page_title: Western National
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Western National / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Ferry Bus. A Western National bus in Sealink colours waits to transfer passengers from Weymouth Station to the ferry. It is parked in a special bay allocated for the service. The bays can be seen in the foreground of Gordon Cragg's 1070463. On the left is the original railway goods shed, now replaced by a B&amp;Q DIY supermarket. On the left, between the portable work cabin and the bus, the signals at the end of the platforms can be seen along with housing on Ranelagh Road. The bus is a Bristol Lodekka FLF6G with Eastern Coachworks body.
context_page_description: Western National was a bus company operating in South West England from 1929 until the 1990s.
context_section_description: Western National Omnibus Company was founded in 1929 as a joint venture between the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the National Omnibus & Transport Company. The National company had originated in 1909 as the National Steam Car Company, started to run steam bus services in London. The London services ceased in 1919, when the company was renamed National Omnibus & Transport Company. The company expanded outside London, into Essex (1913), Bedfordshire (1919), Gloucestershire (1919), Somerset (1920), Dorset (1921), and Devon & Cornwall (1927).
  The GWR had developed an extensive network of bus services in Devon and Cornwall. These services, and those of the National Omnibus in Devon and Cornwall, were transferred to Western National. A few months later, the new company bought the operations of the National company in south west Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, and also the GWR bus services around Trowbridge and Stroud. The result was an operating territory stretching from Cheltenham to Penzance, in five areas: Gloucestershire (based in Stroud), Wiltshire (based in Trowbridge), south and west Somerset (based in Taunton), south Devon (based in Plymouth) and Cornwall. Western National's operating territory was interspersed with those of three other major operators: Bristol in south Gloucestershire and north Somerset, Southern National in north Devon and north Cornwall and Devon General in south and east Devon.
  In 1931, a controlling interest in the National Omnibus was acquired by the Tilling Group. From then on Western National was run as a Tilling company, although the GWR retained its shares until 1948. Western National and Southern National shared a common management, based in Exeter (although curiously neither company had a depot in Exeter).
  At the end of 1934, Western National and Southern National bought Royal Blue Coach Services.
caption: Eastern Coach Works bodied Bristol Lodekka with Sealink branding in Weymouth in 1978
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