Bristol Bus and Coach Books - History and Models

Bristol Buses and Coaches

Based in the city of the same name, Bristol commenced production of buses at the turn of the twentieth century, initially for its own bus fleet. Soon Bristol products could be seen nationwide, and became known for their rugged durability.

Covering the period from the 1960s until the end of production in 1983, this book gives an overview of many of the models to come out of the Brislington factory. Containing a brief description of each chassis type and 180 photographs, all in colour and with informative captions, it showcases Bristol's products when in their operating heyday.

Bristol Omnibus Company - The Twilight Years

A number of books have chronicled the history and vehicles of the Bristol Omnibus Co. It was one of the largest and greatest of British bus operators and - with a nod in the direction of Midland Red - unique in that, as well as operating buses, it also constructed them and supplied them to the entire industry. This book is a little different.

The author spent two decades working for the company as a conductor and driver. A devotee of buses and keen amateur photographer, for several years during the late 1970s he kept a record on film of the company's vehicles and operations as he experienced them.
He visited the extremities of the company's territory and sometimes even took his camera to work with him to snap his own bus on little-known services at obscure locations.

On Saturdays, when maintenance staff only worked a half day and he had the place to himself in the afternoons, he strolled around the yard of the company's main depot and Central Repair Works at Lawrence Hill, where `time-expired' buses awaiting disposal to dealers and their spanking-new, freshly delivered replacements were to be found.
Oddities not normally seen on the roads, or vehicles from the fascinating ancillary fleet, were usually present.

This wonderful collection of photos is of particular poignancy in that it records a period on the very eve of this famous company's demise. Within a few years it had been broken up into `operating units' in readiness for the privatisation apocalypse of 1986 and the deregulation of the industry. These were its Twilight Years.

Bristol City Buses

The Bristol Omnibus Company can trace its origins to 1875, when Sir George White formed the Bristol Tramways Company. The company operated its first city bus service, a horse-bus to Clifton, in 1887 and first introduced motor buses in 1906.
Not satisfied with the vehicles that it had bought, in 1908 the company began to manufacture its own buses and soon began to sell them to other operators as well, Bristol buses being built for use both in Britain and abroad for 75 years.
Bristol buses carried a scroll logo adopted from the Bristol Aeroplane Company, also set up by Sir George White, to commemorate the building of Bristol Fighters at Brislington tram works during the First World War.
Following the Second World War, the company was nationalised, later to be re-privatised in the 1980s.

In this book, Bristol bus expert Mike Walker uses a wide range of images to tell the story of buses in the city of Bristol.

Bristol Country Buses

The Bristol Tramways Company started operating buses in 1906 to feed traffic into their tram services from beyond Bristol's city boundaries. In 1910, a branch of the company was opened in Weston-super-Mare, and the company would go on to open its first bus station on the sea front there in the 1930s. Following the Second World War, other bus stations would be built at Wells and Bath.

Following the war, the Bristol Omnibus Company, as it was re-named, was under state control and it became part of the National Bus Company on 1 January 1969. In September 1983, Bristol operations outside the city of Bristol itself became known as Badgerline, extending as far as Chippenham, Calne, Gloucester, Salisbury, Taunton and Yeovil. In 1995, Badgerline became part of FirstGroup.

In this profusely illustrated book, Mike Walker, author of Bristol City Buses, tells the story of the Bristol country services.

Bristol RE Buses and Coaches

In 1961 the maximum length of single-deckers was increased to 36 feet. Bristol Commercial Vehicles and Eastern Coach Works designed their first rear-engined single-decker to take advantage of this new length. Two prototypes were built and tested in service in 1962.

United Automobile Services had the RELL version with a low chassis frame for bus work. South Midland had the RELH version with a high frame for coach work. Production started in 1963, with Eastern Coach Works-bodied buses and coaches for the nationalised Tilling Group companies, plus some Alexander-bodied coaches for the nationalised Scottish Motor Traction Group companies.

In this book the author illustrates the Bristol RE in service from 1970 to 1994 in England and North Wales. This includes Tilling Group companies, National Bus Company subsidiaries, municipal operators and independents, some of the new companies created from bus deregulation and privatisation from 1986, plus a few more recent photos of preserved Bristol REs.

The Buses and Coaches of Bristol and Eastern Coach Works

Outlines the history of Bristol Commercial Vehicles and Eastern Coach Works (ECW), two manufacturers that together developed some of the most familiar buses and coaches of the twentieth century.

This book covers the full production histories and specifications for the standard range of models produced from 1936 to 1983.

Fully illustrated throughout with hundreds of photographs, the book covers:
- The origins of Bristol and ECW.
- Development of Bristol models in the 1930s - J-type single-decker, K-type double-decker and L-type single decker
- The engines, including the Bristol petrol and diesel engines, and other manufacturers' engines used in Bristol chassis
- The Lodekka - the radical replacement for the Lowbridge double-decker in the 1950s
- The single-deckers of the 1950s - The LWL, LS, SC, and MW
- The rear-engined era - The RE single-decker and the VR double-decker
- The lightweight LH single-decker and the final years of production
- Owners' experiences and advice on buying a bus for preservation.

Eastern Coach Works - A Pictorial Tribute

Eastern Coach Works, known as ECW, was based in Lowestoft in Suffolk. The history of ECW goes back several decades, though in this book we pay tribute to buses and coaches bodied during the sixties, seventies and eighties.

Originally formed by United Automobile Services, the Lowestoft operation was passed on to the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company in 1931.
By 1969 ECW was jointly owned by the National Bus Company and British Leyland, with the latter taking full control in 1982.

ECW bodies were most common on chassis built by Bristol Commercial Vehicles, of which the National Bus Company was certainly their biggest customer, and the stylish bodies graced the likes of the Bristol Lodekka, LH, RE and VR, of which the latter was a common sight still in service across England in to the twenty-first century, some twenty-five years after the factory shut down. ECW was closed in 1987.

In this evocative and lavishly illustrated tribute, Peter Horrex offers a wonderfully nostalgic view of an iconic British company.