When NHU2 was delivered to The Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company operating arm
from the Motor Constructional Works in 1950 she caused a sensation. Compared to normal
single deck buses at the time she had her engine moved from beside the driver to
under the floor and she was built to the new length of 30 feet. When built she had
an experimental underfloor Bristol built engine and 7 feet 6 inch axles, but was
later rebuilt with a Gardner 5-cylinder engine and normal width axles. After the
rear door was removed in the mid-fifties, 2800 settled down to a normal life in service
at Weston super Mare and Wells depots before being retired in 1967. Bristol Omnibus
Company kept her back for possible inclusion in a proposed transport museum, but
this did not materialise, and she was sold to a dealer in Leeds. She was rescued
and kept for restoration by Classic Coaches of High Wycombe and when this company
went into receivership she was offered for sale at auction and was acquired by Martin
Curtis and Mike Walker.
Restoration had already been started by the time she was acquired but she was then
towed to Chris Brown of Shropshire who arranged for her to be re-trimmed, re-seated
and the rear door reinstated. She returned to Bristol early in 2005 and in that May
she carried passengers for the first time in 30 years. In September 2005 she was
taken to the International Showbus Rally at Duxford in Cambridgeshire where she won
the “Doyen” award for the best preserved single deck bus, and in October 2006 she
journeyed to Ipswich to take part in the Ipswich Transport Museum’s running day.
