By the early 1970's the Scottish Bus Group was so sick and tired of the problems caused by the early Flat front VR's that they sort buyers of the whole lot, in 1971 Eastern National took 15 Bristol Lodekka's 2865-9 RVW 391-4D, 2870-73 RWC 941-5D,2878-80 SVX 277-79X and 2881-83 UEV 219-21E in exchange of 15 Bristol VR's from Alexander Midland MRT1-15 SMS 31-45H.
Eastern Counties weren't the only ones involved with the swap, Alder Valley sent 12 Lodekkas, Southdown 7, Northern General 11, 3 from Southern Vectis and 9 from United, Eastern Counties sent FLF 476-500 KVF 476-80E/KPW 481-87E/LAH 488-91E,MAH 492-500E, FLF 343-47 MNG 343-47E, FLF 349-54 ONG 349-54F and FLF 355-64 ONG 355-64F. In the end Eastern Counties only received 30 Bristol VR's from Scotland, 12 were of the jumbo size being 83 seats while the rest were 77 seats, these being VR 301-12 LFS 291/304/303/293/94/290/280/301/281/302/286/83F and VR 324-26 OSF 306-08G from Scottish Omnibuses, VR 316/19-23/27, NGM 157/174/162/170/166/65/164G from Central SMT and VR 317/18/28-33 OCS 579/78H, NAG 591G/OCS 580H/NAG 585/89/87/84G from Western SMT. 13 VR's that were to come to Eastern Counties instead went to Lincolnshire Road Car and Eastern National with 12 and 8 Bristol Lodekkas respectively coming to Eastern Counties.
Courtesy of Syd Eade we see one of the buses involved in the great swap FLF 496 MAH 496E at Norwich Bus Station.
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