David Slater (Spoddendale)'s photos

July 1973 (a Saturday evening) - Quite a rare visitor indeed on a service through Rochdale was this Western SMT Alexander bodied ‘Y’ type coach which had been provided by Ribble as a last minute X79 duplicate. A very, very poor shot I admit because it was taken in the darkness of the Yelloway garage at Weir Street just before the coach went on its way with no time for a proper picture – with barely time to run to my desk to grab the camera. Ribble and WSMT worked their joint Lancashire-Glasgow services, their drivers routinely driving each others coaches. The coaches were often utilised as required when they were in the other partners possession which is what brought this vehicle quite unexpectedly to Rochdale. Hubert Allen’s white Daimler car can be seen in the background – he always parked in this spot. Just beyond that was the passenger waiting room the seats of which came from vehicles from a bygone age. The evening sunshine lights up what would be a deserted ‘top office’ (The General Office). The staff here (typists, wages, accounts etc) didn’t work after lunch on Saturdays. A further link between Yelloway and Western SMT was that the WSMT office at 55 St. Enoch Square in Glasgow was the principal Scottish booking agent for Yelloway issuing tickets for passengers travelling between Scotland and the South West of England via Manchester using the Ribble/WSMT service from Glasgow to Manchester where they then connected to the Yelloway 'Devonian' service.

Monday 5 March 1973 – Tom King, a Rochdale taxi owner, acquired 6475 DK a Duple bodied Bedford SB5 which had been new to Yelloway’s subsidiary company, The Creams (Lancashire) Limited, in 1964. It was seen parked on spare ground on Penn Street. A former Rochdale Corporation Weymann bodied AEC Regent V, still in corporation colours but now owned by SELNEC plus another former Rochdale Corporation bus already painted in the orange and white livery of SELNEC, can be seen on the bus park behind.

July 1972 - This Duple Alpine Continental bodied AEC Reliance (3573 RU) of Shamrock and Rambler had arrived in Rochdale one Friday evening in July 1972 from Bournemouth. It would return home as a duplicate on either the Friday night south or Saturday day south back to its home town - a hire arranged by Associated Motorways, the joint operator with Yelloway of the Rochdale to Bournemouth express service. New in April 1963. The coach is paused on Penn Street having just come from the Yelloway garage having crossed Smith Street which runs across the photograph behind the coach. The portion of Penn Street in the background was later renamed Ink Street. The Slubbers Arms, popular with the coach drivers as the nearest 'watering hole' to the garage after they left work is on Smith Street behind the billboard.

July 1972 - Blue Line (Murray) was based close to the Yelloway Coach Station on Bloomfield Road in Blackpool and was often pressed into service at short notice by the Blackpool Inspectors when duplicates were required. WFR 729K, a Plaxton Panorama Elite bodied Bedford YRQ new in April 1972, sets out from Weir Street as a duplicate to the 1345 hrs Blackpool bound service having worked in from Blackpool on the 0930 hrs departure.

September 1972 - A rear shot of Yelloway 7076 DK seen on the parking ground along Penn Street, Rochdale. This Harrington Cavalier bodied AEC Reliance was new in 1964. The Harrington Cavalier body was the last type to incorporate the two side destination indicators which Yelloway had specified for its new coaches for many years. Plaxton bodywork was bought after Harrington closed down and the rooflines of the newer models were not deep enough to accommodate this feature.

Summer 1965 - The 1965 intake of lightweight models for the Yelloway fleet was the most varied of the 1960s with three Bedford VALs (two with Harrington Legionnaire bodywork and one with Plaxton Panorama bodywork) along with this pair of Plaxton Embassy bodied Bedford SB5s which were seen at Westwood Coach park in Scarborough on one of the private hire trips I organised from school - on which I needed a ‘dupe’ this particular year! This was the last year the SB5 model was taken as in subsequent years the Bedford VAM was chosen.

August 1973 – Two Yelloway Harrington Cavalier bodied AEC Reliances in the Yelloway coach station and garage at Weir Street. Left is CDK 854C (new 1965) and right is 7074 DK (new 1964).

August 1973 – Yelloway CDK 855C parked in the garage at Weir Street, Rochdale. New in 1965 this was to be the final year that Harrington supplied their stately Cavalier body to Yelloway. The destination screen shows ‘Torquay’ but it is unlikely that this coach would have visited the Devon resort for a number of years even though it would have been more than capable of doing so. Each year the newer coaches were assigned as the service vehicles on the Torquay and London routes. Progressively as the coaches aged they were assigned to different routes, mid-life coaches covering Cheltenham etc and the oldest covering the Blackpool services and school work.

August 1973 – Yelloway Harrington Cavalier bodied AEC Reliance coaches parked in the garage at Weir Street, Rochdale. Closest to the camera is CDK 855C new in 1965, the final year that Harrington supplied their stately Cavalier bodywork to Yelloway. The destination screen shows ‘Torquay’ but it is unlikely that this coach would have visited the Devon resort for a number of years even though it would have been more than capable of doing so. Each year the newer coaches were assigned as the service vehicles on the Torquay and London routes. Progressively as the coaches aged they were assigned to different routes, mid-life coaches covering Cheltenham etc and the oldest covering the Blackpool services and school work.

Saturday 14 September 1974 – Today I was assigned to loading duties at Preston bus station. One of the Yelloway CDK-C registered Harrington Cavalier bodied AEC Reliance coaches new in 1965 is seen on a Blackpool bound service working.

February 1974 – CDK 857C, a Harrington Cavalier bodied AEC Reliance, had just been repainted when I took this photograph. The coach was new in June 1965. For the 1968 season this coach was upseated from having 45 reclining seats and was fitted with 49 standard seats specifically to work on the joint service with Premier Travel from the North-west to Cambridge and Clacton-on-Sea. It was usual practice for the AEC’s to reach about six years old before being upseated. Now nearly nine years old it would not work to Torquay on a Yelloway service but I couldn’t resist putting Torquay on the destination blind for this photograph!

February 1974 – CDK 857C, a Harrington Cavalier bodied AEC Reliance, had just been repainted when I took this photograph. The coach was new in June 1965. For its longer life coaches Yelloway always specified certain additional features like the above windscreen destination blinds, enclosed drivers cab area and the two piece rear boot doors, as seen in this photograph, which had vertical mounted hinges.

July 1974 - From 1966 Plaxton became the main bodywork supplier for the Yelloway fleet after Harrington ceased bodybuilding. FDK 415D was one of the 1966 intake of six Plaxton Panorama bodied AEC Reliances. I seem to recall this location was at Rhyl when I was assigned to supervise the loading of homeward bound coaches on the Llandudno to Rochdale service (more than likely on the last Saturday of the Rochdale and Oldham holiday fortnight). A coach operated by Travis’s of Middleton, working on hire to either Yelloway or North Manchester Motor Coaches, stands behind.

A Saturday evening in July 1973 on the fuel pumps at the Yelloway garage in Rochdale. Left is Yelloway FDK 416D, an AEC Reliance with Plaxton Panorama body new in 1966. This was the coach involved in a bad accident on the A56 near Bowden in Cheshire when working a London bound express a few years previously. It was returned to Plaxtons for repair and came back to work a few months later. Note the destination blinds both read 'Yelloway'. It was customary to set them thus when a particular destination name wasn't available. A most unusual visitor on the right is Northern General 114L (NCN 814L), a Bristol RELH6G with Plaxton Panorama Elite bodywork in National coach livery just a couple or so months old. It shows Torquay on the destination blind but it was heading home to the north-east of England.

April 1968 – Yelloway FDK 418D, one of the 1966 intake of Plaxton Panorama bodied AEC Reliances, seen at the Yelloway coach station in Bloomfield Road, Blackpool after arriving on a journey from Oldham and Rochdale. The famous tower can just be seen in the distance on the right. After sale the site was redeveloped as a Magnet and Southern builders supply store and later still a Lidl supermarket.

Summer 1967 - Yelloway FDK 419D seen in Caledonia Street Coach Station, London having worked the 'morning flyer' motorway express service from Rochdale and Manchester. Precise date not noted but it was in the summer of 1967. The coach was one of the 1966 intake of Plaxton Panorama bodied AEC Reliances.

Summer 1969 - Yelloway FDK 420D stands beneath the prominent Yelloway coach station signboard at Weir Street, Rochdale ready to work the 1600 motorway express (‘flyer’) service to London. It would have worked the morning ‘flyer’ from London earlier in the day arriving in Rochdale at 1411. It was one of the 1966 intake of six Plaxton Panorama bodied AEC Reliances and the one I also considered my favourite after previously taking a trip on it for a day in London.

Summer 1969 - Yelloway FDK 420D stands in the doorway of the coach station at Weir Street, Rochdale ready to work the 1600 motorway express (‘flyer’) service to London. It would have worked the morning ‘flyer’ from London earlier in the day arriving in Rochdale at 1411. It was one of the 1966 intake of six Plaxton Panorama bodied AEC Reliances and the one I also considered my favourite after previously taking a trip on it for a day in London.