Abbey Park Road depot . . "running in", an evening shot at the end of the evening peak. The majority of the fleet 'ran in' to depot, wash, refuel, and park up for the night. I think the term, 'running in' was yet another hangover from the days of the trams. Fuelling up, going through the buswash, and parking up, were all done by the drivers themselves. A line of 4 Leyland PD3's here await their turn on the pumps with one of the Scania Vabis saloons that worked the two Outer Circle routes .

I've no idea why the Head Office were flying the Union Flag . . it must have been a red-letter day of some sort. It weren't flown all that often in those days. In the 1970's, most councils were already fearful of admitting to being English, let alone celebrating our history, and Leicester was no different. I can only think it must have been April 21st. They certainly wouldn't have flown it then on the 23rd.

The legend on the bottom of the nearside panels on LCT buses would have been a familiar sight to city bus passengers of those days. A bit like the Governor of the Bank of England, whose name appears on our banknotes, Mr L H Smith would not have been known personally by most of the inhabitants of Leicester, but thousands knew his name and title. They certainly knew who to write to when they wanted to complain, and his postbag must have leapt up by quite a jump when I joined the 'Department'. I was for ever filling in White Reports as a result of getting a 'black disc' on my key. That was usually a sign of having to go and see Alfie Moore, the DCI .. Deputy Chief Inspector and explain oneself. Just seeing the legal lettering from the side of a bus printed here may be enough to prompt memories of those days for some of you.

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3. The view straight through the fuel pumps and bus wash, into the darkness of the main garage. The offices on the immediate left were the Cash Office, where conductors and drivers paid in, and above that was the Training School for both drivers and conductors, wherin was obtained the finest PSV training in the land. An enlarged view shows the assorted variety of vehicles in the depot. In this view are a row of 5 PD3's at the back, a couple of Atlanteans, a couple of Scania saloons, and the PD2 training bus is just hiding in the foreground round the corner of the folding garaged doors. The date on the large stone plaque over the main garage entrance is 1933, and there is a similar door and impressive pediment just off camera to the right, dated 1931 I believe.

(All these images are expandable in Firefox if you use the Zoom command in the View Menu, and deselect 'Text Only' ... magic!)

4. An altogether unforgettable experience was to be towed back to the depot by one of these monsters .. an AEC Matador. This is the fine machine that they sent out to get us whenever we broke down and needed a tow. Which was reasonably often enough to be less of a novelty and more of a damned inconvenience. This tow-truck was, in effect, a very well equipped mobile workshop, and I recall that when they painted it up in the new fleet livery, the driver and his mate also had white overalls . . for a day or two, anyway. It was more like being recovered by an elite squad straight out of an RAF HQ somewhere.

5. The 'new' Operating Centre in Rutland Street, opened just after I joined in 1969 . . all the main city centre offices were here, Enquiries, Lost Property, Duty Office, Camera Control Centre, Cash Paying-In for crews, Staff Canteen, and on the top floor, the most wonderful Transport Club anyone could wish for, with bars, dance hall, stage, the lot. All fitted with disco lights, etc. All gone, sacrificed to market forces when the bus industry was effectively sold off to the highest bidders in 1986. Nearly 100 years of expertise, innovation and dedication, thrown to the wind on the altar of so-called private enterprise. I wonder what the people of Leicester think to their bus service now. About the same as the good burghers of Hull do, where I live now. Which is not a lot.

6. The Camera Control Room, situated in the heart of the Rutland Street Centre, on the ground floor just behind the main Duty Inspector's desk, was still called The Front Office in deference to Humberstone Gate days. When I left in 1973, there were eight cameras situated around the city centre, giving coverage of all the main streets that had loading barriers as well as views for several hundred yards up the main arterial roads that radiated from the Clock Tower. Thus views up Belgrave Gate, Humberstone Road, along Granby Street, and right up High Street to St Nicholas Circle, as well as right along Charles Street from one end to the other. Rutland Street, Belvoir Street, and right down Welford Road and The Newarke also had full coverage. Now I come to think of it, the only places I can recall that DIDN'T have coverage were St Margarets bus station (79), York Road (87), and Bowling Green Street (47 & 88). Even more cameras came into operation after I left. It was a marvellous, efficient and world-leading system, which helped to negate much of the worst of Leicester's traffic problems at that time.

7. The view from the cab . . of a PD3. Charles Street, on a wet day, not long after the overhead walkway was completed into the then newly-built Haymarket Centre. The bus in front, No75, is another PD3, and on the 88 Eyres Monsell barrier.

8. Training bus, 301, an elderly PD2 of 1951 vintage and the first in the LCT fleet to be 8-feet wide. Originally numbered 160, this bus was exhibited at the Festival of Britain Exhibition that same year. I spent a good deal of my driver training time on this bus, thrashing up and down Anstey Lane, along Gynsill Lane, and all over the Blackbird Road - Groby Road area. It weren't so busy then. 301 was also the bus I finally passed my test in.

9. N^o 168, a tin-fronted PD3/A, "dogging" me down Uppingham Road on its way back from East Park Road, and in the pouring rain, at about 40mph !. I was balanced, leaning against the pole, legs bent like springs, desperately trying not to fall off as I steadied the camera for this. We had to get a move on . . we were only allowed 24 minutes for the whole run around The Park, a service 33 via London Road, Evington Road, East Park Road and St Barnabas Road, then straight back to Humberstone Gate down Uppingham Road. A total of 24 bus stops, and 12 sets of traffic lights, in 24 mins, but it could be done . . first thing in a morning when there was no one about. These older PD3's were throaty beasts, and were usually quite pleasant to drive, if you got a lightly-steered one with a reasonable clutch. This one wasn't bad, but I recall 161 would break a strong man's heart, and 166 would do well over 50 mph .. it used to go like a rocket, and leave about as much smoke behind as well !!

10. Another tin-fronted PD3, we see the platform of 164 bus, taken here on the 33 barrier waiting to do an early-evening run around The Park. 164 is now in preservation somewhere. I didn't care for these buses as a conductor, despite everyone's fondness for them now. The conductor's lock-up, just seen here with the flap down in the open position, wasn't big enough to take a ticket box with its lid up. The bells were single push button, there were no heaters apart from the one in the cab, and not enough room under the stairs to store a pram lengthways. Which is probably why I lost one on Belgrave Road - Burley's Way roundabout one day .. it just slid out and went for a dance with the traffic. It lost a wheel when it hit the kerb, but the baby was okay . . :-)

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11. N^o 174, yet another PD3 with a tin-front, dating from 1962, and still only 10 years old when I drove her. Smart buses in their day, and one of the first on LCT to have illuminated advert panels, but the older they got, the heavier the steering and clutch became.

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12. They still had conventional, individual light bulbs inside the saloons, though . . hard on the eyes of a conductor. A full week on late turn in winter would ALL be done in the dark. And those single bell pushes ! And still no saloon heaters, though the driver had a durty great one he could grill his toes on !! There's room for 33 seated in this lower saloon, with 8 standing, and 41 upstairs, on these 74-seat leviathans; they seemed incredibly long after the 56-seat PD2's of the 1950's. Still with manual steering and a semi-synchromesh gearbox (crash, 1st and 2nd), a lethally heavy clutch, you knew about it when you had upwards of 80 adults on one of these to drag round St Matthew's Estate on a route 41. Only the AEC's were worse . . nightmares ! At least the AEC's had lighter clutches. I still have a left leg bigger than my right, and arms that reach my ankles.

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13. LCT's first overall advert bus . . N^o115, and also amongst the first dozen or so around the country. Painted up for the Leicester Permanent Building Society, we called it the "Flower Power Bus" . . it was that era. It was embarrasing to drive; heads turned, fellahs whistled and intending passengers failed to signal us to stop out of sheer astonishment. Other's stopped us anyway just for a better look. This was still the age when a real man wouldn't be seen dead in a pink shirt, and they gave us THIS to drive ! Click the picture to get full, glorious colour !
N^o115 was the newest Leyland Atlantean on the fleet, and is here driven by Driver Alan Driver, (yes, that was his name) past London Road Station, showing 55 General Hospital, presumably inbound from a 27 (South Knighton) or 28 (Clarendon Park).

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