Buses and Coaches in Sale

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Part Two - North Western

In 1923 British Automobile Traction, the motor bus subsidiary of BET, restructured its "branch" in Cheshire and northern Derbyshire as a subsidiary known as the North Western Road Car Company. At that time the new company had major bases in Macclesfield and Stockport (both in Cheshire) and at Buxton in Derbyshire. Its Stockport operations had reached out westwards to Altrincham but its vehicles had yet to enter the borough of Sale.
Meanwhile, another privately owned bus company had filled one of the gaps in Sale's transport infra-structure by commencing a service from Urmston, travelling via Flixton, Carrington, and Ashton-on-Mersey. The Mid-Cheshire Motor Bus Co had been founded in Northwich in 1914, primarily to provide works services to the various chemical plants in the Northwich area. After the end of the First World War it increased the utilisation of its fleet by starting local services available to the general public and used the increased revenue to open a second garage in Flixton. As with the company's first base the primary task of this depot was to provide works services (in this case to the sprawling Trafford Park industrial estate), but stage carriage services soon followed, including two circular routes in Urmston and Flixton, services from Flixton to Eccles and from Urmston to Warrington, and the run across Carrington Moss to Sale.
The Urmston to Sale route found few passengers except on the final section between Ashton and the town centre, so the service was rapidly re-scheduled. Its new timetable involved a bus positioning to Sale from Urmston in the morning, operating short workings between Ashton and Sale for most of the day, and then returning to Urmston via the full route in the evenings. The company was making money from its Northwich and Flixton operations, but not that much, and by 1924 the owners were being tempted to sell out.
Crosville was eager to buy, not only for the Northwich services which adjoined its own expanding territory, but to gain access to the Manchester area from the Flixton depot. Eager, but apparently not eager enough. As the Taylor family of Crosville haggled over a price (they were notoriously miserly) the more generous executives from North Western stepped in. In November 1924 Mid-Cheshire became North Western's very first acquisition and NWRCC's red and cream livery quickly replaced the blue and primrose previously worn by vehicles on the Flixton-based routes.
In North Western's 1936 numbering scheme the Urmston/Ashton to Sale service became the 103 (at the same time the other former Mid-Cheshire routes serviced by Flixton depot became the 102/104-107). Having been established before the 1928 agreement with Manchester Corporation the service continued to cross the A56 boundary, passing Sale Station before turning in a triangular loop formed by Northenden Road, Woodlands Road, and Broad Road. The next major change, in the years just after World War Two, saw the Ashton end of the short-workings divided into two alternating services. One variation continued past Ashton Village via the original route to the junction of Carrington Lane and Manor Avenue, while the other turned slightly southwards into Firs Road, terminating just short of that thoroughfare's own junction with Manor Avenue. Both versions continued to show "103" as a route number until 1962 when the Manor Avenue workings became the 205 and the Firs Road operations the 206. Through workings from/to Urmston kept the number 103.
When I arrived in Sale in the summer of 1962 the Ashton routes were still being worked by Atkinson Alphas, usually the two Willowbrook bodied examples (fleet numbers 512/3), but in early 1964 they were suddenly replaced by brand-new Alexander bodied Fleetlines. At that point in time North Western's Urmston garage only had three Fleetlines (YJA 13/15/16, with matching fleet numbers) and it always seemed rather odd to me that these were allocated to the Sale "locals" rather than to the major trunk services between the Urmston area and Manchester city centre. I wasn't complaining of course, the D-type Fleetlines were superb machines and appeared as futuristic at the time as MCTD's "Mancunians" did later in the same decade. The salmon coloured ceilings in the upper decks of the vehicles made a particular impression upon me as did the double-curvature windscreens at the front ends. There were also a couple of friendly drivers who allowed me to stand on the platform and change gear for them - I should probably add that this was on a pre-selector box so no real damage could have been done. Nevertheless this would not happen in this day and age!
Until 1968 most of Manor Avenue was a lumpy dirt road, unsuitable for cars let alone PSVs, but in that year it was finally paved and as a result the 205/206 became circular services. This effectively doubled the frequency at the Ashton end of the route while still only requiring two vehicles. The services passed into PTE ownership in this form in 1972 and after the closure of Urmston depot were worked from Princess Road.

The "By Agreement" services

In January 1926 North Western acquired Altrincham & District Motor Services and became the most important operator in that town. Major inter-urban services were operated from Altrincham to Knutsford, Northwich, and Warrington, but passengers from Manchester intent upon reaching those towns still had to catch a train or connect with the North Western routes via the Manchester Corporation tramway. This changed in 1928 when North Western joined the Express Motor Bus network initiated by Manchester and the Altrincham trunk routes were allowed to continue up the A56 through Sale and Stretford to the city centre "by arrangement". The terms of this agreement meant that the vast bulk of the revenues on the Altrincham-Manchester section went to the corporation - probably the reason why North Western was not too bothered by its drivers' reluctance to pull in at designated stops on the way into Manchester.
The corporation allocated route numbers to these services; 36 for Northwich, 37 for Warrington, and 38/39 for Knutsford and beyond. These numbers were eventually endorsed by North Western in its 1936 numbering scheme - until then NWRCC vehicles had carried no route numbers. By the summer of 1962 the 36 was (as previously mentioned) being worked by PD2/21 Orions and Bristol K5Gs. Shortly after my arrival in Sale the service was renumbered as the 233 and extended at the Northwich end to Winsford and Salterswall. The older double-deckers were then replaced by AEC Renowns with an occasional Fleetline thrown in for variety. The 37 became the preserve of Alexander bodied Loline IIIs, while the single-deck 38/39 were operated by anything Altrincham depot could find including (from 1964) the Strachan bodied Bedford VAL14s with "Dunham canal bridge" roof profiles. These vehicles could be found on a surprising variety of routes worked from Altrincham. Their "core" duties were the Dunham Massey services (98/98A/210/211) and the Altrincham-Halebarns circulars (40/40A, later the 40/1/2/3), but they were also regular performers on the summer only X36 from Sharston to Blackpool, and weekend loans to Manchester depot saw them on express routes to Barnsley and Bradford.
One route which they never operated (mainly because of a sharp turn from Washway Road into Ashton Lane) was the 606 from Altrincham to the Petrochemicals plant at Carrington via the A56 and Sale. This operated three times each day and during my time in Sale was operated by underfloor engined saloons with either Weymann Hermes or Willowbrook dual-purpose bodywork (and "Black Tops"). Another restricted service which passed through the town was the 97B from Manchester to Parkside Hospital in Macclesfield, a long-stay psychiatric unit at that time. This operated on Sundays and could be operated by anything in Manchester depot's inventory ranging from front-line coaches to superannuated Bristol K5Gs. There was also the 36C, which allegedly ran from Manchester to the Ancoats Hospital at Great Warford (near Knutsford) but I never saw one of these in more than a decade of living in Sale. Does anybody know more about this service? The obvious question is "why was it numbered 36C when it actually followed the 38/39 route".
A latecomer to the roster of North Western services through Sale was the 504, a rail replacement service introduced in 1964 after the closure of the passenger railway line from Warrington to Stockport via West Timperley and Northenden. I occasionally used this railway line during 1963 as a way to reach Manchester Airport in time for the early morning departures (47/48 to West Timperley, train to Northenden, and then the first 64 to the airport – the things we do for our hobbies) and can testify that passengers were very few. The replacement bus service was equally short of punters. The 504 started at Urmston (offering connections by train from Warrington) and then followed the 103 route as far as Sale. It then turned southwards on the A56, passing the defunct West Timperley station, before making a left turn into Navigation Road and then joining the A560 to pass reasonably closely to the former Baguley and Northenden stations on its way into Stockport. I travelled on the early morning departure on this service more than 20 times in 1964/65 (both to go to the airport and to connect with long distance services at Stockport) and was the only passenger on every occasion! The regular vehicles on the route were "old friends" - Atkinson Alphas 512/3, enjoying a restful time before their eventual retirement in late 1965. They had the advantage (?) of rear entrances which meant that I could sit at the front and chat about buses to the crews. They seemed glad to have me on board. Predictably the service came to an end the moment the subsidy ran out.

Neville Mercer
03/14

Link to view Part Three - Express Services

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