David Slater (Spoddendale)'s photos with the keyword: NWRCC

November 1971 - Lancashire United Transport 315 (RTF 848G), a Plaxton Panorama Elite bodied Leyland Leopard, emerges from Clegg Street bus station in Oldham when working a Liverpool bound service of the Tyne-Tees-Mersey Limited Stop Pool service. It was new in May 1969. The property, owned by North Western Road Car Company, also served as the company's Oldham garage.

Monday 17 July 1972 - (approx 1300) - Seen from the former cafe window overlooking the bus station. Going clockwise the vehicles are: North Western Leyland Leopard/Duple Commander (Westbound duplicate service X98); West Yorkshire Bristol RE/Eastern Coachworks (Service 43 to York and possibly Scarborough); West Yorkshire Bristol RE/Eastern Coachworks (dual purpose model); Northern General Leyland Leopard/Marshall (dual purpose model); Northern General 2631 (FCN 631F) Leyland Leopard/Alexander Y type (0900 Newcastle-Liverpool X98 service coach); Northern General 2633 (FCN 633F) Leyland Leopard/Alexander Y type (0910 Newcastle-Coventry 'Ten Cities Express' service coach); then a cream topped Alexander Y type that I believe was a Hebble or Yorkshire Woollen District coach running as the 1320 Leeds-Liverpool service X97); then a pair of West Yorkshire Bristol MW/Eastern Coachworks coaches. Out of shot to the left was Lancashire United 216, the service coach working the 0950 Liverpool-Newcastle X98). The station inspector can be seen in the dark suit at the rear of the NGT Marshall bodied vehicle. Note the West Yorkshire crew walking across the station towards their assigned vehicle, the male driver in short beige dust jacket and the female conductor in the longer version coat - both have the red collar and the coat a red belt.

Saturday August 19 1972 - The cover of the Yelloway Lancashire-London services timetable extolled ‘Air conditioned reclining seat coach services’ although the definition of ‘air conditioned’ back then wasn’t what we know as air conditioning today. It was basically forced air ventilation. The Yelloway services competed with those of North Western (later to become National Travel and then National Express) which was without doubt the market leader on the routes. There were various reasons for this, the main one being that the Yelloway services used lesser known coach stations in Manchester and London (Kings Cross - where fewer connections to other destinations were available rather than Victoria used by all the big companies). Another was that the North Western services ran all year whereas those of Yelloway only ran in summer and at Christmas. The Yelloway coaches did have more luxurious seating and with such lightly loaded trips it was often quite possible to have a double seat to oneself in most cases on a Yelloway service. This shot, taken at Corley Service Area I seem to recall, shows Yelloway KDK 805F a Plaxton Panorama bodied AEC Reliance’s seen alongside one of North Western’s Alexander ‘Y’ type bodied Leyland Leopards which had recently been painted into the then new National white coach livery. The two vehicles were working almost parallel services. That of Yelloway was the 1600 hrs service from Rochdale (departing from Manchester (Central Station Forecourt) at 1700) and due in Kings Cross at 2125 with that of North Western being the 1715 service from Manchester (Lower Mosley Street) arriving at Victoria at 2145.

April 1972 - I don’t know the reason why North Western Road Car Co Ltd 915 (VDB 915) appeared in the ‘top shop’ of the Yelloway garage at Weir Street, Rochdale. North Western was a joint operator on the Blackpool services but their vehicles didn’t work on the X79 and X89 services through Rochdale as a rule. I suspect it was on a private hire job in the vicinity when some mechanical problem occurred. An Alexander bodied Leyland Leopard new in May 1962.