This final United rendition of the TS8 coach carries full service bus livery of the style used before the company ceased painting the roofs of such vehicles cream. As a former coach, it retains a significant amount of chrome trim in preference to the black lining normally applied to service buses. It also lacks any provision to display a route number, suggesting that it would have been used for workmen and other contract work, and perhaps the occasional service duplication. Despite its advanced years it still presents a very smart appearance.
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Tags: United Automobile Services Leyland TS8 Brush
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The last front-engined single-deckers purchased by United were 30-foot Bristol LLs, which was simply an extended version of the earlier L, with longer wheelbase and an additional window aft of the rear axle. The company did not take examples of the 8-foot wide LLW, which was to be the final development of the L-Type. This one, BG 495 (NHN 163) entered service in July 1951 and was depicted in the photo used as reference for this digital representation on the limited stop service from Leeds to Middlesbrough in April 1959. The caption writer noted that the flexible engine mounting, by then standard, enabled them to bowl along in quite an agreeable way (12-Nov-23).
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Tags: Bristol LL ECW Eastern Coach Works United Automobile Services NHN 163
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This is one type of Bristol that never appeared in the United fleet, which presumably had no need for such a small capacity bus at the time; although it did take a small batch of the subsequent SU type. 323 SCs were built between 1954 and 1961. The largest users were Crosville, Eastern Counties, Lincolnshire and Eastern National fleets. Other Tilling companies had them in single figure numbers. The 35-seat service bus body was designed from the outset for one-person operation. Ideally suited to the flat fenlands of the east of the country, the economical Gardner 4LK engine must have had to work very hard indeed in Crossville's hilly terrain. Around 30 examples survive in preservation. This fictional SC is depicted working United's service 8 from Bishop Auckland to Cotherstone village in Teesdale, an early casualty of service cutbacks (30-Jan-11).
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Tags: United Automobile Services ECW Bristol SC
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As a youngster with very little knowledge of the bus world, I remember the unexpected sight of an unusual, smaller than usual, United bus labouring up Eldon bank on a Service 5 working from Bishop Auckland to New Shildon. I now know that this was Bristol SUL CHN 3C (fleet number 1997), which spend five months at Bishop Auckland from July 1972. One of five SULs delivered new in 1965, and originally numbered S3, it spend most of its working life at Ripon. It was withdrawn and sold in January 1973 (09-Mar-10).
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Tags: United Automobile Services ECW Bristol SUL
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This digitally-coloured image is based on an official United photograph, kindly loaned by Peter Elliott. From the detail differences on the front panel (compare with the Durham District version, which I've modified by reference to other pictures), I presume that it was either the prototype or an early production version.
The LS (Light Saloon) was Bristol's first venture into the underfloor-engined bus market and, as if that wasn't progress enough, it was a semi-integral design with much of its strength coming from the ECW body. Interestingly, just like AEC and Leyland, Bristol returned to a conventional chassis design for succeeding models. The LS was only bodied by ECW (although the ECW body did find its way onto a few Leyland Royal Tigers and at least one Guy) and examples could be seen almost everywhere across the Tilling Group's operating territory. United was a major operator.
My lasting memory of the LS as a passenger is the awkward forward vision through a windscreen that seem to have been positioned more to accommodate the generous destination display than to enable passengers and taller drivers to view the road ahead.
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Tags: United Automobile Services ECW Bristol LS digitally coloured
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