On Saturday 21st July 1984 the last Bristol Lodekka buses in regular service with Bristol Omnibus Company Ltd were withdrawn from service - Bristol Omnibus and Eastern Counties being the last NBC companies to run these vehicles in regular service. To commemorate the occasion B.O.C ran an enthusiasts day on the Sunday where the vehicles acted as duplicates on a variety of city services. 7253 FHW158D is seen here in faded NBC Bristol livery at the start of the day in Bristol City centre alongside 7262 GAE883D freshly repainted for it's last few weeks in service. Or so it was thought - in actual fact 7262 was retained as a company/depot "pet bus" and would see regular service on peak hour routes right up until December 1993. According to the excellent robsly.com, this bus was exported to Germany the following year. 7253 is now a permanent exhibit at the Bristol M-Shed museum whilst 7262 will always hold special memories for me as it was used to transport the guests at my Wedding in 1989!
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