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North Western then turned to the single deck bus fleet and ordered twenty 36 foot long AEC Reliance chassis. Since the first Royal Tiger deliveries all single deck buses, apart from the Burlingham Reliances, had conformed to BET body standards and it was the current BET favoured builder, Willowbrook, that received the latest order.
Once again, however, North Western was seen to be non standard. BET had not finalised its 36 foot long single deck body which eventually had wrap round windscreens and rear windows, peaked front and rear domes, most with six side windows, four of full length with the remaining two being the emergency door window and a small rearmost side window on the offside with a matching arrangement on the nearside.
Prior to the North Western deliveries some BET companies received vehicles with the front peaked domes and wrap round windscreens and the curved rear dome and window shape taken from the 30 foot long design that appeared in 1958. They had seven side windows, the emergency door window and short trailing window on the offside.
The North Western vehicles were different and only a handful of other operators took the design. The front was totally standard. The sides had the seven windows but the rear had a shallow curved dome which ended in a cut in of about a couple of inches, forming a very shallow canopy over the rest of the rear panels which contained a rear window based on the 1958 design.
Hybrids they may have been but they were very handsome vehicles. Delivered in the early months of 1963, 917-931 were finished in the standard bus red and cream and the second batch, 932-951 were expected to be 51 seat dual purpose vehicles, as against the 53 seats of the first batch - an amazing increase in capacity from the 35-38 seat buses they replaced - indeed they could have almost replaced any of the double deck fleet, prior to the Lolines, on a one for one basis.
When the dual purpose batch arrived they were just a little disappointing. Having seen the first batch most enthusiasts were anticipating just how good the second would look in the black, cream and red livery but, yet again, the company changed its colour scheme. This time the colours were applied in a red, cream, red style with the red on the roof extending to just below the windows, below that a broad cream band of around two feet six inches with a chrome and paint trim band separating the cream from the red of the lower panelling. This was not the last dual purpose livery but the batch was the last single deck bus delivery for six years - all the North Western bus eggs were about to go into the double deck basket.
The colour scheme change was the result of the arrival from Trent of William Leese as General Manager. He embarked on a programme of colour scheme and destination display standardisation, bodywork improvements on some older double deckers, improved maintenance and fleet modernisation. One idea trialled and quickly dropped was the installation of a Ruston Hornsby air cooled engine in one of the 36ft Reliances.
1963 will go down as the year Charles St came back into line with BET policy and continued the modernisation of the fleet with vehicles that were both dramatically different and up to the minute in design and facility.
The next double decker deliveries came in the late summer. We have seen the problems created by the lack of availability of an acceptable flat floor low bridge bus prior to the Loline. AEC, having had little success with the Bridgemaster and BET having not really taken the Loline on board - though both Aldershot and District and North Western had excellent value from their batches - got together again and came up with a traditional chassis/body combination which took an old AEC name - Renown.
Whilst many body builders pitched to build bodies on the new Renown chassis the BET (and AEC) preference was the Park Royal forward entrance 74 seat body. North Western ordered an initial batch of eighteen (964-981). Whilst the body design was born of the Bridgemaster the proportions had been improved and in the case of North Western, when placed next to the Alexander bodied Lolines, the Renowns looked very subtle and for a front engined vehicle, very modern.
Prior to their arrival the coaching fleet had been receiving new vehicles, mainly to cater for the expanding range of long distance express routes the Tiger Cubs couldn't satisfactorily service. A batch of eight Leyland Leopard 36 foot chassis were dispatched to Falkirk where Alexander fitted their latest Y body style. Numbered 952-959 the vehicles featured wrap round front windscreens, wrap round rear windows (both below curved domes, the front one containing a combined destination and route indicator) jack-knife front doors and, most impressively, only five windows per side - from the rear there was a short window (emergency door on both sides) a short bay and then three long bays separated by forward sloping pillars - American style.
Finished in overall cream with a red band below the windows which widened below the most forward bay, the vehicles also featured forced air ventilation with individual air vents as in aircraft, partially reclining seats, a pink finish to the interior ceiling, fluorescent lighting plus individual tungsten reading lights and illuminated panels on the exterior in the wider part of the red bands, containing the company name.
A further two (960-961) arrived and these had twin speed rear axles which was to be the norm for future deliveries. All future express coach deliveries were to be Leopards with Y bodies. There were some detail changes in later batches, the pink ceilings were eventually replaced by a very light grey and the illuminated panels also were eventually dropped though they remained on vehicles which were so fitted - Crosville fitting their own panels on the vehicles they inherited.
I spent many nights on these later deliveries in the period between 1963 and 1967 on visits to London when I couldn't afford the £2/10/6d each way stand by air fare on BEA. Student return on the coach was £2/8/6d.
In those days the X5 would leave Lower Mosley St between 22.30 and 23.30 - there were often three or four workings, some routings varied from the one I'm going to describe. The trip would leave Manchester via Stretford and Altrincham to Knutsford from where Congleton would be reached. The first major stop would be Newcastle under Lyme's PMT depot. After this there was a chance of some extended dual carriageway running via Stafford to Birmingham so, if fitted, the higher gearing of the twin speed axle could be used. Birmingham's BMMO bus station would see the passengers decanted for a quick cuppa at around 02.00 after which the Leopards came into their own.
With only a few reading lights illuminating the interior, the coach would travel past Birmingham Airport, through the outskirts of Coventry to the start of the M1 (nowadays the M45). Depending on the working, the next stop would be one of Watford Gap, Newport Pagnell or Toddington service stations (sometimes the stop would depend on how many were asleep/if a toilet stop was needed) often no stop was made.
Before the M1 was opened south of what is today the M10 junction, the M10 would be taken and the coach would gain Victoria Coach Station at around 06.00 via the A6, once the M1 extension reached Hendon the route would be via the M1 and Swiss Cottage.
Whilst the vehicles were capable of sustained 65 mph running - and sometimes made 75 mph - night time journeys were more often conducted at around 60 mph. Travelling overnight as a teenager I didn't find the trips uncomfortable. The recline was enough to enable sleep, there was good sound proofing, the ventilation and heating system was good, there was nothing - apart from the odd bit of luggage in the overhead racks - to rattle and the engine note could be soporific. As a 65 year old my view might be quite different!
I also travelled on these (and Western SMT's black and white versions) to Glasgow where they were more than capable of dealing with the A6 over Shap and the A74 over Beattock.
At the same time the touring fleet received 962-963 which were 36 foot Leopards with single speed axles and yet another make of body - Plaxton - who supplied their brand new Panorama I body, which featured very long and deep window bays, forced air ventilation and a good deal of chrome trim enhancing the cream with red trim colour scheme.
All of the above was, however eclipsed by the next arrivals.
We saw in my article on Stockport Corporation how, over at Heaton Lane, the arrival of the 1963 batch of PD2s registered YDB 1- 10 started a new numbering series and a range of changes for the Stockport fleet.
The autumn of 1963 saw the arrival of YJA 1 - 22 (less YJA 7 which went to a private motorist) at Charles St and the two batches in which they were delivered not only completely changed the look of the double deck fleet but, with the exception of a second batch of Renowns, standardised the double deck fleet until the very last order - which in any case was delivered in SELNEC Cheshire colours.
BET constituents had been taking rear engined Atlanteans since they first appeared. PMT, abutting North Western in the Potteries, had built a fleet and had taken some of the newer Daimler Fleetlines. All the Atlanteans had received the low height version of the bodywork whilst, to the north, Ribble had batches of Atlanteans of both heights. North Western had not ignored the developments, in fact in the mid 1950s it had used the second Leyland Lowloader demonstrator in service for a couple of weeks, but it was aware of the problems with the breed, wanted a more robust vehicle and had found its answer in the Loline.
In the summer of 1962 it had tried out the prototype Daimler Fleetline, 7000 HP, its Weymann body in Birmingham colours as it had been when demonstrated to Manchester in 1961, but this time as it proceeded along Kingsway on the #29 and #30 it was powered by a Gardner engine rather than the original Daimler unit as tested Parrs Wood. In addition Birmingham Fleetline 3246 was tried on route #28.
The North Western trials were satisfactory and the twenty two chassis were sent to Falkirk and returned with something on board which immediately made everything else in the double deck fleet - and much in the surrounding fleets - look very dated.
When the Atlantean hit the streets it was, to the general public and most operating crews, sensationally different. In 1958 most passengers would not have experienced riding on a 30 foot long double decker or one with doors of any sort. Most fleets were made up of 26 and 27 foot 6 inch long front engine, rear platform vehicles, the design of which had been laid out prior to 1914 and had been refined - gaining roofs, enclosed stairs, cabs and even, in some cases, heaters and a few platform doors, over the following 44 years.
To see for the first time, as I did in Stoke on Trent in 1958, a large bus looking from the front like a double deck coach and from the rear like nothing else seen before, with the engine in a bulge across the rear, was a head turning experience - and public heads turned.
To ride on such a vehicle, boarding through doors by the driver, climbing stairs set behind his cab or sitting on the rear bench seat with the engine behind was something totally new, as was the comfort of the vehicle in winter when the heaters and doors guaranteed warmth to passengers and conductors, though the drivers had to get used to not being encapsulated next to a warm engine.
I will look at the development of such vehicles in a later article on MCTD, for the moment suffice to say Leyland seemed to "bottled it" dropping many features of the prototype Atlantean including the much needed drop centre rear axle.
In hindsight, given the problems the design threw up over the next ten years and Guy Motors' problems with the Wulfrunian which went full tilt to find every solution to the problems the industry wished to overcome, Leyland's decision may not have been a bad one.
If Leyland shied away from too much innovation, the body builders shied away almost completely, MCW and Weymann (offering basically the same product), Alexander and Northern Counties all offered their standard products most of which were offered for 30 foot front engined vehicles - adapted for the new engine and boarding arrangements and the new low driving position. Even when Ribble bought coach variants they only added toilets, catering, some chrome and barely changed the body.
So, whilst the sheer size and re-arrangement of the platform turned heads, it would be four years before Liverpool and Glasgow ordered in bulk and came up with designs more worthy of a vehicle that, fifty four years on, would still be the template for double deck design.
Glasgow's Alexander bodied Atlanteans had Alexander’s hallmark balloon roof body but the front profile was radically altered with the upper deck front windows being replaced by a deepened version of the rear window from the Y style coach body. The lower deck windscreen was a deep, curved, single piece and the panel below contained lights, in an area defined by an indentation in the panelling and a ventilator. The effect was radically different even if the rest of the exterior was standard Alexander fare, including the two bay rear upper deck emergency exit. Inside, wide use of plastics gave the bus a light, modern feel.
So, when North Western's Fleetline chassis, the first Daimlers ordered by the company (it had inherited a number of Daimlers on formation in 1923 and picked up a few more second hand in 1927), departed for Falkirk there was great anticipation - an anticipation that was not to be disappointed. As Charles St had ordered the low height version of the Glasgow body, the balloon roof effect was reduced and the lower deck rear window was shallower making the engine bustle look larger. The overall effect was very much in tune with the spirit of the times - "state of the art" well before the term was invented.
Inside the 75 seat body there was a great deal of black around the cab and platform area. Night time reflections had plagued earlier Atlantean and Fleetline drivers and the large windscreen offered greater problems which the black went someway to reduce. The bulk of the finish was light grey plastic. What was a shock was that the top deck ceiling had been finished in pink. If Stockport's green ceilings were daring, pink was positively revolutionary. What was going on, of course, was a determined effort to reduce the effects of cigarette smoke. The ceilings also contained two fixed, opaque roof lights.
These vehicles were, with minor variations, to become the company's double decker standard until 1967 and the type eventually replaced all the double deckers delivered prior to 1956. They were excellent performers, although they lacked power steering; from a passenger point of view were light, airy and seemed to be smoother than rear engined buses in other fleets and were a world away from the Bristols and Guys they replaced.
A further batch of fifteen arrived in 1964, sans pink ceilings and with deeper route number boxes at the same time as a second, and final, batch of fifteen Renowns, which had some rather strange black trim along with the grey interior finish, had fixed windows, apart from two quarter lights on each deck, and forced air heating and ventilation. The Fleetlines were numbered 100 - 114, the Renowns 115 - 129 (for some reason 22 - 99 were not used). The Renown, as a design, was pretty much killed off in BET fleets by the modernity of Fleetline which group companies purchased in both low height and full height versions.
Phil Blinkhorn
05/2013
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