This page is for bus related articles, detailed or reminiscent, amusing or serious, long or short, with or without pictures, in fact, anything goes, something is always interesting to somebody.
In the early evening of Thursday the 8th June 1961, I noticed a motorbus was operating on the trolleybus route that went past our Eccleshill home. We lived alongside the 33 Eccleshill/City/44 St Enochs Road Top route and normally had four trolleys operating a 15-minute headway. But that night, motorbuses were operating.
The work of the PSV Circle in maintaining fleet records for operators throughout the UK (and beyond) has been little less than magnificent, and most authors (myself included) owe the organisation a tremendous debt. However, being English, that doesn't prevent me from having one small gripe amid the general climate of praise.
The Dennis Dart was a sophisticated little machine that was a great advance upon its forebears, the 36 bhp 2.72 litre four cylinder side valve powered G, and the slightly longer GL which had a 42 bhp ohv version of the same engine design.
I have never seen anything about school bus services and would just like to add my recollections of my schoolday travels with Lancashire United Transport on this excellent site.
In 1958, the Northern General Group took delivery of 53 Leyland PD3/4 vehicles. To the best of my knowledge, they were their first 30ft double deck buses;
Maidstone & District looked a bit of a conundrum from outside in 1970 - very 'heritage' livery, generally looking smart but lots of modern vehicles: large volume orders for early Atlanteans, Nimbus, Fleetlines, Panthers, single deck Fleetlines.
At the age of 11, like most healthy children, I started lying to my parents. I was allowed the freedom to travel to Manchester Airport (for the planes) or the city centre (for the buses), but any travels further afield had to be negotiated and in all cases I had to be home by 6pm.
I was appointed Deputy Assistant Engineer to Eastern Counties Omnibus Company on May 17, 1965 at an annual salary of £1,000 after an interview at Fleet Street, London with the Tilling Senior Training Scheme directors followed by one at Norwich with General Manager Len Balls and Chief Engineer Leo Page.
As a graduate engineer I found myself training at the Brislington works of Bristol (Commercial Vehicles Ltd) when the RE was about to be constructed - in fact I was on the production line when the first production model was assembled - I took in my Bus and Coach magazine with an exploded sketch of the layout to help us put it together!
My Father joined Shearings in Easter 1965 covering the Bournemouth tour and driving a new Bedford VAL. This coach was one of 20 purchased from Plaxtons Scarborough, I did have a photo of all these coaches lined up on Marine Drive but unfortunately I Have misplaced it.
In late 1964 following a spell with London Transport, southern-born Roger Cox took up the position of Traffic Clerk with Halifax Passenger Transport - the combined name for the Halifax Corporation and Halifax Joint Omnibus Committee operations - and spent two years there before returning south to progress his career in the industry.
The origins of the Wulfrunian design appear to date from 1957 and the prototype, OHL 863, took to the road in 1959. It was quickly followed by two demonstrators, 7800 DA in 1959 and 8072 DA in 1960, both of which were painted in a vivid livery of yellow with black trim, the colours of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
My Name is Keith Todd, aged 82, and having been told about this website by my son, Ian, I feel I can contribute some interesting stories about Pyne's. My father, Stan Todd, started working for Pyne's in approximately 1947.
These units were then incorporated into 16 new half cab B32R chassisless machines by Eastern Coach Works, and registered HPW 817-832, fleet numbers CD 832-847.
For almost 80 years the Corporation Bus was a fixture in many cities, towns and even rural areas around the United Kingdom. A low cost social transport service providing for many councils a nett income generator, the colour schemes and coats of arms carried were as much an identifier of the locale as the buildings and infrastructure they passed and used every day. The vehicles were often the objects of civic pride and, certainly, rivalry - sometimes friendly, sometimes not - between General Managers and Engineers in adjoining areas.
Guernsey fleet number 77, an Albion Victor followed a string of Albion's supplied to Guernsey Motors and Guernsey Railway. Designed externally to look like coaches they are in fact buses, Licensed to carry 35 seated passengers and 7 standing, 27ft long and with a width limit of just 7ft (2.15mts) passengers were soon in "close contact" with their fellow travellers!
One of the recent titles from Venture Publications is Neville Mercer's review of Independent Bus Operators in North West England, number 31 in the Super Prestige series. Although I have been based in Hampshire for over 40 years, my roots are in the North West, Bolton and Lancaster to be precise, so I had to buy a copy! I still have relatives in Lancashire and Westmorland. I visit several times a year - often as a day trip, which used to amaze some of my office colleagues.
Lancashire in the fifties and sixties. All that variety! Well, that is perhaps what most enthusiasts will think, but as one who was there at the time, I can tell you that it was merely a variety of Leyland Titans. Of the 27 pre-1968 municipal bus fleets in Lancashire, all but one operated PD-series Titans, over half of the fleets being completely dominated by the model.
The one exception was Rochdale Corporation, whose post war double-deck intake consisted of 110 AEC's and 52 Daimlers. Coincidentally, the AEC's were equally divided between the Regent Mark III and Mark V models. This article is about the latter, which were definitely not typical examples of the Regent V.
The Tyneside name ceased to exist as an identity in 1975, inevitably, some records have been lost entirely, and in instances where I am aware of more than one account of events, I have pointed this out, nevertheless, I do not claim that the article is 100% accurate.
The story of The Northern General Transport Company Ltd starts in 1913, but the history of some of its subsidiaries goes back even further. Two of them were Tynemouth and District Transport Co and Wakefields Motors Limited; this is a brief and by no means complete history of those two. It would take far too long to detail every type of vehicle ever used, and some Information about pre war vehicles, such as exact numbers, registrations and fleet numbers has in many cases proved impossible to obtain.
Have you ever wondered how the buses and the crews reached their home depots at night?? Well usually there was no problem as the service timetable worked out suitably, but occasionally some interesting little tricks had to be devised and could be incorporated into the duties at any available time of the day.
For almost 80 years the Corporation Bus was a fixture in many cities, towns and even rural areas around the United Kingdom. A low cost social transport service providing for many councils a nett income generator, the colour schemes and coats of arms carried were as much an identifier of the locale as the buildings and infrastructure they passed and used every day. The vehicles were often the objects of civic pride and, certainly, rivalry – sometimes friendly, sometimes not - between General Managers and Engineers in adjoining areas.
Durham District Services was formed on the 1st August 1950, (the first day of DDS operations under its own name was 12th November 1950).
In 1958 MCTD was working closely with MCW, its "preferred" body supplier, to overcome its objections to and problems with MCW's Orion body. Albert Neal, General Manager, whilst always looking to keep costs down, could not do with the Orion in its original and early forms and the "improved" bodies he had taken into stock on Leyland PD2/12 and Daimler CVG5K and CVG6K chassis hadn't impressed.
When vehicles were withdrawn from service it was almost invariably a permanent situation brought about by age, condition, or some very serious and expensive defect for which the repairs would not be economically acceptable.
In 1958 North Western Road Car Company Ltd was part of British Electric Traction a company with roots in electric tramway systems (the last tram it owned ran in Gateshead in 1951) which owned many of the non-municipal and non-nationalised bus companies in the UK between 1948 and 1969.
At the start of 1958 Stockport Corporation's transport undertaking was in a relatively healthy state. Unlike its large neighbour, Manchester, it had not suffered too greatly from public ire at the ever rising cost of fares as it had been able to keep fares relatively stable (apart from a halfpenny increase on all fares at weekends and outside rush hours on weekdays during the Suez crisis) and, having bought no new vehicles since 1951 it had had no major capital expenditure to recoup.
Between Heaton Moor and Reddish, Stockport's #9 was operated by three of Stockport's all Crossley DD42s, normally from the 1946 and 1947 batches with the odd pre war all Leyland TD7 on the Mauldeth Rd "turnback".
Whilst not wishing to break the date limits of this site, I've recently come across something intriguing that I'd all but forgotten relating to a design that definitely falls within the site's scope and has brought up memories of something I tried to sort out in the 1980s and to which I never found a sensible answer.
If you Google the name Martin Hannett you will find details of a man who made his mark as a record producer with Factory Records to a level which some describe as inspired genius and was so involved in drugs and alcohol that they, it is said, eventually killed him at just short of 43 years of age.
So what has this got to do with this site?
54 years ago few children were driven to school by their parents and most of those who, at ten or eleven, passed the Eleven Plus exam and went on to grammar school (and not a few who didn't and went to secondary or technical school) found themselves travelling by bus using normal services, often changing buses once or twice to complete their journey.
I'm not sure from where I get my interest in transport - it certainly isn't a family tradition. In the late 1940s my father was a maintenance electrician with Williamson's ticket printers of Ashton under Lyne which printed tens of millions of bus tickets.
Of the thousands of photos of buses now on the web and in print, photos of the back of vehicles are very much in the minority.
Yet many a subtle change in design can be just as easily gleaned from photos of the rear as much as photos of front three quarters nearside or offside or full side on.
We are all well aware that Bradford followed a “Sow's Ear to Silk Purse” policy by rebodying trolleybuses, but a lesser known fact is that they also rebodied some motorbuses during WW2.
Identity swapping between vehicles of identical make and model went on from the time that the LGOC moved its overhaul systems to the new Chiswick works in 1922. This meant that as a vehicle went into works for overhaul its identity was taken over by a freshly overhauled vehicle.
Quite by chance I came across the Old Bus Photos website and was quite interested in the information given for RT 4742 on Victor Brumbys RT posting and I thought perhaps you might like chapter and verse on that particular bonnet number so here goes.
The workings of the 1930 Road Traffic Act is of profound significance to all of us interested in the industry of ‘the old days’. It was the basis on which the entire industry operated.
In the early 1950s, a few municipal operators experimented with dual entrance/exit underfloor engined saloons, although the entrance was at the extreme rear, and the exit at the front beside the driver.
Prior to 1876 there existed no provision for regular public transport within the town of Kingston upon Hull, such transport as was available being in the form of horse-drawn wagonettes.
The evolution of bus design is a fascinating subject and probably happened faster in the 1929-1939 period, than in any other period.
In July 2002 I spent some time working in Scotland and travelled home by many routes.
One such journey was on a B road in Central Scotland and I saw a derelict coach parked in an orchard. I could not see sufficient detail to identify the coach so I made a note to bring my camera the following week.
I purchased this machine from a chap in Kent who had used it as a corporate hospitality vehicle and therefore it had lost two or three rows of seats upstairs to make way for food storage cupboards. Apart from this it seemed to be in good original condition, and, with the need for ongoing reliability, had been kept in good mechanical fettle.
I have owned a picture of a Motor Traction Co. Ltd. bus for over fifty five years and have yet to find anyone who can identify the make of this vehicle with any certainty.
A heavy snowfall starting about 18:00hrs was the prelude to an hour of chaos on services 61/63 on Greystones Road between 19:00 and 20:00hrs.
This is a tale of coincidence and collaboration that shows how shared research between enthusiasts can solve mysteries.
Although I was at one time a member of The Omnibus Society, I have never seen any reference to the LGOC ever experimenting with the conversion of horse buses to petrol power.
It is easy to forget how heavily we relied on buses during the 1950s when car ownership was so much lower than it is today. Any major function was an occasion to run a special bus service.
The English Electric Company, and its predecessors in the Dick Kerr group, were the largest producers of tramcar bodies in the UK, and had established a sound business platform in the successor business of bus and trolleybus bodies by 1932.
A question regarding the origin of the Halifax Corporation Livery was asked on the 'Q&As' page, there was only one answer, and it was far too good to be lost in a long list on the 'Previous Q&As' page.
I am sorry if you have read it before but archiving informative 'Q&As' either as a 'Top Question' or as in this case an 'Article' gives it its own identity on the search engines Google for example.
The pleas for a stop continued, I continued to ignore them for which, the next day I was to be read the riot act by F.E. – on reflection well justified!
When I was nobbut a very young lad, we used to go on holiday to Morecambe or Bridlington, as did most Bradfordians.
By 1945, after six years of warfare, the nation’s bus and coach fleets were in desperate need of renewal or replacement. PSV production during the years of the conflict had been limited, by and large, to two types of vehicle – a double-decker available in highbridge or lowbridge forms (initially on Guy Arab chassis but later also offered on AEC, Bristol, and Daimler running units) and a 32-seat single-decker based on a simplified Bedford chassis known as the OWB.
This sparked off comments from several people listing known Non London Transport RTs this in return intrigued me enough to do a little research of my own and I came up with the following
Now back in nineteen seventy, when I was ne’r but twenty
I had call for swift employment, as was best
Leaving College prematurely, it was only proper surely
As my love life had given birth to an extra quest
To the south of Great Bridgewater Street things were less precise. The central “island” shelter carried signs indicating stands 18-21, but as far as I can remember there were no destination signs. Generally speaking the area to the west of the “island” was North Western territory while that to the east was a Ribble zone
AS AN ENERGY-storage system for a bus, a tank of diesel takes some beating: it is compact, fits whatever shape is available, providing plenty of operating range. And, crucially, the up-front cost is modest...
There have been several non too complimentary comments about AEC in these pages over the last few months. Are they justified? For the most part, yes – but they need to be taken in context.
My father worked for British Railways in Nottingham, so we made the very best use of our free rail travel. A favourite destination was Cornwall, and since the railway came to an end at Penzance, it was usually Penzance!
Few would disagree that the most elegant of all the new offerings of 1950-51 came from H V Burlingham of Blackpool.
Looking up, a full moon was shining out of a starry sky. Looking down, I couldn't see my feet!
Although the Guy was flat out at around 34-35 mph it would, in true Gardner style, maintain almost the same speed with a full load ‘up a house side’.
At this the French lady became even more agitated, and cried out “It is too dangerous. We cannot go on.
Most nights laying in bed you could hear the last bus around 10.50pm pulling away from St. Stephens in the so quite nights back then.
"Where were you at 2.50pm yesterday (Saturday) and for the ensuing four hours"
I triumphantly peeled off the greased paper, set the piston on the table and said: "Here's your ashtray---but treat it with care, because you never know when we might need it!" That was intended as a joke...
Returning to the bus at 11.00pm we found the usual full load on board and set forth for Ilkley.
"I missed them when they went, but a kid of ten can't just go out and buy a bus for posterity."
"There are many things about old buses that interest us fans, and for me this includes memories of the people who worked them."
"From home a trip to visit him was at first an epic journey involving 3 different buses, run by 3 different operators, with 3 different coloured liveries and just for good measure they had 3 different ticket systems too."
"I hope to prove this by taking you on this "virtual" journey by bus over what was Leeds City Transport's route 54 from Rodley to Halton Moor via the city centre."
Like most of us, I've got a long "If only..." list
A lot has been said about Sheffield not having a standard bus - unlike London, Manchester and Birmingham. This may have been true but...
I blame my dad.
He just happened to be an inspector with Potteries Motor Traction in Stoke-on-Trent when I was growing up...
What does Ebeneezer do for New Year? He goes to bed early so that he can get to Winchester for 08:30 on New Year’s Day.
I guess Bartons didn’t want their regular clientele to be invaded by a marauding crowd of 8-11 year olds, who had just been let out of school.
Jack emerged with the enquiry “Will you work your rest day on Monday at The Moorfield, Kid ??”
I agreed at once – I might just have thought twice about it if long range weather forecasts had been around in those days !!
Here are some happy reminiscences from personal experience on a class of Daimler vehicles which hold a very special place in Samuel Ledgard history.
It is fascinating how wide spread were bodies that I thought were in the minority in the early post-war boom.
I grew up in York in the 1950's; it was quite a good town to observe different bus operators.
transmission music of a pre-selector was quite different from the Mark II crash gearbox
Information regarding front entrance London Transport, BEA and Northern General Routemasters and why there was only one rear engined version.
A very well detailed description of the maroon and cream paintwork on the Willowbrook Leyland Tigers and the body styles of the utility Guy Arabs of Yorkshire Woollen District.
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Old Bus Photos from Saturday 25th April 2009 to Saturday 27th April 2024