Bear Cross Bus Company

Bear Cross Bus Company Bear Cross Bus Company preserves and restores buses linked to the Bournemouth & Dorset area.

The provisional Royal Blue Run details have been released. The run will take place between 19 and 21 June 2026 and will...
26/01/2026

The provisional Royal Blue Run details have been released. The run will take place between 19 and 21 June 2026 and will cover the following basic route.

Friday 19th June
Basingstoke to Taunton, via Stockbridge, Salisbury, Blandford, Dorchester, Weymouth and Yeovil.

Saturday 20th June
Taunton to Barnstaple, via Exeter, Okehampton, Bude and Bideford.

Sunday 21st June
Barnstaple to Yeovil, via Ilfracombe, Combe Martin, Lynton, Minehead and Bridgwater.

My Bristol RE 1482 / RDV433H will be participating in most of that run. Here we see it leaving London's Victoria Coach Station at the start of the 2022 run.

Although there was no post to this page during December, progress continued slowly. Both rear springs have now been rem...
10/01/2026

Although there was no post to this page during December, progress continued slowly. Both rear springs have now been removed ready for refurbishment. Also, before chassis welding could commence, it was necessary to remove some very awkward spring brackets and some hardwood blocks.

The remaining replacement coolant hose has finally been replaced following an unexpected and awkward aluminium panel repair that had to be completed beforehand.

I’ve found more galvanic corrosion between steel and aluminium surfaces in the offside front wheel arch area (see red arrows). As the Bristol LS bus is 70 years old this year, such corrosion isn’t unexpected. I normally use thin silicone rubber sheet between steel and aluminium surfaces when undertaking repairs.

The horizontal aluminium folded bracket will probably be replaced. On the right hand side, the body mounting bracket will need further assessment before deciding how to repair this. It may be preferable to replace the bracket. Whatever, the failed rivets shown by the green arrow will be replaced by bolts and nuts.

The steel chassis in this area will be wire-brushed, treated and painted in due course. The almost non-existent steel wiring conduits will be replaced as part of this task.

Progress on Bristol LS has been very sporadic this year, but there’s been some recent progress. Further wire-brushing, t...
22/11/2025

Progress on Bristol LS has been very sporadic this year, but there’s been some recent progress.

Further wire-brushing, treating and painting of the chassis has been undertaken. While doing that, I’ve taken the opportunity to replace all but one of the coolant hoses. The one outstanding hose is held up due to other work being required in that area. I’ll follow up by replacing the heating hoses as I move onto those areas. There’s also a long copper coolant pipe with two side outlets to replace at a later point. There’s a long story to tell about the coolant and heater pipe/hose layout, which I’ll cover another day.

I’ve now stripped down the two rear wheel-arches, one of which is shown in the attached photos. This was by far the worst of the four I’ve stripped down, with almost non-existent rusted brackets and rotten hardwood bearers. I’ve spent many hours studying the construction of these wheel-arches and feel I’m now ready to start the rebuild of them. Each wheel-arch is a combination of 12 principle parts made from hardwood, steel and aluminium. I did a trial fit of these parts and came to the conclusion that three people are needed to hold and fix everything, with each person needing four hands! I’m sure the body builder, ECW, had a canny trick to build the wheel-arch that I don’t know about.

One reason that I removed the rear wheel arches before rebuilding the front ones, is that access was needed to the rear chassis. I’m happy to say that professional welding help has been found and chassis repairs will start next week. This will also entail removal of the rear springs, which will be sent off for professional refurbishment.

Apart from that nothing’s happened!

Not my Bristol LS, but one that I’m fortunate to be associated with. Luckily Ian Mahoney and I own a spares LS which ca...
12/11/2025

Not my Bristol LS, but one that I’m fortunate to be associated with. Luckily Ian Mahoney and I own a spares LS which can provide parts for Ian to repair the accident damaged Eastern National example.

We only popped out for a coffee but …. The plan was a run out with Martin Cuff for a coffee and we ended up at Hengistbu...
01/10/2025

We only popped out for a coffee but ….

The plan was a run out with Martin Cuff for a coffee and we ended up at Hengistbury Head. By sheer coincidence a London Transport RT hove into view, which could only mean a chat was in order with its owner, Trevor Hawes.

We then all decided to sample ice-creams at Poole Quay, taking in Boscombe and Bournemouth Piers in lovely weather on the way. All in all it turned out to be a very enjoyable day.

Further bits of chassis on Bristol LS 1776 / TUO492 have been wire-brushed, treated and painted. As an amateur restore...
06/09/2025

Further bits of chassis on Bristol LS 1776 / TUO492 have been wire-brushed, treated and painted. As an amateur restorer with very limited facilities, gaining access underneath can be a real challenge.

The other big problem is the number of cable runs, pipes and linkage rods that tend to be located near the chassis. As I didn’t want to remove all of those at present, I’ll have to fill in any unpainted areas of chassis when I remove them in future.

As you can see, there’s still much to do on the LS in various ways.

Ian Chancellor recently sent me his photo of TUO492 that he took in Weston-super-Mare during July 1985. Interestingly, ...
03/09/2025

Ian Chancellor recently sent me his photo of TUO492 that he took in Weston-super-Mare during July 1985. Interestingly, despite being owned by the Bridgwater Caledonian Majorettes since 1980, it doesn’t have the group’s name painted on the front or sides. Perhaps it had recently had a repaint and the names would be applied after a busy summer season. Perhaps Hayley Parker knows more ?

Off to the Severn Bridge Rally at the old Aust Services today.
31/08/2025

Off to the Severn Bridge Rally at the old Aust Services today.

A couple of photos from yesterday’s Royal Blue Run. The first was taken at Exeter St. David’s railway station and includ...
23/06/2025

A couple of photos from yesterday’s Royal Blue Run.

The first was taken at Exeter St. David’s railway station and includes Martin and Tim, who were my loyal fellow crew members from Bear Cross Bus Company days.

The second was taken outside the now closed bus station in Tower Street, Taunton.

From Taunton we returned home via Yeovil, Dorchester and Poole to complete an epic 11-hour trip.

20/06/2025

Royal Blue Run details for this weekend.

Saturday 21st June
15.10 The coaches pass through Shaftesbury town centre, then take the A350 to Blandford.

15.40 at Blandford town centre, then via A350 through Spetisbury to Upton, Hamworthy, Poole.

16.25 at Poole George roundabout, then via Parkstone and A35 Poole Road into Bournemouth centre.

17.00 After a short loop round Bournemouth centre the coaches will finish at Queen’s Road, Westbourne.

Sunday 22nd June
9.45 to 10.00 the coaches leave the Stadium Way coach park, Poole.

The routes follows the A35 through Upton, Lytchett Minster, Bere Regis (10.30), Dorchester (11.00), Bridport (11.40) and onward to Exeter and Taunton.

Today’s preparation for Sunday’s Royal Blue Run attendance was some floor cleaning, a fresh brake test and a full tank o...
17/06/2025

Today’s preparation for Sunday’s Royal Blue Run attendance was some floor cleaning, a fresh brake test and a full tank of diesel. There’s more preparation to do tomorrow and Saturday.

The route will be Poole - Exeter -Taunton - Poole.

Following an injury in early March I’m finally back in the driver’s seat. The Bristol RE 1482 / RDV433H undertook a loc...
29/05/2025

Following an injury in early March I’m finally back in the driver’s seat. The Bristol RE 1482 / RDV433H undertook a local test drive of about 35 miles this morning. Quite a bit of maintenance work was completed on it during the last few months and it drove well today.

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