THE SHOWBUS WEST OF ENGLAND BUS IMAGE GALLERY
Black & White Motorways
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 Black & White Motorways of Cheltenham was a coach operator of distinction. It specialised in long distance express services and formed alliances with other operators, chief of which was an organisation known as Associated Motorways. In many ways the operation was a forerunner of National Express and its operations centred on what is these days known as a 'hub' at Cheltenham. At 2pm at Black & White's St Margaret's Coach Station you could see coaches in many colours departing for all points of the compass. On its way to Gloucester is this early Plaxton Panorama Leyland Leopard - L240 (4880DF) - seen at Langley, just turning off the A4 to reach Slough's coach pick-up point. Behind a Green Line RC is heading for London. |
Harrington bodied AEC Reliance 247 (AAD247B) was seen at the same venue as 240 above. This particular coach was part of a batch of five. The following year a further five Harringtons were delivered, but on 36 feet long Leyland Leopard chassis.
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 A third B&W coach, and a third type - this time the rare Daimler Roadliner, a model which enjoyed mixed success. The coachwork is the later style of Plaxton Panorama also delivered on ten Leopards the previous year. Newbury Bus Station is the location for this view of 297 (NAD297F) seen with an earlier Panorama bodied Leyland Leopard in tow (not literally!) |
 Daimler Roadliner 308 (RDG308G) is seen in Victoria Coach Station around 1980 in the "West of England" livery using Macrogamma Bold lettering on a white coach with a colour band. The livery on Black & White coaches meant little image change but the scheme swept away Royal Blue's traditional and tasteful blue and cream replaced with white and a blue band. Bristol Greyhound's cream and red was even more radically changed to white with a magenta band. On the other hand Red & White became red and white! |
 Black & White's Cheltenham Coach Station was the major provincial hub of the Associated Motorways network and this scene is just before the daily 1400h departure, quite a site to behold, even in the early days of National Express, until Cheltenham was abandoned in favour of less intense hubs dotted around the country. This late sixties view shows several B&W Plaxton Panorama bodied Leyland Leopards, with 367 (NDG367D) nearest and 286 (KDD286E) and, probably 288 (KDD288E) further along. Next to 367 is 1602 (EFE446E), a Duple Viceroy bodied Bedford VAM14 of Lincolnshire, and down the end, alongside a departing Bristol MW of Bristol Greyhound, one of United Counties 1966 MW coaches. |
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