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KW 1961 was withdrawn in October 1932 and along with many of its sisters was sold to Jersey Motor Transport where it survived the German occupation of the island and remained in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

She was withdrawn on 15/05/1953 being sold to a Mr.Perry then to the late Jack Le Gresley of La Rocque in the parish of Grouville before eventually being purchased for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.

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.

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


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.
