There are many things about old buses that interest us fans, and for me this includes memories of the people who worked them. As a student, I worked as a conductor for West Yorkshire for about ten months in total, and so met lots of fascinating staff. A recent posting on the Old Bus Photos site, (about Reliance of York), reminded me about one of them: Stan 'Digger' Ward, a long-serving driver who in the 1960's operated the York City tour bus.
Stan was a lovely man; always immaculately turned out, and sociable too, a characteristic not always displayed by senior drivers to junior conductors like myself. I remember on one occasion his name came up with another older driver who had known Stan for many years, and had worked with him as a conductor. 'He's got a driving style all his own', this chap said, 'rough!' I thought that was unfair, because Stan was an excellent driver, and I said so. 'You didn't know him as a youngster,' I was told. 'At Fulford terminus, when the road was icy, would turn the bus round by doing a handbrake turn.'
That ended that conversation, but by chance, I had Stan as my driver a few days later, and tackled him about the handbrake turns - a difficult, not to say dangerous, practice when driving a bus. 'Oh, yes,' he said, 'it was only a bit of fun. I had a passenger once who complained to me about it, so I said to her, "What's the matter, Love? It isn't every driver who gives you a thrill for your tuppence!".'
Stan certainly used his gift of the gab when running the York City tour, smiling generously while helping lady passengers off the coach at the end of the tour, with his other palm held out irrisistably for a tip from her companion. A highly successful ploy, I believe!
Roy Burke
02/2010
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