Of Antecedents, MAPs and VRs

Though they’ve all been officially withdrawn from Wilts & Dorset service up to December 2008*, we get the opportunity this month to bid farewell to the venerable Bristol VR. W&D is the last major operator to have a closed-top VR in service. VRs have lasted longer with a major operator here than anywhere. But, life moves on and so, with good grace, we should let the VR retire. Go South Coast’s influx of new Scanias brings comfort beyond even the promise of the Spectras. So it is that there remains no place for antiques like the VR, even on W&D school workings. That’s how it should be.

But we must also recognise the role played by the VR in the everyday life of the people of Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. It was predecessor Hants & Dorset’s bedrock double deck of the 1970s and 1980s and could be seen on trunk, inter-urban, suburban and rural routes throughout the region. There were dual purpose and open top examples. The VR hastened OMO conversions. It was quick and it was modern. It’s rock-solid dependability meant that it lasted even longer in the fleets of England’s school bus providers as a sound second- and third-hand investment, prized above any other body/chassis combination. This has resulted in a lasting legacy of nearly 200 VRs in preservation.

The VR started quite late at H&D, with the arrival of the six newly designed, double-curvature fronted ECW-bodied Series IIs in December 1972. The body modifications were to last till H&D’s final VR, its 150th, in December 1980. Few remember, though, that H&D ordered up to a further 19, all of which were diverted in 1981 to hungry-for-deckers Bristol Omnibus, at the height of the Market Analysis Project. It was ironic the H&D’s own MAP requirement meant a reduction in double deck orders—and an influx of Bristol Omnibuses’ unwanted yet relatively new small single deck 43-seat Bristol LHs.

Fittingly, the first six VRs came to Poole though were carted off I recall to Basingstoke soon afterwards. Like subsequent ECW-bodied examples, they shared a number of design features that were common to immediate antecedent FS, FL & FLF Lodekkas of which H&D was justly famous, including common front & rear domes and window lines. It needs no imagination to trace the ECW body-style back to the Bristol K, via the LD and, as such, this month’s event will mark not only the last of the Bristol marque at W&D but the last of the lineage of ECW designs dating to the 1940s.

For one last time, up to three ECW bodied VRs will operate local bus services as duplicates in the Salisbury area. Even die-hard modernisers will recognise the VR’s contribution to the industry and should these professionals wish for details of the 28th March 2009 event they might consider contacting well known local enthusiast Ant the Ringwood Smoothie by searching out the ‘click here to get in touch’ link on his website. We trust he can help.

i Bristol Commercial Vehicle enthusiasts’ website

* unless you know different!