United Automobile Services
1965
Bristol MW6G
ECW B45F

This is the Bristol MW version with what I think has a very good looking front I think they got the idea from the SUL and improved on it. In all the time I have been on the web researching other buses I have never seen a photo of a similar looking ‘Bristol’ with any other operator, if you know of one please let me know.
Other single deck buses were beginning to switch over to a single piece windscreens in 1965 as the previous ‘Roadliner’. I do not think ECWs ever stopped having split windscreens having seen a photo of a 1974 West Yorkshire Road Car RE which still had a split windscreen.

A full list of Bristol codes can be seen here.

A full list of United codes can be seen here.

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This particular type of MW front was unique to United and appeared in the mid-sixties towards the end of MW production. Some of them may have been operated by Ribble, following transfer of United’s depot at Carlisle to Ribble in the early days of NBC. Regarding ECW windscreens, they remained split no doubt to minimise the expense of replacement units. My old employee (West Yorkshire Road Car) had problems with cracking on some RELL buses fitted with BET screens. They were quite costly to replace (especially the electrically heated ones), but a one-piece job would have been even more so. Even the later designs such as the Olympian and B51 coaches had split screens, as did such exotica as the bodies on tri-axle Olympian chassis for Gray Linetours in the US, and Hong Kong citybus. Looks like the last ECW bodies were as practical as the first.

Brendan Smith

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03/04/11 – 08:57

As regards BL55/56 these two buses worked out of Darlington on service Darlington/Newcastle which was number 46 and changed to 721/722 when it was NBC, as I drove these on many a shift. They were never on any other route.

Brian Whitaker