Placenames to Conjure With
I am not prurient enough to call this picture taken By Ron Doig at Duxford a pair of Bristols (though I know many who would). Looking at the destination screens on these two Bristol Commercial Vehicles products tells an interesting tale however; the Crosville-liveried series one Bristol RELL6G HFM594D dates from 1966 and was fitted with fifty coach seats for express services from Merseyside to North Wales holiday resorts and thirty years later was restored in the ownership of Northern Bus, whose proprietor, Duncan Roberts had a soft spot for all things Bristol/ECW and all things Crosville. It was one of three former Crosville Bristol/ECW buses in his charge that he lent to Gavin Booth (of Edinburgh) and Steven Morris (not of Somerset) for a Classic Bus roadtest. As the others were a five-speed FS6G and an SC4LK, the RE with its air suspension, synchromesh and adequate power was the easy winner.
The Wales on the destination blind of HFM594D is a former pit village near Killamarsh in South Yorkshire: not so far away is Rhodesia.
Unlike deep mining the Cornish town of Mousehole is very much still with us, and although the local pronunciation is alleged to be closer to ‘Mowzle’ the name does imply a place with restricted dimensions; the Marshall-bodied LHS6L in Western National livery is VOD125K one of twelve shared between Western National and Devon General. Marshall had previously built narrow LHS6Ls for Soutern Vectis but ECW engineered its own narrow body from 1973.
Western National shared the services to Mousehole pre-deregulation with Harvey’s of the town whose fleet consisted of a former Halifax Weymann bodied Albion Nimbus and two LHS6Ls, one with a later style of Marshall body and one with a Wadham Stringer Vanguard.
Ron Doig image ©Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust
Placenames to Conjure With
I am not prurient enough to call this picture taken By Ron Doig at Duxford a pair of Bristols (though I know many who would). Looking at the destination screens on these two Bristol Commercial Vehicles products tells an interesting tale however; the Crosville-liveried series one Bristol RELL6G HFM594D dates from 1966 and was fitted with fifty coach seats for express services from Merseyside to North Wales holiday resorts and thirty years later was restored in the ownership of Northern Bus, whose proprietor, Duncan Roberts had a soft spot for all things Bristol/ECW and all things Crosville. It was one of three former Crosville Bristol/ECW buses in his charge that he lent to Gavin Booth (of Edinburgh) and Steven Morris (not of Somerset) for a Classic Bus roadtest. As the others were a five-speed FS6G and an SC4LK, the RE with its air suspension, synchromesh and adequate power was the easy winner.
The Wales on the destination blind of HFM594D is a former pit village near Killamarsh in South Yorkshire: not so far away is Rhodesia.
Unlike deep mining the Cornish town of Mousehole is very much still with us, and although the local pronunciation is alleged to be closer to ‘Mowzle’ the name does imply a place with restricted dimensions; the Marshall-bodied LHS6L in Western National livery is VOD125K one of twelve shared between Western National and Devon General. Marshall had previously built narrow LHS6Ls for Soutern Vectis but ECW engineered its own narrow body from 1973.
Western National shared the services to Mousehole pre-deregulation with Harvey’s of the town whose fleet consisted of a former Halifax Weymann bodied Albion Nimbus and two LHS6Ls, one with a later style of Marshall body and one with a Wadham Stringer Vanguard.
Ron Doig image ©Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust