Miss Kitty, her journey and how she wound up in Northeast Texas

Miss Kitty is a Bristol VR (numbered DHW352W). She was built in Bristol, England in July 1981. She is a Bristol VRT with Eastern Coachworks bodywork. VRT stands for Vertical Rear Transverse, which is the layout of the engine. Both companies are long since gone. In August that year she was bought along with five other double deckers by the Bristol Omnibus Company to be put into service in Stroud, Gloucestershire and was given Fleet #SD5530. (SD being the code for Stroud Depot). She was new to the Stroud depot of the Bristol Omnibus Company (part of the National Bus Company) and was unusual in having a Leyland 0680 engine (the "O" stands for Omnibus, and the 680 is its capacity in cubic inches).

Alan Davis, one of her former drivers at the Stroud Depot told us that her original engine was a Leyland 0680 which was unusual at the time as most had Gardner engines (which is what she has now). We were told by another of her drivers at the time, David Stanton, that she was fast and loud. She would set off car alarms as she went by! In the mid 90s the entire fleet of buses was re-engined with Gardner engines due to their reliability and standardization of parts. Alan said at the time, the drivers didn't like that move since the Leyland engines that had were fast and had a distinctive exhaust note. He also mentioned that Miss Kitty was known for being "quite a fast example".

Being delivered to the Lawrence Hill Depot on her way to The Stroud Depot for service. Miss Kitty is on the left. She was painted in NBC (National Bus Company) green from new. When the company was privatised in 1986, it received a darker mint green with a yellow "Starsky and Hutch" stripe (seen below).

Stroud Depot on the A46 Merrywalks. Photo by Stroud Valley Photographs.

Stroud Depot before it was closed in 2004. Photo from www.stroudlocahistorysociety.org.uk

Stroud Depot on the A46 Merrywalks. Photo by Stroud Valley Photographs.

Stroud Depot before it was closed in 2004. Photo from www.stroudlocahistorysociety.org.uk

This photo taken by Alan Davis and posted on his Flickr feed. Alan worked for Stroud Valleys between 1988 and 1997 as a driver then as Deputy Supervisor.

This picture shows some of the Stroud Valleys fleet getting ready for the days work at the former London Road Depot (now Waitrose car park) in Stroud. As it is, by evidence of snow, a cold morning in late winter/early spring, the main driver had arrived for the first departure, and you felt particularly anti-social you would have the whole of the fleet ticking over by 6am leaving a pall of exhaust clog lingering over the depot as can be seen in this photo. Nearby residents were not amused!

Bristol VR SD5530 is seen in an isolated photo of Miss Kitty in the snow (below). He lays of this picture, Alan also took this beautiful photo of Bailey near Stroud during snowy weather. It is on a return school kids from Brownshill that hardly ever carried a passenger. The outward route was somewhat different with dozens of concerned school kids on board! 5530 was unusually fast and always a pleasure to drive.

Bristol VR SD5530 sports tree damage to its roof. The destination blind reads route 15 to Dursley and this route was notorious for low trees, especially during or after wind and rain as this event. The branches down lower. Photo and history by Alan Davis.

In September 1993 she was sold to the Cheltenham and Gloucester Omnibus company. Later and re-numbered to Fleet #220 (as seen above). Photo taken May 1993 courtesy of David Stanton (former driver of Miss Kitty) taking care of the body work which he still does today. Fortunately for us, he saved her original front license plate when she was updated and kindly sent it to us to reinstall. It is back in place and looks fabulous!

In March of '95 after the company changed hands and became owned by Stagecoach she was also re-engined with the Gardner 6LXB that she still has and which has a top speed of 43 MPH. She was repainted white with the blue, red and orange striped Stagecoach livery in February of 1996. By the late '90s, all VRT's were deemed obsolete and were sold off or scrapped.

Photo by Dave Beardmore

In August of 1997 she was sold again to the Circle Line Coach and Omnibus Company Ltd. and her stripes were overpainted. Here she is with a GAP ad on her side.

Photo by Steve Clements

And here she is promoting Nokia in Leicester, England in 2002. Photo by Dave Beardmore.

In 2014 she was repainted, got new black leather seats with black trim and then shipped to the USA to Rock Star limo service in Rhode Island, Massachusetts USA. The limo service used her for events, weddings and transfers to the Boston Airport.

She was sold at auction by Jackson-Barrett Auctioneers in 2019 to Milford Auto Sales in Hopedale Massachusetts. Here she is on a 4th of July parade in Hopedale. They put her up for sale and that is where we found her.

Huge Thank You's go out to Rob Sly for his awesome website that has So Much Information on Bristol buses (for which most of this history is based on), Robert Tarling for his wonderful signage, wheel hub logo stickers, keychains and allover great information since I pester him with a lot of questions. David Stanton for holding on to Miss Kitty's original registration plates and kindly sending them to us to be placed back on her and, of course, answering so many of my questions! And another thank you to Alan Davis for his beautiful photos and insights about them. We also owe a great deal to all the people that belong to the Bristol VR group on Facebook that are so gracious and quick to help us when (again) we have So Many Questions!