York Pullman Bus Company Ltd
1955
AEC Regent III 6812A 
Roe H33/27RD

Whilst researching this bus I noticed that York Pullman got there first double deck buses the year prior to this bus in 1954 they were 3 Regent IIIs. I have photos of two of them which I will upload one day. I also noticed that they only had 10 double deckers in there whole history until being swallowed up by Yorkshire Rider in 1990 the York Pullman name was sold to Kingston upon Hull City Transport I think for coach operations.

A full list of Regent III codes can be seen here.

My Auntie Ada (Wilson) used to be a clippie on York Pullman – I remember when they had the half hour stop over in Easingwold, she and the driver would turn up at our house for a cuppa and a bun. Can’t remember any of the drivers, this would be in the late 50s, early 60s maybe. Ada was married to my Uncle Ted. They lived off Lawrence Street between James St and Granville Terrace.

Sue Thorn

I have just been reading the above comments and yes I remember Ada and Ted and also George Tyler. I believe George had the nickname Eggie because he used to be a driver delivering eggs. My Dad, Gerry Rank worked for York Pullman from 1939 until his retirement in 1990. He was a mechanic/driver. I have ridden many miles on their buses and coaches. My Mum was also a clippie, Molly, until I was born in 1956

Liz Greene nee Rank

21/10/11 – 06:41

I remember these Regents from when I was stationed at Linton-on -Ouse during my National Service in 1956. They were always clean and tidy

Jim Hepburn

16/07/12 – 06:30

I think this must be the very last photo of Pullman’s garage in Navigation Road. It was an empty cavern the day before and flattened the day after. I had the quick thinking to take the camera along or I would have missed it.
They’re back out on service work again and concentrating of coaching which has noticeably increased.

Steve Oxbrow

16/07/12 – 16:21

The staff of the ‘New’ York Pullman Co did rescue the name letters from over the door. Now at the depot in Rufforth. Where the office (reopened) in Bootham tower. Now used for the same job by Transdev.

Steve Oxbrow

16/07/12 – 18:17

Oh how sad! I’m glad to have seen it but I almost wish I hadn’t if you know what I mean. I’ve so many lovely memories of this depot and the York Pullman company. Progress, I think It’s called!

Alan Hall

16/07/12 – 18:17

When was the photo taken, Steve?

Chris Hebbron

17/07/12 – 07:06

If it is any comfort, I looked on Google Earth and found that when the current image was taken, the walls from the temporary fence onwards were still in existence. The main building nearest the camera however has gone totally and is now a block of flats but then, they are quite attractive so at least the land went to good use. I fear that by now, all of the rest has gone the same way unless "saved" by the recession.

Richard Leaman

17/07/12 – 07:07

Am I correct in talking about the Regent that belonged to the late Tony Peart that it has a replacement top deck as I heard that it was badly damaged in a low bridge accident and had to return to Crossgates for rebuilding.

Philip Carlton

17/07/12 – 17:45

Philip There is a picture in the Geoff Lumb book about Roe showing the Regent prior to repair awaiting its turn at Crossgates.

Chris Hough

31/01/13 – 05:56

It was JDN 668 (Fleet No 64) that Tony Peart bought and took to many shows until he died and I believe now it is at a museum at Lincoln

Liz Greene nee Rank

01/02/13 – 06:03

Just to say that York Pullman 64 is indeed at the Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum and it is expected to be on show and give rides this Easter Sunday . A lovely bus !

Steve Milner

05/04/13 – 05:34

I was a driver for York Pullman from 1972 till 1985.
I remember very well driving the AEC double decker, fleet no 64, 65, 71, 72 plus two half cabs.
I also remember Gerry Rank and George Tyler plus Ada Connell and her husband Noel, there was so many employees at that time and back in 1972 getting drivers to stay was most difficult because of the low wages.
I found it was sad when the old directors decided to sell out and recall at the time it only took the new owners a couple of years to wreck a very good and long established bus company.

Brian Gallier

United Automobile Services
1959
Bristol MW6G
ECW DP39F

These dual purpose vehicles were purchased for the North East to London route it had coach seats and maybe a bit more leg room but apart from that it was still just a bus. I think when I took this photo in 1966 they had been moved on to shorter routes and replaced with something more suited for such a long distance. Dual purpose and coaches had a different livery in the United fleet as can be seen, it was actually a moss green and cream doesn’t show well on this photo better one coming soon.

It was Olive Green and Cream.These MW vehicles were used on the Newcastle to London services being replaced by RELH coaches.They were then used on other express services such as Newcastle to Scarborough, Newcastle to Lowestoft/Great Yarmouth and Newcastle to Edinburgh/Glasgow.Some of these MWs were then repainted into the red/cream dual purpose colours and some even went to the all red with cream waistband bus livery in their latter days being used then on local bus services.

Paul

The Olive green and cream United express livery was one of the most dignified and pleasing I’ve ever enjoyed seeing. When I worked for West Yorkshire RCC we had a running board connection in Harrogate on service 76 from Tadcaster to Skipton – "connection must be made with the United car for Liverpool due from Newcastle at 3.57pm." I can still remember with delight the sight of the beautiful ECW bodied Leyland Royal Tigers (United had nine of them) as they purred into the platform behind us – invariably spot on time.

Chris Youhill

Notts and Derby
1964
Bristol Lodekka FLF6G
ECW H38/32F

Yet another photo where I can not remember where I was when I took it same as the previous W Gash photo I presume, any clues anybody?
I do have quite a few photos of Nottingham City Transport yet to come so probable a club trip down that way. The photo doesn’t show it too well but bus is in a very dark green and cream.

Its Mount Street bus station in Nottingham. The buildings in the background are part of the old General Hospital. The bus livery is actually Dark Blue and Cream, the same as Midland General.

Patch

Thanks for that its nice to know where I have been. I am in two minds to change the shot to a black and white as it is very bad colour wise if that is supposed to be Blue, it was Ilford film should of stuck to Agfa perhaps.

Peter

My memory is probably faulty but I remember travelling on a light blue regal on Midland General’s E4 route and lighting in Crich village where I was to spend the weekend at the tramway museum.

I think that MG delighted us enthusiasts by the fact that it bucked corporate dictate from Tilling HQ by not having a Tilling red/green livery.

As I recall Midland General had a light blue livery.
It had two subsidiary companies Notts & Derby, including the trolley buses that came to Bradford, wore a dark blue livery whilst Mansfield and District wore non-tilling green. In due course al three fleets assumed NBC leaf green.

Don’t be too worried about the colour on the image. It is still a wonderfully evocative image

Charles

I think this very dark blue was a latter-day variation. The original was not actually "light" blue, but a very nice, almost royal blue. I think it was actually the same for both MGO and NDT. Have a look here //www.busslides.co.uk/search_bus_pictures_east_midlands.php (and scroll down) for a few examples.

Stephen Ford

Memory plays tricks doesn’t it, had I already said that?, but wasn’t the blue featured on the dual purpose vehicles (in reverse livery) a darker shade than the blue used on the service buses?
Nice photo by the way, very handsome vehicle

Andrew

Andrew, yes it certainly was – in fact it was so dark as to be almost, or perhaps actually, black – but only in the later years. The classic (bus) livery was, to my mind, "real blue". It was an honest to goodness full-bodied shade, and I judged all others (harshly!) by it, including the "washed out" blue that Cambus later used, and the ghastly fading "rail blue" that British Rail slopped all over everything in sight.

Stephen Ford

The blue used from pre war was Williamsons Azure Blue and Tilling cream. Earlier the vehicles carried a lighter blue relief. National bus days meant a change from the cream to white and more blue and so this looked a lot darker but all my investigation would suggest that this was indeed the same colour – it’s always a talking point at rallies between myself and other owners of ex MGO vehicles!
I have been involved with several preservation projects all being finished in this colour.
Hope this clears things up a bit.

Paul D Chambers

Used to use the old Notts & Derbys buses to Ilkeston and Cotmanhay 1969 & 70

Mickey Summers

02/05/12 – 17:19

I too can confirm that MGO and Notts & Derby Traction wore the same livery, at least post-war. I knew it was an Azure blue, was Williamsons Azure blue a reference to the one time general manager? Did he in fact choose the colours?
I have mixed feelings of Mount St bus station. The mix of MGO, NDT, Barton and Trent buses was exciting to me as a child, but I also suffered from travel sickness, so by the time we arrived there from Langley Mill I was feeling quite queasy.
Returning to the subject of the blue paint, I remember at one time my parents having a bathroom in MGO cream and a bedroom window in MGO blue. These things could happen when you lived near a bus depot.

Brian Yeomans

03/05/12 – 07:56

And when my mother and I moved from Surrey to Southsea, the house was almost battleship grey throughout, inside and out. It wasn’t long before a neighbour told us that the previous occupant worked in Portsmouth Dockyard and the guy was known in the street a Paintbrush Brill! When I got around to demolishing the ancient shed, it had been made from sailors’ packing cases, still bearing their names, ranks and numbers!

Chris Hebbron

03/05/12 – 09:02

I worked for the railway workshops in Derby, and certain senior managers were believed to have made a little freely with, shall we call them, "surplus materials" and "rail blue" colour schemes were not unknown. (Why anyone should have so little taste as to want their house painted that colour I do not know – now MGO blue, that’s a different matter!) Of one such manager I heard the comment that "It’s fortunate xxxx lives nowhere near the railway – If a train passed by and whistled the house would get up and follow it!"
As for Williamson, I seem to remember this was a fairly well-known industrial paint manufacturer.

Stephen Ford

03/05/12 – 14:09

I fear I may have mentioned this before but when we lived in Brislington, Bristol, our neighbour worked for Bristol Commercial Works and around 1957/8 brought home a "spare" 5 gallon drum of silver chassis paint which he then applied to the stonework of his house. It is still clearly visible to this day although I doubt the owners have quite worked out why their house has a fair amount of silvery flakes in the natural stone facings!

Richard Leaman

04/05/12 – 07:30

An NBC paint shop foreman once told me that all ‘leftovers’ of paint in tins used to be mixed together, this produced a sort of muddy plum colour which was used to paint under stairs, wheelarches, inside luggage boots etc. When the NBC issued it’s corporate identity diktat, it was ordered that a grey colour must be purchased and used for those areas (and indeed wheel centres) After that, all leftovers were thrown away. So much for the economies of a national organisation!

Chris Barker

04/05/12 – 14:41

No surprise there, Chris B!

Chris Hebbron

05/05/12 – 16:44

Williamsons are still in business from their Ripon Headquarters. They have supplied various colours of British Railways paint for projects underway at the Vintage Railway Carriages Trust Museum at Ingrow on the Worth Valley Railway. The quality of the paint is excellent – it is a pleasure to work with.

Ian Wild

05/05/12 – 16:46

You are right Stephen, T & R Williamson did, and still does, manufacture specialist paints and varnishes for the transport and industrial sectors. They are based up here in North Yorkshire, in the historic city of Ripon. Williamson’s were well known in the bus and railway world for their coach enamels and varnishes, which had a reputation for quality and durability. They have since kept pace with the modern demand for two-pack paint applications and the like, and the firm is well over two hundred years old. The original Williamson’s building greets visitors and travellers as they approach the city from the south on the A61.

Brendan Smith

08/02/13 – 06:15

Hi I remember this bus as I used to drive it from Riply to Nottingham Mount Street on routes b1 b2 c6 f1 f5 in fact it was a pain to drive very heavy steering but fond memory’s

Geoff Conway