AFJ 706T | Bristol VR | Fleet No. 1141

This Bristol VR, fleet No. 1141 (AFJ 706T) was the last of a batch of eight buses delivered new to Western National in 1978 and was mainly in service within the Plymouth area. Whilst in Plymouth, she was painted in green and white which was the Western National version of 'Citybus' livery used for the Plymouth Joint Services network. She was still in this livery when she was transferred to Cornwall with VR 1156 (AFJ 763T). In 1999, she was one of two Western National buses chosen to be painted in Tilling green by the company to commemorate 70 years of Western National (1929 – 1999). Then in 2004, the paintwork was updated to celebrate 75 years (1929 – 2004) of the company before being released into preservation in 2005. Since then, she has attended many events and rallys all over the west country before going into store at the end of 2007. After a considerable time stored, our 'friends' in Devon worked hard revamping her green paint work and sorting out the electrical problems during 2012. We managed to move 1141 to Cornwall in July 2013 to prepare her for an MOT but there was still plenty of work required. In 2014. work continued to get 1141 back on the road and in July, an MOT was sorted and she was ready to go. Much to the delight of visitors to Cornwall, First Devon & Cornwall used the bus for the summer as part of Heritage bus services around Penzance, St Ives and Lands End. Once this work came to an end, 1141 returned into preservation, stored outside for a long time at the Long Rock depot due to the group being short of of anywhere suitable or available to use. Eventually in late 2018 we were able to move her to Troon then in 2019, covered storage became available and 1141 was able to receive the much needed attention to her bodywork.

During 2023, 1141 was busy attending many events including the Penzance Running Day,