When Stroud's buses were green (and even red)
8th Stroud Bus Running Day
Running Day Report Page 4
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Yet more images and commentary from the June 2008 Stroud Vintage Running Day
 Stroud depot had the accolade of running the very last of Bristol Omnibus' Bristol K deckers, in 1966. The very last was an ex-Western National registered example (as here), inherited by the Bristol company at the 1950 regurgitations. As such, ex-WNOC Ks worked alongside Bristol SUSs, new from 1962. Here they are gain, in this gloriously nostalgic shot  In contrast to the K, unsurprisingly, the Bristol VRT played its part in the running day. That on the left is still in service with Marchant's of Cheltenham, while the Stroud Valleys VR in green is in the custody of the Stroud RE Group and once operated at Stroud, being new to the depot in 1981  Not all the unusual vehicles at the Running Day were buses! Here's a Smart-sized right hand plastic-clad drive Aixam A751 of France, with a Kubato diesel engine. In spite of over 30 dealers, you'd be hard pressed to find this on the What Car website. They're classed as quadircycle owing to their weight and power output.  Adding authenticity to the ex-Red & White Guy Arab/Duple of 1949 no. L1749 is on of the crew modelling a 1950s and 1960s Red & White summer uniform  It's impossible to over-estimate the role played at Stroud and other country depots by the humble Bristol MW5G bus. With its elder sister the LS, throughout the 1960s and 1970s such 43-45 seat saloons were capable of what was then called one person operation, at a time when Stroud as elsewhere was desperately trying to make efficiencies that would enable the continuance of as many rural services as possible. As driver-only operations swept aside conductors, it was the MW at the vanguard, a bus that regularly appeared on all rural services in the area. Pity about its five cylinder Gardner engine on Stroud's hills, though  While the Bristol LHs were seen as direct replacements for the MWs, there came a dictat from NBC on high that the down-specificated 10m 44 seat Leyland National Series B was the ideal bus for rural routes. Although less fuel efficient and with an even more Spartan interior than its bigger, older sisters, it has to be said that the B offered passengers a far better ride the the LH. This particular bus VAE 499T operated some nine years at Stroud but here carries the unusual blue livery of post-privatised City of Gloucester, as it leaves Bussage Manor Farm for Eastcombe |
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