Single Deck Buses | West Yorkshires premier transport group

1927 Leyland Lion PLSC3

KW 1961 entered service in July 1927 with the Blythe and Berwick bus company which was soon to merge with the Harrogate and District Road Car Company and its subsidiary Premier Transport of Keighley to form the West Yorkshire Road Car Company in January 1928.

Blythe and Berwick was a company registered in 1919 to amalgamate the charabanc operations of William Hodgson Berwick and Blythe's Parcel Delivery Service, both started before the First World War.

In 1924 they began operating motor bus services in the Bradford area and the network grew to include Baildon, Keighley,Otley,Ilkley and Leeds as well as local services between Bankfoot and Lister Park and Lidget Green and Clayton.

This extensive network lead to the company acquiring a large number of Leyland Lions in 1927 and indeed some of these were not delivered until after January 1928 and received WW registrations issued by the West Riding County Council instead of Bradford CBC registrations.

KW 1961 was withdrawn in October 1932 and along with many of its sisters was sold to Jersey Motor Transport where it survived the German occupation of the island and remained in service until 1959.

Bus preservation at this time was in its infancy and a number of individuals worked as a co-operative to save a number of JMT vehicles for posterity, including sister vehicle KW 474 which has always resided at a transport museum in Lincoln, masquerading as Lincoln Corporation No 1.

KW 1961 finished up with Ken Blacker and was housed for many years at the East Anglia Transport Museum at Carlton Colville, nr Lowestoft, but Ken realising that he was not going to achieve a total restoration offered the vehicle to AVTG members in 2010, and much work has been undertaken to restore the vehicle to running order.

1929 Morris commercial C Type

This vehicle was as far as we know new to S.C.S. in June 1929 as J5303 (Chassis No. 2036/11) a B20F with Willowbrook bodywork (body No.2328), it remained in service with them until December 1931 when the chassis was scrapped, and as far as I know the body was left on potato boxes until it was put onto the Morris chassis ( Chassis No.757c) entering Service on 15/05/1936 with PSV Plate B100 and on 18/07/1945 as B130 , prior to this the vehicle had a Parise Licence No 290 being issued to the Parish of St. Helier, the licences were issued in which the vehicles were garaged. It was re-bodied by Underhill here in Jersey as a B18F (Body No. 23531)and re-registered as J9567

The vehicle escaped being commandeered by the German Army during its occupation of the Channel Islands, because the owner removed the differential and hid it away, thus rendering the vehicle immobile. After the cessation of hostilities, the diff was replaced thus allowing the vehicle to be returned to service and remained with SCS until the company was sold to the J.M.T., ( Jersey Motor Transport Company Ltd) in November 1946 and Plated as B130 by the J.M.T. on17/10/1947 hence the green interior.
She was withdrawn on 15/05/1953 being sold to a Mr.Perry then to the late Jack Le Gresley of La Rocque in the parish of Grouville before eventually being purchased for preservation by Mick Giles of Gaminglay, later passing to Simon Emerton of Nantwich. The vehicle was bought by Greg Lawson in 2007 and hopefully will be restored sooner rather than later.

1938 Leyland TS8

CTF423 is a Leyland Tiger TS8, which is powered by a Leyland 8.6 litre engine, with a 30 seat body made by Charles Roe at Leeds.

Buses like 114 which entered service in 1938 were familiar all over LUT territory from Liverpool to Manchester and from Warrington to Wigan or Bolton. They might be used on a workers service to a colliery on one day and sent on express to Leeds the next. During the shortages of the war years many LUT single deckers had their seats arranged to be around the perimeter of the saloon to allow room for more standing passengers.

Like many survivors of this age, 114 was used as a staff bus for a building contractors until it was bought for preservation.

The bus has been kindly donated to the group by Mr Roy Marshall for continued preservation.

114 has been stored since 1981 and since the group received the vehicle much mechanical and electrical work has been carried out, a repaint will be carried out shortly.

1950 Bristol LL6B

LFM767 Ex Crossville Motor Services. Full details to follow soon.

1951 Bristol LL6B

NHN128 was originally ordered by United Automobile Services as a 39 seat single deck bus with a Gardner engine, and given the fleet number BG 460. As UAS thought that it would like some larger vehicles to replace 31 seat Bristol Ls on express duties, a number of LLs were converted to express specification by taking the dual purpose seats out of the short Ls, placing them in the LLs, and replacing the Ls seats with the bus seats from the LLs. It was found however that only 33 seats could be fitted in an LL, which hardly made the conversion worth while, but, nonetheless, a number of vehicles were converted. NHN 128 became fleet no BBE 1 and was used on express duties until 1961, by which time more modern underfloor engined vehicles were available in greater numbers. The decision was taken to reseat the BBEs back to buses, using seats from earlier vehicles, thus when withdrawn from service in 1966, it had seats of a type from earlier Ls with wooden grab rails to the seat tops, rather than the RT type aluminium seats with which it was delivered. Sold to North''s of Sherburn in Elmet, NHN 128 them passed to Buxted Chickens for use as staff transport at their poultry processing plant at Dalton, nr Thirsk.Purchased by its present owner in 1976, the vehicle has since suffered some vandalism damage but will eventually be restored to its express livery, being one of the only batch of 7'' 6" wide 30'' long LLs to run as such.

1973 Bristol RELL6G

OWT776M was the last Bristol RELL to be purchased by the National Bus Company, and was allocated to the West Yorkshire Road Car Company on 26th October 1973. It is fitted with an Eastern Coachworks B53F body and as delivered was powered by a Leyland 0.680 engine. However, in November 1973, the Leyland engine was removed and exchanged for a Gardner 6HLX which came from 1037 in the coach fleet, a Plaxton-bodied Bristol RELH.

1403 was then put back into storage until it entered service on 20th May 1974 at Bradford depot, where it spent most of its working life. After covering 500,000 miles on stage carriage duties, it was finally withdrawn on 31st October 1984 and was the last RELL to operate for the company.

West Yorkshire Road Car Social Club at Bradford depot then purchased it for preservation on 10th January 1985. After a repaint with original style white National Bus Company logos being added, it attended many rallies and events in this ownership.

After the sale of West Yorkshire to Yorkshire Rider in 1989 (the company being fully absorbed by 1st April 1990), the Bradford Depot Social Club was disbanded. 1403 was sold and is now owned by Alex Lawson.

1984 Sherpa

B818YKR This minibus was the first to enter service with West Yorkshire PTE at a time when frequent minibus services were seen as a possible answer to some of the problems connected with encouraging the use of public transport.B818 YKR was a demonstrator at the Commercial Vehicle Motor Show for the Dormobile company who built the body on the BLMC Freightrover chassis. As with all of these minibuses, maintenance problems, particular relating to brakeshoe wear, led to a less enthusiastic use of such vehicles, and few companies now use them in large numbers, particularly in well populated areas. After withdrawal, 1701, to use its WYPTE fleet number, was sold to a scout group in the Dewsbury area, from whom it was rescued for preservation by Simon Turner and now owened by Warren McClintock.