buffaloskinner - I was not aware, although I suppose it could have been a minor feature of the saga, that Samuel Ledgard was in financial difficulties. I would have thought that they were in a pretty healthy state actually. There had been only very minimal service reductions in the recent years, and there had been no resorting to one person operation (of course this would have involved costly purchase of suitable vehicles to implement it). Vehicle maintenance was, I would say, at an all time high and service reliability was incredibly good - even today ask any older passenger what they have thought to the successors of SL. No, I recall two very pertinent reasons which prompted the capitulation of the grand and unpretentious old Firm. One cause was that Tommy Ledgard (Samuel's son) was an elderly and very unwell handicapped man and there were no younger family members to carry on. Incidentally, a change of General Manager at WYRCC during the takeover preparations resulted in a very different situation in October 1957. The original plans were to continue to operate SL as a separate unit, initially at any rate, and fleet renumbering lists to WYRCC pattern were seen here and there . In the event, as we know, SL virtually disappeared on the dreadful day apart from the retention of Otley Depot and ten Regent V and two Daimler double deckers thereat. Perhaps even more important was the looming, but still at the time somewhat vague, coming establishment of the larger area PTAs/PTEs which could/would have taken away a large measure of input and control from independent operators such as SL - on a slightly different tack the spectre of the early postwar British Road Services doctrine which seriously affected the fortunes of many lesser haulage firms was still fresh in proprietors' minds.buffaloskinner wrote:Yorkshire Rider later Firstbus never took over Samuel Ledgards so that colour scheme will not be happening. Samuel Ledgards was taken over by West Yorkshire Road Car in 1967 after getting into financial difficulties.Uno Hoo wrote: I was in Otley the other day, and there was a bus in the former Yorkshire Rider livery, which looked good. Pity that (so far) the routes serving Otley haven't had a Samuel Ledgard makeover. 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the closure, so now's the time, Firstbus!
It is interesting to discuss, open to correction as always, but this is the situation as I recall it.