Greater Manchester's Museum of Transport

North Western

North Western Road Car Company Limited

A Bee Line minibus in service ©D Stubbins

History

The company was formed on 23rd April 1923 with the Tilling and BAT companies each holding a 50% interest in the company. This took on the operations of the Peak Committee of the British Automobile Traction Company in Stockport, Macclesfield and Buxton. One of the first actions of the new company was to move the Head office from Macclesfield to Stockport where it remained for almost its entire life. Expansion was very swift in the early days with the company taking over a number of companies.

24th November 1924 - Mid Cheshire Motor Services with depots in Northwich and Flixton
30th September 1927 - Replaced the cable trams in Matlock
December 1925 - Altrincham and District with a depot in Altrincham
26th December 1927 - replaced the Trams in Glossop
During the same period the company started services in the Saddleworth area.

The period before the Second World War saw the company conclude joint working agreements with all of the municipal operators in Greater Manchester which caused many of its buses to run into the centre of Manchester. At the same time a network of express services were built up to the coast and London. The express services allowed North Western to use its buses on Stage Services during the week and on services to Blackpool and North Wales during the Summer Weekends.

The Railway companies were allowed to purchase bus companies following the 1931 Transport Act and the LMS railway took a 49% share of the company, but left the management and operations unchanged

By the start of the Second World War the company had purchased all the operators running stage services in its area and only 2 more companies were taken over in 1958 before the company was dismembered. By this time North Western had services in Biddulph. Buxton, Congleton. Macclesfield, Matlock, Urmston, Stockport and Oldham with express services to London, North Wales, Blackpool and Scarborough. The period between 1939 and 1970 mirrored the rest of the bus industry. The war years saw difficulties with high demand and shortages of labour, buses and materials, the 10 years after the war were very good with low car ownership few television sets. From the mid 1950's to the end of the company in 1972 there was a constant decline in patronage.

The end of North Western came on March 1972 when the operations in the Greater Manchester Area were sold to SELNEC together with Stockport, Glossop, Urmston and Oldham depots. Buxton and Matlock passed to Trent, whilst Macclesfield, Northwich and Biddulph passed to Crosville. The coach fleet was moved to Manchester Depot and remained as North Western for a further year until it became part of National Travel North West.

The vehicles operated by North Western were always different from those of the other operators in the area. Before the Second World War the company was managed by the Tilling organisation and in consequence most new buses between 1923 and 1931 were Tillings Stevens chassis. From 1935 Bristol Chassis dominated deliveries. A large fleet of JO5G and L5G single deckers was delivered supplemented by 63 K5G double deckers. The war prevented the last of the Tilling Stevens being withdrawn and some of these survived until 1946. The BAT organisation was split in 1942 and North Western fell under the control of British Electric Traction and management of the group passed to BET. The war brought an influx of Utility style double deckers, mainly Guy Arabs. Following the end of hostilities the company continued to buy Bristol L5G single deckers, but turned to Leyland for double deckers. The Nationisation of the Bristol company prevented the supply of L5G buses and the company turned to more typical BET types of buses such as Leyland Royal Tigers, Tiger Cubs and Leopard plus AEC Reliances. In the last 10 years from 1960 onwards the company continued to run different sorts of buses. A big fleet of Dennis Lolines were built up, followed by AEC Renowns and Daimler Fleetlines. On the Single deck front a batch of 10 Bedford VALs with Special contoured bodies came in 1964. As soon as BET sold out to the Government North Western took no time in taking deliveries of Bristol single deckers again.

On the coach front North Western usually purchased Leyland chassis and throughout the companies existence it took delivery of most of Leylands coach chassis. At the end it had built up a fleet of 65 Alexander Y type bodied Leyand Leopards for Motorway express work.

One activity that North Western was famous for was for putting new bodies on reconditioned chassis. The old bodies were often burnt at the back of Charles Street works. There were many examples of new bodies subsequently removed and placed on newer chassis. Two of the North Western buses in the museum collection do not have the body they had fitted when they were new. The body jacks used by Charles Street were donated to the Museum over 20 years ago

The livery was always red and cream, the amount of red varied over time. In later years coaches were painted cream with only a red band.