Surviving Leeds city transport buses

BONDGATE BUSES · Post by **BONDGATE BUSES** » Sun 04 Nov, 2007 1:21 pm

Sunday 14th October was the fortieth anniversary of the sad end of the Samuel Ledgard bus services. A big running day was enjoyed by many hundreds of people who were able to ride free on routes that the old firm had operated. It was also the fiftieth anniversary of my joining as a conductor at Otley and Ilkley depots. I conducted several journeys wearing my original uniform, and using an actual Otley depot Setright ticket machine which I own and which I had undoubtedly used for real half a century ago.The ex London Transport AEC Regent MXX232 is of a type of which Sammy's had four at Yeadon depot right up to the end and the present owners of this magnificent motor in a wonderful and (to them) very expensive gesture had it professionally repainted in Sammy's colours for this great occasion.

BONDGATE BUSES · Post by **BONDGATE BUSES** » Sun 04 Nov, 2007 1:23 pm

Sunday 14th October was the fortieth anniversary of the sad end of the Samuel Ledgard bus services. A big running day was enjoyed by many hundreds of people who were able to ride free on routes that the old firm had operated. It was also the fiftieth anniversary of my joining as a conductor at Otley and Ilkley depots. I conducted several journeys wearing my original uniform, and using an actual Otley depot Setright ticket machine which I own and which I had undoubtedly used for real half a century ago.The ex London Transport AEC Regent MXX232 is of a type of which Sammy's had four at Yeadon depot right up to the end and the present owners of this magnificent motor in a wonderful and (to them) very expensive gesture had it professionally repainted in Sammy's colours for this great occasion.

roundhegian · Post by **roundhegian** » Tue 06 Nov, 2007 1:14 am

BONDGATE BUSES wrote: Sunday 14th October was the fortieth anniversary of the sad end of the Samuel Ledgard bus services. A big running day was enjoyed by many hundreds of people who were able to ride free on routes that the old firm had operated. It was also the fiftieth anniversary of my joining as a conductor at Otley and Ilkley depots. I conducted several journeys wearing my original uniform, and using an actual Otley depot Setright ticket machine which I own and which I had undoubtedly used for real half a century ago.The ex London Transport AEC Regent MXX232 is of a type of which Sammy's had four at Yeadon depot right up to the end and the present owners of this magnificent motor in a wonderful and (to them) very expensive gesture had it professionally repainted in Sammy's colours for this great occasion. With a " BONDGATE BUSES " nickname I thought you must have had some association with Ledgard .Have you read " Beer and Blue Buses " by Don Bates who worked at Armley garage . Bought a copy about a year ago , it's a great read !

Post by **cnosni** » Tue 06 Nov, 2007 2:42 pm

raveydavey wrote: rangieowner wrote: phil! kerching and saver strip were the same thing cos 'kerching' was the noise the machine made when it clipped the strip! it was also the advertising slogan from the TV ads!! (if memory serves me correctly) You are right: "Ker-ching a cheaper, Ker-ching a Saverstrip!" was the slogan.12 trips for the price of ten wasn't it?Cheap fares and bargains on the buses? That would never do nowadays would it? I seem to remember the tv advertisement for saver strips that had a little jingleKerchinga workKerchinga town kerchinga fasterkerchinga saverstrip!!Dont quote me on the exact lyric (though im sure its not Rogers and Hammerstein but i think this is where the Kerching comes from the Rangieowner mentioned as the noise.Or did i just imagine this?

Si · Post by Si » Tue 06 Nov, 2007 3:02 pm

This advertising campaign was produced by Charles Walls Advertising.

roundhegian · Post by **roundhegian** » Thu 08 Nov, 2007 10:04 am

Although not surviving here are three interesting examples of Leeds City Transport buses from the 1930s . Firstly example one .

roundhegian · Post by **roundhegian** » Thu 08 Nov, 2007 10:16 am

roundhegian wrote: Although not surviving here are three interesting examples of Leeds City Transport buses from the 1930s . Firstly example one . Secondly - obviously - example two with in my view a more attractively painted Roe body .In the late-1950s East Yorkshire Motor Services still had a handful of buses with very similar bodies .

roundhegian · Post by **roundhegian** » Thu 08 Nov, 2007 10:25 am

roundhegian wrote: roundhegian wrote: Although not surviving here are three interesting examples of Leeds City Transport buses from the 1930s . Firstly example one . Secondly - obviously - example two with in my view a more attractively painted Roe body .In the late-1950s East Yorkshire Motor Services still had a handful of buses with very similar bodies . Finally to show that the 1/76-scale model is not a figment of Corgi's imagination an AEC Q bus posed in front of the Civic Hall .

Terrym · Post by **Terrym** » Thu 08 Nov, 2007 3:49 pm

Hi everybody,Thought I would share a few memories with you.I started with Leeds City Transport in March 1974. We were the last trainees taken on with the old L.C.T. because the change to WYPTE came in on the 1st April.The first day was spent in the conductors training room at Swinegate listening to all the rules and regs.The second and third days were used for playing with the ticket machines (Ultimate) and also getting kitted out with our uniforms. Suddenly we were bus men. Then it was off to our respective garages.The first day seemed to fly by. Issuing tickets, trying to remember which combination etc, the only thing was as you had a full time clippie with you there was no need to worry about the bell.After a few weeks you soon got used to all the fare stages etc.On occasions if you were spare you would get sent to other depots.On one occassion I ended up doing a late turn to Swarcliffe. I had never been near the place and when one passenger asked me for the Squinting Cat I thought he was mucking me about,. I later found out that it is a pub one Swarcliffe estate. The big day came for me in August of that year when at the ripe old age of 21 I was sent to the driver training school at Seacroft. At that time the vehicles were Leyland's and 1 lonesome AEC Regent.We were paired off and sent out with our instructor called Len Joy.The first few days consisted off driving around Leeds ring road.After a week of this we were then introduced to a senior driver whose job it was to iron out the wrinkles ready for our test.The big day came and off we went to Kirkstall Road. I elected to go first, completed the drive, answered the questions, and hey presto got the big o.k.A few days later i collected my brand new bright red badge.BB 70023. I was now a driver.The next step was to complete 24 hours driving with a qualified driver, he then signed your chiity.Blackmail reigned, and for the price of a cup of tea the chiity was signed in no time. At that time it was a bit of a status symbol to be a driver, I had the chance to drive Leyland, AEC, Daimler half cabs, and then of course the jumbo Atlanteans and sometimes the Fleetlines if we had a Seacroft bus.One last thing which i remember was that all the double door buses at Bramley were Leyland and the door controls were pedal operated on the floor. These were back and forwards pedals.One day I ended up with a Seacroft fleetline of the 156 type. These had 2 pedals which were like house bricks. One press to open, 1 press to close. Forgetting that I had pressed it to open, and then pressing it again resulted in a very large lady getting jammed in the doors as they opened when the bus stopped, and immediatly closed as she tried to get off.This resulted in a visit to Swinegate for me for the "Do Not Do It Again" meeting with our personal boss .I had some great times and after leaving the job in 1980 I came back to bus driving in 1996 with EYMS, but that's another story

Terrym · Post by **Terrym** » Thu 08 Nov, 2007 6:54 pm

Hi again,A few more memories from the 70s.These memories concern the routes I used to work and some of the buses I had to drive.Good old route 23. Bus Stn - Intake..A running time of 29 mins each direction with a reverse at Intake terminus. The late turn duty was like The longest Day.Route 405 Short Lived shoppers service from Swinnow - Half Mile Lane.Supposed to carry shoppers from surrounding areas to Bramley Shopping Centre. Normally operated by AEC Swifts 1251 - 1253.Used to carry more staff than fare paying passengers.Route 77. Town End - Gipton.Originally crew operated when I started and the first route I ever worked on. The worst journey was just after 16.00 from Gipton as you used to pick up a full load from Burtons clothing factory.Converted to o.m.o.Worst bus on this route on a late turn was 444. For some reason this bus did not like to operate the last journey of the day and broke down regular at Gipton.Route 78 Leeds - Bradford (Hall Ings).Normal bus allocation was for Atlanteans of the 356/7 group which did not have power steering.The left turn from the top of Lowtown in Pudsey when travelling to Bradford used to involve standing up in the cab to try and steer around the corner.Route 508 Leeds - Halifax.Taken over from Hebble the buses used on this service were equipped with new electronic Almex machines that looked like a cash register. They needed a special waybill which at the end of each journey was inserted into a slot at the bottom and overprinted with all the journey detail.One last memory has to be of the great times and fun we used to have. Sadly nowadays the job has been ruined by tighter running schedules, longer shifts, more abusive passengers, and generally more pressure on the drivers to keep services operating.