1960s STATE SECTOR SINGLE-DECKER BUS
Reg No: KHW 306E - new 1967
Operator: Cheltenham District
Chassis: Bristol RELL6L
Engine: Leyland 0680 11.1 litre diesel
Gearbox: Semi-automatic
Body: ECW 53 seats
Underfloor engined single-deckers, with their high floors and difficult entrances, became unpopular as the age profile of bus passengers increased. By the mid-1960s operators were calling for rear-engined single-deckers. Some were built with rear engines across the back like double-deckers but this cost floor space. Ramped or stepped floors meant the engine could be located under the floor at the rear on single-deckers, leaving low floors at the front. Manufacturers rushed out poorly developed models which were disasters. One bright spot was the Bristol RE with ECW body which, being nationalised, could only be supplied to state owned operators until 1965. The prototype RE appeared in 1962 and remained in production until the mid-1970s, by which time Bristol was owned by British Leyland which insisted on its replacement by the Leyland National. The RE was available with two chassis frame heights for bus or coach work, two engines (Gardner or Leyland) and three lengths. No. 1000 is to the most popular length of 36 feet.
The first four bus bodied Bristol REs delivered to the Bristol Omnibus Co. were allocated to its Cheltenham District subsidiary. No 1000 was first licensed in June 1967 and, like Bristol’s other early REs, was rebuilt in 1969 to dual entrance/exit arrangement, popular at the time for urban driver only buses. It remained in Cheltenham until withdrawal in 1981, by which time it carried standard National Bus Company green livery. It then came to Wythall and was rebuilt to original single door form and Cheltenham livery.
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 Email: enquiries@wythall.org.uk
