National Travel XUK 777H at Farnborough - 9 Jul 1976

July 1976 – Don Everall Travel Limited was based in Wolverhampton and a subsidiary of the Everall empire that owned car and coach dealerships, aviation services etc in the West Midlands.The coaching business was sold to National Travel circa 1974 and operated under the Everall National name for a time until the different National Travel regional companies were created.

Plaxton Supreme bodied Ford R226 XUK 777K had been new to Everall in August 1969 and was one of the fleet that moved to Everall National with the sale of the business. It was seen on Farnborough Road in Farnborough, Hampshire when working a northbound National Travel service from the South Coast to the West Midlands possibly from Portsmouth and a Saturday supplement to the daily Portsmouth to Birmingham service operated by Royal Blue as part of the Associated Motorways and later National Travel network for many years.

Unfortunately the poor snapshot (printed on ‘bubbly’ photopaper) doesn’t enable one to read the various labels on the front windscreen.

Initially the Everall summer Saturday holiday coach services were assigned service numbers in a series prefixed by the letter ‘M’ but gradually three digit National Travel service numbers were assigned as services were integrated with those of National Travel Midlands.