These buses formed part of the largest fleet of new Bristo! VR's owned by one operator as Western National purchased 244 in total including a number for the Devon General part of the Company..
This VR was first registered in March 1978, given fleet number 1121 and was in the then standard NBC green and white livery and allocated to the Plymouth depot where it remained until the spring of 1982. Then it moved to the depot at Wherrytown, Penzance before being based at Camborne where later, she received 'Cornwall Busways' fleetnames on its NBC livery.
In 1986, 1121 was transferred to Truro depot then shortly after, moved to St Austell where it spent the rest of its service time but also working out of Newquay and various outstations including Padstow.
A change of livery followed in 1987 when the management of Western National decided vehicles would be painted blue and white with red, yellow and blue stripes which was affectionally known as 'Birds Eye' livery! This lasted until 1991 when 1121, along with some others, was painted red to carry the overall advert for 'Flambards Theme Park' at Helston.
With a refurbishment programme under way, 1121 received attention in late in 1995. This included alteration of the entrance steps, recovering of the lower deck floor and the retrimming of the seats which saw the upper deck in Autumn Gold and the lower deck in a standard blue moquette. This was when 1121 received another overall advert livery in green for 'Trelawney's Pride Real Cask Ale' with the front remaining in fleet blue and white.
In 1998, 1121 returned to fleet livery of dark blue and white until in 2003, she was withdrawn from service and moved to Stratton, Bude to be stored with many other VR's. Interest in 1121 was shown and in June of that year she was purchased by a group of enthusiasts and moved to West Sussex. The exterior of 1121 was refurbished by Eastbourne Buses Ltd and painted into its original NBC green livery with Western National fleet names. The seating had been completely refitted with blue moquette at the time of withdrawal which it retains today.
This bus has been a regular entrant at many running days and events over the years entered by John Barley. In 2019, John decided it was time for 1121 to be looked after by someone else and he very kindly asked the Cornwall Bus Preservation Society to continue to look after the bus and we are delighted to be able to do so.
Under CBPS ownership, alot of time and money has been spent on 1121 to keep her road worthy to attend events including the Penzance and Kingsbridge bus running days.
Unfortunately, during the 2023 Penzance Running Day, 1121 had a severe engine failure whilst operating the 17 service to St Ives. This necessitated recovery to our base where the vehicle is now stored awaiting attention.