Bristol Commercial Vehicles Enthusiasts

CURRENT FLEET - MURPHY OF DENVER, COLORADO, U.S.A.

Last Updated : February 21st 2022 (brought up-to-date)

This page lists all Bristol Lodekkas and VRs owned by Double Decker Bus including links to all photos currently in the BVRES Collection showing the liveries carried by individual vehicles. If you have any further information or photos I would be delighted to hear from you at rob@robsly.com

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Photo Feature on Double Decker Bus of Denver, Colorado 

Jim Speed was fleet engineer at Double Decker Bus from 1994 until leaving the company in 1996. He has kindly provided all of the information and photos for this brief feature on a very interesting company for fans of the Bristol VR.

Mr Murphy owned two antique markets situated on Broadway, south of central Denver. He originally acquired a former Halifax Corporation PD2 double decker to stand outside the markets as an eyecatcher. He kept getting enquiries about hiring the bus so eventually he started a bus company! Around the same time another company in Denver who operated ex-London DMS double deckers, British Double Decker, ceased trading and so he took the opportunity to use a similar name (Double Decker Bus) in the hope of picking up some of their former customers. BDD had imported many buses from the UK since the 1970s including dozens of Bristol Lodekkas. Here is a photo of the PD2 which started it all off and also a VR which replaced it being prepared for repaint for further operational use:

Vehicles soon started to be added to the fleet and many of them were Bristol VRs which were numbered from 301 upwards (as listed above). Initially these were painted allover red, but Jim Speed instigated an improvement by adding a cream band. Here we see 308 (PWR444W) peeping round the front of the garage with AAP661T in the background, the only dual-door ever owned and bought by mistake by Murphy's brothher in the UK. The central staircase meant that the doorway couldn't be relocated to the offside so it remained unconverted:

Murphy was an entrepreneur and quickly realised that there was money to be made importing, converting and supplying VRs to other customers in the U.S.A. He chose the model because he had taken the trouble to  register himself as an importer of the model with the US Department of Transport and had it certified for use in the US - no mean feat! The very large number listed above illustrate the extent of this business. Gray Line in New York was the principal customer. Some VRs were acquired and converted in Yorkshire, Englad prior to being exported, but others were shipped directly to Denver where the work was done before the VRs were loaded onto railway flatbeds and sent by rail all the way to New York. Here we see two facing each other ready for the journey and another during the process of being carefully loaded on board:

Another customer was Duskin on the island of Oahu in Hawaii who took three VRs, all converted with protruding air conditioning units for the lower deck. The first photo shows this installation on one carrying the livery applied by Murphy while the second photo (by Jim Royle) shows HUP765T in the attractive two-tone livery applied once they arrived in Hawaii:

The following photos show some of the features of the conversions for Gray Line in New York. The first two illustrate the offside door conversion, while the second pair show the work in progress:

Finally we have a pair of general views of the Denver yard:

Unfortunately Murphy had the sad knack of falling out with virtually everyone so eventually the business collapsed owing money left, right and centre and the remaining VRs were dispersed across the US. Some are now scrapped, but others do turn up now and again with subsequent owners.

Addendum

A surprise came in December 2018 when 302 (YNW290S) and 307 (HUP764T) were advertised free on Facebook to anyone who would take them away! They were in a yard owned by "Sistergoods Reclaimed Woods" in the Lakewood area of Denver and were advertised free to anyone who would take them away - and sadly a local scrapyard duly obliged within hours. HUP764T is nearer the camera in the photo.

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