When I was asked to produce something in the livery of Armstrongs of Ebchester, chose this ex-United 'Thames-Tees-Tyne' Brush-bodied Leyland TS8. Not only does it look well in Armstrong's unusual blue and green livery, but the Thames-Tees-Tyne connection is appropriate.
Robert Armstrong was one of the pioneers on the Tyneside to Newcastle service (later extended northwards to Edinburgh and Glasgow), running from 1926 until selling out in 1932. Whilst others later jumped on the bandwagon, the very first company on this lucrative route was Orange Brothers of Bedlington, who sold out to the Tilling Group in 1934. Tilling put the company under United's wings, who adopted Orange's distinctive olive green and cream livery (and initially retained the Orange name) for the London service. Had events developed differently, this TS8 could have carried Thames-Tees-Tyne branding on Armstrong's livery (updated 06-Nov-09).
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Tags: Armstrongs of Ebchester Leyland TS8 Brush
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Notwithstanding its pioneering venture into long-distance express services, Armstrongs of Ebchester is probably best remembered as a local bus operator. It isn't a company that I knew personally but photographic evidence suggests that it maintained a very high standard of appearance. It certainly replaced some of its front-line coaches on a very short cycle, some of which gave many years further service for subsequent operators (at the time of writing, three were still active on the Maltese islands).
As far as service buses are concerned, a wide variety of chassis and body combinations were sampled over the years. The Plaxton Highway was favoured for the Leyland Tiger Cub rather than the Sauder-Roe 'SARO' body depicted here, which nevertheless looks quite at home in the predominantly blue version of Armstrong's livery. The company's final service bus, before selling out to the Go-Ahead Group in 1995, was a Plaxton Derwent II-bodied Scania, which sadly carried a plain white livery with large fleetnames; it later received OK Travel livery - that company having being acquired by the Go-Ahead Group shortly beforehand) (15-Sep-09).
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Tags: Armstrongs of Ebchester Leyland Tiger Cub Saunders-Roe SARO
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The Albion Viking was developed to meet a Scottish Bus Group requirement for a lighter and more economical alternative to the Leyland Leopard, and featured an in-line, vertically-mounted rear engine. Venture Transport of Consett evaluated demonstrator EGG 559C but it did not find favour and no order resulted. This scenario presumes that, after its time with Venture, EGG 559C found a home with near-neighbour Robert Armstrong of Ebchester, where it became the regular bus on the company's sole stage carriage route between Consett and the Hat & Feather public house (13-Apr-20).
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Tags: Albion Viking Alexander Y-Type Armstrongs Motor Services
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This is a re-work of an earlier image, which featured spurious Seddon-Atkinson badges. It now represents an actual vehicle EBR 850S, which was new in 1978 to OK Motor Services of Bishop Auckland (in whose livery it will be featured shortly). It led a nomadic life after sale by OK in 1983. This fictional image supposes that it passed through the hands of Armstrongs of Ebchester and is preserved in that company's livery (updated 23-Aug-15).
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Tags: Armstrongs of Ebchester Plaxton Supreme EBR 850S Seddon Pennine 7
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Given the similarity of fleetname and livery style, it would be natural to look for some connection between Armstrongs of Ebchester and the similarly named Westerhope business, but they were quite separate. Robert Armstrong of Westerhope (a small community on the north-western fringes of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne) was essentially a coach operator that dipped in and out of local bus operations over the years.
Whilst the fleet mainly comprised luxury coaches, there were always a few service buses, including double-deckers acquired mainly for contract work. For many years, the service bus work was handled by a pair of former Venture Transport Atkinsons. This fictional Tiger Cub dates from that era, by which time the Armstrong Group had acquired control of Galley Coaches and Moor-Dale, both of which continued to operate as outwardly separate businesses. Moor-Dale ultimately went its own way, ending up under the control of Northumbria Motor Services. Meanwhile Armstrongs and Galley were acquired by the Tyne & Wear PTE and continued to operate from PTE premises as its Armstrong Galley Coaching division into the de-regulation era (09-Oct-09).
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Tags: Armstrongs of Westerhope Leyland Tiger Cub Weymann
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