A trip on the Yelloway 'Devonian' - Oct 30/31 1971

Saturday 30 October 1971 - Operation of the summer Rochdale to Torquay ‘Devonian’ service was between 1 May and 30 October each year southbound and between 2 May to 31 October northbound. On the last day of operation of the 1971 summer season timetable I took a ride from Rochdale to Torquay to see what the route was all about. Conveniently the 30th was a Saturday and the 31st a Sunday and I was weekend off. The vehicle was TDK 687J, new 3 June 1971, driven by Derek Cheetham. The ‘service coach’ on the daily scheduled run was usually one of those new that year and the drivers were of ‘Leading Driver’ or ‘Senior Leading Driver’ grade. I took this series of pictures over the two days of the ride out. '687', a Plaxton Panorama Elite bodied AEC Reliance (naturally!) is seen at Lymington Road coach station in Torquay at the end of its almost 300 mile run taking 11 hours.

Saturday 30 October 1971 - At the end of the 290 mile journey from Rochdale the passengers collect their luggage from the coach at Lymington Road Coach Station in Torquay. The scheduled arrival time was 1845 but we were 40 minutes early. We had left Rochdale at 0732. TDK 687J, a Plaxton Panorama Elite bodied AEC Reliance, new earlier in the year. The ‘service coach’ on the daily scheduled run was usually one of those new that year and the drivers were of ‘Leading Driver’ or ‘Senior Leading Driver’ grade.

Sunday 31 October 1971 – TDK 687J swings out of Lymington Road Coach Station, Torquay at 0847 on the last northbound trip of the 1971 summer season of the Torquay to Rochdale ‘Devonian’ service. A bright sunny morning after heavy dew. The coach would clock 289 miles today and arrive in Rochdale at 1852. The timetabled departure time from Torquay was 0845 with an arrival in Rochdale shown as 1926.

Sunday 31 October 1971 - Tower Street Coach Station in Taunton at 1041 – our scheduled departure time was 1040. As well as TDK 687J, coaches operating Associated Motorways services stand in the background. The obvious one is a Black and White Motorways Plaxton bodied Leyland Leopard but there are also two Eastern Coachworks bodied Bristol RE coaches (which look like Red and White vehicles). The Plaxton coach behind the group of people could also be a Black and White vehicle. Taunton was used as a connecting point for Yelloway passengers travelling to and from North Devon.

Sunday 31 October 1971 - Marlborough Street Coach Station in Bristol was used as the northbound lunch stop on the Torquay-Rochdale service timetabled between 1210 and 1305. We arrived at 1200 and left again at 1307. TDK 687J stands alongside a Plaxton bodied Leyland Leopard of Black and White working southbound on the 1100 Cheltenham-Paignton service. To the right of the Yelloway coach were three Eastern Coachworks bodied vehicles on Bristol chassis. The double decker was operated by Bristol Omnibus who owned this combined garage and bus/coach station. The two coaches, both on the RE chassis model, were operated by Royal Blue (on the Cardiff-Bournemouth service?) and Red and White (on the Aberdare-Portsmouth service?).

Sunday 31 October 1971 - Marlborough Street Coach Station, Bristol. Having had lunch the coach was moved across to the departure stand to take on 8 passengers travelling with us - although 9 were ‘charted’ from Bristol. The drivers always had a dig that the charts were ‘never right’ but in reality the system was second to few for its accuracy with full details of ticket numbers, to and from points, agent name etc all being fully recorded. Many companies simply recorded the passenger totals between respective points without any other details. If a Yelloway service ‘burst’ there was usually a post mortem as to whose fault it may have been. Today we had 44 passengers boarding south of Cheltenham and when we passed through Cheltenham we managed to get topped up with a further 6 making 50 on board the 49 seat coach! I suspect a child may have shared a seat.

Sunday 31 October 1971 - With the moon shining above, Derek looks back to see if everyone is on board after making a refreshment and toilet stop at the Potteries Motor Traction (PMT) owned ‘Four in Hand’ café in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. This café was very popular as a coach stop before the days of the M6 motorway with various services of different companies calling there on their way to the south-west or London. We had departed Cheltenham at 1431, the scheduled time 1430. Having no passengers to set down at Stafford we were able to arrive at the coach stop in School Street, Newcastle at 1610 instead of 1642. The PMT café was reached just four minutes later at 1614. We were there for 31 minutes leaving again at 1645.

Sunday 31 October 1971 - Yelloway Plaxton Panorama Elite bodied AEC Reliance TDK 687J back home at Rochdale after two days and 579 miles. We covered the journey in less time shaving off about 40 minutes each way. Derek poses on the unloading stand before running the coach round the block to be fuelled. The coach took 53 gallons of diesel which gave an impressive return of 10.9 miles per gallon. The closing mileage of the coach tonight was 40809. (If you like statistics that is about 150 days old averaging 272 miles per day!). At the time there was not very much motorway south of Cheltenham. The recently opened Cullompton by-pass was in use which in due course was to become part of the M5 linking the Midlands and the South West.

The timetable for the main route of Yelloway 'Devonian' service for the summer of 1971 which may be used to accompany the Traffic Sheets illustrated in the Yelloway Administrative Forms album. This service would later be assigned service number X5. The footnotes marked with an asterisk and a dagger may appear to be 'gobbledygook' seemingly stating the obvious if one reads the actual timetable columns ('available to passengers returning from ...... to ...... and points north thereof'). What the footnotes were actually meant to convey was the fact that these were conditions attached to the road service licence. The trips in question should only be used by passengers that had initially travelled south on their outward journey and were now making their return journey. (i.e. someone making their outward journey could not travel on the said journeys. However, they sometimes did just that!)

Every weekend throughout the summer months many extra duplicate coaches were required to cover the very popular 'Devonian' service. Hired operators would receive an instruction note with 'On hire to Yelloway' labels for display on the coach and ticket envelopes to hold the tickets collected from passengers. (This was a foolscap form, unfortunately the heading does not appear here nor a blank space at the footer). The reverse of the sheet showed the route taken from the Road Service Licence.

Charting, that is to say the recording and control of bookings, at Yelloway was most important. The system was most thorough and second to none in the industry - even though the road staff sometimes thought otherwise! Each service departure carried the 'Charts' and a Traffic Sheet. (This particular sheet measured 389mm by 229mm (or as it was in those days 15 and 3/8 inches by 9 inches) and since a sheet that size is too big for my scanner I have had to upload it in two separate halves). That illustrated is for the Torquay day south service on the last day of the through service of summer 1971 on Saturday 30 October. When agents booked tickets the confirmation copy was sent into the Yelloway Chart Room at Rochdale. Each service departure had an individual charting sheet numbered 1 to 44 on which all the relevant details of the booking were written (Ticket number, boarding point, intermediate connecting point, final destination point, initials of charting clerk (forming booking reference number) and booking agents name). As one sheet was filled additional sheets were added so that on a busy summer weekend departure there might be umpteen sheets just for one specific service departure where many duplicate coaches were required. The Chart Room staff prepared a full analysis of bookings for the each service departure. The analysis sheets featured numerous...... Continued on next item.......

Continued from previous item..... squares with the pick-up points along the top edge and the set down points down the side. Totals for every required point to point were written in the appropriate square. Every column and every line was totalled and balanced then a grand total for the service obtained - all done mentally without the aid of a calculator. The total figures were transferred to the Traffic Sheet which was attached to all the chart sheets. The total showing the number of passengers to be collected from each pick-up point and the total showing the number to be set down at each setting down point were completed on the sheet. At busy times a more detailed breakdown of the numbers of passengers going forward on the connecting services of Associated Motorways, Royal Blue and Devon General was shown. The 'Charts' were carried by the Leading Driver/Senior Leading Driver or, at busier times, the Road Steward or Inspector who was overseeing the operation of the service coach and its duplicates. I created this reproduction showing just the passengers that travelled south of Cheltenham, there were additional duplicates that terminated there. On the Torquay bound coach 45 passengers were carried on the 49 seat coach. Duplicates would be run as far south as required and would terminate wherever required. Gloucester passengers would often be carried on a vehicle terminating at Cheltenham to relieve the coach operating on the 'bottom half'. A couple of photographs showing the coach (TDK 687J) parked in Torquay after the run this day may be seen at: www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/33946975/in/album/690101 and www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/33946979/in/album/690101

Charting, that is to say the recording and control of bookings, at Yelloway was most important. The system was most thorough and second to none in the industry - even though the road staff sometimes thought otherwise! Each service departure carried the 'Charts' and a Traffic Sheet. (This particular sheet measured 389mm by 229mm (or as it was in those days 15 and 3/8 inches by 9 inches) and since a sheet that size is too big for my scanner I have had to upload it in two separate halves). That illustrated is for the Torquay day north service on the last day of the through service of summer 1971 on Sunday 31 October. When agents booked tickets the confirmation copy was sent into the Yelloway Chart Room at Rochdale. Each service departure had an individual charting sheet numbered 1 to 44 on which all the relevant details of the booking were written (Ticket number, boarding point, intermediate connecting point, final destination point, initials of charting clerk (forming booking reference number) and booking agents name). As one sheet was filled additional sheets were added so that on a busy summer weekend departure there might be umpteen sheets just for one specific service departure where many duplicate coaches were required. The Chart Room staff prepared a full analysis of bookings for the each service departure. The analysis sheets featured numerous...... Continued on next item.......

Continued from previous item..... squares with the pick-up points along the top edge and the set down points down the side. Totals for every required point to point were written in the appropriate square. Every column and every line was totalled and balanced then a grand total for the service obtained - all done mentally without the aid of a calculator. The total figures were transferred to the Traffic Sheet which was attached to all the chart sheets. The total showing the number of passengers to be collected from each pick-up point and the total showing the number to be set down at each setting down point were completed on the sheet. At busy times a more detailed breakdown of the numbers of passengers arriving on the connecting services of Associated Motorways, Royal Blue and Devon General was shown. The 'Charts' were carried by the Leading Driver/Senior Leading Driver or, at busier times, the Road Steward or Inspector who was overseeing the operation of the service coach and its duplicates. The actual numbers of passengers boarding/alighting and the times at the stops were recorded as the journey progressed. I created this reproduction showing just the passengers that travelled on the through coach south of Cheltenham, there were additional duplicates starting from Cheltenham. On the coach originating in Torquay there were 44 passengers on board when arriving at Cheltenham and 6 passengers were added there - it was a 49 seat coach! I suspect a child entitled to a seat unnecessarily sat with a parent giving us one extra passenger. Six photographs showing the coach (TDK 687J) starting out from Torquay and seen at different places on the journey up to Rochdale on the run this day may be seen beginning at: www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/33946981/in/album/690101