English: A British built ECW bodied Bristol VR double-decker bus, pictured in New York City in 2007 (wearing reg. 20416). The bus is mocked up with advertising vinyls to look like the purple triple-decker 'Knight Bus' used in the Harry Potter books and films (the films used a real bus, a much older AEC Regent III RT actually modified into a triple decker). It is heading north up 6th Avenue, crossing West 32nd Street.

The bus was on a promotional tour for publishers Scholastic Corporation, ahead of the release of the upcoming 7th and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Just out of shot behind the yellow NYC taxi, the bus wears the slogan 'There Will Soon Be 7'.

With a specially outfitted interior with PCs and sofa benches, the bus toured the US for 7 weeks visiting libraries across the country, with an on board camera man recording fan's views on the series. Pictured here on 18 July, the book was released three days later.

The bus has Bristol VRT chassis SL3/1051, with the ECW series 2 body 22753 (43 seats upstairs, 31 downstairs), and a Gardner 6LXB engine. It was delivered new in February 1978 to the south west England bus operator Western National, as their fleet no. 1110 (reg. VDV 110S) (see image of sister bus No. 1106 (reg. SFJ 106R) preserved in Western National colours).

After passing through the hands of a few other southern England operators, the bus was withdrawn from service in July 2000, and having been fitted with an offside entrance, was then exported to the USA in April 2001. It saw use in Denver, Phoenix, Minneapolis, before the Harry Potter tour.