I grew up in York in the 1950's; it was quite a good town to observe different bus operators. In addition to the major local operator - West Yorkshire, who also ran the city's local services (York-West Yorkshire) - several other companies had services into York: East Yorkshire, (Leeds to Bridlington and Hull), West Riding, (Selby), United Automobile, (Ripon, and Whitby jointly with West Yorkshire). Although West Yorkshire ran coach services to London from several places in Yorkshire, the service from York was operated by United, whose express coaches were in their attractive sage green and cream livery; however, the service called at York at about 1.00 a.m., so one didn't often see them!
Independent local operators included York Pullman, of course, Reliance, who in those days ran an elderly Daimler single-decker, (driven, reputedly, by the owner's daughter), to Helmsley, and, until they were taken over by East Yorkshire in the early fifties, Everingham Brothers of Pocklington. An important local coach operator was Fawcetts, later taken over by York Pullman, whose coaches all had the numbers 777 in their registrations. You can therefore identify these vehicles in York Pullman's fleet list.
Roy Burke
12/2009
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