UCPG Vehicles

Bedford YRT / Willowbrook: 111 - RBT111M.

111 was delivered new to United Counties in July 1974. It was part of a 60 vehicle order for Bedford 'lightweight' chassis with Willowbrook '001' bodywork supplied between 1973 and 1975. The order for these non standard vehicles was part of an attempt to remove a number of very old 2nd hand vehicles from the United Counties fleet and to improve the engineering issues affecting the company. 23 of the 60 examples were the 11m long 'YRT' chassis whilst the rest were the shorter 'YRQ'.
111 entered service at Northampton depot and was allocated here for its entire service with United Counties. It was withdrawn in March 1981 and stored before being sold to the dealers Kirkby Kingsforth of Rotherham. It subsequently passed to the operator Burton's of Brixham in Devon where it was used on competitive services. It passed then to Willis of Bodmin in Cornwall and was used on schools routes until 1999 when the Willis family retired from coach operations.
The bus was acquired for preservation by John Robertson directly from Willis but placed into storage for a number of years. Sadly, the bus fell victim to a vandal attack and deterioration. In 2013 the '111 group' was formed to get this bus back on the road and after recovery to Staffordshire, restoration began. Progress was very slow and the bus was moved to Reliance Bus Works in Stoke who returned 111 back to its NBC livery for us and 111 debuted at the 2019 Wellingborough rally, 45 years after it first entered service with United Counties.
111 is believed to be the only example of this batch still in use.

Bristol RE LL 6G / ECW: 319 - RBD319G .

RBD 319G was part of a batch of Gardner powered Bristol RELL buses delivered new to United Counties in 1968. Unlike the 1967 batch of RE buses, these were fitted with a 5 speed gearbox. It was originally delivered in Tilling green livery.
319 was initially allocated to Luton depot but during it's service life it moved around including working from Corby, back to Luton where it was involved in two serious accidents, requiring a period of rebuilding at Central Works. It then passed to Bletchley, Biggleswade, Hitchin and then back to Corby just before UCOC was split up for privatisation in January 1986. Alongside sister bus 330, it was one of the last RE buses in service with United Counties and both were withdrawn in October 1986.
It was sold to dealer Martin's of Middlewich in January 1987 and then passed to Belfast Citybus in June 1987 as its fleet number 724 (replacing the previous 724 THN 896F which was destroyed by arson in 1981) and it continued in service in Belfast until April 1990 when it was withdrawn. It was acquired by John Robertson for preservation and brought back to Bedfordshire. Initially it was rallied in Belfast livery but it was repainted in 1998 into National Bus Company green livery. It was parked up for a period and fuel issues left it a non-runner. It was stored outside where its condition began to suffer deterioration.
It joined the UCPG collection in early 2018 and was towed to Chepstow Classic Buses in the December. As time and money have allowed, the team at CCB have been working on getting 319 running again and starting to address issues with the poor condition of the bodywork.
319 will be returned to its late NBC livery at some point in the future and its allocation as a Biggleswade vehicle.

Bristol VRT SL 6G / ECW: 757 - UBD757H .

UBD 757H was the last of 8 series 1 Bristol VRT buses delivered to United Counties in 1969.
Initially it was allocated to Northampton depot but then moved to Wellingborough. It was transferred to Bedford depot in the early 1970s and then from 1975 it moved to Biggleswade Depot where it remained until January 1987.
It was delivered new in Tilling Green, and remained in this livery well into the NBC livery era before being repainted. In its last few months at Biggleswade it received application of the post deregulation stripe livery.
757 passed to Rev. Green of Weymouth (dealer) after withdrawal and was subsequently sold to Porter of Dummer in Hampshire. After Porters were taken over, the bus was eventually withdrawn and used as a store shed.
It was acquired for preservation in 1991 by Chris Brown and he restored the interior using a donor vehicle, and painted it in a tribute livery to the Wellingborough Motor Omnibus Company. A similar livery had been carried during 1981 on VR's based at Northamptonshire depots. 757 was rallied in this livery until it was put into storage around 2001. It remained there unused for 20 years and the bus joined the UCPG collection in 2018. After being woken up from it's sleep by Dave Hoare of Chepstow Classic Bus, the bus was moved from the barn in early 2020 just before the Covid outbreak and it was sent to Reliance Bus Works at Stoke. Reliance restored 757 back into its original Tilling Green livery and also retrofitted parts to 757 like the Cyclone flaps on the back middle section, things that were carried by 757 when new but lost during its service life.
757 is presented as a Wellingborough depot vehicle in as close to 'as delivered' condition as possible.

Bristol VRT SL2 6G / ECW: 767 - WRP767J.

WRP 767J was part of a batch of Series 2 Bristol VRs delivered new to in 1970. Although these vehicles look similar to the series 1s, there were a number of changes made to the series 2 to address some of the reliability issues.
767 was delivered new to Northampton and remained at the depot for a number of years, being repainted into NBC green. It subsequently passed to Bletchley, Luton and Huntingdon depots before being moved to Biggleswade. It remained at Biggleswade alongside 757 until November 1986, it was then hired back to Luton & District Transport until January 1987 when it was withdrawn.
767 also passed to Rev. Green (dealer) at Weymouth in January 1987, and was then sold to Applegates of Berkeley in March 1987. It then moved up the road slightly to Circle-Line of Gloucester in 1991 and was used on competitive services around Gloucester. It was withdrawn in March 1995 and passed to London Bus Export; it was acquired by John Robertson for preservation in April 1997. 767 was stored at Bedford Bus Garage for many years and was unfortunately vandalised during this time. In 200x it was moved to Lathalmond for work to start at The Bus Doctor run by the late Roland Williams. Mid way through this work Roland's health detoriated and sadly he passed away in March 2011. 767 and many others being worked at The Bus Doctor on were left in a state of limbo following his untimely death.
Restoration work has subsequently been restarted by Andy Crockett and the vehicle is now much closer to being finished.
It will be presented in early NBC livery as allocated to Luton depot.