Eastern Coach Works

ECW

History

In 1912 United Automobile started running local bus services in Lowestoft. They began constructing bus & coach bodywork in the town in 1920. In 1931 the East Anglia operations of United were sold to a new Eastern Counties Omnibus Company, who inherited the coachworks & over 600 staff.

In July 1936, the coachworks were separated from the bus company & became Eastern Coach Works. ECW was by now part of the Tilling Group of bus companies.

At its peak ECW had 1,200 employees on its 30-acre site, off Laundry Way (later renamed Eastern Way), Lowestoft.

In May 1940, the Government ordered ECW to stop production, in case of a possible German invasion. All vehicles were moved from the site to stop them falling into enemy hands. 950 staff were laid off.

Nationalisation

The Labour Government of 1945 planned to nationalise all road & rail transport. ECW was nationalised in 1947, the year production returned to pre-War levels. For the next 18 years, it built coachwork, mainly on Bristol chassis, for state-owned operators (in the Tilling Group of bus companies).

In 1965, the state-owned Transport Holding Company sold a 25% share in ECW to Leyland Motors. This allowed ECW to sell to municipal & independent bus companies again.

In 1969, ECW became part of a 50/50 joint venture between the new National Bus Company (founded 1 January 1969) & British Leyland.

The joint venture ended in 1982, when British Leyland took control of ECW.

The privatisation of Britain's state-owned bus companies & de-regulation of bus services in 1986 resulted in a dramatic fall in orders for new full-size buses. The last 260 bodies built by ECW were on Olympian chassis for London Buses. Leyland closed the ECW factory in January 1987.

The buildings were then demolished. The factory site is now North Quay Retail Park.

ECW coaches, 1950's & early 1960's

Ruby's predecessors - the Bristol LS & MW.

Photo credit: 24 FAX by Alan Snatt (flickr).

Coachwork for Bristol RELH

Coachwork starts with detailed draftsman's drawings. Here's original 1963 ECW drawings of coachwork for the BRISTOL RELH.

Bristol & ECW designers worked closely together on each vehicle design. Both companies had a tradition of gently evolving their designs, rather than start a new design from scratch.

The design for the new Bristol RELH coach was an update of the coachwork ECW had built for several years on the previous Bristol LS & MW chassis. As a result, the design of Ruby, even when new, looked rooted in the late-1950's.

The 1963 prototype coach on the Bristol RELH chassis (registration 521 ABL) had five window bays, with the last two rearmost also being slightly shallower. (see picture).

All 412 production models of this coachwork had four, longer window bays, giving them a more modern, sleeker look.

Manufacture

From 1946 ECW bodies were built using aluminium frames & aluminium panelling. Aluminium is light, strong & does not rust. ECW frames were known for their long & trouble-free service-life. However, the use of hardwood in some parts of their coachwork did suffer rot after many years in service.

ECW also made extensive use of moulded fibre-glass for front and rear panels; roof domes; side locker doors; interior luggage racks & the interior dashboard.

ECW coachwork was hand painted & varnished.

The skilled craftsmen at ECW manufactured most of the coachwork themselves by hand from raw materials - aluminium, steel, hardwood & fibreglass. Specialist parts were bought-in from British manufacturers (scroll down for details).

Finished RELH Coaches, Spring 1968

From 1963 to 1970, ECW built 413 mk-1 coaches on BRISTOL RELH chassis, like Ruby. 25 survive & 14 are roadworthy.

Considering they were built over 50 years ago, that's a remarkable achievement & shows how well they were made!

Our archive shows some original ECW paperwork for Ruby.

Component Suppliers

Brifex - leather cloth, for interior side panels; front & rear domes; underside of luggage racks.
CAV - electrical control panels; rear light cluster; fog lights; door controls; trafficator dial.
Chapman - driver's pedestal 'A.D' type seat.
Clayton Dewandre - floor-mounted saloon fan heaters.
Frankmann - exterior front traffic indicators.
Kelbus - destination blind winding equipment.
Linoleum - luggage locker flooring & interior kick panels.
Lucas - exterior headlight units.

Nesthill - exterior rear-view mirrors.
Philips - interior fluorescent light units & ballast units.
Rawlings - 'Vortex' roof-mounted ventilators.
Simms - electrical control panels & switches.
Smiths - electrical control panel; overhead air vents.
Treadmaster - cork-vinyl floor covering.
Warerite - laminated plastic for window surrounds.
Weathershields - opening sky-lights.
Wilmot Breeden - chrome ash trays; seat back handles; boot & emergency door locking handles.