RED & WHITE
was a bus & coach operator (based in Chepstow). It provided services in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, the Glamorgan & Gwent valleys between 1929 & 1978.
History
In 1921 brothers John & Arthur Watts of Lydney started two bus companies: Gloster Transport (Lydney) & the Valleys Motor Bus Services (Tredegar). Both companies expanded quickly by acquiring nearby operators.
In 1926 the Lydney business adopted the name Gloster (Red & White) Services. By 1928, the companies were running buses in an area bounded by Hereford, Gloucester & the South Wales valleys.
CAX 390, 1938 Albion Valkyrie/Duple 32-seat coach.
In June 1929 John Watts formed RED & WHITE Services Ltd to bring together the bus companies he established or acquired. The same year it entered the long distance coach market, initially from South Wales valleys towns to London via Gloucester. In the early 1930’s coach operators were acquired further afield, with services between London, Liverpool and Glasgow & between Cardiff & Blackpool.
RED & WHITE expanded rapidly during the 1930s, by now from new head office in Bulwark, Chepstow. It acquired several bus companies in the Swansea area & elsewhere in South Wales. In 1933 ‘Red & White’ acquired the business of Red Bus Services of Stroud. 1934 saw Associated Motorways express coach services consortium formed.
By 1937 RED & WHITE & subsidiaries had a fleet of over 400 vehicles. In that year Red & White United Transport Ltd was formed as a public company to hold the group's various interests. The group's operations in the Swansea area were brought together in 1939 as United Welsh Services Ltd. The group also bought Cheltenham District in 1939.
Expansion continued during World War II. In 1944 the group bought Newbury & District. In 1945 they bought Venture (Basingstoke) and South Midland Motor Services (Oxford). The later ran express coach services between Worcester, Oxford & London.
Nationalisation
The Labour Government of 1945 planned to nationalise all road & rail transport, so in 1950 the Directors of RED & WHITE sold their UK bus operations to the British Transport Commission (a state quango). Then in 1962 RED & WHITE was transferred to the ‘Transport Holding Company’ (once part of Tilling Group of bus companies).
In 1968, the year our Ruby was new, RED & WHITE had:
NATIONAL
RED & WHITE became a subsidiary of the National Bus Company on 1 January 1969 & gradually worked more closely with nearby Western Welsh (also an NBC subsidiary).
The fleet name RED & WHITE was used until 28 April 1978 (when the company was merged with Western Welsh) to become the National Welsh Omnibus Company Ltd.
Back to private enterprise
National Welsh was privatised by Management Buyout in 1987, but struggled financially and went bankrupt in 1991.
Western Travel bought the Gwent valleys, Monmouthshire & Forest of Dean operations naming them RED & WHITE.
In 1995 Stagecoach acquired the company. 'RED & WHITE Services Ltd' remains the legal title of Stagecoach South Wales.
1950, RED & WHITE published this book charting their progress.
Included details of all RED & WHITE services.
RED & WHITE had 13 garages in 1967.
Red & White Head Office building at Bulwark, Chepstow.
Company enquiry & booking office, Cantilupe Street, Ross.
Bus conductors & bus drivers used these.
As used by conductors and drivers.
Uniform badge was worn on the lapels of jackets by platform staff.
Photos: 19 AAX by Joseph Timbrell (flickr); 566 HWO by Brian Bennett (flickr); DAX 618C by Chris Stanley (flickr); LAX 125F by Oldbusman (flickr).
GHB 688N, was one of the first batch of Leyland National buses delivered to RED & WHITE in 1974/5.
The Leyland National was designed by Leyland Motors & the National Bus Company during the late-1960's/early-1970's. It was intended to replace all other makes/models of British-built single deck buses in production at that time. Hence, production of the Bristol RE chassis was ceased in 1975, in favour of the National.
Photo courtesy of The KDH Archive.
Preserved RED & WHITE vehicles:
ONV 425; DAX 610C; LAX 101E & OAX 9F. At Dean Forest Railway, Lydney on the centenary of the companies inception in 2021.
View the 16 survivors of the RED & WHITE fleet.
Fleet Numbers
In 1951 RED & WHITE introduced a unique alpha-numeric numbering system. It was ingenious, but requires some explanation. First there was the vehicle type letter(s). For saloons the codes were:
S = Single deck bus;
C = Coach;
U = Underfloor engine bus;
UC = Underfloor engine Coach;
R = Rear engine bus;
RS = Rear engine Short bus;
RC = Rear-engine Coach (this is Ruby);
RD = Rear engine Dual-purpose bus.
Then the last two numbers represent the year each vehicle was new. In Ruby's case the '68' is for 1968.
The number(s) between the letters & year indicate the vehicles' sequence in deliveries that year. So, Ruby is a Rear-engine Coach, the 9th of that type delivered in 1968. Hence:
Read
RED & WHITE complete fleet list (1930 to 1975).
Thanks to Richard Smith who has prepared this detailed fleet list.
Route 73
CARDIFF - Newport - Chepstow - Lydney - GLOUCESTER
1969 at Cardiff Bus Station. Route 73 ran daily, each hour. It took 2-hours 45-minutes to travel the 59-miles. It was one RED & WHITE's longest bus routes, which started in 1927.
What a great journey onboard LAX 124F (R367), a 1967 Bristol RELL bus, powered by a Leyland O.600 diesel engine!
Ruby's Three Liveries
Ruby's original RED & WHITE coach livery: ivory & currant red.
She wore these colours until May 1974.
The red skirt was not used after 1971.
Ruby's second livery: NATIONAL travel white. She looked like this from May 1974 to May 1979.
Ruby's final livery: half-poppy red & half white. She wore this livery from May 1979 until her first repaint in preservation in 1984.
Photo credits: SAX 4G by Paul A Bateson (flickr); SAX 1G by Southlancs (flickr).
RED & WHITE shared south east Wales with a number of other bus & coach operators.
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