British Buses, 1967

Jim Blake

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Transport
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781473842786
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Transportation & Navigation
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book looks at an important turning point in the history of the bus industry in Britain. 1967 was the penultimate year to the end of an era, when private and semi-nationalized company's operated the bus networks in this country.After 1967 the network was never the same again, with the formation of the National Bus Company in 1968.The NBC was a very bland organization compared to the colourful bus companies that had existed before nationalization, and many small municipal fleets amalgamated to form Passenger Transport Executives.This comprehensive volume covers a large number of the bus companies throughout the country in 1967 and also has a good readable narrative describing Jim Blake's journeys travelling on these services across Britain.

Part One

A BRIEF OVERVIEW

This very rare 1954 58-seat Crossley-bodied Foden PVD6 double-decker is No.104, one of three built that year for the Warrington Corporation fleet. Foden were based at nearby Sandbach, Cheshire. The firm was better known for building lorries.

By 1967, only a few of the once-numerous British municipal trolleybus systems were still operating, and the spring of that year saw two of them close within six weeks! Wolverhampton’s trolleybuses perished on 5 March, as will be seen later, whilst those in Maidstone did so on 15 April. Of their normal working, a 1946 Northern Counties-bodied Sunbeam trolleybus No.64 (HKR 3) is seen in the town centre. It had been new to the corporation and, unlike some of its fellows which received new bodies as recently as 1960, still retains its original body. The corporation’s coat of arms may be seen on the side of the trolleybus, which is in their traditional livery of light brown and cream. The new replacing buses carried a different scheme of light blue and cream. Note the ‘dolly bird’ spring fashions displayed in the shop windows on the right, in stark contrast to the doomed trolleybus, dating from the early post-war austerity years. Also, behind the trolleybus may be seen the premises of the Westminster Bank, several years before this was combined with the National Provincial Bank to become ‘NatWest’.

OPERATIONS

As 1967 began the operation of Britain’s buses, coaches and trolleybuses was divided into five clear-cut sections.

First of all, many cities and major towns, as well as a few small municipalities, had their own bus fleets, controlled by the local authority. These generally ran services within and just around the city or town boundaries, and ranged from such major conurbations as Birmingham, Glasgow or Manchester, whose fleets numbered several thousand buses, to tiny urban districts like Bedwas and Machen in South Wales, who operated just a handful.

Many municipal fleets had originally begun as tramway systems, most of which converted to trolleybus operation in the inter-war years. In turn, by 1967, trolleybuses were themselves being replaced by motor-buses and only a few systems remained, for example Bradford, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Derby, Huddersfield, Maidstone, Reading, Teesside, Walsall and Wolverhampton. All would be gone within five years.

Most municipal bus fleets sported ornate liveries in varying colour schemes, usually incorporating the town and city councils’ coats of arms, and they also had an excellent variety of vehicle types, ranging from A.E.C.’s, Bristols, Crossleys and Daimlers to Dennises, Guys and Leylands, all with an even greater variety of body makes and styles. Some of these municipal fleets still operated buses built by long-defunct chassis and body manufacturers in 1967.

In South Wales, Newport Corporation had a variety of unusual buses in 1967. One was their No.38 (JDW 90), the only Dennis Falcon in their fleet. Seen in a damplooking Newport bus station on 8 April 1967, it dates only from 1954, despite its appearance, and has bodywork by local firm D.J. Davies of Tredegar, constructed on Park Royal frames. Seating only thirty-eight passengers, it nevertheless had a conductor on board.

Although many single-deck buses had been one-man operated for several years, all double-deckers were still worked with a crew of a driver and conductor, therefore those with rear entrances were still in the majority. By 1967, buses built more than twenty years previously were becoming a rarity with major operators, and those with front entrances and rear engines were rapidly replacing them, and within a couple of years, new legislation would permit their one-man operation, too. Moreover, from late 1969 onwards, many of the smaller municipal bus fleets, as well as larger ones, would be swallowed up by huge conglomerates such as the West Midlands Public Transport Executive and the South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire P.T.E. Other P.T.E.’s took over both large and small municipal fleets in Merseyside, Teeside, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.

Midland Red, or to be more precise, the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company (BMMO) as it was officially named, was one of the largest BET fleets and had one of the most drab liveries of the entire federation – allover red. By 1967, this operator had begun to purchase rear-engined Daimler Fleetlines, with very attractive Alexander bodywork as seen by No. 5410 (GHA 410D), seen in Coventry’s Pool Meadow bus station. Dating from 1966, it contrasts with two BMMO single-deckers behind, both of which were built by the operator. The Midland Red bus stop flag next to the Fleetline is also of note, once a common sight in their extensive operating area, which stretched from Worcestershire across the Midlands to Leicestershire.

At Eastleigh bus station on 12 March 1967, this splendid Hants & Dorset 1966 Bristol FLF6B Lodekka, with standard Eastern Coachworks bodywork, is No. 1537 (FJD 154D) in their fleet and is bound for Southampton. It will remain in service until 1980, and typifies the vehicles produced for Tilling Group fleets by these two manufacturers throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The first Bristol Lodekkas – so-named because they had low floors and low-height bodies capable of passing beneath low bridges without having to have the hitherto standard arrangement of sunken side gangways on their upper decks, as standard ‘low bridge’ doubledeckers did – first appeared in the early 1950s with rear-entrance bodies. By 1967, only the forward-entrance FLF model as seen here was still being produced. The last were built in 1968. Hants & Dorset’s livery was standard Tilling Group green, with cream waistband. As stated on page 15, this group (by then known as the Transport Holding Company) purchased all of the BET fleets in England and Wales in November 1967, and the whole formed the basis of the National Bus Company.

Secondly, there were the so-called ‘B.E.T.’ companies. These were major inter-urban and rural bus and coach operators initially part of the British Electric Transport group, which was affiliated to the ‘Big Four’ main line railway companies prior to 1948. After that, they were affiliated to British Railways, and therefore semi-nationalised. Such well-known and major operators as Aldershot & District, East Kent, Maidstone & District, Midland Red, Ribble, Southdown, Western Welsh and Yorkshire Traction were included in this group, along with a few smaller fleets, for instance Stratford Blue.

As with the municipal fleets, B.E.T. operators had a rich variety of vehicle liveries – the maroon and cream of East Kent, dark green and cream of Aldershot & District and Maidstone and District and bright green of Southdown being prime examples – as well as ornate fleet names. They had a similar variety of bus and coach chassis types and bodywork, also. A major difference to the municipal fleets was that many of these operators ran express coach services throughout England and Wales, many of which converged on London’s Victoria Coach Station.

This Wilts & Dorset ECW-bodied Bristol MW singledecker, seen at Salisbury bus station on 26 February 1967, typifies those supplied to Tilling Group companies in the late 1950s and the 1960s. This operator had the other standard Tilling Group livery, red with a cream waistband. Other typical Bristol/ECW buses in the Wilts & Dorset fleet are seen on the left, outside their depot, which adjoined the bus station. This bus station was also similar to many others served by these operators, where vehicles arrived at individual bays, and had to reverse to leave the bus station.

The wonderful variety of bus and coach types and liveries of the B.E.T. fleets, as with the municipals, was already being eroded by 1967 with standard A.E.C., Daimler or Leyland types ousting earlier vehicles throughout. This would accelerate upon the nationalisation of all B.E.T. fleets in the autumn of 1967 and their inclusion within the new National Bus Company at the beginning of 1969.

The third category of operator as 1967 dawned was the fully nationalised Tilling Group of companies, which had initially been nationalised under the British Transport Commission in the early post-war years. Like the B.E.T. companies, these operated interurban and rural bus services, as well as express coaches throughout the country. Many of the latter worked in association with B.E.T. operators in the ‘Associated Motorways’ network, whose services not only converged on London, but also Cheltenham. This was still a major transport hub in 1967, before its usefulness as such was lessened by the spread of Britain’s motorway system.

Tilling (or ‘B.T.C.’ fleets as they were still commonly called in 1967) again included major operators such as The Bristol Omnibus Company, Crosville, Eastern Counties, Eastern National, Southern Vectis, United Automobile Services, United Counties, United Welsh and West Yorkshire, as well as smaller fleets like Mansfield District and Midland General. But unlike the B.E.T. fleets, by 1967, they generally presented what, to the transport enthusiast at least, was a boring monotony! Not only did their vehicles virtually all have standardised Bristol chassis and Eastern Coachworks bodies (both manufacturers having already been closely allied to the Tilling Group and then nationalised along with it), which were usually the only makes Tilling Group fleets were permitted to purchase, and also those manufacturers were forbidden to supply to non-Tilling Group operators, most Tilling Group operators also had a standardised livery, of either red and cream or green and cream!

West Riding was a well-known Yorkshire independent operator, typifying such fleets in various parts of the country. Here, early on Saturday, 7 October 1967, their Roe-bodied Guy Wulfrunian No.953 (VHL 953), dating from 1963, loads up in Bradford. This fleet was one of few to put their faith in this type of bus in the early 1960s, actually being involved with Guy Motors of Wolverhampton in their conception. Virtually all of the 137 Wulfrunians built ended up with them; West Riding had 126 of them from new, and subsequently acquired another six from other fleets. With similar front entrance configuration to Leyland Atlanteans and Daimler Fleetlines, unlike them, these buses did not have a rear engine: it was positioned at the front. To accommodate it, the staircase was positioned on the nearside of the bus, which may be clearly seen by the arrangement of the windows. Despite having standard Gardner engines as fitted to conventional buses of the period, Wulfrunians were notorious for mechanical unreliability, and costs involved in designing and building them, and remedying their faults, contributed to the final demise of Guy Motors in 1969.

There were a few exceptions to the standard B.T.C. green or red and cream livery, for instance Midland General’s buses, which despite being mainly of Bristol/E.C.W. origin, were blue and cream. This fleet also still had vehicles that were not of that type in 1967, notably a batch of Weymann-bodied A.E.C. Regent III’s, some of which will be seen later in this book. Also, in Scotland, although most major rural and inter-urban bus operators were nationalised forming the Scottish Bus Group and also had Bristol/E.C.W. products, very many had A.E.C. or Leyland chassis and bodywork by Alexander of Falkirk. However, towards the end of the 1960’s, the regulations restricting Bristol and E.C.W. to supplying vehicles only to Tilling Group fleets was relaxed as was the requirement that those fleets could only buy such products. This eventually led to a greater variety of vehicles, as well as, for example, E.C.W. bodies being fitted to chassis other than Bristol, and vice-versa.

Grey Green Coaches, along with their allied Orange Luxury Coaches fleet, under the ownership of the George Ewer Group, was one of the largest and best-known independent coach operators. Based in ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the author
• Introduction
• Part One: A Brief Overview
• Part Two: Bus, Coach and Trolleybus Operators in England and Wales, 1967
• Part Three: A Brief Look at the Bus Enthusiast Movement