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British Bus & Trolleybus Systems No 7 Lancashire United / SLT by Eric Ogden HC
British Bus & Trolleybus Systems No 7 Lancashire United/SLT by Eric Ogden
Hard Cover
96 pages
Copyright 1985
CONTENTS
Introduction5
1. Two false starts, 1906 and 19146
2. 1919, Third time lucky!9
3. 1925. The association with Leyland begins14
4. 1930. All change. Trams to trolleybuses17
5. The motor bus fleet transformed20
6. The wartime years24
7. Postwar - the busy 'fifties28
8. The underfloor revolution32
9. Farewell to SLT and the trolleybuses36
10. A decade of changes38
11. The writing is on the wall43
12. LUT becomes GMT47
Vehicle policy and pictorial section51
Tickets86
Personalities88
Buildings89
Fleet list90
Acknowledgements, bibliography and photocredits 96
Introduction
The story of Britain's one-time largest independent bus operator - Lancashire United - marked a new phase in transport publishing when the book first appeared in 1974. Ten years later Author Eric Ogden and Publisher John A. Senior felt the time was opportune to update the story, and to take advantage of the vast amount of material - and expertise -they had accumulated in that time. The original work has long been outof print; so also has Keith Stretch's work on the SLT trams and trolleybuses.
LUT buses and coaches, SLT trams and, later, trolleybuses, were operated under common management, sharing premises and facilities. The headquarters at Atherton housed the main offices, garage and repair facilities for the maintenance and overhaul of trams, trolleybuses, buses and coaches. A fleet of service vehicles was stationed there and, behind the office block, the cooling tower of the power station dominated the scene. Rail access was provided for delivery of fuel to the power station. Two further depots, at Hindley and Swinton, originally housed trams and both later provided garage and service facilities for trolleybuses, buses and coaches. An outstation depot was maintained in Liverpool for some years.
Lancashire United vehicles operated throughout the county on stage carriage operation, but express and excursion work took vehicles countrywide and undoubtedly this accounts for the great interest shown in the Company by enthusiasts from all over Britain. On 1st April 1981 Lancashire United Transport was wound up and integrated into the GMT fleet. Now, in 1985, with the standardisation of vehicles, little remainsto remind us of those halcyon days of red and cream buses and trolleybuses. No example of an SLT trolleybus survives, though happily a former SLT tram body is being lovingly restored in Manchester.
A selection of buses has been preserved, however, and examples are seen from time to time at rallies. Now, with the publication of this latest work, a new generation of enthusiasts who see these vehicles will be able to learn something of the attraction of that doyen of operators whose variety of vehicles was, to the uninitiated, bewildering. A fleet where - even in the 'fifties - batches often buses would form a normal order, but where those ten chassis could well carry the products of three different body builders. A fleet whose only real common denominators were almost total allegiance to Leyland throughout the 'thirties, and standardisation on the Gardner engine in virtually every non-Leyland chassis purchased post-war.
With the formation of the Passenger Transport Authorities, from 1969 onwards, Lancashire United found itself trapped between SELN EC - later GMT - and Merseyside PTE. Though a fierce spirit of independence remained it was not enough to allow survival and the Company, its vehicles, depots and staff passed ultimately to Greater Manchester Transport. This book serves to mark the achievements of a fine company with a proud record.
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