Wallace Arnold

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Tue 06 Oct, 2009 11:05 pm

Trojan wrote: [It sticks in my mind that United Services who ran the Wakefield -Doncaster service had some. We used to go visit my grandma in Hemsworth every month and they had a really motley collection - it was like a bus league of nations. A wonderful outfit was "United Services." There were three participants - Coopers, Everetts and (by far the largest share of the mileage) W.R. & P. Bingley of Kinsley. The latter were bought out by Metro (an actual bus operator until October 1986 De-regulation) in order to secure a depot and services in the post 1974 Wakefield District. All three of the little firms had some magnificent vehicles. Mrs. Bingley, "Phyllis" to those in the industry locally, supplied unbelievable numbers of coaches to WA "at the drop of a phone call" to assist with heavy Summer demand. Most would arrive in Leeds direct from local "pit paddies" and would then work a full day excursion - that strange word "tachograph" hadn't become a legal requirement in those days !!

Uno Hoo · Post by **Uno Hoo** » Tue 06 Oct, 2009 11:51 pm

BLAKEY wrote: Trojan wrote: [It sticks in my mind that United Services who ran the Wakefield -Doncaster service had some. We used to go visit my grandma in Hemsworth every month and they had a really motley collection - it was like a bus league of nations. A wonderful outfit was "United Services." There were three participants - Coopers, Everetts and (by far the largest share of the mileage) W.R. & P. Bingley of Kinsley. The latter were bought out by Metro (an actual bus operator until October 1986 De-regulation) in order to secure a depot and services in the post 1974 Wakefield District. All three of the little firms had some magnificent vehicles. Mrs. Bingley, "Phyllis" to those in the industry locally, supplied unbelievable numbers of coaches to WA "at the drop of a phone call" to assist with heavy Summer demand. Most would arrive in Leeds direct from local "pit paddies" and would then work a full day excursion - that strange word "tachograph" hadn't become a legal requirement in those days !! What a day of coincidences today! Here am I, hotfoot from posting about WA on the Old Leeds Firms thread, when I'm back here, and nearly cross-posting again!Across on the other thread I've reminisced about Blakey's Boot Protectors, and how a lot of its workforce came from the pit areas - in fact there was a satellite factory at Fitzwilliam. These workers travelled to Armley from Hemsworth and district in a whole fleet of United Services buses and coaches, which were then parked up for the day, and their drivers were also part of the Blakey's workforce, putting in a full day before driving home again on what was, in those days, a considerable journey. Don't ask me how this fitted in with drivers' hours, as the Traffic Commissioners must have known about it, or the economics of vehicles being idle for most of the day.2 more coincidences. United Services vehicles were almost the same as Ledgard's in terms of colour, and being past, shall I say, their prime. At least one United coach was a Burlingham Seagull bodied Daimler which was especially similar to coaches stabled at Sam's Armley HQ at the time. I guess a lot of Armleyites with no particular interest in buses may well have thought the US vehicles were those of the local firm. The second one is that in talking about Blakey's Boot Protectors I'm following hard on the heels of our resident PSV expert, BLAKEY himself.

Uno Hoo · Post by **Uno Hoo** » Wed 07 Oct, 2009 12:31 am

Trojan wrote:I went to tech. in Pudsey for a year int he early sixties and we used to catch the no 5 Dewsbury bus from Pudsey market place. Farsley buses used the adjacent stop. Their buses alway looked much more up to date than the Guys Yorkshire Woollen used. They were so small even by the standards of those days too. By the time they'd picked up at Fulneck, the 4-30 used to be absolutely jammed solid with my Pudsey Tech mates, Pudsey Grammar kids, and Fulneck Boys and Girls. I went to Pudsey Grammar, leaving in 1960. Some buildings were shared with the Tech, and I remember getting into an argument with the principal, Mr Nicholson, about use of rooms in a "temporary" structure just above what was then the staff car park. There was another teacher at the tech, Jack Roberts, who was the father of two of my contemporaries at PGS, Richard Roberts, and Roger Roberts. Richard achieved notoriety by putting one of the PGS girls in the family way - a great scandal in 1958, and the first such incident in the annals of the school. I don't think THAT was alluded to among the achievements of the school at that year's Speech Day!I'm a bit surprised that you found the YWD Guys to be small, as they were on a par with most other buses of the era - 56 seaters, or thereabouts. Yes, they would get a bit cramped at peak periods. I don't know offhand whether they had Gardner 6LW or 5LW engines. BLAKEY will know - he's the fount of all wisdom on these things. If 5LW, I bet they struggled up the hill towards Back Lane on the way to Gildersome.Did you know Owen Bulmer? He was a PGS lad from Morley.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Wed 07 Oct, 2009 9:23 am

Uno Hoo wrote: I'm a bit surprised that you found the YWD Guys to be small, as they were on a par with most other buses of the era - 56 seaters, or thereabouts. Yes, they would get a bit cramped at peak periods. I don't know offhand whether they had Gardner 6LW or 5LW engines. BLAKEY will know - he's the fount of all wisdom on these things. If 5LW, I bet they struggled up the hill towards Back Lane on the way to Gildersome. Well every font is liable to dry up you know, but I've managed to find this for you. I had to chuckle at your very pertinent point about the struggling 5LWs when I looked up the records. Only the solitary first utility Guy Arab for YWD had a 5LW engine in 1942. The Ministry of Supply, normally hard hearted and of necessity unbending in such matters, must have responded to howls of protest from Savile Town about the inadequacy of such a power unit in Dewsbury's mountainous terrain for all other Arabs deliverd in 1943/4/5/6 had the 6LW engines. You may remember that the last eight had "GKP" registrations - these were from Maidstone and District on an exchange agreement whereby they arrived here in lieu of eight new Daimler CWA6s which went direct to Kent from the factory. The wartime Guy Arab was a vehicle just oozing character and we had two at Samuel Ledgard's - our Otley vehicle was JUA 763 and I loved it and took it out at every opportunity, and with great sadness did five trips from Otley to Leeds with it on its last day in servcie - November 30th 1961 - tax disc then expired, and the end of an illustrious career for the bus.

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Wed 07 Oct, 2009 1:07 pm

Uno Hoo wrote: Did you know Owen Bulmer? He was a PGS lad from Morley. I didn't but it was 1961/62 when I was there. TBH it was more the PGS girls we were interested in - especially the ones who lived in Gildersome

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Wed 07 Oct, 2009 1:10 pm

BLAKEY wrote: All three of the little firms had some magnificent vehicles. Mrs. Bingley, "Phyllis" to those in the industry locally, supplied unbelievable numbers of coaches to WA "at the drop of a phone call" to assist with heavy Summer demand. Most would arrive in Leeds direct from local "pit paddies" and would then work a full day excursion - that strange word "tachograph" hadn't become a legal requirement in those days !! I know that United had quite a number of what from the shape of their destination blind windows, were ex Ribble double deckers. But they ran the service with coaches too, the windows used to wind down like car windows with handles to turn - when I was a kid I used to fiddle about with them even on cold days. I suppose I was a bit annoying to my fellow passengers Bingleys also took loads of women from the Doncaster area to Bradford every day to work in the mills , they used to travel on the A650 through Morley.

Uno Hoo · Post by **Uno Hoo** » Wed 07 Oct, 2009 3:03 pm

Trojan wrote: Uno Hoo wrote: Did you know Owen Bulmer? He was a PGS lad from Morley. I didn't but it was 1961/62 when I was there. TBH it was more the PGS girls we were interested in - especially the ones who lived in Gildersome Yes. My education became somewhat broader than the school's official curriculum, but I didn't get an 'A' level like that of Roberts Senior as described in the earlier post.

trophy · Post by **trophy** » Fri 09 Oct, 2009 9:16 pm

i remember traveing from calverley to pudsey on the old kitchens route on one of ledgards guys about 1960 it seemed ancient compared with west yorkshires lodekkas.but brought back memories of kitchens guy arab single decker.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Fri 09 Oct, 2009 10:10 pm

trophy wrote: i remember traveing from calverley to pudsey on the old kitchens route on one of ledgards guys about 1960 it seemed ancient compared with west yorkshires lodekkas.but brought back memories of kitchens guy arab single decker. That was JUA 762 (based at Armley) - one of two utility Guy Arabs new to Ledgard's in 1943, and rebodied by Roe in 1951. The other of the pair was JUA 763 at Otley depot, which was one of my all time favourites to conduct and to drive - fine machines for sure, reliable, tough and although slow in maximum speed (about 35mph) would "go up a house side in top" thanks to the World renowned Gardner engines.

Loiner1960 · Post by **Loiner1960** » Sat 10 Oct, 2009 5:58 pm

The Calls depot was chaos for any trip. As a kid, going anywhere distant by coach meant WA. The long queues through Tadcaster, York and Malton, before the A64 bypass was built. Wanting to go on the Plaxton 6 wheelers and not the old Bedfords. The drivers telling you not to eat and drink. The stop at some place we all knew but could never name. The best tasting bottles of shandy, ever, no question. I can just remember going to London by WA. A long trip.The old Calls depot is now built on. How many bus/coach stations did Leeds centre have? Green, Red, National and WA!