David Slater (Spoddendale)'s photos with the keyword: Northern General Transport

Saturday 18 June 2016 (1336) – Visitors to Beamish Open Air Museum are able to travel round the site on authentic early 1900s trams or replica old buses. The bus in this photograph represents a Northern General Daimler open-topper. In reality it has a Dodge chassis with Perkins engine and was created in 1988. It has recently been announced that the Museum is to construction a garage to house its buses which will be in the form of a period Northern General bus garage.

Saturday 18 June 2016 (1317) – Visitors to Beamish Open Air Museum are able to travel round the site on authentic early 1900s trams or replica old buses. The bus in this photograph represents a Northern General Daimler open-topper. In reality it has a Dodge chassis with Perkins engine and was created in 1988. It has recently been announced that the Museum is to construct a garage to house its buses which will be in the form of a period Northern General bus garage. Note the name on the garage display in the background, ‘T Cowie Ltd’, a name that became involved with bus operation in later years.

Extract from the 'ABC Coach and Bus Guide' Winter 1969/1970 showing the Tyne-Tees-Mersey 'Limited Stop' Pool services. The pool operators were Lancashire United Transport, Northern General Transport, United Automobile Services, West Yorkshire Road Car Company and Yorkshire Woollen District.

Extract from the 'ABC Coach Guide' Summer 1951 showing the Tyne-Tees-Mersey 'Limited Stop' Pool services. The pool operators were Lancashire United Transport, Northern General Transport, United Automobile Services, West Yorkshire Road Car Company and Yorkshire Woollen District.

Extract from the 'Roadway Motor Coach Timetable' 1932 - Page 118 is the second of seven pages of timetables under the heading of the North Western Road Car Company which contains the southbound timetable for the 'Tyne-Tees-Mersey' 'Limited Stop' Pool services at the time worked jointly with Lancashire United Transport, Northern General Transport, West Yorkshire Road Car Company and Yorkshire Woollen District. The timetable also includes the Hull service which was jointly operated with East Yorkshire Motor Services. United Automobile Services joined the pool later.

Extract from the 'Roadway Motor Coach Timetable' 1932 - Page 116 shows the timetables between London and Southend operated by New Carrimore Motor Service and New Empress City Saloons. Page 117 is the first of seven pages of timetables under the heading of the North Western Road Car Company which contains the northbound timetable for the 'Tyne-Tees-Mersey' 'Limited Stop' Pool services at the time worked jointly with Lancashire United Transport, Northern General Transport, West Yorkshire Road Car Company and Yorkshire Woollen District. The timetable also includes the Hull service which was jointly operated with East Yorkshire Motor Services. United Automobile Services joined the pool later.

The 'Ten Cities Express' operated between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Coventry licenced to a number of big company operators most of which became part of the National Bus Company. The service had its origins with the Fawdon Bus Company which started the service in 1928. In 1933 Fawdon was acquired by the West Yorkshire Road Car Company on behalf of the ‘Limited Stop’ and ‘Yorkshire Services’ pools and following the acquisition revenue north of Leeds was shared by Northern General Transport, North Western Road Car, West Yorkshire Road Car and Yorkshire Woollen District. South of Leeds it was shared by East Yorkshire Motor Services, West Yorkshire Road Car Company, Yorkshire Traction Company and Yorkshire Woollen District. Due to there being so many different companies involved, the road service licence for the service was held in the name of the Fawdon Omnibus Company registered at the offices of Northern General in Bensham. Since no vehicles were owned by Fawdon a hiring permit was granted by the Traffic Commissioners with Northern General Transport, West Yorkshire Road Car and Yorkshire Woollen District being the prominent operators. The Fawdon Company was wound up in 1962 and the different pool members then held separate licences (which then included East Midland Motor Services, Lancashire United Transport and United Automobile Services). It was at this time the service became marketed as the ‘Ten Cities Express’. The feeder services shown in this timetable to/from Halifax and Huddersfield were actually timings covered by the Blackpool-Barnsley service J7 (later 217) of the 'Yorkshire-Blackpool' pool operators.

Monday 17 July 1972 - For my return journey from Leeds to Manchester I could have travelled on the North Western Road Car coach operating as a duplicate to Northern General 2631 (FCN 631F), the service coach on the 0900 Tyne-Tees-Mersey service X98. However, I wanted to travel on the service coach itself. The station inspector was aghast that I would choose this coach as opposed to a fairly fresh duplicate which had hardly any passengers on board. The NGT coach had travelled down from Newcastle on what was quite a hot day and was quite 'sweaty' featuring various aromas of food, fruit and the rest! There was just one empty seat, the centre one at the rear - but this ride was the main purpose of the trip! As it transpired the ride was to be fairly short lived because a problem developed after about 20 minutes and the driver took us in to a Yorkshire Woollen District garage (Dewsbury I think) where we all had to transfer to the YWD service bus seen alongside in this photo.

It was always a bone of contention with Primrose Coaches that the Traffic Commissioners would not grant them their own winter service on the Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Blackpool route and, as a result, during the winter months Primrose had to work jointly with their summertime competitors Ribble Motor Services Limited and the Northern General Transport Company Limited. Ribble and Northern became part of the National Bus Company and the Newcastle to Blackpool service came under the umbrella of National Travel. Publicity for the joint winter service had usually been handled by Northern General. When the NBC corporate style was introduced the Primrose name gained less visual prominence and appeared to imply Primrose was also part of NBC. This rankled Primrose to the degree that they began to produce their own leaflet which included a statement that 'Primrose Coaches are not part of the National Bus Company'. The front of the leaflet very boldly made the same point. The next two photographs shows the National version of the leaflet and the smaller typeface used for the Primrose name on the cover.

It was always a bone of contention with Primrose Coaches that the Traffic Commissioners would not grant them their own winter service on the Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Blackpool route and, as a result, during the winter months Primrose had to work jointly with their summertime competitors Ribble Motor Services Limited and the Northern General Transport Company Limited. Ribble and Northern became part of the National Bus Company and the Newcastle to Blackpool service came under the umbrella of National Travel. Publicity for the joint winter service had usually been handled by Northern General. When the NBC corporate style was introduced the Primrose name gained less visual prominence and appeared to imply Primrose was also part of NBC. This rankled Primrose to the degree that they began to produce their own separate leaflet.

It was always a bone of contention with Primrose Coaches that the Traffic Commissioners would not grant them their own winter service on the Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Blackpool route and, as a result, during the winter months Primrose had to work jointly with their summertime competitors Ribble Motor Services Limited and the Northern General Transport Company Limited. Ribble and Northern became part of the National Bus Company and the Newcastle to Blackpool service came under the umbrella of National Travel. Publicity for the joint winter service had usually been handled by Northern General. When the NBC corporate style was introduced the Primrose name gained less visual prominence and appeared to imply Primrose was also part of NBC. This rankled Primrose to the degree that they began to produce their own separate leaflet.

I have included this leaflet so that a comparison may be made between the Tyneside-Blackpool/Southport services of National (Ribble and Northern General) with those of Primrose Coaches. This is their summer 1974 timetable which includes the range of feeder services from towns in Northumberland and County Durham which link to the main services.

I have included this leaflet so that a comparison may be made between the Tyneside-Blackpool/Southport services of National (Ribble and Northern General) with those of Primrose Coaches. This page shows the cover of the summer 1974 timetable leaflet whilst the reverse side (in the next photo) shows the actual timetables including feeder services from towns linking to the main services.

During the summer months Primrose Coaches operated its own independent service between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Blackpool. Ribble and Northern General operated their own joint service over the same route. Try as they might Primrose had wanted its own winter service for many years but the Traffic Commissioners would not grant this and so they had to work jointly with Ribble and Northern General during the winter months. This is the cover of the timetable leaflet covering the winter period 1971/1972. Ribble and Northern General were by now part of the National Bus Company and the 'double N' logo of NBC is featured on the cover. The winter service featured one journey each way per day unchanged for many years (as shown in the timetable for 1975 visible later in this album).

During the summer months Primrose Coaches operated its own independent service between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Blackpool. Ribble and Northern General operated their own joint service over the same route. Try as they might Primrose had wanted its own winter service for many years but the Traffic Commissioners would not grant this and so they had to work jointly with Ribble and Northern General during the winter months. This is the cover of the timetable leaflet covering the winter period 1970/1971. The winter service featured one journey each way per day unchanged for many years.

During the summer months Primrose Coaches operated its own independent service between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Blackpool. Ribble and Northern General operated their own joint service over the same route. Try as they might Primrose had wanted its own winter service for many years but the Traffic Commissioners would not grant this and so they had to work jointly with Ribble and Northern General during the winter months. This is the cover of the timetable leaflet covering the winter period 1970/1971. The winter service featured one journey each way per day unchanged for many years.

One Saturday evening in July 1973 Northern General Transport 114L (NCN 814L) appeared at Weir Street, Rochdale and was seen here on the fuel pumps. It had Torquay on the destination blind and I believe it had been used as a duplicate on the northbound Yelloway service and was then going to somehow run back to it’s native area of north-east of England. It was a Plaxton Panorama Elite bodied Bristol RELH6G just a couple or so months old new in May 1973.

A Saturday evening in July 1973 on the fuel pumps at the Yelloway garage in Rochdale. Left is Yelloway FDK 416D, an AEC Reliance with Plaxton Panorama body new in 1966. This was the coach involved in a bad accident on the A56 near Bowden in Cheshire when working a London bound express a few years previously. It was returned to Plaxtons for repair and came back to work a few months later. Note the destination blinds both read 'Yelloway'. It was customary to set them thus when a particular destination name wasn't available. A most unusual visitor on the right is Northern General 114L (NCN 814L), a Bristol RELH6G with Plaxton Panorama Elite bodywork in National coach livery just a couple or so months old. It shows Torquay on the destination blind but it was heading home to the north-east of England.