Old Bus Photos

Ideal Service – Leyland Royal Tiger – HAV 384

Ideal Service - Leyland Royal Tiger - HAV 384
Copyright R F Mack

Ideal Service (R Taylor & Son)
1952
Leyland Royal Tiger PSU1/13
Leyland B44F

The attached Photograph dating back to the 1950 show HAV 384 in Barnsley Bus station preparing to depart for Pontefract on the Ideal service route run jointly with H Wray & Son. This vehicle was new to Simpsons of Rosehearty before being acquired by Taylors. The driver is Dennis Taylor, his older brother Len also drove. This was in fact one of the buses used on my school run on a morning and tea time to the High School and Kings School in Pontefract. This involved 5 buses on the morning and afternoon run. The morning being the worst as I lived in a village which was the last port of call into Pontefract and 1 of the 5 was the service bus you would put your hand out and eventually one would stop. Although the service ran in all weathers its time keeping was not what you would call excellent. It left the top of my village at 10 to the hour and arrived any time between 20 to and 10 past. You could always guarantee a place on the last bus from Pontefract on a Saturday night. They never left any one, a 35 seater was stopped by the police one night and 72 occupants alighted!!!

Photograph and Copy contributed by Brian Lunn


06/08/15 – 05:50

Mention of packed last buses brings to mind the apocryphal story of the last Pennine bus from Skipton which had a passenger sat alongside the engine on the near side mudguard!

Chris Hough


06/08/15 – 05:52

How very interesting! Thank you for posting this. It raises a little query which, perhaps, ought to be in the "Q&A" section.
I have a bought slide of JWF 885, an Albion CX13, which was listed in my source’s catalogue as belonging to Ideal, Wray & Son, of Harrogate. We’re not talking of the same firm here, I suppose. Are we?

Pete Davies


06/08/15 – 07:54

Pete the Wrays of Harrogate I think were based at Starbeck, they were mainly a coach operation if I remember right. They sold out to Eddie Brown. H. Wray of the Ideal service were based in Lord Street Hoyle Mill Barnsley, where I think it was the 4pm out of Barnsley used to stop to fill up complete with passengers before continuing on its route.

Brian Lunn


06/08/15 – 11:22

Thank you, Brian. I thought my assorted sources might be wrong – again.

Pete Davies


06/08/15 – 11:22

JWF 885 belonged to France (Ideal Motor Services), Market Weighton, East Yorkshire.

David Hick


06/08/15 – 11:23

JWF 885 was new to Baldry of Sancton in 7/51 it passed to France’s Motors T/A Ideal of Market Weighton in 1/54, both in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
JWF was a Albion FT39N with Barnaby or Scottish Aviation body!!
Ideal is still operating today, but is now part of York Pullman, but is kept as a separate business still in its original green livery

Mike Davies


06/08/15 – 11:24

I’m a little puzzled here: I thought that Leyland gave up building single deck bodies, in favour of just double deck ones, as a peacetime decision, at least until it had to with the Leyland National/Lynx. Am I wrong, or was this a one-off demonstrator?

Chris Hebbron


06/08/15 – 15:40

Hi CH
There are 5 pictures of post war Leyland bodied SDs on SCT ’61 photo index Body Builder-Leyland picture number 249 onwards plus more further down.

John Lomas


07/08/15 – 07:17

I read an item on Simpsons and they received three of these Tigers HAV384/5/6 There is a photo on flicker of HAV386 I also understand that the 3 were mentioned in the Leyland Bus book, however I am unable to check this as I am in the process of sorting my book storage and I can not put my had on the book in question.

Brian Lunn


07/08/15 – 07:17

Interesting to read Mike Davies’ comment about JWF 885 having a Barnaby or Scottish Aviation body. The PSV Circle records it as Barnaby but I have a recollection of visiting France at Market Weighton some 40 years ago and seeing it with a Scottish Aviation body sticker. For all that time I’ve thought I must have been mistaken but here is some other evidence that points that way.
Answers on a postcard.

John Carr


07/08/15 – 07:18

Brian, it was W. Pyne & Sons who were based in Starbeck (on Camwal Road) and their white and purple coaches were a familiar sight around the area for many years. Wray’s operated from their garage at Dacre Banks, which is between Harrogate and Pateley Bridge. Their coaches usually had ‘Wray’s of Summerbridge" on the rear however – Summerbridge being a larger village, literally just over the River Nidd from Dacre Banks. (Presumably Wray’s felt people would know where Summerbridge was, but might not with Dacre Banks!). Wray’s livery was mid-grey, greeny-grey and red, and the firm’s coaches could often be seen in the summer months with windscreen stickers proclaiming "On Hire To West Yorkshire". Indeed, some of their distinctive coaches could be often be seen parked on the forecourt of WY’s Grove Park depot in Harrogate. At one time Wray’s fleet included a Yeates-bodied AEC Reliance and Yeates-bodied Bedford SB, whose flamboyant styling provided an interesting contrast as they rubbed shoulders with the classic lines of WY’s ECW-bodied LS, MW and RE coaches.

Brendan Smith


07/08/15 – 07:19

There is more info for W Pyne & Son Starbeck at this link

Peter


07/08/15 – 09:21

Thanks Brendan for the correction, I remember now. I should have twigged as I travelled past their garage at Dacre Banks often. I do remember seeing the "On hire to West Yorkshire" as you say in the busy period.

Brian Lunn


07/08/15 – 17:07

Chris, your comments re Leyland single deck bodies prompted me to plough through my old issues of Classic Bus as something rang a bell (issue 5, June-July 1993). You are right that Leyland did focus on only double deck bodies immediately post war, due to the huge demand for them at the time. This lead to the successful Farington body in 1950 which was built until 1954. The single deck bodies came about following the integral Olympic project in 1949, in conjunction with MCW. After that they produced two standardised single deck bodies for the Royal Tiger, the familiar all metal, centre entrance coach body from 1950, and the rather angular bus version from 1951. Nothing followed for the Tiger Cub so, as you have stated, next in line was the National, nearly two decades later.

Mike Morton


08/08/15 – 09:24

The photo of HAV 384 could only have been taken in the mid-1960s, since Simpsons themselves were running it well into the decade.
There were only two vehicles in the batch, HAV 384 and HAV 385 – the latter operated for Garner, Bridge of Weir after service with Simpsons.
‘HAV 386’ was an invention of the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Group, the vehicle which has appeared in photographs showing that registration was really ERN 709, originally Ribble 386, later with UTA/Ulsterbus.
Talking of Wrays of Dacre Banks, didn’t they too finish up somewhere in the Knaresborough area? Whether or not it was Starbeck I don’t know, I don’t know the area all that well.

David Call


08/08/15 – 10:18

JWF 885

Well, this does get confusing. I’m glad I asked. I’m attaching a view of my bought slide, which doesn’t look to have a very green livery to me, unless it’s a combination of scanning a bought slide which may or may not have rendered the original properly, and my less than pristine eyesight. As noted in my original comment, it was listed as a CX13.
Chris, Leyland built large numbers of bodies in both bus and coach form on the Royal Tiger, many of them for Ribble. They finally gave up body building in about 1953. My understanding has always been that they were too busy on chassis to afford to have anyone on building bodies. Look under Pennine in the operators section in the column on the left of the page for a view of the demonstrator Royal Tiger coach. I believe Baxters of Airdrie had a former demonstrator in bus form.

Pete Davies


08/08/15 – 15:32

Pete, I think the Baxter’s vehicle you have in mind would be NTJ 985, but it wasn’t an ex-demonstrator, it had been new to Corless of Charnock Richard. After the takeover of Baxter’s by Eastern Scottish it ran in the latter’s livery for a while. //www.sct61.org.uk/xb107

David Call


09/08/15 – 06:40

Thank you, David. Now, any other words of advice from anyone about JWF?

Pete Davies


09/08/15 – 09:57

Thanks, Mike M & Pete D for reminding me of Leyland’s coach version of the Royal Tigers’ body, which I DO recall now, working for Southdown. I never remember seeing the bus version, perhaps because they tended to be and stay ‘oop North’!

Chris Hebbron


10/08/15 – 05:43

There’s a photo of JWF at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ which says it’s an FT39N with Scottish Aviation 31-seat body. In view of the size I would definitely rule out CX13, and although I have never before seen a Scottish Aviation body with a curved window line (the windows don’t look very happy, so perhaps it’s the only one they built!), the trimmings do look exactly like theirs.

Peter Williamson


10/08/15 – 11:23

Thank you, Peter W!

Pete Davies


18/08/15 – 05:40

The two buses HAV 384 and 385 left the Simpson fleet in March 1961 and October 1960.
HAV 384 going directly to Taylor of Cudworth part of the Ideal consortium. They sold the vehicle to Mellers of Goxhill in October 1967. It operated for them until October 1968.
HAV 385 went directly to Garner of Bridge of Weir in October 1960 and then to Tiger Coaches of Salsburgh in March 1967.
From my own notes and checked with the PSV Circle publication SAD1, pre war operators in Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire.

Stephen Bloomfield


18/08/15 – 10:36

It seems I was a few years out in my estimation of when Simpson’s disposed of HAV384 – anyway, at least it wasn’t in the 1950s.
Does anyone know why Simpson’s sold HAV 384/5 at such an early age? A year or two later they were buying secondhand Royal Tigers of similar vintage. //public.fotki.com/boballoa/1/

David Call


 

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Ideal Service – Graham-Dodge – WU 2725

Ideal Service - Graham-Dodge - WU 2725

Ideal Service (R Taylor & Son)
1925 
Graham-Dodge
Reynolds B20F

This is the oldest vehicle to date to appear on the Old Bus Photos website and what a shot it is, it was contributed by Robert Gomersall who is the great grandson of R Taylor who was the original proprietor of Ideal Service. They had three other Graham-Dodge vehicles in their fleet all delivered between 1925 and 1927, one other 20 seater and two 14 seaters. The two 14 seaters did not stay long both being sold on by 1929 this particular bus was sold to Oscroft of Goldthorpe in July 1933 and the other 20 seater was scrapped in 1935. The body was built by Reynolds of Barnsley of whom I know very little, any information would be gratefully received.
Below just for reference are enlargements of the front and side destination boards.

front boardside boardIn 1920, Dodge Brothers emerged as a leading builder of light trucks. Dodge Brothers cars ranked second place in American sales in 1920. Then both brothers died and the company started to stagnate. To help, Dodge entered into an agreement, whereby they marketed trucks built by Graham Brothers of Evansville, Indiana through their dealerships. [The three Graham brothers would later produce Graham-Paige and Graham Automobiles].
The Graham brothers, Joseph, Robert, and Ray, had began building trucks immediately after World War I, teaming up with Dodge Brothers in 1921 after the deaths of John and Horace Dodge in 1920. The Graham truck became the Dodge truck.
In the end, having fallen to fifth place in sales, Dodge fell to Chrysler in 1925. However, these trucks continued to be marketed until 1929. Stratford Blue appear to have taken delivery of a couple in 1930 with unknown B14 bus bodies.
My thanks to Neville Mercer and Chris Hebbron for the Ideal Service fleet history and the Dodge-Graham history.

Photograph contributed by Robert Gomersall


It never ceases to amaze me of the variety of chassis and body builders around at that time. Chassis makers imported their products from all over Europe. They would never all have made it, but the 1929 ‘Crash’ prematurely finished a lot of them off. I’d say that Gilford (with their unique Gruss front suspension and own Wycombe bodies) was, perhaps, the most popular of these outsiders, specialising more with coaches rather than buses. They managed to get through the recession, but the big boys dominated the market by then and there were fewer independents, so, despite their making a very good and reliable product, they went into liquidation end-1936.

Chris Hebbron


Funny you should mention Gilford. A great "might have been" manufacturer. By all accounts a superb product hit both by the crash and by that old devil – consolidation.
There were faithful customers who were taken over by other firms – or even groups – and were not Gilford customers. Overnight a customer base would disappear. [This happened a lot with post deregulation grouping and regrouping.] Unfortunately, it happened too often with Gilford who were also very much in to advanced experimental models which cost a lot too develop and cost too much for conservative operators to buy.
Satisfied customers included Bristol Greyhound, Black and White and Yelloway.

David Oldfield


08/09/14 – 18:00

Reynolds Bros. was for many years the main Ford agent for Barnsley. They also built the "Dearne" range of municipal vehicles based on Ford chassis in the early 1930’s. Their garage and showroom was on Peel Street, and the bodyshop and works was on Fitzwilliam Street. The firm later became Service Garage (Barnsley) Ltd., and later still Polar Ford. The Peel Street premises were demolished in the late 1960’s after a move to a new, larger site on Dodworth Road, and the Fitzwilliam Street site had several other later users including Jaguar restoration specialists 3.4 limited. The site has been cleared recently to make way for the Gateway Plaza development. Polar Ford moved from Dodworth Road to Wakefield Road to make way for new housing, and Polar have very recently become Trust Ford. (September 2014)

Kevin Green


 

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Ideal Service – Leyland Titan PD2 – YWT 572

lowbridge_lower_deck_fwd_lr
Lower deck facing forward

Ideal Service (R Taylor & Sons) - Leyland Titan - Lowbridge - Lower Deck
Lower deck facing rearward

Ideal Service (R Taylor & Sons) - Leyland Titan - Lowbridge - Upper Deck
Upper deck facing forward

lowbridge_upper_deck_back_lr
Upper deck facing rearward

Ideal Service (R Taylor & Sons)
1959
Leyland Titan PD2 (on older Tiger PS1 chassis)
Roe L27/28R

My thanks to Robert Gomersall for these excellent internal shots of a newly delivered Roe bodied Titan to R Taylor & Sons of Cudworth near Barnsley who along with H Wray & Sons of Hoyle Mill operated under the name of Ideal Service. Roberts mother was the daughter of R H Taylor who took over operations from his father R Taylor who started the business. Robert would like to know when R Taylor actually started the business, if you know please leave a comment.
The lower deck is of a normal layout for a rear entrance double decker, but as this is a lowbridge vehicle it as a sunken gangway on the right hand side of the upper deck which can be seen quite clearly in the upper deck shot.
The seats as can be seen are just two normal two seat units put side by side, looking closely at the shot it looks as if the right hand pair is set back a little, probably to aid passengers getting past from the left hand seats. I am not sure if there was ever a one piece four seat unit, if you know please leave a comment. The sunken gangway can also be seen upper left in the 2nd lower deck shot and people sitting in the seats underneath it had to be careful when getting up as you could quite easily end up with a nasty bump on the head.
I think these shots are extremely good as there is a lot of people who will of never seen a lowbridge vehicle seating layout, thanks again Robert.

Photographs contributed by Robert Gomersall


Born and bred in lowbridge country, I imagined till the age of eight that a central aisle upstairs was for trolleybuses only. A family trip to London taught me otherwise, but I continue to defend the lowbridge design against all its critics: it survived in production for over forty years essentially to Leyland’s 1927 design. Reading Corporation’s two batches (1956-57) of Regent IIIs originally had 27 seats upstairs (six fours and a three) but were later upseated to 31 on top, with all the fours now staggered just as in the R. Taylor PD2. I think the main point was to discourage generously-upholstered mortals from claiming more than their allotted 17 inches of seat-width.
Last week I was (silently) grumbling that lowbridge Roe-bodied buses never turn up at Southern rallies, as I wanted to see the internal details, and here we have Robert G’s superb shots! A prayer answered.

Ian Thompson


These buses look unusually uncluttered and spacious, minus stanchions. As for bench seats in the upper saloons of lowbridge buses, London Transport inherited six ST’s with bodies by Short Bros. of Rochester. These had a sunken gangway EITHER side and bench seats for THREE. It also had the Godstone STL’s which had one sunken gangway, but seats in alternate rows of THREE and FOUR. I never travelled on them, and, although they had rounded tops to the seats, I don’t know whether they were bench seats or not. LT’s few lowbridge D’s (Daimler CWA6’s) had a sunken gangway with bench seats for FOUR. The first batch came with austerity wooden slatted seats, which would have caused some instability in passengers when going around corners. Even on similar double seats, one rode by the seat of one’s pants (so to speak) around corners, I recall!

Chris Hebbron


Another operator sadly missed! I was fortunate enough to travel on the Ideal Service in the early 70’s although by then it was being operated by H Wray alone. These photos are interesting because I hadn’t realised that a new double decker had been purchased as late as 1959. Logically it should still have been operating in 1970 although I don’t believe Wray took over any of Taylors vehicles when they decided to cease operating. I remember walking down to Hoyle Mill from Barnsley a few times to have a look at Wray’s operation and it was seemingly just an open yard with an inspection pit, I don’t recall seeing any covered accommodation! I think at the end, Wray had 3 or 4 double deckers, (perhaps always so) I remember travelling on a lowbridge AEC Regent V/Park Royal (ex Western Welsh?) an early Lodekka (ex W Yorks) and the last vehicle purchased, a Dennis Loline/Alexander, this giving the service a (fairly) modern image at last but unfortunately not for long! I’m not sure but I think that Wray, unlike Taylor, never purchased a new vehicle, and in the last few years tried to make sure their buses were from ‘red’ fleets to avoid the cost of re-painting! I’d love to know what became of YWT 572 because I’m sure there would have been plenty of miles left in it when Taylor sold up.

Chris Barker


What magnificent pictures these are and greatly appreciated. The vehicle is obviously assembled from the same Roe components as Samuel Ledgard’s six AEC Regent Mark Vs in 1957 – the panels, windows and frames, seats etc being identical. The only differences appear to be, obviously, the lowbridge layout and the rather luxurious light fittings. Good naturedly though, I must contest Ian’s praise of the lowbridge layout – while it undoubtedly solved the problem of height clearances such vehicles were very difficult for conductors, especially tall ones like me, and tended to roll alarmingly to the nearside if heavily laden and on badly cambered roads. By the way, West Yorkshire Road Car Co Ltd also experimented briefly in the 1950s with staggered upper saloon seating on lowbridge ECW Bristol KSWs.

Chris Youhill


I was fortunate enough, at the weekend, to combine a family gathering with a visit to the Sheffield Rally. In turn I was able to travel on STD 1156 (PD2/30) bodied by my beloved C H Roe. It was superb, albeit highbridge, but in every other respect, bar one, like these interior shots. [It has platform doors and an emergency door.]
The Leyland design was patented and could not originally be copied without buying a licence. Although, at that time, AEC did not have their own bodyworks, the blessed Mr Rackham had strong ideas about body design leading to certain stipulations for pre-war bodywork on AECs. Qs, therefore, like LTPB RTs after them, had very similar bodies regardless of Coachbuilder or operator. Likewise, Regents had the "Camel Hump" body for low-bridge operations. This was achieved by having gangways on both sides, three seats in a row and – conveniently – avoiding any infringement of the Leyland patent.

David Oldfield


Robert Taylor & Sons (Ideal Services) was taken over by the Yorkshire Traction. The Estate account shows Goodwill was £5700; Motor Vehicles £3025. Unfortunately it doesn’t itemise the vehicles sold.

Robert Gomersall


Just a couple of further points, a photograph of this vehicle in service appears on the Huddersfield Passenger Transport Group website, Buses in Barnsley section. It is not a PD2 but a re-bodied PS1. H Wray had one re-bodied in 1956 with a Roe body of Park Royal appearance which became KHE 528 and Taylor had this one done in 1959, both previously had Wilkes & Meade coach bodies. The earlier one was probably tagged on to a batch being done for Yorkshire Traction at the time. All of them were re-registered, maybe the Yorkshire Traffic Area was strict about such matters!
Apparently this vehicle passed to H Wray in 1967 so presumably this was the year that Taylor ceased operation.

Chris Barker


I read somewhere that the staggered upstairs seating was a standard ECW option towards the end of traditional lowbridge vehicles (mainly KSWs I think). It was said to improve access, but I would have thought the reverse – inside passengers having to jiggle round the S-bend as well as clambering over the knees of the outside passengers (or more likely asking them to move out).

Stephen Ford


03/08/11 – 15:57

Anyone know if the operators which made up Ideal Service were ever involved in a proposal to extend through to Pontefract the no. 70 Sheffield – Upton service? This would have been a more logical terminus and would have required one extra bus.
I worked for "Tracky" in the 70s and remember Ideal (by then , Wray only) running an ex-Bristol Omnibus Lodekka in the THW series. (However see above the comment about red fleets!)

Geoff Kerr


01/02/12 – 16:29

‘Yours’ Magazine Issue 133 (January 2012) has an interesting article written by a family member of Ideal Services (R H Taylor and Sons) complete with prints for those who are interested.

David Allen


02/02/12 – 09:10

Chris B, the re-registering of this fascinating vehicle is somewhat of a mystery as the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners did not insist on the practice. I may be way out here, but I have a vague memory that if an operator wished to have a "prestigious" modern number the rebuilt vehicle had to have new chassis frames to be eligible, although the original number could be retained out of choice. Can anyone else remember such a ruling please ??

Chris Youhill


02/02/12 – 11:20

Chris Hebbron mentions how uncluttered the interior looks without stanchions and handrails. at Northern we were instructed not to allow standing passengers on coaches or DP’s because they didn’t have handrails, and if you look at the photo where the capacity is visible no mention is made of standing. Does anyone know if this was law or just Northern’s policy not to allow standing?

Ronnie Hoye


02/02/12 – 15:09

I believe Nottingham’s Roberts bodied AEC Regents had no stanchions. However the seats had a profiled back that was higher than these, and a grab-rail along the (straight) top which standees could hang on to. They allowed the usual maximum of 5 standing. I suspect that stanchions were not just for passenger convenience, but also provided a degree of bracing against bodyshell deformation. The Roberts bodies were of notoriously substantial build, and may not have needed this strengthening. I seem to remember that in the railway field the stanchions on the Class 150 DMUs figured in calculation of the bodyshell’s structural integrity.

Stephen Ford


02/02/12 – 17:23

I cannot remember stanchions in buses like this. I think you hung on to the seat back grab: perhaps there wasn’t room in a 7ft 6in body. You just walked "hand over hand" on the seat grabs down the aisle. Not only are the seats unusual, but finished in moquette: upstairs were often leather-type- I always thought because of ciggy burns and filthy overalls.

Joe


03/02/12 – 06:30

I’ve just noticed a most remarkable feature no doubt confined to the lowbridge version of this model of body. The lower saloon heater assembly is of greater width at the nearside to allow it to fit clear of the sunken gangway !!

Chris Youhill


03/02/12 – 10:33

Interesting observation, Joe. I can’t ever, down south, riding on any buses with leather/rexine seats upstairs (open-top and austerity ones excepted, of course). All were moquette. And London trams were the same. Yet there were plenty of dirty jobs in London. I suppose there were special floors ‘oop north’ta cater fer clogs, not to mention spittoons!!
Seriously, I will say that it was disgusting to go upstairs in buses in those days – a smog you could cut through and the smell and yellow/brown ceilings. Ugh! If I recall, on single-deck buses, the smokers were confined to the rear half of the bus. Smoking was endemic. I recall the clip of the ‘white horse’d’ policeman incident at Wembley in the twenties. A huge cloud of cigarette smoke rose from the crowd! Amazing.

Chris Hebbron


03/02/12 – 15:22

A bit off-topic, but following on from Chris H, I heard a tale of a certain paint shop foreman at Eastleigh railway works, who was given a new paint specification for Southern suburban trains, requiring white ceilings. Foreman was a bit of a curmudgeon, and said they’d had cream for years, and as far as he was concerned they would have cream until he retired. After a while Southern Region complained, and asked why they weren’t getting their white ceilings. Said curmudgeon was called before the production manager to explain himself. “There’s no point in painting the ceilings white,” he said. “After a fortnight they turn cream anyway with the cigarette smoke.” “So,” replied the production manager, “You, in your infinite wisdom, decided they should have built-in smoke!”

Stephen Ford


04/02/12 – 05:31

It is possible although not evident in the photographs that there could have been a handrail running horizontally along the lower deck at the top edge of the sunken gangway. It wasn’t just standees that needed something to hang on to, don’t forget the poor conductor too! Each time I look at the pictures, I can’t help but make a comparison with South Yorkshire’s TWY 8 which was re-bodied around the same time and had an identical shell but with platform doors and superior seats. Two notable firsts for me last year were travelling on it and meeting Chris Y on the same day!

Chris Barker


04/02/12 – 08:48

Lucky you, Chris B. I had the privilege of meeting Chris Y last year at Dunsfold – but the riding opportunities were very poor. Hope the return to Wisley improves that this year – but I gather there is no link with the (new) museum!

David Oldfield


29/03/12 – 08:23

In an earlier post Chris B mentioned that he thought that Wrays may not have had any covered accommodation at their site. I can recollect that from the late 1940’s until the 1960’s when I left Barnsley they had a garage on the left hand side at the bottom of Lord Street which could hold two vehicles side by side. Whether the roof was high enough to hold double deckers in the garage I am afraid I cannot remember but I think that it did. I think they also garaged their coal lorry there.

David Galley


29/03/12 – 17:54

Chris Hebbron jokingly refers to the use of spittoons on northern deckers. Interestingly many companies in the West Riding had notices on the upper deck forbidding spitting. Many of the Norths industries such as mining and textiles caused long term lung damage and TB was still an ever present in the thirties.

Chris Hough


16/01/13 – 13:44

YWT 572
Copyright Ian Lynas

Sorry to be a bit late with this contribution but I’ve only just found this website and what a great site it is. So many memories that I cant concentrate on work.
However, the interior views of YWT 572 were superb so my photo of the outside is a case of having a really bad camera (an Italian-made Bencini.) Italians are good at most things but cameras was not one of them.
This shot was taken in 1967 on an expedition with (I think) the late Jim Pass and Glyn Weigh from Oldham to Wakefield and was taken in South Elmsall (Emsull to the locals) on a trip that opened our eyes to the likes of South Yorkshire Motors, United Services and Ideal (Wray of Hoyle Mill and Taylor of Cudworth). I was told that YWT had a Lydney body but as it was built in 1959 as a rebody of a Leyland Tiger PS1, maybe it had a Lydney body in its first life but Lydney went out of business in the early 1950’s. I think YWT 572 under its previous guise had a Wilkes & Meade body but stand corrected if not.

Ian Lynas


16/01/13 – 14:47

Nice to see the outside of the bus. I would imagine that the white flash on the front was a belated and modest attempt at 1930’s streamlining!

Chris Hebbron


16/01/13 – 15:24

It’s got an interesting set of headlight/fog lights

Andrew Beever


16/01/13 – 16:36

Yes, I had one of those Bencini things, too Ian, a Comet S. In fact, as a collector of old cameras, I have one now, plus a couple of the bigger Koroll. I agree entirely with your assessment of them. They were mediocre both mechanically and optically. As for the array of head and foglights, this reminds us that fogs back in those days really were pea soupers.

Roger Cox


16/01/13 – 16:39

YWT 572_2

When Robert sent me the interior shots he also sent me a scan of a photocopy of a shot of YWT 572 when it was just leaving Roe, it wasn’t very good but with a touch of manipulation you can see the original headlight/foglight arrangement.

Peter


17/01/13 – 14:44

I see that Chris Barker has said above that he did not think that any of Taylor’s vehicles passed to Wray, but later stated that YWT 572 actually did. It is my own recollection that most of the Taylor vehicles did indeed pass to Wray (despite the fact that Taylor didn’t actually sell out to Wray, of course), and that Wray finished up with more ex-Taylor vehicles than the residue of their own existing stock. If, as is inferred above, the Taylor fleet initially passed with the business to Yorkshire Traction, the implication is that the vehicles were then passed on to Wray. The relationship between Ideal and Yorkshire Traction seems to have been easy-going, to say the least – on at least two occasions YTC vehicles passed to Ideal, which then proceeded to continue to run them in YTC colours.
The Huddersfield Passenger Transport Group website to which Chris refers actually has an entire page of photos of Ideal vehicles, and it can be found here www.jsh1949.co.uk/ The pics are of variable quality, however, and the one of YWT 572 is only average.

David Call


19/03/14 – 07:42

YWT 572 did indeed pass to Wrays along with tiger cub TWX963 both used by them TWX later passed Phipipson Goldthorpe for use on its Thurnscoe – Sheffield service

Garry


03/07/14 – 07:20

It would seem that the Ideal service from Barnsley to Pontefract began in 1923 and that in the early 1930s there were five operators in the partnership:-
Taylor of Cudworth, Wray of Hoyle Mill, Lancashire & Yorkshire Motors Ltd, Hartley and Wilson (these three based at Shafton).
Lancs & Yorks acquired the Hartley and Wilson shares and was itself taken over by Yorkshire Traction in 1934. I assume Tracky’s Shafton depot was inherited from them.

Geoff Kerr


04/11/14 – 06:37

I lived in Upton, near Pontefract from 1940-1985. I regularly travelled on the Ideal buses, either to Barnsley or to Pontefract. I recall one particularly snowy winters eve, probably 1958/59, when the bus was having a problem negotiating the steep hill out of South Elmsall. Passengers were asked if they would mind alighting and giving a helpful push to get the bus to the top. Several of us young men did so and the bus made it. At the top of the hill we got back on and continued our journey.

Albert Jones


25/11/17 – 08:14

I really love to see interior views of vehilces from this period. Interesting how the upperdeck lowbridge layout has pairs of doube seats rather than the four abreast single type. I like the "cable" pattern moquette as used by York Pullman

Tony J Griffin


15/01/19 – 06:52

I can remember back in the 1950s an outing that had 2 busses.
One was a low bridge type and the other a normal one.
Unfortunately, there was a low bridge about a mile down the road and the driver of the standard bus had forgotten that it wasn’t a low bus.
It pealed about 10ft of the roof off like a sardine can.
Fortunately, no one was injured.

David M


15/01/19 – 08:51

I’d like to add to a couple of points above, both coincidentally contained in Chris Barker’s posts. First of all the PS1 which was rebodied for Wray reappeared as KHE 526 rather than KHE 528.
Earlier Chris B had commented that he didn’t think that Wray had ever purchased a new vehicle. In fact ‘Bus Lists On The Web’ credits Wray as having had three vehicles new, only one fewer than Taylor. The three were:
AHE 110 Albion CX19/Pickering B34F, new 1945 (later to Carmichael of Glenboig)
AHE 987 Leyland Tiger PS1/Wilks & Meade C33F, new 1947 – this was the one later rebodied as KHE 526
DHE 40 Leyland Tiger PS1/Cawood B35F, new 1950
Note the correct spelling of Wilks & Meade.
Taylor’s ‘new’ vehicles are probably more memorable since they mostly dated from 1952-57 and therefore lasted well into the ‘enthusiast’ era.

David Call


16/01/19 – 07:23

Just a few additional thoughts. As Chris Hebbron commented, the white flash on the front of YWT572 was clearly a late addition, since it obviously wasn’t delivered like that. In fact, it is almost certainly a consequence of the arrival of CCK668, the ex-Ribble/Delaine Brush-bodied Leyland PD2, which also features on this site, and which didn’t come to Taylor’s until 1966. Do you think that the white flash was an attempt by Taylor’s to set their own vehicles apart from those of Wray’s? Certainly, there seems to be evidence that the relationship between Taylor’s and Wray’s wasn’t what it might have been. YWT572 and CCK668 may have been the only dds in use with Taylor’s at the time, since, unlike Wray’s, they did make significant use of saloons.
Because Bus Lists On The Web quotes Taylor’s as having received four vehicles new and Wray’s only three doesn’t mean that they were actually the only new vehicles, in fact I’m aware that both operators received new vehicles in the 1930s. An additional vehicle for Taylor’s is actually listed, but it’s credited to ‘Taylor’, rather than ‘Taylor, Cudworth’ so you wouldn’t find it unless you were to know what you were looking for.
Chris Y, I don’t think that the Traffic Commissioners had any say in whether or not a rebuilt vehicle received a new registration, it was down to the registration authority, and the latter did have varying standards.
The link I gave in 2013 to the ‘Ideal’ page on the HPTG website doesn’t now seem to work, so here’s a new one. www.jsh1949.co.uk/IDEAL
David M, are you prepared to say which operator was involved in the low bridge incident you mentioned? It clearly wasn’t Taylor’s or Wray’s, since neither operated highbridge vehicles.

David Call


YWT 572_2 Vehicle reminder shot for this posting


21/11/20 – 07:01

I have found H Wray jointly operating the 46 Pontefract – Barnsley service with Yorkshire Traction in the 1969 tracky timetable. You can see the joint timetable here – https://timetableworld.com/

Ken


 

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Old Bus Photos from Saturday 25th April 2009 to Thursday 28th March 2024