British Road Services

[ian]

BRS ???out of the box??™. Two 4mm scale commercial offerings in BRS livery. On the left is a Classix Austin K2 parcels van and on the right a Base Toys Leyland Comet flat bed.

 

British Road Services is one of those organisations that most transport enthusiasts have heard of, but know very little about. It was born of the same political scheme as British Railways and the nationalised bus companies and was subject to the same interference and changes of direction at the whim of whoever was in power at the time.

 

From the start of 1948 the railways, waterways, some buses and much of the road haulage industry was taken into public ownership under the auspices of the British Transport Commission (BTC). The BTC had the power to acquire any haulage company whose business was primarily long-distance haulage, with certain exceptions. The practical upshot was that throughout the 1950s most lorries making journies of 40 or more miles were operated by BRS.

 

The firms excluded from the BTC take over were those whose work was mainly:

• Furniture removals, although Pickfords were acquired voluntarily.
• Specialists in large, indivisible loads
• Felled timber
• Livestock, meat or bulk liquids
• Those working within a 40 miles radius of their depot (later reduced to 25 miles)
• Manufacturers transporting their own products.

The firms that the BTC acquired varied from large, well-known concerns such as Carter Paterson through to small operators with a few vehicles (and even, albeit by accident, a Scottish farm). Whilst some operators were happy to sell others fought all the way and a great deal of antipathy was built up towards BRS in some areas.

 

On formation the company operated just about every type of lorry that had been on the market and so standardisation was a priority. The fleet was repainted into BRS colours as quickly as possible, in some cases retaining the previous operator??™s name with the addition of (BTC) in order to retain goodwill. Gradually order was imposed and the company obtained large eight-wheel flat bed lorries for maximum load-carrying ability. Smaller vehicles were used for lighter traffic with box vans for parcels traffic.

 

As with the other nationalised industries, political interference and indecision led to many changes over the years. In the mid-fifties the 25 mile limit on other operators??™ journies was lifted and BRS was slimmed down. Despite this BRS remained a major force in the road transport industry and its vehicles could be seen at work across the country.

 

In the 1950s road transport was very different to today. There were few private cars, no motorways and much of what was consumed in the UK was produced here. Indeed there was a major drive to produce items for export. BRS vehicles could be found transporting crops from farms to wholesale markets in the cities, carrying manufactured goods to ports for export, carrying steel to factories, in fact just about anything, anywhere.

 

Interestingly enough the one place that you would be unlikely to see a BRS vehicle would be at a railway station or goods yard. British Railways had its own huge fleet of road vehicles for delivering and collecting parcels and freight.

 

 

Livery

The standard livery colour for general haulage vehicles was road haulage red (also known as Ayres red), parcels green, Pickfords blue and tippers grey. The tarpaulins used to sheet loads were green.

 

BRITISH ROAD SERVICES lettering was carried on the front, normally in white, sometimes on a headboard was fitted. Flat beds had their depot name on the flat bed sides, again in white.

 

A fleet number was carried on the cab. The BRS fleet numbering system was complex and changed several times over the years.

 

Some vehicles carried the BTC??™s lion and wheel emblem on their cab doors. From 1948 to 1956 the early style, similar to the equivalent British Railways emblem, disparagingly known as the ???cycling ferret??™ was used ??“ with the lion??™s head facing forwards on the vehicle. As an added complication the coloured circle around the emblem reflected the operational division to which the vehicle was allocated. From 1956 until 1962 the later emblem was used (???ferret and dartboard??™). From 1962 the emblems were removed.

 

4mm scale decals for BRS names, emblems, fleet numbers and depot names are available in the Fox Transfers range. Enamel paint in BRS red, green, blue and cream is available in the Phoenix Precision Cherry Paint range, which can be obtained from Fox Transfers.

 

 

Vehicles

Over the years BRS operated everything from horse-drawn vans, in the immediate post-war years, through to large articulated lorries.

 

Possibly the most familiar was the eight-wheel flat bed on Leyland Octopus, Bristol or AEC Mammoth chassis.

 

The eight-wheel Octopus flat bed was produced in BRS livery as part of the Corgi Trackside range in April 2008 (Model number DG176026).

 

The Leyland Octopus is also available as a kit from Langley Models in both flat bed (Kit G35) and dropside (Kit G56) versions. Langley also produce a Bristol HG6L eight-wheel flat bed (Kit G119) and Bristol HA6L tractor unit (Kit G120) along with various trailers including a 26??™ flat suitable for the 1950s (Kit G59).

 

In N scale Langley produce an AEC Mammoth Mk.V eight-wheel flat bed (Kit E29) and an AEC Mercury artic with flat bed trailer (Kit E27). Finding lettering and emblems in this scale could be tricky.

 

Other vehicle types can be produced using the various ranges of lorry models and cabs produced by a wide range of manufacturers.

 

Suppliers:

Fox Transfers

BRS decals and paint

4 Hill Lane Close, Markfield Industrial Estate, Markfield, Leicestershire, LE67 9PN

Tel: 01530 242801

www.foxtransfers.co.uk

 

Langley Models

166 Three Bridges Road, Three Bridges, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1LE

Tel: 01293 516329

www.langleymodels.co.uk

[BrushVeteran]

I well remember the prototype Roadrailer being parked at the bottom of our road in 1959/60 with a BRS Bristol HA6L on trade plates hauling it. Ironicly I went to work for one of the test engineers (Archie Prince) for a period of 4 years, in the seventies, and he had great tales to tell of the development of the Roadrailer concept. I am led to believe that this was a joint venture between British Railways, BRS and Pressed Steel Co. One of his tasks was to ride in the empty trailers at speed between Linwood and halfway between London. The other test engineer was Ken Gadd and I used to go to primary school (many years ago!) with his daughter Karen, (and she was a 'cracker' at 9 years old!)I was only 11, oh dear the time capsule is about to blow a fuse! Anyway these two men were responsible for all the testing of the Roadrailer which they claim would have gone into production had it not been for the freightliner concept. They recon that the compressed air equipment needed to change from road to rail was too complicated and that's what killed it off.

I would have thought that the railways network would have survived to a greater extent if Roadrailer had of got off the ground with a greater flexibility regarding onward shipment from the railway network. Perhaps also BRS might have still survived. It is pleasing to see BRS represented in model form and I sincerely hope that one of the manufacturers involved with these models has a serious look at the Roadrailer. A diecast trailer would surely have the stabilty needed to create a decent prototype length train. There are plenty of tractor units to choose from. I know Peco marketed a kit many years ago and Triang-Minic also, -- a good project to bring road and rail together on a layout! That would be where you could legitimately see BR and BRS working together. We can only hope.

[Adam]

A number of BRS depots were in the vicinity of railway lines of course - in the '50s and '60s, Yeovil's neighboured the line to Taunton, and shots of the Exeter end of Gillingham usually reveal a red BRS lorry or two in the background. Also don't foget that the majority of the fleet would have been inherited, often pre-war, vehicles until about 1955.

 

There is also a large range of BRS transfers available (together with a large range of truck cabs, bodies, wheels and chassis) from Frank Waller who trades as Road Transport Images and advertises in BRM and MRJ. These are made in resin, go together in a modular manner, with recommendations as to correct wheels, detail of wheelbases and so on. The shapes are a bit more, um, reliable than Langley though the prices are comparable. List in return for an SAE, usual disclaimer, I'm merely a satisfied customer:

 

Road Transport Images

(Frank Waller)

17 Foxdene Road

Seasalter

Whitstable

Kent

CT5 4QY

 

Adam

[Arthur]

The Bristol tractors and eight leggers were produced to specifications drawn up by BRS (did any body else use them?) and later, in the seventies, Scammell produced the day cab 4 x 2 Crusader to meet BRS's need for a premium tractor for use on trunk duties. The Crusader certainly found sales outside the BRS domain.

[Adam]

The Bristol tractors and eight leggers were produced to specifications drawn up by BRS (did any body else use them?)

 

Only second-hand I think, though for the life of me I can't remember why.

 

Adam

[ian]

Only second-hand I think, though for the life of me I can't remember why.

 

Adam

 

Bristol was part of the BTC (having started as the bus building arm of Bristol Omnibus) and so could only supply vehicles to other public sector organisations. Thus Bristol bus chassis were used by Tilling group companies and municipals until the company became part of BL in the late sixties, after which their products were available on the open market - though truck production had ceased a few years earlier.

[Tim Chambers]

Try the BTF collection vols 5 and 8 for some fascinating film on some of the workings of BRS.Riveting stuff! Tim.

[Fat Controller]

With regard to the Bristols, I found the following on the Hattons' site, in the bit referring to 'forthcoming products:-

D75

Bristol HA Artic flat "BRS - Dundee" (New casting)

OO Scale (1:76th scale)

Pre-order price: ??5

This may be of interest to some of you.

In the later years of BRS, those BR vehicles which were ceded to NCL after the 1967 Transport Act were often maintained at BRS garages.

Brian