Wallace Arnold

Railways, trams, buses, etc.
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BLAKEY
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Joined: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 4:42 am

Post by BLAKEY »

zip55 wrote: If Wallace Arnold coach depot was in the Calls, what was the coach depot in Wellington St (or thereabouts) just round the corner from the railway station? Circa 1965 this. That was the West Yorkshire Road Car Co.'s coach station for their long distance and coastal services. Many of these were jointly operated with other famous Firms and therefore all sorts of interesting machinery could be seen there, including East Yorkshire, United, Northern General, Yorkshire Traction and many others. Particularly on summer weekends there was much heavy duplication and "hiring in" - Samuel Ledgard had an enormous regular contract with West Yorkshire for coastal duplicates and no doubt made plenty of healthy profit from it. With the eventual formation of National Express much vintage colour disappeared from Wellington Street once the universal white "livery" took hold, and much of the magic of the place disappeared. The station became totally inadequate in size and manoeuvering space and it really is a miracle in the end that no passengers were flattened, especially as coaches got progressively longer and wider. The site is now completely built over with new offices and the City's central coach station is a purpose built one attached to the main bus station.
There's nothing like keeping the past alive - it makes us relieved to reflect that any bad times have gone, and happy to relive all the joyful and fascinating experiences of our own and other folks' earlier days.

zip55
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu 15 Nov, 2007 7:17 pm

Post by zip55 »

Thanks Blakey, I knew you'd sort it for me. As an aside (because of the obvious connection of your avatar with "On the Buses") Ron Wolfe, one of the writers of OTB died only a few days ago.    

majorhoundii
Posts: 404
Joined: Sat 12 Mar, 2011 6:55 am

Post by majorhoundii »

BLAKEY wrote: "Duplicates" have always been a regular feature of bus and coach operation right from the earliest days. When strict and sane licensing was in force from 1930 until the infamous "De-regulation" of October 1986 duplicates had to be within three minutes ahead of the normal timetabled vehicle. There could be more than one extra vehicle, often for a part of the route only until the main one could cope. As most will gather (yawns permitted at the back of the room ) transport in all its aspects has been my life's work and absorbing interest. Some operators used the term "relief" instead of "duplicate." Just a couple of illustrations of the practice may be worth mentioning. When I worked for Samuel Ledgard in the 1950s/60s, when passengers were still plentiful, duplicates were frequently necessary and were widespread, weekends included. My favourite was the 5.30pm from Leeds (King Street) to Ilkley when no less than four fully laden vehicles were needed as follows :- 5.27 to Rawdon Crossroads, 5.28 to Guiseley White Cross, 5.29 to Ilkley and 5.30 to Ilkley - what a fine procession they made. Earlier, when I was in the RAF at Patrington the last East Yorkshire (one of the most superb Firms ever) bus from Hull to Withernsea at weekends had to have a duplicate (provided by Hull Depot and always a fascinating vintage vehicle for good measure). The method adopted was for a "census" to be carried out rapidly at each village and as soon as the combined remaining load could be accommodated on the Withernsea Depot bus those on the Hull Depot vehicle would be transferred and the latter would scuttle back to Anlaby Road Depot. \LCT had a blind that said "Duplicate" IIRC West Yorkshire had a little flap that let down with "Duplicate" on it.

majorhoundii
Posts: 404
Joined: Sat 12 Mar, 2011 6:55 am

Post by majorhoundii »

BLAKEY wrote: zip55 wrote: If Wallace Arnold coach depot was in the Calls, what was the coach depot in Wellington St (or thereabouts) just round the corner from the railway station? Circa 1965 this. That was the West Yorkshire Road Car Co.'s coach station for their long distance and coastal services. Many of these were jointly operated with other famous Firms and therefore all sorts of interesting machinery could be seen there, including East Yorkshire, United, Northern General, Yorkshire Traction and many others. Particularly on summer weekends there was much heavy duplication and "hiring in" - Samuel Ledgard had an enormous regular contract with West Yorkshire for coastal duplicates and no doubt made plenty of healthy profit from it. With the eventual formation of National Express much vintage colour disappeared from Wellington Street once the universal white "livery" took hold, and much of the magic of the place disappeared. The station became totally inadequate in size and manoeuvering space and it really is a miracle in the end that no passengers were flattened, especially as coaches got progressively longer and wider. The site is now completely built over with new offices and the City's central coach station is a purpose built one attached to the main bus station. I recall a trans Pennine service to Manchester and Liverpool running from Wellington Street, with as you say Northern General, United, North Western, Yorkshire Woollen and Lancashire United all contributing. In the summer of 1959 we went to Rhyl for our holiday and none of the estalished operators like Wallace Arnold ran a service there, so we travelled there from Wellington Street with a change at Manchester. I can't remember who we travelled out with but we certainly travelled back from Manchester on a Lancashire United coach.

BLAKEY
Posts: 2556
Joined: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 4:42 am

Post by BLAKEY »

zip55 wrote: Thanks Blakey, I knew you'd sort it for me. As an aside (because of the obvious connection of your avatar with "On the Buses") Ron Wolfe, one of the writers of OTB died only a few days ago.     Thanks zip55 - what a brilliant series was "On the buses." The vehicles were all Eastern National Bristols from the Essex depots and I believe, I may be wrong, that Reg Varney actually passed his PSV test for the filming. There was an even more convincing display of actor driving - by Robert Carlyle in a fine film called "Carla's Song" in which he rather excellently drove Glasgow Leyland Atlanteans - but he was a real bad lad and I think was fired in the story for constant blatant misconduct.
There's nothing like keeping the past alive - it makes us relieved to reflect that any bad times have gone, and happy to relive all the joyful and fascinating experiences of our own and other folks' earlier days.

majorhoundii
Posts: 404
Joined: Sat 12 Mar, 2011 6:55 am

Post by majorhoundii »

BLAKEY wrote: zip55 wrote: Thanks Blakey, I knew you'd sort it for me. As an aside (because of the obvious connection of your avatar with "On the Buses") Ron Wolfe, one of the writers of OTB died only a few days ago.     Thanks zip55 - what a brilliant series was "On the buses." The vehicles were all Eastern National Bristols from the Essex depots and I believe, I may be wrong, that Reg Varney actually passed his PSV test for the filming. There was an even more convincing display of actor driving - by Robert Carlyle in a fine film called "Carla's Song" in which he rather excellently drove Glasgow Leyland Atlanteans - but he was a real bad lad and I think was fired in the story for constant blatant misconduct. Greatest bus film ever! (Amesbury is near Salisbury) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXccFjKfrl0

BLAKEY
Posts: 2556
Joined: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 4:42 am

Post by BLAKEY »

majorhoundii wrote: Greatest bus film ever! (Amesbury is near Salisbury) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXccFjKfrl0 I did my RAF Radar training at Yatesbury, Wiltshire which is quite near Amesbury - we hadn't time or energy to get up to stunts like this !!
There's nothing like keeping the past alive - it makes us relieved to reflect that any bad times have gone, and happy to relive all the joyful and fascinating experiences of our own and other folks' earlier days.

lmhowe50
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu 18 Oct, 2012 6:27 pm

Post by lmhowe50 »

I remember going for day trips out with my gran in 60s to Scarborough with WallaceArnold coaches and the cafe where you had to queue to use toilets Saw Wallace Arnold coach ontouch of frost on ITV 3

BLAKEY
Posts: 2556
Joined: Mon 24 Mar, 2008 4:42 am

Post by BLAKEY »

lmhowe50 wrote: I remember going for day trips out with my gran in 60s to Scarborough with WallaceArnold coaches and the cafe where you had to queue to use toilets That sounds like the good old Hazelbush - on the left just after leaving York towards Scarborough. IIRC the toilets were in a forbidding looking block just the east side of the main building.    
There's nothing like keeping the past alive - it makes us relieved to reflect that any bad times have gone, and happy to relive all the joyful and fascinating experiences of our own and other folks' earlier days.

lmhowe50
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu 18 Oct, 2012 6:27 pm

Post by lmhowe50 »

My gran went every year to Matlock Bath to see the lights with Wallace Arnold Also Morecambe Did not like Blackpool lights She always took 1 of her gran kids with her With everyone having cars those day trips on coach are gone Anyone rememberTetley coaches My aunt used them

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