I wonder if anyone can solve a puzzle re: a D/Decker which was at Cambridge depot Eastern Counties Omnibus Co until early 70's (see subject heading). The Eastern Counties LKH code stands for Bristol K, KS & KSW highbridge Double Decker.
I'm almost certain that this vehicle only had a 4cyl Gardner engine, but what puzzled me was that below the front passenger window above the nearside mudguard, was a huge cylindrical vessel, obviously too large to fit beneath the bonnet. Was this an air filter or an oil cooler/filter..does anybody know? I've never seen a picture of any other Bristol bus with this attachment, and I remember that when taking over this vehicle on route 106, my colleagues would refer to it as the "coffee grinder". This could have been a reference to the vessel I am asking about, or the 4cyl engine. I would imagine the vehicle was scrapped in the 70's or 80's unless preserved, but have never seen one like it since.
Norman Long
15/10/12 - 07:46
Norman, although Eastern Counties did have some Bristol L4G (4LW) single deckers in its fleet, as far as I am aware, they did not operate any double- deckers with this power unit. The 5.6 litre 4LW's output was quite modest (75 bhp), and it would probably have been a somewhat sluggish performer in a 'decker, but as we often find out on this website, all sorts of interesting discoveries are made, so you never know! Your description of a cylindrical device on the front nearside bulkhead is intriguing. This was usually the site for an Autovac, a device which drew fuel up from the fuel tank by vacuum, and then allowed the effects of gravity to supply the fuel to the engine. Bristol dispensed with this on later K and L types, when mechanically-operated lift pumps then did the job. Autovacs were generally box-shaped in design, but the device you describe was cylindrical. Could this have been a Gardner oil bath air filter, perhaps fitted as an experiment? Although not usually fitted to home market K or L types, in Alan Townsin's excellent book 'The Bristol Story' (Part One), there is a picture of a Bristol L5G destined for India (one of an order for 100) with an oil bath filter fitted to the nearside bulkhead. (Presumably this had a mechanical lift pump). Gardner advised the fitting of their oil bath filters in dusty operating conditions, in order to prevent the contaminated air dramatically increasing cylinder bore wear. The filter canisters were cylindrical in shape Norman, and quite large, so it is quite possible that your 'coffee grinder' could have been one of those.
Brendan Smith
15/10/12 - 17:27
Norman, neither Paul Carter's comprehensive history of buses in Cambridge nor Maurice Doggett's booklet of the first fifty years of Eastern Counties make any reference to a 4LW powered Bristol K type double decker. Eastern Counties certainly believed in using the smallest engines possible in all its vehicles, and the prototype LS had a 4LW, but I would agree with Brendan that, even for this economy conscious operator, the use of this 5.6 litre engine in a double decker would have been a step just a little too far.
Roger Cox
18/10/12 - 17:27
Thank you for the answers to my question...The bus in question must therefore have had a 5cyl Gardner fitted as it had the very steep Castle Hill to negotiate on the 106 route to Girton Corner in those days, and an underpowered double decker with a full load from Cambridge city centre would have struggled the climb up to Huntingdon Road. The remainder of that route was completely flat. As Brendan says, the object that I remember must have been an oil bath filter...It was the only one like it. I would like to see a photo of this type to confirm, but as yet, no luck
Norman Long
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