Category: Articles
-
Sheffield Bus Bodies
A lot has been said about Sheffield not having a standard bus – unlike London, Manchester and Birmingham. This may have been true but, apart from those quirky deliveries to spice up the life of a gricer, Sheffield did adhere to a fairly strict dual order policy. From the ’20s until mid ’60s this meant…
-
If only…
Like most of us, I’ve got a long “If only…” list. Among my regrets are that, as far as I know, no pre-war Guy Arabs survive; no double-deck Thornycrofts or Maudslays or Tilling-Stevens; that the low floor Gilford double-decker and the Leyland TB10 trolleybus were scrapped; that I didn’t save ex-Leeds PD1 JUG 630 when…
-
Why I Became a Bus Enthusiast or “Buses Galore on Route 54” Part 3
To read Part 2 Click here or Part 1 Click here Until recently, the Corn Exchange was the terminal point for West Riding’s unusual centre-entrance AEC Regent IIIs running over what was once their tram route all the way from there to Rothwell, Wakefield and Sandal until 1932. Buses serving these former tram routes had…
-
Why I Became a Bus Enthusiast or “Buses Galore on Route 54” Part 2
Not read Part 1 Click here As we got nearer to the city centre, at Wellington Bridge, we joined Tong Road. Here we saw further Leeds buses, mainly on the former tram routes from Whingate and New Inn, using a mix of Roe or Weymann-bodied AECs and Leylands, as well as routes 42 and 66…
-
Why I Became a Bus Enthusiast or “Buses Galore on Route 54” Part 1
In the 1950s, use of public transport was a daily experience for most people. As a child, I obviously used the buses, trams and trains in my area for school and leisure, but to understand why this daily use converted into enthusiasm is not easy to answer. However, I’m convinced that a major factor in…
-
Visiting Grandad
When I was about 4 my grandparents moved from the Nottingham suburb of Mapperley to Hucknall – now the northern terminus of the Nottingham tram system, but then way outside the precincts of Nottingham City Transport. Hucknall was a mining “village” and my grandmother always referred to it disparagingly as “Mucky ’Uckna’ ”. From our…
-
An Amusing Memory
There are many things about old buses that interest us fans, and for me this includes memories of the people who worked them. As a student, I worked as a conductor for West Yorkshire for about ten months in total, and so met lots of fascinating staff. A recent posting on the Old Bus Photos…
-
Wanted an AEC, but ended up with an Albion
From 1933-4 until 1949-50 Reading Corporation ran a batch of eight Park Royal 6-bay L26/25R AEC Regents, some petrol (mostly later coverted to 7.7 oiler) and some with 8.8 oil engine. The lowbridge bodies were most unusual in having straight staircases, of which you can see a skeletal view on p71 of Alan Townsin’s 1979…
-
The Stowaway
…one of many happy memories from ‘On the Buses’ One night when I was a young conductor for Samuel Ledgard we arrived in Leeds (King Street) at 10.45pm and nipped along for a coffee at ‘The American Coffee Bar’ beneath Wellington Street. Returning to the bus at 11.00pm we found the usual full load on…