This page created 28th September 2006
The buses were full-height Bristol VRTs. The VRT was normally produced in a provincial low-height version
topping out at 13ft 8in, but these were 14ft 6in tall, which made them appear over-tall.
Chassis were Bristol VRT/SL3/501s. Livery was of course NBC green, but with a broad white cant-rail band.
Thet were numbered BT1-15.
Their use on the 370 continued to be their main occupation, although conversion to one man operation soon followed in July 1977. Spares for the small fleet became a problem, with consequent reliability problems, and they were all sold to the Bristol Omnibus Company in 1980-1, after just three years with London Country.
|
London Country's BT class of Bristol VRs is one of the most overlooked of their classes.
This is probably because of their allocation to one of the forgotten
and little-photographed corners of the London system, at Grays.
The fifteen buses were delivered in April/May 1977.
It had been expected that they would be used to oust RTs from their hold on the 403 between Chelsham and Croydon,
converting that route to OMO. But to most observers' surprise they all went to Grays,
primarily for the 370 between Grays and Romford. Initially they were used in crew mode.
Bus Stop
BT text
bus histories