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Joe Franklin
• Joseph Charles Franklin ("Joe" to his many friends) is happy in his work. There is no transport job he would swap for his present post of general manager of Blackpool Corporation Transport: he would never leave Blackpool by choice, and he firmly intends to retire there. With his Lancashire upbringing and an infectious sense of fun. Blackpool fits him like a glove. But it takes much more than bonhomie to become a general manager and the only manager serving simultaneously on the councils of the PRTA and the Municipal Passenger Transport Association, of which he is currently vice-president. Mr Franklin has the appetite for work of a man whose job is his hobby; he is a first-class chairman, and he commands both affection and respect from his fellows.
He is now in the unique situation of being the last vice-president of the MPTA, and pondering on his likely position in the new Association of Passenger Transport Operators which is due to succeed the present association if this month's MPTA conference agrees, Joe Franklin, who is 61, was born in Manchester and apprenticed to Crossley Motors in the days when the company was at Gorton, making ambulances and cars. He finished his five-year apprenticeship in the drawing office and stayed on as a draughtsman until 1934, when he joined Gardners at Patricroft as an engine draughtsman for three years. Then he entered the bus world—as Midland Red's works superintendent in charge of chassis production (the type SOS in those days). When production ceased in 1940 because of the War he became depot superintendent at Digbeth, Birmingham, and in 1945 became rolling stock engineer for Walsall Corporation. A year later as chief engineer of Salford City Transport he had his first real taste of trams, which may have helped him to get the cherished Blackpool job in 1954, though he spent three years as gm at Rochdale first.
Now he is responsible for more than 100 trams as well as 150 buses, and is also in operational charge of the central transport department with 100 cars, vans and trucks. His men also maintain 23 ambulances and 90 cleansing vehicles, though operational control of these is not Joe Franklin's.
With his wife often at his side Joe Franklin is a great mixer, active in transport, municipal and domestic social worlds; the life and soul of any party. He told me with a chuckle: "Let's say that I enjoy the struggle to live." B.C.