272 was the Motor Show exhibit that swept all before it - but which heralded one of the bus industry's biggest failures.
The rear-engined Daimler Roadliner looked good, but had so many faults that when it was put onto heavy-duty express work it kept failing. Indeed, it seemed to keep failing at the slightest hint of work!
Not that 272 betrayed the breed. It proved popular, but the remainder of the orders showed that the type was a mistake - and costly to Black & White which had bought dozens of them.

112 was a one-off, a Leyland Leopard PSU3B.4RT with Plaxton Elite C44F body fitted with tables for tour work, but quickly converted to express operations.

This batch of Leyland Leopard PSU3C.4R-types introduced the alternate rows of red and blue seating that were a fad of mid-Seventies National Travel fleets. I wonder if any of these seats survived into the Twenty-First century....

This was the last batch of AEC Reliances to be delivered to Cheltenham. They were of type 6U2R , right at the end of the production line, and had already dated Duple Dominant I bodies. They were delivered for National Travel South West work.

These coaches were ordered by National Travel South West shortly before the operations were merged with National Travel North West to create National Travel West.

The first Leyland Tigers were a batch of ECW-bodied examples. They were anathema to the tours department, and to the old Black & White management, but they were quick, they were smart, and they replaced some of the old bangers -especially the Midland Red Leopards - that had been brought in short-term to run express services.
There was just one problem - they were ECW B51s with all that type's inherent design weaknesses.
Most of them were rebodied after sale. Only BDF 203Y and BDF 205Y retained their original bodies. The first three were rebodied after three years as Duple 320s (an improvement?!) while Roadcar had BDF 204Y rebodied by East Lancs as a 57-seat dual purpose vehicle in 1995.

The batch of Leyland Tigers was supposed to have included a 216 (CDG 216Y). But it was eventually delivered to Midland Red as its 658 (A658 VDA).

121 - 123 were Duple Dominator-bodied, the rest having the Willowbrook Spacecar body. All were leased Leyland Leopard PSU3D.4R which would quickly return to their leasing companies, but helped get rid of the secondhand heavyweights that were now well past their sell-by date.

This was a leased batch of Leyland Leopard PSU3E.4R/Plaxton Supremes that were used to replace the secondhand heavyweights.
They lasted about three years in service, then were returned to the dealer, many via overhaul and rectification at Carlyle Works.

More leased Leyland Leopard, this time of the PSU5C.4R type with Plaxton Supreme bodies.

A further batch of Plaxton-Supremes, this time the Supreme V variety - was delivered to the South West National Travel companies for express work. They were all PSU5C.4Rs. National Travel West had 281 - 290 (SND 281 - 290X), all Duple Dominant-bodied vehicles.

This batch was spread across the fleet in the West Country.
It included 357 (KAD 357V) which saw more livery changes than most National Express-operated coaches, even allowing for the vagaries of the body shops at the time.

Black & White used to corner the market in transport for the racegoers at the Gold Cup meeting each March. The lilt of Irish voices mingled with the sounds of strange vehicles transporting them to and from the oft-times dubious accommodation that they shared at exorbitant prices. But come the end of the meeting they would all queue up to book more broom cupboards, staircase landings, attics, cellars and coal heaps on which to lie, often in a stupor brought on by celebrating someone's success at the expense of the bookmakers....

As National Travel South West took greater control over the management of Black & White there was a need to provide more heavyweight express coaches. But the money was not available. It was not helped by the continued failure of the Daimler Roadliners which could not cope with express work, but were perfectly suited for tootling around the Cotswolds on low earning tours work.
Secondhand vehicles were acquired from sister companies around the patch.
The Leyland Leopards came from South Wales (Rhonnda), Midland Red, Ribble, Samuelsons and Southdown, and their quality - leave alone their age - was questionable.
But at least they kept running...unlike the Roadliners.
They were scattered across Black and White and the other National Travel South West fleets where lightweight chassis were being removed to take on the express operations that would one day become National Express.
There were some odd vehicles in the batches, including a handful of short Leyland Leopards from Ribble that proved popular for the failing tours work (despite the need to employ them on express operations to meet the growing demand).
My favourite was Midland Red 5775 (5775 HA), once a prime runner for that company. When Black & White went to collect it from Worcester depot it had been parked among the weeds for three years. And they have grown into the saloon through the seams and underfloor covers.
She stormed down the M5 with wind howling in from everywhere, grass flailing along the aisle in the blast, arrived in Cheltenham and (after a cursory inspection) was condemned to the scrapman. But, brother, didn't she fly!

When Wessex of Bristol was acquired by National Express it had a tours programme based on the use of lightweight Bedford coaches. These quickly showed their weaknesses under the intensive use of express operations, and alarge number of secondhand Leyland Leopard were drafted in as a stop-gap to enable the renamed Wessex National to meet its contract obligations.