I refer to the recent comments regarding buses and coaches, and I think that
a fair number of Trucknet members and Guest readers will have driven buses,
coaches, and lorries during their driving careers. I hope this new thread takes
off, and I look forward to some interesting pictures and informative remarks.
I passed my PSV Driving test on this Leyland PD1, fleet No. 34 of Wigan Corporation
in October 1966, but wasn’t keen on mainly short trips to local areas, so I decided
to go back on the lorries. Fleet No. 34 is still around, and lives near Halifax.
Early 1968 I started at Ribble Motor Services at their Wigan depot.
This Leyland PD2, Fleet No. 1438 was the first Ribble bus that I drove.
It was new in 1956, and is seen here in Skelhorne Street, Liverpool,
in the late 1950s. In the second picture, 1438 is seen in a breakers
yard near Sherburn in Yorkshire in 1973. Ray Smyth.
As an HGV Class 1 driver, I wasn’t qualified to drive buses with fare-paying passengers but I did drive the odd bus, including a Bedford coach on driver assessment; a London RTL double-decker round an airfield(!); an ex-Southdown PD3 ‘Queen Mary’ the owner of which I taught to drive it; and the Leyland PD2/27A double-decker with Northern Counties bodywork pictured below. I bought this bus straight out of service from Stevensons of Uttoxeter. It began life with Burnley & Pendle. I converted it into a motor-home and lived in it from 1990 to 1992. During that time I travelled with it between work, including trips to Brittany and Belgium. It was a delight to drive!
ERF-NGC-European:
As an HGV Class 1 driver, I wasn’t qualified to drive buses with fare-paying passengers but I did drive the odd bus, including a Bedford coach on driver assessment; a London RTL double-decker round an airfield(!); an ex-Southdown PD3 ‘Queen Mary’ the owner of which I taught to drive it; and the Leyland PD2/27A double-decker with Northern Counties bodywork pictured below. I bought this bus straight out of service from Stevensons of Uttoxeter. It began life with Burnley & Pendle. I converted it into a motor-home and lived in it from 1990 to 1992. During that time I travelled with it between work, including trips to Brittany and Belgium. It was a delight to drive!
Cheers, Robert
10
Robert, Thank you for the Leyland PD2 pictures. These Leylands were a great machine to drive, particularly if you were
at the wheel of one that was in good nick, same remarks for the Leyland PD3 30 footers that I drove. Your Leyland would
have been fairly close to me here at Wigan in its early days, the Leyland chassis built just 11 miles up the road in Leyland,
the bodywork built 3 miles from me at Northern Counties when their factory was near the town centre, and its early life in
Burnley from new with its original owner. In 1967, Northern Counties bought Massey Bros, another major bus bodybuilder
and moved into the Massey factory in Enfield Street, the factory is still there, just 400 yards from where I am sat typing
this script. Kind Regards, Ray.
ERF-NGC-European:
As an HGV Class 1 driver, I wasn’t qualified to drive buses with fare-paying passengers but I did drive the odd bus, including a Bedford coach on driver assessment; a London RTL double-decker round an airfield(!); an ex-Southdown PD3 ‘Queen Mary’ the owner of which I taught to drive it; and the Leyland PD2/27A double-decker with Northern Counties bodywork pictured below. I bought this bus straight out of service from Stevensons of Uttoxeter. It began life with Burnley & Pendle. I converted it into a motor-home and lived in it from 1990 to 1992. During that time I travelled with it between work, including trips to Brittany and Belgium. It was a delight to drive!
Cheers, Robert
10
Out of intrest Robert any particular reason why you stopped living in it ? I like the idea of being able to
travel about in it.
ERF-NGC-European:
As an HGV Class 1 driver, I wasn’t qualified to drive buses with fare-paying passengers but I did drive the odd bus, including a Bedford coach on driver assessment; a London RTL double-decker round an airfield(!); an ex-Southdown PD3 ‘Queen Mary’ the owner of which I taught to drive it; and the Leyland PD2/27A double-decker with Northern Counties bodywork pictured below. I bought this bus straight out of service from Stevensons of Uttoxeter. It began life with Burnley & Pendle. I converted it into a motor-home and lived in it from 1990 to 1992. During that time I travelled with it between work, including trips to Brittany and Belgium. It was a delight to drive!
Cheers, Robert
Robert, Thank you for the Leyland PD2 pictures. These Leylands were a great machine to drive, particularly if you were
at the wheel of one that was in good nick, same remarks for the Leyland PD3 30 footers that I drove. Your Leyland would
have been fairly close to me here at Wigan in its early days, the Leyland chassis built just 11 miles up the road in Leyland,
the bodywork built 3 miles from me at Northern Counties when their factory was near the town centre, and its early life in
Burnley from new with its original owner. In 1967, Northern Counties bought Massey Bros, another major bus bodybuilder
and moved into the Massey factory in Enfield Street, the factory is still there, just 400 yards from where I am sat typing
this script. Kind Regards, Ray.
My pleasure! Yes, it was in good nick: it had a year’s PSV ticket on it when I bought it fresh out of service with the previous day’s tickets still under the seats! If you’re perplexed by the registration plate, it’s because Stephensons re-registered it just before sale in order to keep the ‘cherished’ earlier plate. This can be seen on the picture below. By sheer and utter coincidence the PD3 next to it was the one I drove later in its life when I picked it up for someone (empty of course). Mine was registered in Jan 1964 so it would have been built in late '63. Robert
ERF-NGC-European:
As an HGV Class 1 driver, I wasn’t qualified to drive buses with fare-paying passengers but I did drive the odd bus, including a Bedford coach on driver assessment; a London RTL double-decker round an airfield(!); an ex-Southdown PD3 ‘Queen Mary’ the owner of which I taught to drive it; and the Leyland PD2/27A double-decker with Northern Counties bodywork pictured below. I bought this bus straight out of service from Stevensons of Uttoxeter. It began life with Burnley & Pendle. I converted it into a motor-home and lived in it from 1990 to 1992. During that time I travelled with it between work, including trips to Brittany and Belgium. It was a delight to drive!
Cheers, Robert
10
Out of intrest Robert any particular reason why you stopped living in it ? I like the idea of being able to
travel about in it.
Yes, I bought it when house prices and rents were sky-high and sold it when the bubble burst and suddenly I could easily get a morgage for a decent terraced house. Also, I was teaching during that period and wintering in the bus was pretty spartan! Summer was idyllic of course! Robert
This Leyland PD2 is seen leaving Liverpool on the 3 hour round trip, Wigan to Liverpool & return
in early 1968. This bus is only 3 weeks old in this picture, despite its half cab and exposed radiator
appearance, the Liverpool Corporation AEC Regent Mk5 looks more modern, dating from approx 1955.
From about 1960, most bus operators began to purchase rear engined buses like Leyland Atlantean
and Daimler Fleetline, and at that time, Leyland Motors had many half cab complete chassis unsold,
and I was told many years ago that Wigan Corporation Transport bought about 12 of them at a good
price, and stored them in a barn near the A6 at Blackrod.
Toward the end of 1966, 2 of them appeared with bodywork by Massey Bros of Enfield St.,Pemberton,
Wigan as DEK 2D, 139, and DEK 3D, 140, with front entrance and 64 seats. 139 is seen here when it had
been totally rebuilt by Doug Smith in memory of his father who was a Corporation bus driver for many
years. Doug, in the white shirt, drives a Mobile Crane for Ainscough Cranes. The Trucknet system
wouldn’t let me print the reg number of the 1st picture, so I will spell it out separately…F E K 9 F
Ray.
It is September 2016, and I had seen this new Scania bus being delivered on Trade Plates
the day before I took this picture. My friend Carlos is seen here at the wheel, giving the
new bus a test run through the extremely narrow streets of Mojacar Pueblo in the Province
of Almeria, South East Spain. The bus company is Autocares Rodrigues, based at Los Gallardos.
My all-time favourite bus, the only Foden double-decker ever to be fitted with their own two-stroke diesel engine. Built in 1948, fitted with a Willowbrook body and used as a demonstrator for a while. It was bought by W.A. Cawthorne for his Woolley Colliery to Barnsley service. After Mr Cawthorne died in 1952, the stage carriage service and his two buses passed to Yorkshire Traction. The other bus, a 1935 Leyland Titanic 6-wheeler, saw a few more years service, but the Foden carried on working until 1959 when it was sold to Frank Cowley, a dealer and dismantler from Salford. Unfortunately, it was scrapped soon afterwards. I travelled on it a couple of times, and saw it quite often, but it was the glorious sound of it working hard on the hills that will always remain in my memory. There were also several Foden coaches operating in and around Barnsley at the time, including those of the Barnsley British Co-operative Society (Unity Coaches), “Chippy” Rowes and Tom Roberts.
Ribble Leyland Leopard 211 was a bus that I drove many times during my 2 years
as a bus driver in the late 1960s. It is seen here leaving Wigan town centre on the
326 route to Crawford, a little village between Skelmersdale and St Helens.
The 2nd picture of 211 is at Wigan Bus Station, and its route indicator is showing
333 Dangerous Corner, which is about 2 miles west of M6 Junction 27.
Both pictures will be approx. 1970/71, the “Ribble” fleetname is now in lower case
lettering. In picture 1, the bus looks like it has had a repaint. Ray Smyth.
my dad started his company with a coach , the foden, while he was still driving a lorry for another company, he then progressed onto vho443 a lovely bedford, and added a thames trader to the fleet , by 1965/66 the haulage was growing like topsy so the 2 belle vega’s he was running at the time had to go
the bedford ob was one he drove for sheltons in wollaston
Here are a few more photos of Warringtons of Ilam by the courstey of Tim Jeffcote.I will be sending some Pictures of the Famouse Yellow Perils from Uttoxeter with the permission from Tim later.
![5052 [536441].jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/trucknetuk/original/3X/b/7/b77ef630eee12d4bb8afe7e74ddd6464766c7b39.jpeg)