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GWR Publicity

GWR Publicity: gwrpublicity3875

GWR Advert for day tours from London to Shakespeare Country & Warwickshire locations

This advertisement appeared in the Great Western Railway’s ‘Oxford and Shakespeare Land’ booklet published in April 1929, which was the last summer season that they operated Shakespeare Country Day Tours. On 15th April 1930 an agreement was reached with ‘The Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company’ (Midland Red) for this tour to be handed over to and operated by ‘Midland Red’ Road Motor Coaches (see 'publicity1654'). This followed the railway companies divesting their physical bus assets to various Bus Companies in whom they had taken a financial interest. In this case both the GWR and LMS companies jointly owned 50% of the shares of The Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company (Midland Red).

Following the changes in Road legislation (see 'gwrpublicity3876') the Great Western Railway purchased ten Guy FBB chassis to replace their obsolete Maudslay and AEC charabancs. John Buckingham provided the new charabanc bodies which could seat 32 passengers. The charabancs were used for excursions and on touring, but the bodywork was found to be too heavy for chassis resulting in reliability problems. The Guy FBB had a four cylinder inclined side valve engine and 4 speed gearbox. Details of the ten Guy FBB charabancs are provided in the table below:

GWR Fleet No Reg No Registration Date Chassis No Allocation in 1928 Bus Company sold to Date sold
1280 YF 715 21st March 1927 22245 Paignton Western National July 1929
1281 YF 716 21st March 1927 22266 Saltash Western National January 1929
1282 YF 5744 6th May 1927 22312 Paignton Western National July 1929
1283 YF 3919 5th April 1927 22320 Penzance Western National July 1929
1284 YF 3920 5th April 1927 22317 Penzance Western National July 1929
1285 YF 3921 5th April 1927 22309 Aberystwyth Thames Valley Traction 1st February 1931
1286 YF 5745 6th May 1927 22326 Penzance Western National January 1929
1287 YF 6817 11th April 1927 22327 Abergavenny London General Country Services 15th November 1931
1288 YH 1941 31st May 1927 22330 Slough London General Country Services 15th November 1931
1289 YH 1942 31st May 1927 22349 Saltash Western National July 1929

In addition three Thornycroft A6 chassis were purchased and John Buckingham provided these with luxury charabanc bodies seating fifteen passengers. The Thornycroft A6 had a powerful 70bhp side-valve six cylinder engine. These luxury coaches were used on the Land Cruises from the summer of 1928, displacing the Maudslay ML3 charabancs (see 'gwrpublicity3874'). Details of the three Thornycroft A6 vehicles are provided in the table below:

GWR Fleet No Reg No Registration Date Chassis No Allocation in 1928 Bus Company sold to Date sold
1297 YW 5110 25th May 1928 16213 Cheltenham Western National April 1930
1298 YW 5111 6th June 1928 16263 Cheltenham City of Oxford January 1931
1299 YW 5112 6th June 1928 16251 Cheltenham Western National April 1930

Robert Ferris

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