page_title: Open top buses in Weston-super-Mare
section_title: Crew operated
hierarchical_section_title: Open top buses in Weston-super-Mare / Vehicles / Crew operated
caption_attribution_description: English: Bristol Omnibus 8581 (627 HFM) outside the bus station in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England. The bus has been built for Crosville open top services in 1959. During its most of its time with Bristol Omnibus it was painted red and white to represent the former Cheltenham Tramways which were replaced by Bristol buses. It was named Western Winner and carried a picture of the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
context_page_description: Open top buses in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, were introduced in 1950 and have run along the sea front every summer since. The initial operator was Bristol Tramways and this company's successors continued to provide services until 2013. The route from Weston-super-Mare railway station to Sand Bay is operated by First West of England. From time-to-time open top buses have also provided scenic tours in and around the town.
context_section_description: The first three buses were converted in 1950 at the company's workshops in Bristol using old buses acquired that year with the takeover of Cheltenham District Traction. They had AEC Regent III chassis with Weymann bodywork. Following the success of the first year's operation, four buses that were more in keeping with the rest of the local fleet were converted. These had Bristol K chassis with 5-cylinder Gardner engines and Bristol bodies.
  The first buses built new as open top vehicles arrived in 1961. They were built on Bristol Lodekka chassis with 60-seat ECW convertible bodies – that is with detachable roofs so that they could operate as conventional buses during the winter. Most Lodekkas in the fleet were the FLF type, but these were the shorter FS model fitted with 6-cylinder Gardner engines. Two more convertible Lodekkas were purchased secondhand from Crosville Motor Services company. These were the LD model fitted with 6-cylinder Bristol engines, two years older than the FSs. They had 60-seat ECW bodies with a conductor-operated door, which made then a more attractive proposition for winter services than the FSs with their open platform. A final Lodekka joined the fleet in 1976, this time an FLF. Its 70-seat body had its roof removed following a collision with a low bridge in Bristol. Like the LDs, it was fitted with a 6-cylnder Bristol engine but had a power-operated door at the front instead of the rear entrances on the earlier buses.
  A 'new' Bristol K5G appeared in 1974. It was fitted with a 59-seat Eastern Coach Works (ECW) body and had been built in 1941 for the Bristol Tramways fleet. In 1954 it had been sold to Brighton & Hove where it was converted to an open top. In 1965 it was sold to Thomas Brothers in Port Talbot and named "The Sandfields Belle". In 1969 it was sold back to Bristol Omnibus and was put in store until returned to service at Weston-super-Mare in 1974. It operated alongside the Lodekkas in cream livery that year and again in 1978 and 1979. It also appeared on television, including an episode of the Shoestring detective series, when some criminals met on the top deck as it drove along the Sea Front. In 1979 it was placed in the hands of a preservation group but returned to Bristol Omnibus and then on to Badgerline who put it to work on the city tour in Bath for several years where it carried the name "Prince Bladud". It has now returned to preservation.
  When Rexquote operated their vintage open top tour in 2000 they used Bristol Lodekkas, this time the LDL model (a longer version of the LD) with a Gardner engine and 70-seat ECW body. They had been built in 1957 and converted to open top by Western National for services in Cornwall. They wore a cream and green livery and retained the Sea Dog names bestowed by Western National.
caption: Bristol LD 8581 Western Winner circa 1980
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2011:04:17 17:08:54", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Tag 0x1001": "3648", "Image Tag 0x1002": "2736", "Image ExifOffset": "2240", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image OffsetSchema": "4168", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:04:17 17:08:54", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "287/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "139/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "107/32", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "12733/1000", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2736", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "3648000/287", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "547200/43", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "0"}