Ribble 548 (ARN 548B) at Littleborough - Late summer 1966

Late Summer 1966 – A rather jaunty conductor in the doorway of Ribble 548 (ARN 548B), a Leyland Leopard PSU3/1R with Weymann bodywork new in February 1965, seen in Church Street, Littleborough when working the 1222 Manchester-Burnley-Morecambe X14 service. This lunchtime departure from Manchester picked up in Littleborough at 1307.

Services X4 and X14 were dovetailed and shared a common route between Manchester and Preston travelling via Middleton, Rochdale, Littleborough, Todmorden, Burnley and Blackburn. From Preston service X4 operated to Blackpool via Lytham St. Annes and service X14 continued to Morecambe via Garstang and Lancaster.

Broadly speaking the service between Manchester and Burnley was every two hours (most of which were numbered X4) with a couple of the trips running through to Morecambe as X14. Towards the end of the life of the services the Manchester-Burnley portion of the Blackpool bound services were deleted. The road service licence carried quite a number of restrictions barring the carriage of local passengers (or charging a premium fare). The boarding points in the city of Manchester were Lower Mosley Street Bus Station, Queens Road and Victoria Avenue plus one defined as ‘Salford, Junction of Chapel Street and Victoria Street’ (but wouldn’t that be on the Manchester side of the Irwell?). The next boarding points were Middleton and Slattocks. Passengers boarding at these points were permitted to travel ‘to subsequent points provided that at least the fare to Todmorden is paid’.From Castleton, Rochdale and Littleborough the first set down point was Holme Chapel. On the 2242 service from Manchester passengers could be carried from Rochdale to Todmorden and from Todmorden/Cornholme to Burnley.