A brief history of the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company . . .
(from its formation on the 14th of July 1931 to its full convergence with the National Bus Company on the 1st of January 1970)
(History of ECOC courtesy of the PSV Circle and is reproduced from the Eastern Counties Fleet History 2PF1 published by them in 1981)
Early beginnings . . .
The very first motor bus
services to operate in East Anglia were those provided by the Great
Eastern Railway Company Ltd (GER),
the first of which
was a route running from Lowestoft to Southwold which was
established on the 18th July 1904. The service was operated by three
twenty horse power double decked Milnes-Daimlers which seated sixteen passengers
inside, eighteen outside and two beside the driver. Other services were
established over the next few years including routes from Norwich to Loddon and
Beccles, Ipswich to Shotley and from Bury St Edmunds and Horningsheath to
Stanton. These services lasted until around 1913, when the Railway Company
decided not to pursue further interest in road passenger transport; the services
subsequently passing to the newly formed United
Automobile Services Ltd, in respect of
the Lowestoft - Southwold and the Norwich - Loddon/Beccles routes and to the Eastern
Counties Road Car Company Ltd, in
respect of the Bury St Edmunds/Horningsheath - Stanton and the Ipswich - Shotley
services. Further services were established in Essex, centering on the towns of
Harwich, Clacton, Colchester and Chelmsford, which upon cessation by the GER,
were taken over by the National Steam Car Company Ltd of Chelmsford, a company
which later became a constituent of the soon to be formed Eastern National
Omnibus Company Ltd. Click here
to access an illustrated history of the motor bus services operated by the Great
Eastern Railway Company Ltd. (Pictured
right: A GER Milnes-Daimler omnibus employed on the Ipswich-Shotley route)
The Eastern Counties Omnibus Company was registered on the 14th July 1931 to amalgamate four relatively small undertakings in East Anglia, all of which were subsidiary companies of Tilling and British Automobile Traction Ltd (BAT); its management hoped that the larger unit would result in increased efficiency and improved results.
The oldest constituent company was the Peterborough Electric Traction Company Ltd (PET), a subsidiary of the British Electric Traction Company Ltd (BET) registered on the 5th August 1902, and from May 1928, placed under Tilling and BAT control.
The
second oldest constituent was the Ortona Motor Company Limited of Cambridge,
founded in August 1907. From 1914, the company had a BAT investment and was
placed under Tilling and BAT control in May 1928.
The third and youngest constituent was the Eastern Counties Road Car Company Ltd (ECRC) of Ipswich, a Tilling subsidiary registered on the 30th August 1919 and placed under Tilling and BAT control in May 1928. (Click here to view the cover of an Eastern Counties Road Car Company time table booklet dated July 17th 1924, the company's profile and passenger regulations, coach hire publicity, an example time table and fare table and a map of routes). To return to this page after viewing the images, please use your browser's 'back' button.
The
fourth and largest constituent was the eastern operating area of United
Automobile Services Ltd, founded in Lowestoft and registered on the 4th
April 1912. A controlling interest in United was purchased jointly by the London
& North Eastern Railway (LNER) and Tilling and BAT in July 1929.
Negotiations for the formation of the new company (as yet un-named) were conducted between the United management and Mr J F Heaton for Tilling and BAT and a provisional agreement dated 28th May 1931 stated inter alia that "United shall sell (its eastern area assets) and a new company shall buy..." as at close of business on 30th September 1931. The provisional agreement was confirmed as the final agreement on 24th July 1931 and the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company Ltd (ECOC) was then in business with its head office established at 79, Thorpe Road, Norwich. (Pictured right: old enamel United Automobile Services black on yellow timetable case header plate)
The
agreements to transfer PET, Ortona and ECRC to Eastern Counties Omnibus Company
were all dated 24th July 1931, but not registered until 23rd October 1931.
The final structure of ECOC at its formation was as follows:-
United Automobile Services Ltd - 43.2% . . . Tilling & British Automobile Traction Company Ltd - 27.6%
London & North Eastern Railway Company Ltd - 24.3% . . . London, Midland & Scottish Railway Company Ltd - 3.3%
Miscellaneous shareholders - 1.6%
The new company was valued at £672,069.00.
In addition to the transfer of vehicles, services and depots, the United coach factory at Laundry Lane, Lowestoft was also transferred, to become a division of ECOC.
The
company pursued a policy of absorbing other operators, both large and small,
within its area, acquiring no fewer than fif
ty businesses before WWII. The most
notable of these was the Norwich Electric Tramways
Company, in which ECOC
acquired a controlling interest on 1st December 1933 and this resulted in the
abandonment of the Norwich trams on 10th December 1935. Click here
to view an enlargeable .pdf format route map of the Norwich tramway network. To
return to this page after viewing the map, please use your
browser's 'back' button.
Express routes in the area had been mainly in the hands of other operators, but the purchase of Bush & Twiddy's 'East Anglian Highways' in 1932, Westminster Coaching Services Ltd, Pullman Lounge Coaches, Varsity Express Motors Ltd and Varsity Coaches Ltd in 1933, provided the framework for the subsequent ECOC express services.
The 534 omnibuses owned by ECOC at its formation were a varied collection, but comparatively modern. Early withdrawal and replacement by standardised vehicles was not economically feasible, so a programme of rehabilitation was undertaken. Single and double deck buses were rebodied and a few single deck chassis were rebodied as double deck vehicles. The diesel engine had firmly established itself in the bus industry by the mid 'thirties and showed considerable economies over the petrol engine. From 1936, the petrol engines in all but the older rebodied vehicles were progressively replaced by Gardner 4LW oil engines in most single deck chassis and by Gardner 5LW units in a few single deck and nearly all double deck chassis.
The coach factory with a workforce of 950, was producing one double deck and nine single deck bodies per week by 1936, both for ECOC and other operators. It was decided to separate the coachbuilding activities from the operating side of ECOC and so, on 1st July 1936, Eastern Counties Coachworks Ltd came into being, although it remained a wholly owned subsidiary of ECOC. Its name was simplified to Eastern Coach Works Ltd (ECW) in 1937. At about this time, Laundry Lane, Lowestoft was renamed Eastern Way.
Tilling and BAT was put into voluntary liquidation on 28th September 1942 and its property and assets were equally divided between two new companies - BET Omnibus Services and Tilling Motor Services Ltd. ECOC was allocated to Tilling Motor Services. (Pictured right: Norwich tram car no. 13 seen at Orford Place, Norwich in the early 1930s)
War
breaks out . . .
WWII started on the 3rd September 1939, and by October 1942, supplies of petrol and diesel fuel were very scarce. The Ministry of War Transport gave instructions to the London Passenger Transport Board and 57 provincial operators, each of whom had more than 150 buses, to convert 10% of their fleet for producer gas operation. This situation had been foreseen by the chairman of Tilling Motor Services, Sir J Frederick Heaton, and he was well ahead with his group of companies. Development work on a producer gas unit mounted on a trailer was carried out by the Eastern National Omnibus Company Ltd (ENOC) at Chelmsford and they turned over the entire fleet at Maldon depot to gas operation on 1st May 1941. Clacton (ENOC) and Cromer (ECOC) garages were similarly converted in 1942 and together with Grays (LPTB) were used to demonstrate gas buses to other operators. By March 1943, ECOC had 26 gas buses and by the end of the year they expected to have 81 running. All of the buses converted to run on gas had petrol engines, since it was very difficult to persuade a diesel engine to function satisfactorily. In the middle of September 1944, the effects of U-boats on shipping had considerably lessened and crude oil supplies improved, so the Ministry authorised the bus industry to abandon the use of gas buses with immediate effect, much to the relief of all concerned. Click here to view an enlargeable .pdf image of Eastern Counties Bristol L5G saloon, LL 58 (CVF 858) converted to run on 'producer gas'. To return to this page after viewing the photograph, please use your browser's 'back' button. Click here to read George Plunkett's excellent detailed illustrated article on the WWII Norwich Air Raids which occurred between 1939 and 1944. Please note, this is an external website and you will need to use your browser's 'back' button to return to this page after reading the article. (Picture: Enemy bomb damage in Surrey Street Bus Station - Raid No.3 - 30 July 1940. The bus with its roof blown off is A 187 (NG 2722) a 1932 Leyland TD2 which was eventually re-bodied and survived in service with ECOC until 1952!)
Peace
once more . . .
Once the war was over, ECOC settled down to a vehicle purchasing programme which was basically similar to that of any other Tilling group company, although it opted for 4 and 5 cylinder diesel engines as opposed to 5 and 6 cylinder engines by most companies. The vehicle rehabilitation scheme, suspended for the duration of the war, was restarted on a limited scale to cover the period when new chassis were in short supply. The only pre war vehicles re-bodied were Leyland TD2s in 1949. Other vehicles re-bodied were the wartime Bristol Ks and some post war Bristol Ls, which had entered service with second-hand bodies.
(Picture: An unidentified Bristol L5G saloon of the 1947 delivery emerges from Red Lion Street, Norwich around 1953. The large construction site in the foreground is that of Curls department store (now Debenhams) being rebuilt following extensive enemy bomb damage sustained on the night of 29th April 1942) Photo copyright: George Plunkett.
The
emergence of the British Transport Commission . . .
The British Transport Commission (BTC) was set up under the terms of the Transport Act (1947) and on 1st January 1948, entered into ownership and control of a large part of inland transport. Its Railway Executive managed the former main line railway companies, including their interests in the bus companies in which they had purchased shares. Since the BTC already held considerable shareholdings in most of the Tilling companies, it made tentative enquiries about the possibility of purchasing Tilling Motor Services from the Tilling group. Sir J Frederick Heaton negotiated for Tillings and the agreement to sell to the BTC was signed on the 5th November 1948, but back dated with effect from 1st January 1948. Hence ECOC and ECW passed completely into public ownership and ECW ceased to be a subsidiary of ECOC. (Picture: Typical enamel Eastern Counties Tilling red and cream timetable case header plate in use from the mid 1950s)
In late 1948, the BTC set up the Road Transport Executive, whose main function appears to have been the setting up of British Road Services (BRS) for freight, but also managed the road transport interests. Following the purchase of the Scottish Motor Traction Company road transport interests in March 1949, the Commission formed a Road Passenger Executive. After a change of government in 1951, a review of the 1947 Transport Act was undertaken and by a further Transport Act (1953), the BTC was established as the direct management organisation and its subsidiary Road Passenger Executive was abolished.
More legislation appeared on the statute book with the passing of the Transport Act (1962), which abolished the BTC and formed a Transport Holding Company to look after road and bus interests.
One
Man Operation . . .
With the need for economy of operation becoming evermore paramount, the concept of introducing one man operated stage carriage buses was pioneered as long ago as the mid 1950s by the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company.
The first vehicles to be fitted out for this purpose were the new light weight Bristol SC4LK saloons, the first of which, LC 501 (TVF 501), was delivered new to the Company in December 1955, followed by a further 77 such examples over the years to March 1961.
An electrically motorised Setright Speed ticket machine unit was fixed to the bulkhead which rested on the engine compartment cover and the driver's seat comprised a swivel mechanism, allowing the driver to turn towards the nearside of the vehicle, thus facing the passengers in order to accept their fares as they boarded the bus.
As the decade progressed, this concept was quickly adopted by many other operators who were anxious to keep their operating costs to a minimum. The reasons for this policy were very real, with revenues noticeably declining as a consequence of mass car ownership quickly becoming a reality and thus threatening the viability of many lightly loaded rural services.
By the early 1960s, many of the Company's rural stage carriage routes had been converted to 'OMO' and another batch of vehicles, the LM class, were duly converted to cope with the ever increasing demand for operational economy. (Pictured right: LC 501 (TVF 501) seen here in 1955 when brand new, became the Company's very first one man operated bus)
The
emergence of the National Bus Company and the dreaded Leyland National . . .
A further Transport Act (1968) resulted in the setting up of the National Bus Company (NBC) on the 1st January 1969, under whose control came all of the Transport Holding Company's subsidiaries, including ECOC. The formation of the National Bus Company heralded many changes in the bus industry. Outwardly, to the travelling public, standardised liveries became the norm to present a corporate NBC image and not so obviously, a start was made on vehicle standardisation. In July 1969, British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) jointly formed the Leyland National Company Ltd to produce a new range of single deck buses. In 1970, control of this company passed to Bus Manufacturers (Holdings) Ltd, a company jointly owned by NBC and BLMC and the first bus duly appeared in prototype form in October 1970 as the Leyland National. The beginning of the end!!! Sadly, the halcyon days were over!!
Pictured left: RL 735 (AAH 735J) sporting an overall advertisement for the Company's parcels service during the 1970s NBC era)
Click here to view a schedule of operators acquired by ECOC between 1932 and 1979
Click here to view a profile of the senior management who served the Company during the Tilling era
Click here to view a YouTube video taken from the front seat of a car touring the streets of Norwich in the 1950s. Lots of views of pre-war Eastern Counties vehicles in service!
To return to this page after having viewed the YouTube video, please use your browser's 'back' button.
The
Eastern Counties story ... a study by C. G. G. Everett
Here you can read an article from a former member of the Eastern Counties Omnibus Society serialised in the Society's journal 'Terminus' (issues 120 to 124 - August to December 1979)
Click on the blue page numbers below to view and download each page in enlargeable .pdf format.
To return to this page after having viewed each page, please use your browser's 'back' button.
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Pictured left: DR 7402 - a Leyland Titan TD1 which joined the United Automobile Services fleet in October 1930 from Plymouth Corporation. It is seen here in Norwich during the war years, operating ECOC service 17 to Lowestoft. The bus was incorporated into the ECOC fleet in July 1931, having been allocated fleet number A 245.