The alternative route to school in 1958 was through Didsbury and Withington, along Wilmslow Rd. As with the route along Kingsway there were two services available but they were of an altogether different nature to the #29 and #40.
The Manchester #1 was a limited stop service between Gatley and Piccadilly which followed the route of the #1A, the short working of the original #1, one of Henry Mattinson's 1927 cross-city express services which received its number under Stuart Pilcher in 1930.
The #1 and #1A had been Parrs Wood workings from the first day of operation and the depot generally turned out its finest vehicles, even in wartime, for its "premier" service.
By 1958 the daytime workings on the route were shared between the best examples of the Northern Counties PD2s. 3311, 3323 (the only one of the batch to eventually pass to SELNEC) and 3329 were daily performers; 3429 and 3460 (now preserved) were the regular representatives of the first batch of Orion bodied PD2s and, since early 1958, they had been joined by Parrs Wood's allocation of the Burlingham bodied PD2s - all correctly painted with black front wings - of which 3489, 3490 and 3500 were prime performers, though these were to be usurped on the route during September by the last six of the batch, all of which were fitted with more modern and troublesome ways of changing gear. I'll return to those in a later piece.
The daytime schedule was enhanced at rush hours by extra vehicles, often from the same batches, along with the best of Parrs Wood's PD1s with MCW post war standard bodies from the 1949 batch, almost all of which survived to 1968/9.
With an 8 foot wide body, a 7.4 litre E181 engine, developed from the Leyland engine for the Matilda tank, and Manchester's de-rating of the engines to 93 brake horse power these should have been sluggish but were more than capable of fast running along Wilmslow Rd with all 58 seats taken and five standing on the lower deck.
The #31 ran from Bramhall to Chorlton St and vice versa on a Limited Stop basis. During the day it was serviced by four of the Northern Counties bodied batch of Royal Tiger single deckers - necessary because of the restricted bridge height at Cheadle Hulme - and almost always the rear entrance variety from the batch 1-18 although the front (20-23) and centre entrance (24-25) versions put in the odd appearance, often on "running in" turns. These were the only vehicles in the post war Manchester fleet equipped with a bell cord, with just one bell push by the door. The daytime schedule was not enhanced during rush periods for reasons that will become clear.
The bus stop for the routes at Parrs Wood was in front of the block of art deco flats which backed onto the Styal railway line and, from the rear, afforded views of East Didsbury Station and sidings - soon to be the haunt of E1000, BR's experimental 25kV engine, originally built by Metrovick at Trafford Park as a gas turbine loco for the Western Region and converted by them to electric traction, not to mention the green multiple units that would serve the Shoeburyness line in Essex once testing had been completed.
Heading towards Didsbury on either service, the junction with Parrs Wood Rd North/South would be crossed. This might give a glimpse of one of the new Albion Aberdonian single deckers working the 129 to/from Didsbury and Millgate Lane, indeed at some stage in 1958 one of these might just have been the bus operating the #31. These were ill-omened vehicles and their purchase illustrates perfectly the machinations that beset relations between Albert Neal's department and its Committee, the ever vigilant Finance Department and its Committee and the full Council.
Numbered 40 - 45 in the single decker sequence, the order for these was the result of a tender for six single deckers for the growing number of one man feeder services and to further trial one man operation - perhaps even on the #31. The first set of tenders received in 1957 were deemed too expensive. Mr Neal and his Committee wanted Leyland Tiger Cubs, the Council said no. A second submission of the same tenders was tried with ideas for greater utilisation of the vehicles but the full Council again said no.
When Crossley was absorbed by ACV, the owners of AEC and stopped producing chassis, the Department had persuaded the Transport Committee and the Council that, for the foreseeable future, all chassis purchased would be Leyland or Daimler and the preferred bodybuilder would be MCW. Problems with the Orion body very quickly put paid to this ideal - at least for 6 years - but the chassis standardisation on the two makes for all new vehicles had held firm and was to do so well into the days of SELNEC.
Unable to find a supplier at a price acceptable to the Council, the Department approached Seddon, an Oldham based truck builder which had supplied some bodies for the Parcels Service's latest vehicles. Seddon had a low cost body available which was for the African market and was very basic. It was beefed up a little for Manchester but what was produced was still extremely spartan by the standards of 1957/8.
The cheapest full size chassis available was the ultra lightweight Albion Aberdonian. It was determined that the Department could marry these to the Seddon bodies at a price acceptable to the Council and preserve the Leyland/Daimler rule as Albion had just become part of the Leyland empire.
The vehicles arrived resplendent with the Albion badge, which consisted of an oval Saltaire superimposed with a thistle and the chassis maker's name and model type, plumb centre on the front panels, but as far as the Department and the Council were concerned, the vehicles were Leyland MR11Ls and they were registered as such and so listed in the Department's fleet list.
The rather ugly Seddon bodies and the lightweight chassis couldn't cope with Manchester's demands. In 1961 Mr Neal got his first Tiger Cubs and the Albions disappeared deep into the bowels of Parrs Wood, used only when absolutely necessary. Being so cheap they were fully depreciated in the Department's books and had all been sold to Irish operators before the first had reached its tenth birthday.
Resuming our journey, next came Didsbury village. Outside the library was the terminus of the #42, at that time operated exclusively by the Northern Counties PD2s which would share the road until Lapwing Lane where they would turn left for West Didsbury. Crossing Lapwing Lane/Fog Lane would normally offer a view of a Leyland bodied PD2 of the 33xx batch operating the intensive 19 service to Droylesden from West Didsbury.
From here to Withington was known as Lion Country as the next three fare stages on both the #1 and #31 were the Golden Lion, the Red Lion and the White Lion pubs!
At the White Lion, on the junction of Burton Rd, Palatine Rd and Wilmslow Rd, a right turn would be made and we would be joined by Parrs Wood's Northern Counties PD2s on the #41 and #42, perhaps a Birchfields Rd all Crossley Standard on the 97 and Northenden's Northern Counties bodied CVG5s (of the 45xx batch) working the #50. These would be supplemented on full length and short trip workings by earlier CVG5s of the batch 4000 - 4099 delivered between 1947 and 1949.
Most of the passengers who travelled on these vehicles never knew that half the batch (4000-4049) were bodied by Crossley and the second half were bodied by Brush. Apart from some very minor details the products of two very different body builders were identical - although this wasn't achieved without some pain.
The Brush bodies were delivered in seven months between July 1947 and February 1948. They were the subject of many acrimonious letters between the Department and the Loughborough based company which was not used to Manchester's very exacting ideals. In the long run this was all to the good as many of the bodies outlasted the Crossley produced versions which, due to production capacity problems, did not appear until February - April 1949.
Whilst the Brush bodied buses were excellently finished they and their Crossley bodied cousins weighed 8 tons 1 quarter and, at 7 litres and only 85bhp were sluggish when empty, let alone with a full rush hour load. The Gardner engines received the K upgrade in 1950 but they were still only rated at 94bhp so were never more than underpowered
Also operating from Northenden were the bulk of a batch of Leyland PD1s with the 7 foot 6 inch wide version of the MCW standard body dating from 1947. On Wilmslow Rd these were employed on the #64 which served the Airport - though the uninitiated wouldn't have known this as the destination on the trip out of the City always showed Ringway Outwood Lane - the Department preferring intending air passengers to use the dedicated service from the Royal Exchange.
The PD1s had alarming roll characteristics when driven at speed along the narrow roads from Gatley to the Airport and, surviving on the route well into the 1960s, were hardly an advert for the modernity of the Department - even though they were totally sound and reliable.
Like all other 7 foot 6 inch wide vehicles in the fleet, they sported grey roofs. The grey roofs had started as wartime camouflage (as with many operators) and, after 1948 and the arrival of 8 foot wide buses, were retained for the narrower buses to distinguish them to the bus wash operators so, as they approached, the brushes could be set to the correct width. The distinction became unnecessary when automatic washers became available and which was totally eradicated once the all red scheme spread throughout the fleet.
Crossing Mauldeth Rd, Withington, there was a chance of seeing one of the Northern Counties Royal Tigers on the odyssey which was the #22 Crossley Rd., Levenshulme to Eccles service. Wilbraham Rd would often yield an all Crossley standard on the #85 and the corner of Wilmslow Rd/Moseley Rd also offered a limited view - behind 48 sheet poster ads for Belle Vue, Guinness and city cinemas - of Fred Cowley's yard, for many years the destination for withdrawn vehicles from the far flung corners of the BET empire (to which belonged North Western) which would offer a range of exotic vehicles tightly packed into the limited space.
Whilst the #1 and #31 were Limited Stop, the time gained by their faster running compared to the #40 was often vastly reduced or even eclipsed due to the traffic jam caused by the staggered junction of Wilmslow Rd with Platt Lane (not controlled by lights) and Dickenson Rd (which was). The delay here could often mean that from Old Hall Lane to Great Western Street, around 1,000 yards, could take 10 -12 minutes, not too far short of the time from Parrs Wood to Old Hall Lane, especially if the bus was full, running under "three bells" (code for full, do not stop until next single bell) and had hardly stopped.
At Dickenson Rd the #53 joined Wilmslow Rd as far as Great Western St with the offerings of Queens Rd, Hyde Rd, and Princess Rd. A typical morning in the autumn of 1958 would still yield sightings of the pre war Mancunian design streamline bodywork although this was now almost exclusively on Leyland TDS chassis, the Crossleys all having gone by May 1957 and very few Daimler COG5s surviving even for rush hour duties - although the last wasn't finally withdrawn until 1962.
As I said, the Crossley Streamliners had gone - that is with one exception - 2960. Starting life in 1944 the chassis was the prototype Crossley DD42/1 which was the prototype for the standard post war Crossley chassis and was registered to Crossley as GNE 247. It was meant to be fitted with the prototype post war MCW standard body (albeit finished by Crossley) but for complex reasons this didn't happen and the vehicle that became 2881 received the body. The pre-war body for 2281, parts for which had been stored incomplete by 1944, was able to be released under the easement of the utility restrictions, was assembled and placed on the chassis that was GNE 247.
The vehicle went on loan to MCTD in 1944 with a turbo transmitter instead of the normal gear box/clutch arrangement (Crossley were pioneers in trying to eradicate manual gearboxes on bus chassis) and, after trials with both the turbo transmitter and a constant mesh gear box, was returned to Crossley in February 1946. In May it returned to MCTD, this time as 2887.
It was purchased by the Department in July 1947, renumbered 2960 to fit in with the rest of the first batch of post war Crossley chassis and continued with the Crossley engine and turbo transmitter until May 1952 when it received a Leyland engine and gear box which lasted until withdrawal in April 1963. As the last pre war streamline body in service, it was also the only one to suffer the attentions of the spray booth in the era of the all red scheme and ran as such for about 2 years.
I was interested in riding on this vehicle but whenever I saw it, it was heading out of the City, around Fallowfield or Withington. Then, just weeks before withdrawal, it appeared on the #161X three mornings in succession (the #1 having been renumbered in 1959) and I rode it each time. I'm glad I did. No Streamliners were preserved and, though I had ridden on many in my younger years, the rides on this hybrid version of the design is my lasting memory of the type.
Other vehicles to be seen (mainly on the #53) were 7 foot 6 inch wide Crossleys from the 1946 batch numbered 2890-2959, plus 2961, all of which had the post war standard body originally on the chassis and engine set up as per 2960. Many of these received Leyland engines and gear boxes from retired 1930s TD1s around 1950, one (2937) had platform doors, some had their single top deck rear exit windows replaced by twin windows from withdrawn streamline bodies and they all looked particularly odd by only having one (nearside) headlight.
Alongside them worked newer 8 foot wide Crossleys, eight of which had platform doors, and also the last Crossleys built for Manchester in 1949, some of which had received Gardner 5LW engines - an addition that could have saved Crossleys had the management not been obsessed with improving their own poorly designed post war engine.
These were magnificent vehicles and all except the first of 2160-2219, were stripped out in late 1959, their wood window surrounds and red interior panel trim being replaced by the standard fawn and green interiors to give them another 10 years life - a plan thwarted when ACV stopped supplying Crossley spares in 1962 dooming the vehicles to withdrawal, far too early, in late 1964 and early 1965.
The #53 made a tight turn left into Great Western St, the #1 and #31 carried on towards Manchester and Oxford Rd and my stop for school was immediately after Great Western St.
Phil Blinkhorn
11/2012
In the last part of 'To School by Bus' I'll look at the alternative route #31.
Click here to read To School by Bus - Part Four
26/11/12 - 08:44
Messrs Eyre and Heaps ("The Manchester Bus" and "Crossley") give a rather different view of the 1944 body that was intended for 1217/2960 and ended up on 1211/2881, claiming it as an all-Crossley product which was a prototype for Crossley's own metal framing system. The photograph on page 149 of The Manchester Bus shows it to have been of a unique and rather straight-laced design (by Manchester standards), like a Streamliner with the window curves ironed out, and with no noticeable resemblance to the postwar standard.
I remember the Crossleys with green and fawn interiors very well (although I can't recall whether the seats were also retrimmed - I suppose they must have been), and was always puzzled as to why they were among the first 8-foot wide DD42s to be withdrawn, while older examples survived. The revelation that they were refurbished for longer lives makes this all the more surprising. Something to do with the timing of recertification overhauls, perhaps.
Peter Williamson
26/11/12 - 12:13
Peter,
The seats on the refurbished Crossleys were re-trimmed, in fact boarding one in the first few weeks of service after upgrading was like boarding a brand new vehicle. Their early withdrawal before older Crossleys is said, by Heaps and Eyre, to have been down to overhaul dates.
With regard to the saga of 2960, you are correct regarding the fact that the body intended for this and fitted to 1211 (2881) was an all Crossley product. It was meant to be the prototype for the postwar standards built by Crossley and MCW.
Bad proof reading of my transcription from my original script, published elsewhere, changed the meaning of the sentence which should have read "It was meant to be fitted with the prototype post war design of the Crossley/MCW standard body (albeit finished by Crossley) but for complex reasons this didn't happen and the vehicle that became 2881 received the body."
Crossley built the frames for the body and, indeed, the frames became the basis of their post war product. The body was a cross between the Streamliner and the post war Standard. It lacked the MCW cantilevered platform as MCTD added this to the design in 1945 and thus lacked the step up in the window line. The lack of curved leading bays and front windows on the upper deck may well have been due to wartime restrictions.
It would have been cheaper to keep the straight window line at the front but Stuart Pilcher was a believer in design as well as function and wanted something that said "Manchester" so the post war Standard followed the front end window shapes of the Streamliners. Ironic as Crossley adopted the final design as their own and it appeared in towns and cities around the country.
Phil Blinkhorn
26/11/12 - 16:53
Thank you for your explanations. Yes, I agree that it is ironic that a design which was intended to say "Manchester" ended up saying "Crossley". We all do our bit to correct the false impression of its origin, but when even a leading transport journalist like Stephen Morris, with strong Manchester connections, describes the Metro-Cammell standards as being "designed to look like Crossleys", it feels like a lost cause.
Peter Williamson
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