Crosville Bus circa 1965

I am trying to find image of typical single floor Crosville that went route Rhydymwyn/Mold around 1965 any ideas please?

Gayl

07/08/15 - 17:01

Hi Gayl
I can't find any photos taken in Mold, but perhaps this link will give you an idea of the sort of bus operating in your area. This one was taken in Wrexham so it possibly ran through to Mold.
http://www.sct61.org.uk/cv149
Please note the copyright stipulation. If you need to have a copy for another publication etc, please contact the site and I'm sure you will get a positive answer.

Paul Haywood

08/08/15 - 07:02

I can't personally answer Gayl's query but I have put some thoughts and notes together which might perhaps to help Gayl with further recollection.
Rhydymwyn is located on the A451 about 3 miles north west of Mold - this is a key road leading towards Denbigh and St Asaph.
I have had a look in my Crosville 'British Bus Fleets' book from June 1964. Crosville had a garage in Mold at Ponterwyl - quite possibly where the Tesco store now is. However the book does not show any details of what types of vehicle were allocated to that garage.
The Crosville Enthusiasts Club has a very detailed website and could perhaps be a good source of information from dedicated Crosville enthusiasts: http://crosville-ec.org.uk/index.html
Crosville's fleet was quite standardised in the 1960s. Looking at the buses from a non-enthusiast passenger point of view their single deckers can broadly be summarised into three visual categories:
The old half cab single deckers (Bristol L and the last vestiges of Leyland PS1) - the entrance door on these buses could have been at the front or at the rear. Photos of an example may be seen at: http://crosville-ec.org.uk/photos.asp?p=903
Underfloor engine single deckers with the door at the very front(Bristol MW). A photo of one of this type working rural service B38 from Mold to Eryrys, which could even be one of the buses Gayl travelled on at some time, may be seen at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/one
Full front smaller sized single decker with the front wheel ahead of the entrance door (Bristol SC). Photos of this type may be seen at: http://crosville-ec.org.uk/photos.asp?p=911 & http://www.old-bus-photos.co.uk/?p=6729
A line up of some different Crosville buses inside Aberystwyth garage: https://www.flickr.com/photos/two
The Crosville routes radiating from Mold were mainly in the 'B' prefixed route number series. Those heading north west out of Mold are shown below. The list in my book is certainly very abridged and Rhydymwyn appears against only one route (B31) even though, looking at the map, the B29/30/31 would more than likely pass through the village.
This is how the book describes the services: B29 Mold-Rhyl via Afonwen, Trefnant and St. Asaph
B30 Mold-Denbigh via Afonwen and Trefnant
B31 Mold-Cilcain via Rhydymwyn
B43 Chester-Denbigh via Penyffordd, Buckley, Mold and Afonwen
There are also three Mold-Holywell services shown. I am not familiar with the roads that these took but looking at the map they could very well have turned off the A541 and taken the B5123 just before reaching Rhydymwyn:
B26 via Rhosesmor and Halkyn
B27 via Rhesycae and Lixwm
B28 via Rhesycae, Lixwm and Ysceifiog
Other than service B31 all the others link neighbouring towns on which the bigger buses were probably (but of course not necessarily) used. Service B31 may have been operated by the smaller Bristol SC type.
I hope some of the above is useful!

David Slater

09/08/15 - 09:22

Thank you for interesting thread on this query of mine... David Slater you mention the route B451 to Holywell - thanks for that. I used to go to Leeswood which involved Rhydymwyn - Mold then change for Leeswood I recall this being a front entrance leather seated bus - the info and links are useful and its been nostalgic reading your mentions of different local areas and I appreciate your effort.

Gayl

09/08/15 - 09:53

1965 is before my time. I do however have a 1964 timetable. The principal service for Rhydymwyn was the B43 between Chester and Denbigh via Mold. This was supplemented by the B30 between Mold and Denbigh. The through service to/from Chester was introduced in 1962 after closure of the branch line and the use of the route number B30 seems to have ceased by January 1966 , thenceforth B43 was used for all journeys. I should add that Crosville has always provided the Mold to Denbigh service started in the early 1920s- for some years only a few days a week as the Railway adequately served the villages.
In 1965 I suggest that most B43 journeys were provided by deckers - my first ride was in 1967 on DLB678 , a Bristol LD6B. However I would think that standard Crosville Bristol singledeckers of the 1950/60s would also have been used most likely on the B30 journeys probably still with a conductor as Crosville were slow in introducing OMO ie One Man [never Woman] Operation .Certainly by 1970/71 the B43 was OMO with the usual mix of MWs [SMG/EMG class] and SCs [SSG/CSG class]. Mold also had sometimes the sole Crosville LS bus [ SUG ] which was probably used.
A second service was the B29 which ran high summer only in 1964 between Mold and Rhyl via Trefnant - I assume it ran in 1965 and I would guess it would have been deckers.
A third service was the B31 between Mold and Cilcain which I believe only ever ran 3 days a week. It was probably converted to OMO earlier than the B43 and the usual mix of Bristol singledeckers would have been used.

I attach an image of a standard MW6G bus in Cilcain village taken in 1971. Although the MW was not delivered to Crosville until 1965 I would suggest this ie an earlier version - was the standard singledeck vehicle seen in Rhydymwyn during that year.

Keith Newton

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