THE SELNEC BRISTOL VRT'S AND THE PRESERVATION OF 408 (AJA 408L)

Manchester and the other 10 Companies that were brought together to form SELNEC on 1st November 1969 did not operate any Bristol double-deck buses whatsoever. In fact the only Bristols that were inherited and operated were six single-deck Bristol RESL6G's from SHMD 5073-5078. Later on, because of the acquisition of North Western on 1st January 1972, these six Bristol single deck vehicles were added to, with an additional 61, taking the total to 67 - 270-275/277-301/315-344 all Bristol RESL6G's.

SELNEC themselves ordered three Bristol LHS6L coaches 92-93/98, and a Bristol LH6L coach (LLG 340G) was acquired from Godfrey Abbott.

The absorption of Wigan in 1974 meant that six Bristol single-deck LH2's, 1320-1325 joined the Fleet and one of these has been acquired by a member of The SELNEC Preservation Society, being 1321, BNE 764N. However, although ordered by Wigan, these six LH2's were actually delivered to Greater Manchester Transport after the absorption of Wigan on 1st April 1974.

In April 1981, the full absorption of the LUT Fleet into GMT following initial acquisition on 1st January 1976, brought the following additional single-deck Bristols into the GMT Fleet, being 245-264/294-313/414-423, 50 RESL6G vehicles. In addition, there were 20 LH2 single-deck buses, 318-327. Consequently, Bristol was a rare make of vehicle to be seen in the SELNEC/GMT Fleet as preference by Manchester and most of the other organisations, particularly in terms of the double-deck vehicles, had been Leylands and Daimlers.

Stockport had ordered ten East Lancs bodied Bristol VRT double deck vehicles (5898-5907) one of which had been completed before they were destroyed by fire in April 1970. However, at the time of the absorption of North Western into the SELNEC Fleet in January 1972, on order were 25 Eastern Coachwork bodied Bristol VRT's, being an order placed by North Western, which could not be cancelled by SELNEC, and thus the vehicles arrived, the only Bristol VRT's (and the only double deck Bristol vehicles) to be in the SELNEC Fleet.

They arrived in sunglow orange/mancunian white with orange moquette on the lower deck and orange hide on the upper deck, with Manchester style destination lay-outs. Original numbers were 400- 424 (AJA 400-424L), being later re-numbered 1400-1424.

SELNEC ran in three Divisions -Central, Northern and Southern, with appropriate flashes of blue, red and green, and all experimental/pool vehicles ran with orange SELNEC flashes. North Western became a special Division of SELNEC, being SELNEC Cheshire, and ran with brown flashes, and although ex-North Western re-painted vehicles had the SELNEC Cheshire name applied, 400-424 were the only vehicles delivered new in the SELNEC Cheshire livery.

When these vehicles came out of service in 1985, GMT were operating a vehicle smashing policy and only two vehicles were sold, 418 and 421 before this policy of destroying vehicles (so that they could not be used by the competition) was adopted, rather than selling them on for further use.

The remaining 23 were destined for destruction this way, although this occurred to 22 of them, as 408 was set aside in Altrincham Depot for possible preservation and by the time it became available for disposal, the smashing-up policy had ended. The preservation did not go through and the PTE sold it to Kirkby Central, with hundreds of other surplus vehicles, at de-regulation.

Consequently, it was purchased by Willis's of Bodmin on 30th May 1988, who ran it in their pleasant light blue livery for over ten years. Therefore, out of the 25 vehicles, only three saw further service, and early in 1998, 418 and 421 were scrapped by Silcox, leaving 408 as the only remaining example of this type of bus. Willis's ran the bus on School Service for the last 10 years, and looked after it extremely well, always having a Conductor on board. They regularly maintained it and replaced parts, as and when required.

We had planned to visit the vehicle during 1998 as part of our programme of keeping in touch with the owners of buses that we hope to acquire for preservation. We did a tour of all other projects between 23rd and 25th May 1998 and planned to visit 408 over the weekend of 24th-25th October 1998. However, whilst confirming these plans, Mr & Mrs Willis explained that they were retiring at the end of the year, and as a result, 408 was to be sold, and because we wished to preserve it, we were given first refusal of purchasing it.

The first time we looked at the bus and made contact with Mr & Mrs Willis was in October 1992, and we visited on a second occasion in 1996. Consequently, during our third visit we travelled to Bodmin on the Saturday, 24th October 1998, staying overnight, and visited the bus on Sunday, 25th October 1998, we made arrangements for the purchase of 408. We finally travelled down to Bodmin again on Tuesday afternoon, 29th December 1998, stayed overnight, then brought back 408, 350 miles to Leigh on Sunday, 30th December 1998, thus making it, at the time, our 22nd vehicle in preservation.

The only remaining Bristol VR delivered to the SELNEC PTE is 408, being one of the original order placed by North Western but delivered to SELNEC Cheshire in 1973, as the remaining 24 vehicles from the batch (400-424) have been scrapped.

We collected the vehicle on Wednesday 30th December 1998 from Willis's of Bodmin who were running it in their pleasant two-tone blue livery and we secured official ownership on 1st January 1999.

The bus was originally stored in our Wigan facility, being moved in-doors to Leigh during 1999, and it has been designated as the major restoration project for 2001.

When we returned from the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally from the Museum of Transport to Heaton Park on 3rd September 2000, we decided to bring 408 to the front of the premises in Leigh in order to position it ready for work to commence. Bearing in mind that we had four vehicles out of Leigh at the time, this was an ideal opportunity to undertake this mini move around.

On the day, we attended the rally in 7232, EX1, 8001, 1451 and 8765, and when these vehicles returned to Leigh, before they were parked up 7185 and 1066 were taken out to allow more room, and 5001 was moved back. 408 was driven out from its position in the middle of the depot and 1451 parked in its position. 7185 and 1066 were then put back in position, along with 5001, and the remainder of the vehicles that returned from the rally were parked up (i.e. 7232, EX1 and 8001) with 8765 returning to Wigan.

408 was now in place in the working bay at the front of the depot in Leigh, and initial work commenced on it on our working day on 15th October 2000. As is usual, the first task was to undertake a full inspection of the vehicle and to list all aspects to be repaired, renovated or replaced. 

A full analysis took place of the spare parts that would need to be secured that were unique to the Bristol VR design, that we did not have in stock or could not be replicated, and armed with this list we made arrangements to visit a scrapyard that specialises in Bristol VR's, being Ben Jordan's yard in Coltishall, Norfolk.

As a consequence of our need to secure parts from this yard, a trip was organised for seven members of the Society who all travelled by train or by car to Coltishall, on Saturday 25th November 2000. All stayed overnight at a local Guest House, with an early start on Sunday morning, 26th November 2000, to visit the scrapyard which had an enormous array of hundreds of vehicles, most of which were Bristol VR's of one design or another.

The first task was to identify which vehicles contained parts that would be of use, which took some time bearing in mind the size of the site and the number of vehicles present, but having organised ourselves into groups to identify the parts in question we then undertook the exercise of securing all the parts we needed. We did not come away with everything we wanted, but we secured the majority of the parts we had identified that were unique to the Bristol VR's and which we needed to assist in the rectification of 408.

Unfortunately, as only 25 of these vehicles were delivered to SELNEC/GMT, there are certain internal aspects missing which we were never going to secure from Ben Jordan's yard, as they are unique in terms of colour or design to SELNEC/GMT vehicles and these will have to be specially made or replicated in the future.

Many years ago when we embarked upon securing a number of ex-SELNEC/GMT Standard Atlanteans and Fleetlines bodied by Northern Counties and Park Royal, records were available and transfers were still readily accessible, and we identified exactly what the transfers were that were applied to these vehicles, and where, and secured a quantity.

Obviously our Preservation activities have diversified over the years, in that we have secured a considerable number of different types of vehicles and it occurred to us that we did not necessarily have all the information we needed as to the application of transfers on the Bristol VR's, Metrobuses or other newer types of vehicles we have secured. We are therefore embarking upon research to establish precisely the transfer locations on all the vehicles we have when they were new, and securing supplies. Most urgently, of course, this activity has been undertaken with 408. We have been analysing a considerable number of original photographs taken of these vehicles when running for SELNEC in 1973, with a view to identifying the transfers in question, resourcing them from our suppliers if they are the same ones used on Standards or having them manufactured if necessary, where they are unique to the SELNEC Bristol VR's.

As a result of our research into the original specification of the application of transfers to these Bristol VR's, we have identified that when they were withdrawn in 1985/86 certain of them appeared never to have been painted in the white/orange/brown livery.

We have clarified that 403, 404, 415, 416, 417 and 418 remained in GMT orange/white throughout their operating life and did not receive the white/orange/brown livery. We also identified that all the others did receive the white/orange/brown livery except for two, which remain as mysteries, those being 414 and 421. Hence, we are not certain whether 414 and 421 finished their operating career with GMT in orange/white or white/orange or brown. If any members have photographic evidence that they were painted in white/orange/brown then we would welcome being advised. Our telephone number, address and e-mail contact are given at the end of this newsletter. It may also be the case that they did not receive the white/orange/brown livery, in which case we would welcome photographic evidence of them being sold at the end of their operating career for GMT in orange/white.

Stage 1 of the work on 408 was to begin to remove all the seat frames so that the internal of the vehicle could be exposed for full renovation and rectification.

We had previously rectified a series of ex-SELNEC/GMT Standards and found the seats on these vehicles came out relatively easily but we faced a particular difficulty with the Bristol, as the seat construction was somewhat different, making their removal after 27 years in place somewhat difficult. Consequently, although this task commenced on 15th October 2000 it continued over subsequent working days, on 12th November 2000 and 17th December 2000, with the final seats being removed on the working day of Sunday 13th January 2001. These will now be sanded down and red-oxided and work will commence on cleaning all the melamine inside the vehicle, sanding down all the surfaces and undertaking the necessary replacement of parts and and they have now almost all been repainted in grey.

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