9552, A952SAE, entered service with Bristol Omnibus Company in 1984 for Bristol City
Services, and is believed to be the last Bristol-built bus to be withdrawn by First
Bristol in September 2007, ending the association of Bristol built buses operating
with the major Bristol transport provider for almost 100 years.
9552 was fitted with a 76-seat single door body by Charles H Roe of Leeds, and is
powered by a Gardner 6LX diesel engine. She completed over 20-years of service on
the streets of Bristol before passing to Mike Walker in October 2007, having spent
the previous 2 years dressed in Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company blue and white
livery as a salute to 100 years of the company, being numbered as the next tram in
sequence (238) and being named by the grandson of the company’s founder, Sir George
White. In this form she regularly operated the service between Bristol Centre and
the University of The West of England.
During the winter of 2007 she was refitted to become a mobile exhibition bus, control
room and driver’s rest room for the Collection, and she will be attending rallies
from 2008 onwards, marking the centenary of the beginning of bus building in Bristol.
