Crosville Motor Services Ltd
1967
Bristol RESL6G
ECW DP42F
Crosville was the first to operate the then latest version of the Bristol RESL with shortened wheelbase and extended front overhang giving a wider entrance door arrangement. These were also the first with this design of ECW body characterised by the shallow flat windscreens.
Crosville put this batch of six into service in July 1967 on the long Rail Replacement service D94 between Wrexham and Barmouth. This served a sparsely populated area with Llangollen, Corwen, Bala and Dolgellau as the intermediate towns of any size. These six were synonymous with this route for many years but here in 1977 is ERG 2 in NBC days crossing the Cambrian Coast Railway line at Fairbourne on the S28 Tywyn to Dolgellau route. The NBC ‘Local Coach’ version of the leaf green livery with white upperworks looks pretty smart.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Ian Wild
10/07/20 – 06:14
I think these were the only dual purpose RESLs in the THC group of companies, although Midland General famously had two RESHs. Some of these vehicles were used elsewhere when brand new; ERG 2 was new to Llandudno Junction, and ERG 3 and 4 were at Caernarfon, although they soon migrated to the D94. Around 1974, A longer example, ERG 272 was transferred to Dolgellau Depot for use on the D94, and ERG2 was then used on other services from Dolgellau as shown here.
When new, these vehicles were painted cream with a green waistband, and they looked superb in that livery. ERG 3 is magnificently preserved in that livery.
Don McKeown
10/07/20 – 06:16
As far as the shorter length RE was concerned, the RESL seems to have been the almost universal choice for bus work but I wonder about it’s merits for dual purpose use, particularly if some of the front seats faced sideways. However, Crosville seemed to like them and as Ian says, used them on some long services although I’m not too sure about the prospect of sitting rather low down or sideways at the front for perhaps a couple of hours or so.
Midland General had a couple of short REs with this type of body but on the RESH chassis, with 43 dual purpose seats, all facing forward. Surprisingly, I believe they were the only ones bodied by ECW.
Chris Barker
16/07/20 – 10:16
United used the long version of the dual purpose RE on the five and a half hour 505 Newcastle to Edinburgh via Berwick service – not to my mind the most suitable of vehicles, and the seats were not especially comfortable. The route was jointly operated by Eastern Scottish who used Leyland Leopards and AEC Reliances with Alexander Y Type coach bodies. These were much more comfortable to ride on and seemed better suited to the route, although with the disadvantage of high entrance steps. The RELLs would be replaced after a few years by dual purpose RELHs with all forward facing seats and they in turn were replaced by downgraded RELH coaches, originally used on the Newcastle to London service. They would I suppose have been about ten years old then, but were still superb vehicle to travel on, however by that time, the service was being operated in two parts with passengers required to change vehicles at Berwick.
John Gibson
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Sheffield Corporation
1968
AEC Swift 2P2R
Park Royal B53F
Sheffield took delivery of two batches of AEC Swifts in 1968. The 2P2R type was fitted with the AH691 engine, ideal for the Sheffield hills. The first 11 buses were single doorway for the Joint Committee B fleet as shown here. These buses were initially put to work on the Inner Circle services 8 and 9 despite these being category A services. 1023 is seen here so employed when just a few weeks old at Hunters Bar. The Inner Circle routes took one hour for a round trip serving the older and inner parts of the City. The small window beneath the nearside windscreen had a roller blind behind which could be set to either blank (as here) or Please Pay as you Enter as appropriate.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Ian Wild
29/06/20 – 06:21
Who knows? I could have been lurking within 1023. I was a pupil of King Edward VII School on Newbold Lane from 1964-1971 and these were my regular mode of transport to and from school from 1968. Fast and smooth but, in retrospect, not the equal of the RE. Ironic that, shortly afterwards, an order for the superb RE was changed for the flawed VRT.
David Oldfield
15/07/20 – 06:45
I think you and I spent many a happy hour waitiog for these Swifts and before that – whatever could be mustered from East Bank Road depot at that time in the morning, be it a 30ft long AEC Regent V with Weymann, Alexander or Roe bodywork, a PD3, Atlantean, Fleetline or even somethingg older. What a splendid mix was the Sheffield fleet right up to the 1970s.
The Swifts had a hard life climbing up and down the ferocious hills of the Steel City to Lodge Moor, Gleadless, Upperthorpe, Walkley and, as here, on the Inner Circle. Of course they never looked as good as this once taken over by the South Yorkshire PTE.
Philip Hanwell
17/07/20 – 07:33
Yes, it was a bit of a hotch potch just prior to the Swifts. Not sure about the B fleet Regents Vs or Fleetlines, but we certainly had the rest – and older. [Not to mention the fleet of almost retired Regent IIIs and PD2s used to ferry us to games at Trapp Lane and Castle Dyke.]
David Oldfield
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Yorkshire Woollen District
1961
AEC Regent V 2D3RA
Northern Counties H39/31F
Yorkshire Woollen was fundamentally a Leyland operator, apart from a few Guy Arabs in the early post war years. The first YWD Regent Vs appeared when ten Metro Cammell H39/31F bodied buses of the LD3RA type were delivered in 1958, to be followed by fifteen more in 1959, but these were of the 2LD3RA variety. The following year saw the arrival of another nine, still with Metro Cammell bodies, but the chassis was now the 2D3RA. Early in 1961 came a further ten, FHD 116 to 125, with the original fleet numbers 842 to 851, but these had the much superior Northern Counties bodywork of similar capacity. By 1966, with fleet numbers approaching 1000, the fleet was renumbered, and the Northern Counties batch became 89 to 98 inclusive. Photographed in August 1970, Yorkshire Woollen Regent V FHD 121, now carrying the number 94 is seen in Bradford in the company of others of its kind operated by Bradford Corporation. By this time, in NBC ownership, this nine years old bus is beginning to look rather shabby at the front end.
Photograph and Copy contributed by Roger Cox
23/06/20 – 06:41
It may be worse for wear at the front but a plus point is that it has reverted to a chrome radiator surround. Previous models of this batch prior to the cream band addition (mid sixties?) had the radiator surround painted red.
John Blackburn
24/06/20 – 06:29
Is this bus unusual in having the original YORKSHIRE signage in pre-NBC style, or was this common to the fleet and unique in NBC?
Chris Hebbron
25/06/20 – 07:16
Taken in August 1970 this picture would predate the corporate identity that didn’t begin to appear on buses until 1972
Ken Aveyard
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