Notes About This Vehicle

In the early 1970s London Transport (LT) bought seventeen BS-type buses to replace its small Ford Transit FS-types. These took the form of the 24ft BS class, built on the shortest of the three available Bristol LH chassis, with a 12ft 6ins wheelbase; they had Leyland engines and 7ft 6ins wide bodies from Eastern Coachworks. A further ninety-five were later bought, designated BL, this time on the intermediate length chassis with a 16ft 2ins wheelbase and 30ft long body.

A (UK) National Bus Company came into effect on 1st January 1969 and one year later, to the day, LT’s Country Area and Green Line coach network became a subsidiary of it as London Country Bus Services Ltd (LCBS), acquiring the relevant vehicles and garages from the LT ‘green’ fleet.

Many of LT’s 7ft 6ins wide ageing RFs went into the LCBS fleet and were in need of replacement. LCBS’s legacy from LT was significant in the former’s early years and so it was no great surprise that it too bought BLs, numbered BL1 to BL23. This duplicative numbering might have caused some confusion for number spotters as LT had BL1 to BL17 simultaneously, though the LCBS variants were 8ft 2ins wide and 26ft 5ins long. Most obviously though, the LT buses were red and those of LCBS green.

The connection with LT was parted from with a new variant of Bristol LH bus, fleet numbered BN24 to BN67. These still had the 12ft 6ins wheelbase chassis but this time with a 26ft 5ins body, though paradoxically to the narrower 7ft 6ins width. 

One hangover from LT days was that the Pay as You Enter transfers were still in its Johnston lettering, probably because LCBS simply had inherited stock. That said, and mostly driven by new ones having been needed for the change of address legal lettering, the rest of the transfers used the Futura typeface – in silver/grey instead of LT’s customary white.

The BNs entered service in two distinct batches: BN24 to BN53 from September to November 1974 with ‘N’ suffixed registrations and BN54 to BN67 from September to November 1977, suffixed ‘S’. As with their fellow LCBS fleet members, the BNs were liveried in ‘Leaf Green’, noticeably lighter in shade than LT’s traditional ‘Lincoln Green’, with a white relief band.

The first batch had grey window rubbers and separate front route number and destination displays. The route number box had a 3-track variable number system and this was repeated at the back. On the second batch the window rubbers were black and the front display was merged into one overall box though retaining the 3-track route numbers. The rear route number box was omitted on the second batch. (In London Transport’s Central Area, rear route number displays were, and still are, mandatory.)

On both batches the destination and via points continued the historic convention of using LT’s Johnston lettering, with blinds still being sourced from its Aldenham Works in the early days of LCBS, though the route numbers were very different, probably to suit the 3-track display boxes. Another changeover affected the bus stops infrastructure, where standard LT Compulsory and Request stops were gradually changed to the UK standard NBC types.

Neither the London Country BLs nor BNs had the side route number and destination box which was fitted to the older London Transport BLs. Having just missed one of these newer buses and not having seen the front, it would be guesswork as to what route it was on and whether it mattered to you or not.

Withdrawals of the LCBS BLs started in 1977 when the last few new BNs were still arriving. Only a few years later the BN fleet started to diminish and all had been replaced by the end of 1987.

The records show that BN61 was hit by a falling tree during delivery in November 1977 and so needing to be returned to Eastern Coachworks for repair. It entered service shortly afterwards but led a very short life with LCBS, being withdrawn in January 1982 and sold. By 1999 it became part of the London Transport Museum collection, though it is not obvious why, as it was never owned or operated by LT. It remains with them today, in the guise shown here.

Notes About This Drawing

Most of the detail has been inferred from about forty close-up and general photographs of BN61 in its current state of preservation, accompanied by extensive measuring of BL88 and from about 150 photographs of that vehicle. Reference to photographs of BS, BL and BN buses when in service provided further detail.

It should be understood that all four elevations are seen here as one would see each part of the vehicle at a truly perpendicular angle. In real life this is of course impossible.