Bristol Commercial Vehicles
Enthusiasts
Toastracks on St Lucia
Last Updated : 29th December 2016 (John Scragg photos added)
Some interesting material has come to light recently
of four LD Lodekkas which were converted to a unique "toastrack"
configuration in the early 1970s to the order of a customer on the
Caribbean island of St Lucia. The May 1971 issue of Buses magazine
(published by Ian Allan) has a photo of one of them (not reproduced
here for reasons of copyright) but the caption states that it is "an
ex-Crosville LD converted by Lustre Engineering of Chichester for
Halcyon Days Hotel, St Lucia, West Indies". The identity of the other
three is still, as yet, a mystery.
The following photo appeared in a 1976/7 holiday brochure showing the original condition of these
conversions:
John Scragg took the following photos in June 1979:
By 1981 at least one of them had been chopped down even
further, producing a rather odd-looking single decker:
Finally here is a cutting from a contemporary report in a
Model Bus Federation newsletter including photos taken showing the LDs in use on
St Lucia.
Chris Stewart has noticed that three of the LDs are early examples (built in 1954
or 1955) whilst the other one (identified by its sloping profile above the
driver's cab window) is a later 1956 onwards model. It is highly likely that the
latter example was converted somewhat later than the initial trio:
