County Motors
1963
Leyland Leopard PSU3/1R
Willowbrook B53F

Photo taken at the usual Huddersfield bus stop and this buses destination is Dewsbury. The Willowbrook body is very similar to the previous Marshall bodied buses that have been seen on this site or should I say it the other way round as this bus is older than the Marshall ones here and here.
From 1927 County motors were jointly owned by Yorkshire Woollen District, Yorkshire Traction and West Riding Automobile but in October 1968 they were absorbed into Yorkshire Traction and this bus was re-numbered 392 in there fleet.

Rotherham Corporation
1961
AEC Bridgemaster
Park Royal H43/27F

This photo was taken if I remember correctly at Doncaster bus station of a Rotherham Corporation AEC Bridgemaster it shows off well the very square and rather top heavy appearance of the Park Royal body. Although the Bridgemaster was badged as an AEC it was actually designed and developed at Crossley Motors in Stockport Cheshire. It had AEC running gear and a Park Royal body but it was first seen on the Crossley stand at the 1956 Earls Court show. All production models after the show were named AEC Park Royal Bridgemaster not a mention of Crossley anywhere.

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Just to confirm that the photo is taken in Doncaster at the old Waterdale bus station. The bus is operating on the 77 service which was the Doncaster to Sheffield route via Rotherham, this service was jointly operated by Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield Corporations.
The route was moved into the then new South Bus Station and Waterdale was made into a surface car park. South Bus Station has now itself closed in favour of the new Frenchgate Interchange (formerly the old North Bus Station)

Andrew

Photograph by ‘unknown’ if you took this photo please go to the copyright page.

West Yorkshire Road Car Company
1949
Bristol L5G
ECW DP31R

This Sunday a very different coach than you have been used to, West Yorkshire coaches were painted in cream & red rather than red & cream as the photo shows. This photo was taken before West Yorkshire  brought in there rather complicated fleet numbering system as there are no letters just numbers in this case 250, which seemed a good enough system for 90 odd percent of other operators, can not imagine why it wasn’t good enough for West Yorkshire.
Anyway in April 1954 this bus was renumbered from 250 to EG2 but then in January 1959 it was renumbered again to SG 152 obviously normal fleet numbering really would of been a better idea.
This bus was withdrawn from West Yorkshire in June 1961 and moved to Wales first with Turner of Cardiff until 1963 then to Bennet of Swansea then the trail goes cold. Unless you know, if you do, let me know, please leave a comment.

A full list of Bristol codes can be seen here.

A full list of West Yorkshire codes can be seen here.

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I think there were operational reasons for the 1954 re-numbering system. For example, in York City, all the Gardner engines were 5LW, which were, to say the least, slow. (Extremely reliable, of course, but no fireballs!). There was therefore a policy of allocating the Gardner 7.0 litre five cylinder engined vehicles (YDG’s) to certain routes, and the Bristol 8.1 litre six cylinder engined vehicles (YDB’s) to others.
The regulators who allocated the vehicles every morning would thus know immediately which vehicles to allocate to which routes, fleet numbers just on their own would have required the regulators to have a prior knowledge of the fleet make- up. In practice, all regulators would quickly have become familiar with the fleet make-up, of course, but new guys on the job, or staff who did the job only occasionally, would have found the new system easier.
Similarly, allocating vehicles to some country routes with narrow roads was easier if you knew immediately the bus width, (e.g. DB or SB – 7ft 6in wide rather than DBW or SBW – 8 ft wide), without having to remember.

Roy Burke