A bitter sweet day as we remember absent friends and family and say goodbye to the NATIONAL branding

As Sion was not available today, Gethin and I decided to remove the ‘NATIONAL’ branding and all legal lettering from CRG163 which we have been putting off for the following reasons.  We are presently preparing to refit panels once the fabricated fuel cap collar and locker support strut are completed, returned and fitted as we begin to prepare the vehicle’s transition and subsequent painting.

This is was a very bitter sweet moment today in all honesty and one that I am keen to mark.  It was a wonderful day spending time with my youngest son who together with our eldest son are the next generation in our family who will one day pick up the bat-ton with CRG163.

During today I remembered back to the first time CRG163 was restored and preserved under my ownership between 2002 and 2004, thinking back how my own parents supported me and were involved as well as others.  CRG163 was unveiled in May 2004 at the end of the restoration work in the NATIONAL white branding and livery.  I still remember to this day the excitement.  I was very fortunate to have been given the National Bus Company corporate manual from my dear and late friend Derek Thompson.  This allowed me to replicate with precision the NATIONAL branding and National Bus Company legal lettering.  Roger Burdett’s similar coach, Royal Blue 2380 (OTA 640G) was also an inspiration.

Out of courtesy I remember writing to National Express to ask for their permission to use the famous double ‘N’ logo and branding, who duly wrote back agreeing.  When I launched CRG163 in the NATIONAL white branding at the Llandudno Transport Festival in May 2004, the white livery was welcomed.  I however recall some commenting that they had always disliked this livery back in the day, and were not supportive of the vehicle returning once again to this livery remembering how it replaced Crosville’s then beautiful cream and black coaching livery previously carried by these fine vehicles on the nationalisation of the bus industry in the UK. CRG163 however represented a snapshot of the era when coaches in this livery were common place during the 1970’s and is something I fondly remember from my own generation and was unique by the fact that it was the only Crosville coach that had been returned to this livery in preservation.

The famous double N logo, devised by Norman Wilson all those years ago featured heavily during my own childhood growing up, as I fondly remember travelling on Crosville buses displaying this logo, from their National Bus Company ownership.  I also remember my big annual treat as a child, travelling to Chester for the day from Blaenau Ffestiniog, my home town, on the X9 Town Lynx service (Pwllheli - Liverpool) which then became the National Express 709 service.  I have happy memories travelling on ELL322 with John ‘Garn’ Jones as well as CTL51 with Selwyn Jones at the wheel.

Later in my own career I drove the National Express 545 Pwllheli - London service, again featuring this very logo, which was of course consigned into history when National Express rebranded their public image in 2003.

I know that CRG163 and its NATIONAL white branding holds special memories too for other people, referring here especially to Graham Warren who travelled many miles on CRG163 as a child with his dear Dad George Warren behind the wheel, who was a driver and legend of Crosville’s Edge Lane depot for many years.  Graham remembers his Dad fondly as he shares memories of him with CRG163 on this website.  This can be accessed HERE.  Don McKeown also remembers driving CRG163 in this same livery too.  Don has also shared memories on CRG163’s website which can be read HERE.

I have now owned CRG163 for twenty three years on 9 June 2025, and in this time I have happy memories of CRG163 in this livery, thinking here of my own parents.  I also however remember not so good times in which I had issues with accessing the vehicle due to storage and other issues.

I have always been told that CRG163’s original eight waist panels, four on each side, displaying CROSVILLE    EXPRESS    COACH    SERVICES, and lighting up at night had been removed sadly by the end of 1971, replaced by a simpler livery consisting of only one panel each side above the front wheel arch.  Raymond (Ray) Patterson who also worked at Crosville’s Liverpool Edge Lane depot remembers the beauty of these vehicles at Liverpool in the cream and black livery.  I also remember collaborating with the late Dave Wilder back in 2023, in capturing his wonderful memories of Crosville’s CRG class of coach when he also worked at Edge Lane.  Dave’s} wonderful article is on this website and can be accessed HERE.

Recently of course as we began to undertake CRG163’s major body restoration with the removal of the vehicle’s panels we discovered that six of the original waist panels and apertures from 1970 had not been removed in fact in 1971 as always thought, but were still on the vehicle, hidden away for 54 years under double panelling!

Up until this point our plan regarding CRG163 was to again restore the vehicle in NATIONAL white.  However finding the original waist panels and apertures was very exciting and served as an absolute curve ball in fact.  It would be such a shame to panel over these original apertures once again, having remained hidden for all those years without anyone knowing.

As we now undertake our second restoration of CRG163 and that with my own children at my side, we are now creating new memories as a family, as we enter our next chapter in the vehicle’s history.

To say that I have painfully agonised over the future livery of CRG163, i.e. the NATIONAL white again versus cream and black from 1970 is an under statement.  Making a decision has been extremely difficult, contemplating all of the above.

However having discussed this important but very agonising point at length with my own family and close friends, we have decided that it is now time to turn the page in the vehicle’s history once again, as we create new memories as a family with CRG163.  One day in the future my children will become the custodians of this very fine vehicle and will be my legacy to them.  The major restoration we are presently undertaking of the vehicle will not only allow us to create happy memories over the coming years but will also future proof the vehicle for my children.

Our intention is therefore to return CRG163 to the original, beautiful cream and black coaching livery the vehicle proudly carried from new on 6 March, 1970 and will feature once again the vehicle’s waist panel apertures of the time, lighting up at night with CROSVILLE    EXPRESS    COACH    SERVICES once again.

As the vehicle transitions from the NATIONAL branding and white livery into Crosville’s cream and black coaching livery of the day, the vehicle’s website will also transition in the same way.

We remember very much with utmost respect those that have memories of CRG163 in cream and black and NATIONAL white from back in the day to preservation as we now look ahead.

A mix of photographs collected over the years of CRG163 in the NATIONAL white branding during the vehicle’s operational period with Crosville and laterally in preservation.

With a heat gun and window scrapers we begin to remove the NATIONAL branding from CRG163’s nearside.

Gethin is seen here carefully removing the ‘N’ letter of the NATIONAL branding on CRG163’s nearside.

Gethin is seen here again, carefully removing the letter ‘L’ and last part of the NATIONAL branding from the nearside of the vehicle.

Gethin takes a photograph of me as I am seen removing the Crosville Motor Services legal lettering from CRG163.

We both move to the vehicle’s offside as we take a photograph of the two larger panels displaying the NATIONAL branding for the very last time in a bitter sweet moment before its removal.

The offside NATIONAL ‘double N’ logo is the last remaining part of the branding to be removed.  We take a moment to remember as Gethin and I remove the final piece together.  This was a very bitter sweet moment.

CRG163’s offside panels now plain as we prepare for them to be fitted onto the vehicle once the fuel cap collar and offside front locker support strut is returned and fitted.

Another view of CRG163’s offside panels ready to be fitted.

CRG163 is seen with smaller lighting apertures in view with NATIONAL branding now removed as we begin to prepare the vehicle for the next chapter in its history.