1330 is an example of the much lamented BRISTOL RE bus. A total of 4,629 chassis of this type were built at the Bristol Commercial Vehicles factory in Brislington, Bristol from 1962 until 1982. Most were sent for bodying at Eastern Coach Works (ECW), Lowestoft, including 1330, but the vast majority built after 1973 were sent to Belfast for bodying, to be used in Northern Ireland. Several late built examples were also sent to New Zealand for locally built bodywork to be fitted there. (There are many examples to view on the Bristol RE egroup, see bus links page.)

1330 was delivered new to the Bristol Omnibus Company in August 1973, registered NHU 611L, but did not enter service until the following October, registered OHU 38M. The bus was the last dual - doored RE delivered to Bristol Omnibus, and indeed was the last for the parent National Bus Company, (NBC). The bus entered service from the now closed Staple Hill depot (SH) in Bristol, and was transferred only once to Winterstoke Road (WE) which has recently been demolished; but after a short working life of 12.5 years, was deemed surplus to requirements after the group of services on which 1330 ran were replaced by the then new CITY DART minibus network.

Following storage for 2 months, 1330, and eight sister REs which formed the last of their type with Bristol Omnibus were sold to Cumberland Motor Services in April 1986 for use on staff transport duties at British Nuclear Fuels Limited, Sellafield, 1330 arriving at Whitehaven depot on 22/4/86. For these duties, their new owner gave them new fleet numbers, as a result 1330 became 908 in the Cumberland fleet. The nine REs were also to remain in green livery, at the request of BNFL, and stood out in Cumberland's red fleet!. Following Cumberland's acquisition by the Stagecoach empire, the batch of nine REs were replaced by a small fleet of minibuses, and once again, 1330 became redundant. In July 1987, the batch of nine were acquired by CITYBUS, Belfast. These were obtained to help provide bus services in the troubled province of Northern Ireland, and were part of some 170 approx REs purchased from English and Welsh operators, which were similar to many that the company already owned. 1330 then became 741 in that operator's fleet.

After entering service in April 1988 with Citybus, she was finally withdrawn from public service vehicle use on 31st January 1990, and was stored pending possible sale or scrapping. Thankfully, scrapping was averted, and 1330 was sold, along with several others, to a new operator in Manchester, Pennine Blue. Whilst the majority of the others ran for Pennine Blue, 1330 did not, and was later sold to a boy scout group in Manchester. It was acquired from them by me for preservation on 5th July 1992, still carrying the Citybus livery of red and cream.

If you would like to submit views for inclusion on this site, please email me.

1330's Body and Chassis information.