Short history of Bristol Commercial Vehicles and their Bristol RE bus and coach chassis, built between 1962 to 1983.

Bristol RE

Bristol Commercial Vehicles was a major manufacturer of bus and coach chassis between 1908 and 1983, building 31,760 units in 75 years. They were based on Bath Road, Brislington, Bristol. Between 1955 and 1964 they also built 1,170 lorries for British Road Services and in 1958 they built 2 railbus chassis for British Railways.

Early history

George White and partner started Bristol Tramways Company in 1875. They first used motorbuses in 1906 and two years later they built their first bus chassis.

The Motor Department was initially based at the tram depot in Brislington, on the Bath Road. During 1907 the bus fleet was transferred to a site at Filton. Then in 1910 the company decided to build aeroplanes. The best place for this work was the sheds at Filton, so motor repairs and construction returned to Brislington. The tram depot had become too small, so a new 4 acre site, known as the Motor Constructional Works, was established nearby, off Chatsworth Road. This became the site of the Bristol chassis factory.

In May 1914 Bristol supplied its first bus to another operator, a C50 charabanc to Imperial Tramways at Middlesbrough. After World War 1 volume chassis production got underway. The company soon established a good reputation as a builder of solid, reliable vehicles.

In 1929 the Great Western Railway bought a controlling interest in the tramway company, but the bus operations were transferred to Western National in 1931. This brought Bristol Tramways and its manufacturing activities into the Tilling Group.

Other Tilling companies started buying Bristol bus chassis. Most of these were taken to another Tilling concern Eastern Coach Works of Lowestoft, for bodying.

Bristol Commercial Vehicles (BCV) was created in 1943 as a subsidiary of Bristol Tramways (part of Tilling Group). The 1947 Transport Act saw the nationalisation of the Tilling Group into the British Transport Commission (BTC). So, BCV found itself restricted to selling chassis to state-owned BTC operators. In 1955 BCV became an separate company owned by BTC.

Underfloor engine chassis

Bristol's first underfloor engine bus/coach was the LS – (Light Saloon) an integral model new in 1950. Then in 1957, in a bid to reduce weight and hence operating costs, they introduced what would become the very successful MW (Medium Weight) chassis.

In 1960 Bristol built the SU (Small Underfloor engine) chassis for rural operations. For details of all bus and coach chassis Bristol produced between 1908 and 1960, click here. Finally in 1962 come the RE (Rear Engine) model.

In 1965 Leyland Motors Ltd bought a 25% shareholding in Bristol (and Eastern Coach Works), so that their vehicles could again be sold to operators in municipal or private ownership.

By the mid-1970s Leyland owned all of Bristol and its product range had shrunk to the VRT double deck bus chassis, LH / LHS single deck small-bus chassis and RE bus chassis (by 1976 built for export to Northern Ireland and New Zealand only).

The Bristol chassis factory closed in October 1983 when the final Bristol-built Olympian chassis was sent to ECW to receive its body. It became Devon General reg. A685 KDV. Olympian chassis production then moved to Leyland factories (in Lancashire).

So, bus and coach chassis were built in Bristol City over a 75 year period from 1908 to 1983.

Button

The Bristol RE was the first of a new generation of Rear Engine single deck bus and coach chassis designed by Bristol in 1961. It took advantage of the revised Construction & Use Regulations (1962) that permitted 36-foot long buses in the UK for the first time.

By 1960 Britain’s bus operators were suffering a reduction in passenger numbers (due to rising car ownership and changes in people’s leisure, work and shopping habits). Bus companies wanted vehicles with a higher seating capacity and which offered the possibility of One-Man-Operation ‘OMO’ (there were no women bus drivers then).

With the engine at the rear of the new chassis, the floor of the bus could be lower towards the front and a wider door would be possible. This made it easier and quicker for passengers to get on and off. Having the engine at the back also makes the bus quieter.

Bristol were years ahead of the rest of Britain’s bus and coach manufacturers. The Bristol RE became the forerunner for all of today’s low-floor buses – with the engine at the back!

In late 1962 and early 1963 Bristol Commercial Vehicles produced three prototype RE chassis:-

REX001. The prototype RELL bus chassis. A 54-seat bus which was delivered in Tilling red and cream to United (Darlington) in December 1962 (reg. 7431 HN).

REX002. The prototype RELH coach chassis. A 47-seat high-floor coach which was delivered in the maroon and cream livery of South Midland (Oxford) in April 1963 (reg. 521 ABL). This was the forerunner of our coach.

REX003. Another RELH which BCV used for testing. In 1967 it was sold to West Yorkshire reg. OWT 241E.

The RE chassis was produced in three lengths (32-foot; 36-foot & 39 foot) and two heights (2-foot 8-inches; 2-foot 5 inches). To give chassis codes:

RESL = Short Low (bus);
RESH = Short High (coach);
RELL = Long Low (bus);
RELH = Long High (coach);
REMH = Maximum length High (coach).

The RE was a successful and reliable vehicle, which worked “out of the box”. Its success was mainly due to Bristol putting the gearbox in front of the rear axle.

This helped weight distribution on the chassis and overcame problems with high levels of stress on short prop-shafts. Other 1960s rear-engine single decker’s (which squashed the engine and gearbox behind the rear axle), suffered from regular damage to the short prop-shaft, light steering (caused by too much weight at the back) and problems caused by components over-heating.

Bristol engineers designed the RE to use their ‘Lodekka’ (double deck bus) drop centre rear axle to run the prop-shaft over the axle and into the gearbox (which is located in front of the axle). This arrangement improved weight distribution and made the RE’s road-handling superior to its contemporaries.

Another practical design feature was putting the radiator (for engine cooling) at the front of the chassis, to take advantage of natural air flow. This also helped weight distribution and meant that REs didn’t suffer embarrassing over-heating problems that other first-generation rear engine buses often did. And they don’t have a radiator fan either!

The original design and the first three years of production, saw the RE to have a Gardner engine, manual gearbox and air suspension. From 1966, when Leyland influence on Bristol became greater, Leyland engines (O.600 and O.680) were offered and pneumo-cyclic semi-automatic gearboxes (made by Self-Changing Gears, a Leyland subsidiary) became standard.

To keep the initial purchase cost down, cheaper leaf springs became standard, with air suspension becoming an optional extra.

4,629 Bristol RE's were built between 1962 and 1983. 976 were RELH coach chassis, of which 766 were of the RELH-4 type and 413 had Eastern Coach Works bodies like Ruby. Today 24 of these RELH ECW mk-1 coaches survive.

3,242 Bristol RE's were sold to Transport Holding Company, British Electric Traction companies and their successor the National Bus Company. The last RE for a British operator was built in 1975.

The RE chassis continued to be built for export (to Northern Ireland and New Zealand) until May 1983.

Visit our archives to see original documentation for Ruby.

Other Bristol Manufacturing Companies

In 1910 Sir Charles White (founder of Bristol Tramways and Bristol bus manufacturers), established an aeroplane maker. For 56 years Bristol aircraft were some of the finest designed and built in Britain.

Commercial Motor Show

LAX 101E, 1967 Bristol RESL bus

KHW 309E, 1967 Bristol RELL bus

Bristol RE advert