page_title: Bristol Commercial Vehicles
section_title: Chassis
hierarchical_section_title: Bristol Commercial Vehicles / Products / Chassis
caption_attribution_description: English: Buses outside York Railway Station A gaggle of Bristol vehicles with Eastern Coachworks bodies stand outside the railway station. The vehicles belong to the York-West Yorkshire fleet, which was part of the National Bus Company. The driver of 3836, a Bristol FS, can be seen chatting with the driver of 3923, a Bristol VR.
context_page_description: Bristol Commercial Vehicles was a vehicle manufacturer located in Bristol, England. Most production was of buses but trucks and railbus chassis were also built.
  The Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company started to build buses for its own use in 1908 and soon started building vehicles for other companies. In 1955 this part of the business was separated out as Bristol Commercial Vehicles Limited. It closed in 1983 when production was moved to its then parent company Leyland.
context_section_description: Early chassis types were given a C-series number. When a new lower frame was introduced in 1920 they were known simply by the capacity of the body that was designed to be fitted. From 1925 a sequential letter system was given that ran from A to M, although the M type never went into full production. This was replaced by a new series that used initials to describe the vehicle, such as 'RE' for 'rear engine'.
  Different chassis letter codes were used to identify different sizes of petrol engines, but with the introduction of diesel engines from 1933 the size and manufacturer was shown by a suffix to the main code. In this way LD5G denoted an LD with a five-cylinder Gardner engine and FS6B an FS with a six-cylinder Bristol engine, and so on.
  All early chassis were used for either single deck buses or goods vehicles. In 1931 a longer J type single deck chassis was offered to exploit the increased length now permissible but this was replaced by the L in 1937. In 1952 by a new Light Saloon was introduced which was built on integral principles. It had no true chassis but lightweight running units were fitted to a special ECW body that gave the bus its strength and rigidity. A more conventional Medium Weight chassis was offered from 1957. A larger single deck, the rear-engined RE, was produced in 1962 and shorter versions to replace the MW appeared in 1968 along with a Lightweight Horizontal engined chassis, to replace the SU midibus and sell to the private sector as a lightweight coach, the LH.
  The G was introduced in 1931 as a dedicated double deck chassis, but this was replaced by the K in 1937. Larger versions were offered as laws changed to allow an increase in both width and length, but in 1949 a radically different double deck prototype was tested. This had a specially designed chassis that allowed a conventional body to be fitted within the height of a 'lowbridge' profile, which with a conventional chassis was only possible with gangways below floor level and very restricted headroom inside. This prototype became the Lodekka which remained in production in various forms until 1968. By this time a rear-engine double deck, the VR was available.
  The last VRs and LHs were built in 1981 and the last REs in 1982, but production switched to Leyland-badged chassis. These included the B21 and B52 single deck urban bus chassis and the Olympian double deck.
  Note that the 'type' shown in the table below refers to the most common configuration. Double deck bus chassis were sometimes given single deck bodies, and bus chassis were often given goods bodies.
caption: A VRT/SL of 1969 (centre left) and an FS of 1966 (centre right).
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