Unidentified Bus at Palace Barracks, Holywood

[billh35]

Can anyone identify what type of bus this is? Doesn't appear to be your standard MoD vehicle as it doesn't have ambulance rear doors? It's not an Ulsterbus vehicle either....

Thoughts and opinions appreciated. (Particularly from any RCT personnel involved in Op Banner)

[Sean N]

Poor photo so difficult to tell, but could be a Willowbrook or Strachans bodied Bedford VAS?

[Nick Knack]

It could be a Bristol  LH with the number  plate  in a non standard  position. Or possibly the longer Bristol RE with emergency  door on the side not rear (RELH) . But the number  plate should be under the stripe below the back window. They were only fitted lower if the emergency door was in the way.

[mtskull]

Hard to tell from the photo but, to my eye, it doesn’t look anywhere near long enough to be a Bristol RE.

[billh35]

Definetly not a Bristol LH or RE - there weren't any in Northern Ireland and it's not an Ulsterbus Bristol.

I am more inclined to believe it is a Strachans bodied Bedford VAS but whose would that have been? The stripe suggests possibly RAF? 

I have literally just found this image of an ex MoD VAS with a traveller as a caravan and the rear end looks the same. Funny but I don't remember VAS's being used in N.I. at all. 

Edited December 6, 2022 by billh35

[10FM68]

17 minutes ago, billh35 said:

Definetly not a Bristol LH or RE - there weren't any in Northern Ireland and it's not an Ulsterbus Bristol.

I am more inclined to believe it is a Strachans bodied Bedford VAS but whose would that have been? The stripe suggests possibly RAF? 

I have literally just found this image of an ex MoD VAS with a traveller as a caravan and the rear end looks the same. Funny but I don't remember VAS's being used in N.I. at all. 

 

I reckon you're correct with that, but the stripe won't be RAF.  At that time military admin vehicles in NI were often painted in civilian colours to reduce their profile.  It didn't fool the observant though as, for example, there weren't many other Bedford RLs in red with blue tilts, or blue with red tilts, Aveling Barfords in Ulsterbus blue, Hillman Hunters also in bright blue...  and the buses were generally in a variety of eye-catching, but civilian schemes.

[billh35]

Your comments about paint are why this image was such a surprise. 

There were Strachans bodied SBs which appeared in both "fake" Ulsterbus colours and in "civilian" colours but I don't remember seeing any VAS's at all. I worked at Ulsterbus at the time so was very conscious of what was going on especially when debranded Ulsterbus vehicles began to be used to merge in even closer. Ulsterbus even ran a covert driving school to train RCT drivers. The vehicle destroyed at Ballygawley was an Ulsterbus vehicle with an RCT driver. 

I have never been able to ascertain how many buses the MoD had in N.I. during Operation Banner as all the local enthusiasts knew to ignore military or disguised vehicles - even having notes of their often changing registrations would have ended an enthusiast in jail under the PoTA. Just before Ballygawley Ulsterbus was supplying second hand vehicles which had been bought in to be used by RCT - indeed some of these were already in use but were quickly returned to Ulsterbus.