968 (as far as I can work out – corrections welcomed) were:
X2 Sudbury – Brixham (jt Royal Blue, Biss Bros)
X3 Southend – Brixham (jt Royal Blue, Harris’s Coaches)
X8 London – Southend via Airport, Direct
X9 Southend – Weston-Super-Mare (jt Bristol Greyhound)
X10 London – Romford – Basildon – Southend/Canvey Island (Canvey island branch ex X7 in 1967)
X11 Enfield – Southend
X14 London – Halstead
X16 Southend – Ilfracombe (jt royal Blue)
X20 Southend – Worthing
X22 Southend – Folkestone
X23 Southend – Hastings – Eastbourne
X24 Southend – Margate – Ramsgate
X25 Southend – Great Yarmouth
X26 Southend Bournemouth
X27 Southend – Clacton – Jaywick – Walton
X28 Southend – Cambridge- Northampton – Birmingham (jt ECOC, Premier, BMMO)
X29 Southend – Derby (jt Trent, Barton, Skills)
X30 Southend – Southsea (DTC)
X31 Basildon – Southsea (DTC)
X32 Clacton – Folkestone (DTC)
X33 Walton – Hastings – Folkestone (DTC)
X34 Clacton – "Thanet Resorts" (DTC)
X35 Southend – Royal Tunbridge Wells (DTC)
X36 Clacton – Rye (DTC)
X40 Gillingham – Great Yarmouth (DTC)
X42 Tilbury – Walton
X44 Horsham – Basildon – Harwich (DTC)
X45 Sudbury – Basildon – Worthing (DTC)
X46 Southend – Norwich – Sheringham
X50 Harlow – Clacton – Walton/Jaywick
X51 Bishop’s Stortford – Southend
X52 Harlow – Felixstowe
X60 London – Stansted Airport
X70 Chelmsford – Great Yarmouth
X71 Braintree – Great Yarmouth (ex Moores, Kelvedon, 1963, from Silver End until 1966)
DTC = Dartford Tunnel Coachways, jt East Kent, M&D, Southdown
X52/X70/X71 were placed in the East Anglian Express pool (jt ECOC, Grey Green) from 25.05.68:
X1 London – Felixstowe via East London (ex ECOC A, GG 1)
X2 London – Great Yarmouth via Bury St Edmunds (ex ECOC P, ENOC X71)
X3 London – Great Yarmouth via Ipswich (ex ENOC X70, ECOC F/Q, GG 12)
X12 Harwich – Sheringham (ex ECOC QQ, GG 12)
X35 London – Felixstowe/Great Yarmouth via North London (ex GG 35)
X52 London – Felixstowe via Harlow (ex ENOC X52)
ENOC were also partners in the Essex Coast Express pool- jt Grey Green, Suttons (Clacton) – from 02.10.67:
X4 London – Walton via East London (ex ENOC X12, GG 4, Suttons)
X33 London – Walton via North London (ex GG 33)
X80 London – Harwich (ex GG 2, incorporating ENOC stage service 80 – Grey Green purchased Colchester – Great Oakley/Dovercourt stage services of Hooks in 10.1967 to facilitate provision of a London – Harwich service via stage connection from London – Clacton service at times when traffic did not justify provision of a through coach, connecting service subsequently worked by ENOC as 80/A/B but jointly licenced to ENOC/GG/Suttons.)
and not forgetting:
322 Great Cornard – Sudbury – Braintree – Dunmow – Harlow – London (stage Great Cornard-Harlow, express Harlow – London; ex Hicks Braintree-London 1950)
or the Limited Stop services introduced in 1967-8:
402 Southend – Grays – Dartford
411 Southend – Chelmsford – St Osyth – Clacton – Walton
419 Southend – Maldon – Weeley – Clacton – Walton
446 Harlow – Chelmsford
453 Tilbury – Chelmsford – Clacton – Walton/
. . . and the longer stage services into London:
151 Southend (Seaway) – Pitsea – Basildon – Brentwood – Wood Green
251 Southend (Tylers Avenue) – Billericay Brentwood – Wood Green
351 Chelmsford – Brentwood – Wood Green

Philip Rushworth

05/05/15 – 07:25

What a superb and classy combination of design and colour scheme – they just look as though each was specifically created for the other….Even the ‘bling-bling’ chrome wheel covers seem right, and you don’t say that very often when you’re talking about a double decker !!

Stuart C

06/05/15 – 07:25

Your rooting was successful, Philip and I appreciate your finding out the routes. I’m amazed at the number and extent of ENOC’s Express routes, admittedly some joint, and the wide variety of places they went to as well. I don’t recall ever seeing any of their coaches, either in London, Southsea or Essex, when I periodically visited relatives in Colchester. Strange that.

Chris Hebbron

08/05/15 – 06:40

Did Tilling operators ever have DP vehicles and a hybrid colour scheme like the famous red and black NWRCC Willowbrook/Tiger Cubs ?

Stuart C

08/05/15 – 17:35

Stuart, Wilts and Dorset had a d/p livery – standard tilling red below the waist-line, and a very dark maroon/red above, with a cream waist band and other cream embellishments. It looked very handsome. I don’t have any photos to add, but I am looking at an EFE model of a Bristol LS saloon decked out in this way, and I remember coming across them on various occasions in my youth. I think Bristol Omnibus also added more cream to their standard Tilling green/cream buses when they were d/p vehicles. Did they also add more green to some cream coaches when these were demoted?

Michael Hampton

31/05/15 – 06:37

What a fine picture of a fine vehicle. Not readily apparent in the design is that from 1967 onwards, ECW adopted a one-piece glass-fibre assembly for the front upper deck of FLFs. The body outline remained unchanged, but the moulding extended from the front dome down to the top of the cream band above the cab, and as far back as the first side pillar. The practice was continued with the introduction of the Bristol VRT in 1968. For many years West Yorkshire kept a spare VRT front upper deck assembly in its Body Shop on Westmoreland Street in Harrogate. The assembly was suspended from the side of the gantry above the woodwork shop with strong ropes, and looked to be quite a substantial affair.

Brendan Smith

31/05/15 – 09:03

Well Brendan that is a surprise and I for one never realised that such a one piece assembly had been designed by the wonderful Eastern Coachworks. Another brilliant "one piece" component, which always impressed me greatly, was at the rear of the lower saloons of the VRs. This was a beautifully styled affair which, quite apart from looking neat and pleasing, no doubt shielded the passengers from engine fumes and "soot marks" which were sadly often evident in many early rear engined double deckers.

Chris Youhill

20/07/15 – 06:58

I was a conductor in Basildon in 1970 and conducted these to Kings Cross. We had special coloured Setright ticket rolls to use on the expresses.

Mr Anon

20/07/15 – 16:40

Intrigued by Philip’s list of services above, as there are two X2 and two X3 in the list London – Great Yarmouth or Southend/Sudbury – Brixham.
I wondered if the latter had numbers determined by the joint operation, but the Royal Blue timetable has the Sudbury and Southend – Brixham service as X22, and joint between RB and ENOC (only). Similarly, the ENOC Southend – Ilfracombe X16 is listed as X23 in the Royal Blue book, and the X26 Southend – Bournemouth is X28 in the Royal Blue book.
It seems the service was co-ordinated, but the service number not — and still leaves ENOC with two pairs of routes with the same number. (Not to mention two different X23 and X28 services at Southend).

Peter Delaney

22/09/18 – 06:43

I am trying to find information about the former eastern national bus route No.30 that ran in the early 1960s between Chelmsford and London bow(Tomlins Grove) I used to see this bus parked up in Tomlins Grove on the to school in 1963 I was wondering what happened to this route regarding service withdrawal etc. as I moved away from East London when this bus route was still operating.

Christopher Johnson

24/09/18 – 06:14

The Service 30 to Bow was replaced on January 7th 1968 by a new Service 351 running Chelmsford – Brentwood and then following the 251 route to Wood Green. The weekday service was cut back to Romford in April 1971 as were the Sunday journeys in February 1973. In 2018, Service 351 runs half hourly between Chelmsford and Brentwood.

Nigel Turner