Barton Transport 1205 (LAL 307K) in Manchester - May 1972

Barton Transport’s Blackpool-Manchester-Nottingham service X61 used two Yelloway locations as departure points. Starting from Bloomfield Road coach station in Blackpool it called at Central Station Forecourt, Manchester where 1205 (LAL 307K), a Plaxton Panorama Elite bodied Leyland Leopard new in April 1972, is seen. Just visible on the left of the picture is part of the former air raid shelters which Yelloway converted into a booking office, waiting room and inspector’s office. One of the departure barriers, of the type also found at Weir Street Coach Station in Rochdale, can be seen. ‘Please wait here for coach departure to’ and then there was a slide in slot into which destination boards would go.

Regarding the Barton Nottingham-Blackpool service, this had originally been operated by Robin Hood (Coaches) Limited, a company Barton acquired in 1961. The summer service for 1968 had daily departures from Nottingham at 0815 and 1500 plus a 1715 departure on Fridays. From Blackpool there were daily departures at 0815 and 1435 plus a Sunday evening service at 1805. The timetable may be seen here:
www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/37286308/in/album/729781

The winter service was a curious one in that it operated from Nottingham at 0930 on Monday, Thursday and Saturday and from Blackpool at 0930 on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. The arrival time was 1600. A copy of the Robin Hood timetable for the winter period 1959-1960 may be seen at:
www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/37286302/in/album/729781

The Barton winter 1967-1968 service X61 had the same departure times on the same days as when licenced to Robin Hood although the journey time by now was 63 minutes less (arriving 1457). This was achieved by a reduced refreshment break and tightening up of some point to point running times.

One of the X61 drivers lived in Blackpool. He (Ken, featured in this photograph) and his wife (Marjorie, who was employed by Yelloway in the ticket office at their Blackpool coach station) were originally from the Nottingham area. In summer Ken worked the 0815 Blackpool-Nottingham and 1500 Nottingham-Blackpool journeys (although I don’t know how his rest day was covered). As may be seen from the winter service, the format was a fitting operation when using a driver based at Nottingham (One coach and one driver driving northbound Thursday/southbound Friday; northbound Saturday/southbound Sunday; and northbound Monday/southbound Tuesday with no service Wednesday). That would mean drivers staying overnight in Blackpool on Thursday, Saturday and Monday evenings.

However, since Ken was a resident of Blackpool it made for a strange working week for him. He would be at home on Thursday night then drive south Friday staying overnight in Nottingham. On Saturday he would drive north and be at home Saturday night. On Sunday he would drive south and stay overnight in Nottingham. On Monday he would drive north and be at home Monday night. He would then drive south on Tuesday and stay overnight on two successive nights (Tuesday and Wednesday) taking his day off in Nottingham on the Wednesday. Finally he would return north on Thursday to be at home Thursday night. One day off and four nights out per week - comparable I suppose with the life tour drivers might have. He was however able to stay with family on the nights out.