kitchens buses

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sat 21 Jun, 2008 11:15 pm

BLAKEY wrote: TROJAN WROTE :-"I have nowhere near the knowledge of buses that you appear to possess - they must be an interest of yours. I have however driven a double decker bus over long distances - a former South Down Leyland PD3, if you would like a photo of it I'll email it to you - it's not in Southdown colours any more! ".........................................................................................................Yes indeed Trojan, they have been my life's interest, and happy work also for 44 years until retiring. A picture of the Southdown PD3 would be most interesting please - there weren't many finer firms than Southdown in the "good old days." Alas ATM I seem to have mislaid them. I'll keep looking.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sat 21 Jun, 2008 11:38 pm

No worry Trojan, but it will be appreciated "as and when." Thank you and, on the subject of mislaying things, I am paying the price here for not keeping things in order and my collections have got into awful arrears with not keeping on top of it - in my case a classic case of "a stitch in time WOULD have saved nine." !!

trophy · Post by **trophy** » Sun 22 Jun, 2008 12:31 pm

so the other buses were daimlers i can remember the guy half cab, but could not remember what make the others where . there must have been more than two,as i remember they used to change buses and drivers at waterloo .the bus would pull up behind the new bus and passngers had to get on the bus in front this was regular occurance.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sun 22 Jun, 2008 12:45 pm

trophy wrote: so the other buses were daimlers i can remember the guy half cab, but could not remember what make the others where . there must have been more than two,as i remember they used to change buses and drivers at waterloo .the bus would pull up behind the new bus and passngers had to get on the bus in front this was regular occurance. Most interesting trophy, but sadly I can't help any further on this one, as I knew nothing of Kitchins until the 1957 transfer of the bus route and the two Atkinsons and two Guys to Ledgards.The nearby Farsley Omnibus Co. (Greenwoods) also had four modern Daimler single deck half cabs before sale to Wallace Arnold in 1952 - their route was Pudsey - Stanningley - Farsley - Rodley - Horsforth Old Ball, and occasional peak time extensions to Tinshill.

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sun 22 Jun, 2008 2:04 pm

BLAKEY wrote: trophy wrote: so the other buses were daimlers i can remember the guy half cab, but could not remember what make the others where . there must have been more than two,as i remember they used to change buses and drivers at waterloo .the bus would pull up behind the new bus and passngers had to get on the bus in front this was regular occurance. Most interesting trophy, but sadly I can't help any further on this one, as I knew nothing of Kitchins until the 1957 transfer of the bus route and the two Atkinsons and two Guys to Ledgards.The nearby Farsley Omnibus Co. (Greenwoods) also had four modern Daimler single deck half cabs before sale to Wallace Arnold in 1952 - their route was Pudsey - Stanningley - Farsley - Rodley - Horsforth Old Ball, and occasional peak time extensions to Tinshill. I seem to remember LCT running Daimler double deckers.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sun 22 Jun, 2008 2:52 pm

TROJAN WROTE :- "I seem to remember LCT running Daimler double deckers. "Oh absolutely Trojan - in fact hundreds over the years.LCT had a very wise policy of "not putting all their eggs in one basket" and a rough way to describe it would be to say that about a third of the fleet usually consisted each of AEC, Leyland and Daimler.Not to go into too much detail here, but there were WW2 utility Daimlers, several batches of 56 seaters in peacetime, and then the larger 30 foot 70 seaters (front engine) and then huge batches of Fleetline rear engined models, and thirty Fleetline single decker.Daimler was always one of my favourite makes - good design and top class quality - and always efficient effective smooth and reliable brakes.

trophy · Post by **trophy** » Sun 22 Jun, 2008 7:24 pm

farsley omnibus also had some daimler double deckers,these were rebodied wallace arnold half cab coaches.these had an unusual rear platform,presumably because of the coach chassis.instead of the usual low rear platform and step up to the lower saloon,these had a narrow step at normal platform level and the platform was level with the lower saloon floor ie at an higher level .this made jumping on and off extremely hazardous ,kippax also had some of these.

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sun 22 Jun, 2008 7:37 pm

BLAKEY wrote: TROJAN WROTE :- "I seem to remember LCT running Daimler double deckers. "Oh absolutely Trojan - in fact hundreds over the years.LCT had a very wise policy of "not putting all their eggs in one basket" and a rough way to describe it would be to say that about a third of the fleet usually consisted each of AEC, Leyland and Daimler.Not to go into too much detail here, but there were WW2 utility Daimlers, several batches of 56 seaters in peacetime, and then the larger 30 foot 70 seaters (front engine) and then huge batches of Fleetline rear engined models, and thirty Fleetline single decker.Daimler was always one of my favourite makes - good design and top class quality - and always efficient effective smooth and reliable brakes. The Daimlers and Leylands (platform buses) were a rarity in Morley - this is the fifties and sixties - they were nearly always AEC's on 52/53. You used to see the Daimlers on Duplicate and the Leylands on Elland Road duties. I think the 55 may also occasionally have been a Leyland when LCT were operating it.

Uno Hoo · Post by **Uno Hoo** » Sun 22 Jun, 2008 11:52 pm

BLAKEY wrote: UNO HOO WROTE :-"Its partner was a Guy saloon which later passed to Ledgard. In about 1954 the Daimler vanished, but 2 strange newcomers became the workhorses of the service, these being NWW 805/6, Atkinsons with Burlingham bodies"......................................................................................................The Guy saloon JJW 239 had originally been registered GUY 3 when it was a sales demonstrator for Guy Motors. When deposed from these duties it surrendered the number to the new underfloor engined model - both of course passed to Kitchins and then to Ledgard, along with the two Atkinsons.I was most interested in the issue of single rear wheels on the Atkinsons and did not know that - they were, however,. very light machines and so I suppose it makes sense in one way. I was highly amused and pleased by your recollection of those infernal incessantly rattling tubular aluminium luggage racks. The garage staff at Yeadon tried every trick in the book to try to silence the rattling (rattling which was aided and abetted if not caused by the Gardner 5 cylinder engines) but uncharacteristically admitted defeat in the end - the racks were removed completely, save for one short bay behind the driver's cab which was left in for the conductor's ticket box.The first GUY 3 was involved in a most dreadful accident in Harrogate Bus Station, when the handbrake jumped off while the cab was empty and the bus rolled back into a West Yorkshire double decker who's driver was on the front changing his destination blinds - the poor fellow died shortly afterwards in hospital. Very sad indeed.The newere GUY 3 was a fabulous machine and was virtually unique. The body was a Park Royal/Guy affair and many an uninformed passenger sitting near the front expressed puzzzlement when the driver moved the full sized gearlever but no gearchange took place until later - it had an air operated preselector gearbox, but a normal full size gear lever !!Two pictures here for old time's sake.JJW 239 off duty in Yeadon depot and GUY 3 in Boroughgate, Otley setting off for Yeadon and Horsforth. Thanks, BLAKEY, as informative as ever!I must say that the bit about single rear wheels came from my now-deceased brother-in-law, who was a solicitor, not a busman, but knew the importance of facts, and indeed was a mine of information, so I'm pretty confident he would be right. His brother (still extant) had every issue of "Buses Illustrated" and its successors from Issue 1 in 1949, and indeed lent them to me in about 1972. It's quite likely that he's kept them up over the years. I'll see if I can catch up with him and check.UH

Uno Hoo · Post by **Uno Hoo** » Mon 23 Jun, 2008 12:03 am

trophy wrote: so the other buses were daimlers i can remember the guy half cab, but could not remember what make the others where . there must have been more than two,as i remember they used to change buses and drivers at waterloo .the bus would pull up behind the new bus and passngers had to get on the bus in front this was regular occurance. Hi TrophyI only remember the one Daimler in the Kitchin stage-carriage fleet. I think there was an earlier Guy Arab as well as JJW, but I rarely used Kitchin before 1955 when I started school in Pudsey, by which time the Atkis were the usual offerings.Kitchin had Daimlers in its coach fleet.I don't think I answered your original query about whether Kitchin operated into Leeds. The answer is no for stage-carriage, but their coaches would have been seen there quite regularly.UH