Copyright Ian Wild

Sheffield Corporation
1957
Leyland PD2/20
ECW H31/28R

Sheffield Joint Omnibus Committee took delivery of eight Leyland PD2/20 in 1957 of which five had Eastern Coachworks bodies and the remaining three were bodied by Roe.
The purchase of the three B fleet and two C fleet ECW bodied buses was made possible by the connection with the BTC through the part ownership of the Joint Committee fleets by British Railways.
These bodies were very similar to the those built around the same time on the final Bristol KSW chassis for Brighton Hove and District. They were certainly unique and the first bodies built on non Bristol chassis by ECW for a number of years.
1294 is seen on 31st March 1973 at the remote terminus at Wyming Brook which was an occasional extension of service 51 which normally terminated at Lodge Moor Hospital. The bus is about to reverse into the side road past the conductor who is nonchalantly leaning on what appears to be a rubbish bin watching me take the photograph. By this date the Joint Omnibus Committee was in the past and the bus is displaying Sheffield Transport fleet names but without the City Coat of Arms.
The front fleet number fits very snugly into the blank space originally provided for the Midland Red logo whilst the square front number plate seems to me to give the bus a ‘rabbits teeth’ appearance. I seem to recall that sister buses 1292 and 1293 had more conventional rectangular front number plates.
The bus was withdrawn later in 1973 thus having completed a creditable sixteen years in service.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Ian Wild

A full list of Titan codes can be seen here.

18/05/11 – 06:58

A very smart-looking vehicle in the round. Even when told that it has an ECW body, the BMMO front somehow fools you into not realising it!
The only other non-Bristols I can readily think of as having ECW bodies, were the private-hire AEC Regal IV’s delivered to London Transport in 1951. Their bodies were unique, looking like nothing ECW had produced either before or after! As a nationalised concern, LTE was always subject to its chassis being ECW-bodied, but ECW was never able to cope with the volume demanded of it – with just 15, the RFW’s were an exception.

Chris Hebbron

18/05/11 – 10:20

Yes, Chris – it seems strange to see a non-Bristol with an ECW body, but there were a surprising number of exceptions. LTE not only had the RFWs, but also the Guy Specials (GS). Apart from rebuilds, other examples were the Southdown and East Yorkshire PS1s, the Eastern National and Bristol Omnibus PD1As, the Lowestoft Regent IIs, the Red & White Albions, and the Middlesbrough PD1s and Guys. Yet another example of how fascinating the bus scene was in those days, and I’m sure others can add to the list.

Paul Haywood

18/05/11 – 10:22

This bus like its brethren ended up with Yorkshire Woollen when they had a severe vehicle shortage in the early seventies It joined the ex West Yorks Bristols and South Wales Bridgemasters already shown on this site. Some early Atlanteans also went north to Dewsbury from Sheffield YWD used the top destination box on both ex SWT and Sheffield vehicles to display a fleet name The ex York Bristols had only single aperture boxes and just showed a destination.

Chris Hough

18/05/11 – 10:46

As I keep telling people here in Surrey, half of Sheffield is countryside, a third even in the Peak District. This area was always in Sheffield – certainly post WW 2 and close to where some of my family lived – typical B Fleet country. I always liked the Bristol and Lincolnshire highbridge KSWs, so I had a soft spot for these handsome ECW PD2s. [The C Fleet pair had platform doors – apparently retrofitted at Queens Road.] Sheffield also had B and C Fleet ECW Leopard coaches.
If we’re talking pre 1965 and the Leyland induced freedom, there were at least two other example of non Bristol ECW bodies.
They were:
(i) the 1947(?) AEC Regent II (with bodies like the 7’6" Bristol K highbridge bodies – again see Lincolnshire) delivered to ECWs local authority at Lowestoft, resplendent in very un Tilling maroon and (ii) AEC Regal III for Lough Swilly in Northern Ireland with Bristol L style bodies.

David Oldfield

18/05/11 – 14:12

Are you sure this one went to YWD? They were the C Fleet buses in 1970, after the formation of NBC. STD lost the C Fleet routes and fleet but retained the B fleet buses and most of the routes.

David Oldfield

18/05/11 – 21:55

Sorry for the wrong information about these going to YWD it was the C fleet examples which went north

Chris Hough

18/05/11 – 21:57

As far as I am aware the B and C fleet vehicles never carried the Corporation crest.
1294 and 1296 were still in service in Sheffield in the summer of 1973.

Stephen Bloomfield

18/05/11 – 21:59

If I might hazard a guess (which may be wrong!) the previous non-Bristol deckers bodied by ECW prior to these were a batch of seven for Midland General in 1955. Six were re-bodies on Guy Arab II’s and the seventh was an AEC Regent III whose original Weymann body had been badly damaged in an accident. All were highbridge. I believe the AEC was the only Regent III ever to be bodied by ECW.
As an aside, it’s just possible that the MGO Guys and the Sheffield PD2’s could have met in Chesterfield, albeit working to different termini.

Chris Barker

19/05/11 – 06:38

The MGO Guys and ECW bodied PD2’s could have met at the same terminal in Chesterfield, Beetwell Street. Could have operated on service 99 and possibly one other.
Between 1951 and 1953 Western S.M.T rebodied Guy Arab II’s, Daimler CWA6’s, Albion Venturers and some Leyland PD1’S.

Stephen Bloomfield

19/05/11 – 09:38

C fleet 1153 was sent to Dewsbury in 1970 and lasted until 1972

Chris Hough

20/05/11 – 06:56

Sheffield Joint Omnibus Committee service 99 was a single deck route due to very low bridges at barrow hill.

Ken Wragg

22/05/11 – 08:37

With respect to the two ‘C’ fleet ECW PD2’s that were transferred to Yorkshire Woollen in 1970, an interesting point is that although they were transferred to YWD ‘on paper’ as of January 1st, 1970, due to a shortage of buses in Sheffield at the time, 3152/3 (YWB 152/3) were operated by STD from Greenland Road garage ‘on hire’ from the National Bus Company until the 1st of May that year, when they were finally sent up the road to Dewsbury!
Presumably the legal lettering on these buses would have been changed to reflect their new owner as of the beginning of the year. That being the case, I wonder then if they operated for those four months with ‘On Hire to STD’ posters displayed in the front nearside window? If so, this would have looked quite odd, considering they were in full Sheffield livery at the time!

Dave Careless

31/05/16 – 06:20

ECW bodies built until around 1950 were ordered prior to Transport Act 1947 provisions coming in, they prevented ECW building for anyone other than 100% state-owned operators, like (in Sheffield’s case) the British Railway’s board.
Not only did that stop (Bristol and) ECW supplying previously loyal customers on the home market but it also killed a promising export trade, in ECW’s case including AEC Regals for the Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway and Leyland Tigers for Isle of Man Road Transport.
One ECW body for London Transport mentioned was the fourth prototype Routemaster.
In 1965 Leyland Motor Corporation exchanged a 30% holding in Park Royal Vehicles and Charles H. Roe for a 25% interest in Bristol Commercial Vehicles and Eastern Coach Works, by the end of 1966 Bristol and ECW products were back on open sale.

Stephen Allcroft

Copyright Ian Wild

Potteries Motor Traction
1957
Leyland Titan PD2/20
Willowbrook L27/28R

This bus was new to Baxters of Hanley as their fleet number 11 in March 1957 and was acquired by PMT when they bought out the Baxter business in December 1958. It was somewhat different from the contemporary PMT purchased Leylands having a concealed radiator and rear entrance and by 1968 was one of only three double deckers in the fleet without platform doors. A similar but slightly older bus from the Baxter fleet became PMT L510 which was rebuilt with a MCW style top deck after an altercation with the notorious Glebe Street railway bridge adjacent to Stoke Station. L679 was allocated to Stoke Garage and is seen in Woodhouse Street outside its home depot on 10th October 1970. By this time it was normally only used for a morning and afternoon peak hour working on the Longton to Newcastle Estates group of services (numbers 98-103) where it was odd man out amongst the Atlanteans and Fleetlines. By the date of this photo was used in between peaks for driver training – note the slot for an L plate above the radiator grille. It became a permanent driver training vehicle in December 1972 and was withdrawn for disposal in 1976.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Ian Wild

A full list of Titan codes can be seen here.

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06/04/11 – 05:00

Would I be correct in thinking that these ex Baxters vehicles were the only PD2’s ever bodied by Willowbrook in this style? By 1957, Willowbrook had changed their design for deckers to the more rounded style, as on the Barton PS1 rebuilds and several deliveries to that design actually pre-date the vehicle shown. I believe the very last one to this ‘old’ design was a Daimler CVG6 supplied to Blue Bus Services in 1960.

Chris Barker

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08/04/11 – 05:00

Yes I did a bit of driver training in this vehicle but I must admit I liked my normal training bus better which was LEH 745 L337 NCME body.

Michael Crofts

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28/04/11 – 06:36

I passed my PSV test in 1968 on L337, I preferred my training turns on L466 (now preserved) as it had a sliding cab door which I was able to leave open. I remember struggling with hill starts on Penkhull New Road!!
The Chief Instructor / Examiner was George Clews but I don’t remember the names of the other two Instructors. Rather unusually the Driving School reported to the Chief Engineer rather than the Traffic Manager.

Ian Wild

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06/05/11 – 06:46

Hi ian, Yes my instructor was George Clews but my examiner was from the D.O.T he took me into a cul-de-sac by mistake and I had a devil of a job doing a shunt to turn around with 337. Yes those were the days on Penkhull bank….

Michael Crofts

   Copyright Ian Wild

Sheffield Corporation
1953
Leyland PD2/12
Weymann H32/26R

Sheffield operated a number of occasional services to small villages and hamlets to the north west of the City. Ewden Valley Village lay about a mile off the main Sheffield to Stocksbridge route 57 via a Sheffield Corporation Waterworks private road and was primarily home to workers at the adjacent reservoir. Service 164 was sparse but included this Saturday morning journey taken in February 1963 with a few villagers complete with shopping leaving Weymann bodied Leyland PD2/12 at the terminus in the snow. The bus which was allocated to Herries Road Garage was one of the 1953 B fleet batch of 26 such buses originally numbered 142-167 but renumbered later in 1963 with the addition of 2000 to their fleet numbers.

Photograph and Copy contributed by Ian Wild

24/02/11 – 08:10

Coincidence. Was just looking at 687 on the South Yorkshire site before I came here to find 158.
Ewden Valley is part of the beautiful Sheffield "Lake District" of reservoirs (and forestry) to the north of the city. Originally part of the West Riding, the area came into the city with the 1974 Local Government reorganisation.
Note the treacherous conditions with "raw" snow. At least the driver had a manual gearbox to help him cope. I drove part time for Reading Mainline in the ’90s and remember a happy Saturday morning in Reading when none of the side roads had been gritted. [I had never been skating before this…..]

David Oldfield

24/02/11 – 09:19

I worked in Sheffield during that winter. I can’t remember the buses ever stopping, but perhaps they did. I don’t think I missed a day’s work. This bus has- it seems- reversed into its terminus gritless. Presumably with a gentle bit of clutch work it will set off on that lock? Are today’s buses not gritless but gutless- these people wouldn’t have seen one for weeks? Despite the weight at the rear, does the transmission stop them getting a grip or are they just too long to control and the rear weight just makes them jack-knife?

Joe

24/02/11 – 10:11

Joe, I lived through some pretty harsh Sheffield winters in my childhood – notably 1962. Once the ploughs and gritters had been out, the buses emerged. The STD buses very rarely failed the burghers of Sheffield.
With a clutch there is far more control than any sort of automatic gives. This is one reason that all STD buses from 1951 to 1959 were manual. (The advent of "no-choice" on Atlanteans and Fleetlines put an end to this – and possibly the fact that the Atlantean killed off the last trams and was easier to convert tram drivers.)

David Oldfield

24/02/11 – 10:13

Joe – Many of us older drivers know that, in snow, you need grip, not power. The answer is to pull away and accelerate in a higher gear than usual, easy with a manual gearbox.
Also, modern buses have smaller wheels, I’m sure, so a smaller ‘footprint’ in the snow.
There may be other considerations, too, of which I can’t think offhand.

Chris Hebbron

24/02/11 – 21:33

What a handsome body was this penultimate Weymann style, before the advent of the "Orion". I believe that this style was heavier than the Orion, and that it continued after the 1954 Orion body and was known as "Aurora", availability continuing until the late 50s. In fact, Bournemouth`s MF2B trolleys owe much to this design. Not sure about my facts here, if anyone can clarify, but, as an enthusiast, I remember their gradual demise with some regret. They were, in my view, the most handsome of all bus bodies, and were a real "classic", their ancestry being traceable back to the first Weymann metal bodies of 1933. A truly evocative photograph!

John Whitaker

24/02/11 – 21:58

In reply to Joe, I am pretty sure that the bus as pictured had driven in to that position, it would reverse to the right of the photo before returning to the main A616 and the City down the private road which is to the left of the picture.
The nearest bus route to my home was on a pretty steep hill and I can remember in the snow drivers would go as slow as possible at the bus stop whilst the passengers jumped on the rear platform. Rarely did the buses miss in those days. My first two winters at work were 1962 and 1963. The first I was at Rotherham, the second on the edge of Sheffield City Centre, as well as two nights a week at night school. I cannot remember missing either work or night school during those winters due to the weather. I remember the single skin upper saloon domes with ice on the inside – no saloon heaters in those days!

Ian Wild

25/02/11 – 08:38

Rochdale received the Aurora on Regent Vs until 1959 (including the famous Gardners in about 1956) and Bournemouth was receiving the Sunbeams until 1962. The Bournemouths were the same design – except they had five short bays – just as the Rotherham CVG6s, contemporary to 158, had five short bays (and were also 7’6" wide).
The Orion is much maligned – often unfairly – but there is no doubt that this is a far better and more attractive design. Only the roof of the domes was single skinned on the Aurora. Around the front (and front side) windows was double skinned, as was the area around the rear emergency exit. All of this area was single skinned on the Orion.
As I’ve said before, the first upper deck heating on STD buses was the 1325-1349 Regent V/Roes of 1960.

David Oldfield

25/02/11 – 09:37

I can’t quite work it out on the photo, and it might be a trick of the eye with dirt/snow along the bottom, but does this body have the Weymann flair? If so, it would be quite late to have this feature.

Chris Hebbron

25/02/11 – 11:18

Yes, 158 had the Weymann flaired skirt. Also, PD2’s 668 to 687 of 1953 and 688-723 of 1954 had the flair. Straight ‘skirts’ were fitted to this body style for the Regent 3’s of 1954, nos. 178-199, 724-735 and 1154-55. Further deliveries thereafter were Orions.

John Darwent

28/02/11 – 06:59

This body design came out in 1952 or 1953. I have been aware for some time that Croft of Glasgow built similar-looking bodies, and have always assumed that they were Weymann-based – until I discovered that Croft were actually building them several years before Weymann! The one at this link must have looked incredibly modern in 1949.

Peter Williamson

02/03/11

Thanks for the Albion-Croft link, Peter W. The Croft body’s modern look is emphasized by the wonderfully thirties-looking Albion chassis–especially the radiator!

Ian Thompson

06/03/11 – 08:18

The Rochdale 1959 Regent V’s were probably the final incarnation of the Aurora design and what magnificent vehicles they were. When originally delivered in Rochdale’s majestic blue and cream streamlined livery they looked superb. The last four 319-322(TDK 319-322) had platform doors, believed to have been added to the spec so as not to be outdone by Bury Corporation whose Orion bodied PD3’s had this feature and operated on the joint routes 19 and 21T between the two towns. Compared to the Bury vehicles which I always found noisy and rough, the Rochdale Regent V’s with their semi-automatic gearboxes, were much more refined.
One of these vehicles was preserved at Sheffield Bus Museum. Is it still there? One of the 1956 Gardners is in the collection at Boyle Street, Manchester.

Philip Halstead

06/03/11 – 09:09

Yes, it’s still at Rotherham. [The museum moved!]

David Oldfield

07/03/11 – 09:27

I remember the Rochdale Regent Vs (and the preceding Daimlers with basically similar bodies) very well as I used to use the 17 service in Manchester regularly. What impressed me even more than the features Philip mentions was the interiors. They were fairly basic really, with leatherette seats and painted metal window cappings, but who would have thought that two shades of blue, together with a strangely translucent white on the ceiling, could be so restful? With those colours, the smoothness of the drive train and the soporific crooning of the transmission, a 12-minute journey on one of those was almost enough to induce an altered state of consciousness!

Peter Williamson

12/03/11 – 08:00

I agree with Peter, the Rochdale interiors were plain but very clean and fresh feeling. As a child I was a bit susceptible to travel sickness and somehow the Rochdale interiors seemed to calm my problem. It is surprising how interior features stick in ones mind from those childhood days. Manchester’s ‘standard’ bodies were very dark and oppressive inside with dark moquette seats and dark varnished woodwork. In the days of almost universal adult smoking the moquette seating seemed to soak up the stale tobacco fumes even in the lower saloon. We used to travel into Manchester from Rochdale on the 24/90 service, jointly worked by Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale corporations and I would always hope our bus would be a Rochdale vehicle.
The Oldham buses had some distinctive internal features I well remember. Hanging leather straps in the lower saloon with handles similar to horse-riding stirrups. A row of domestic style Bakelite light switches with porcelain fuse holders on the front lower saloon bulkhead above the driver’s cab window. The words ‘Oldham Corporation’ were emblazoned across the front bulkhead in gold lettering – civic pride still existed in those days! And finally the ‘Honesty Box’ on the rear platform. Did anybody ever put anything into it, I wonder? I also remember the Oldham Roe bodies were a bit short on bell pushes in the upper saloon and conductors would give the starting signal from the front with a couple of heavy stamps of the foot on the floor above the cab!
We seem to concentrate our interest in the exteriors of buses but not much is written or photographed about the insides.

Philip Halstead

13/03/11 – 08:05

Philip, I fully agree regarding bus interiors. That was the environment in which you travelled, and it was often very distinctive – location and style of bell pushes (or cords or strips), pattern of light fittings (before the arrival of standard fluorescent strip lights), seats and upholstery – even smells. Perhaps there are a few more interior shots out there to add another dimension?

Stephen Ford

04/06/18 – 07:03

This is a few years after Stephen’s comment which I’ve only just read, but with regard to ‘smells’, I used to love getting a green West Riding tin-front Guy from Sheffield to Ecclesfield back in the 1950’s. Unlike the STD buses, they were cleaned with a pleasant, perfumed disinfectant which I can still ‘smell’ to this day.
At that time, I think both West Riding and Yorkshire Traction buses carried posters on the windows stating ‘Cut the fuel tax. We don’t like it, you don’t like it, it must GO!’. Anyone else remember that ?

Mike C