Independents Surmount Present Difficulties
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Activities of Three Private Companies Serving the Burton-on-Trent Area to the East and North By C. S. Dunbar, M.Inst.T. SERVING Burton-on-Trent front villages to the east are two independents who are coping with present-day difficulties more successfully than many small concerns, partly because they arc able to work in an area where agriculture and industry are mixed. At the end of the 1914-18 war the small towns and the villages between Burton an Ashby-de-la-Zouch relied for transport on a railway line via Ciresley, which had a loop taking in Swadlincote and Woodville. and a I0-mile long electric tramway belonging to the Midland Railway and operating under the title of the Burton and Ashby Light Railway.
The district formerly served by the light railway is populous and, in addition to mining and agriculture, there is a substantial trade in the manufacture of sanitary ware at Swadlincote and Gresley. In 1919, and after, many buses appeared in the neighbourhood.
The trams, handicapped by their single line and turnouts, soon began to lose money a.nd the service was abandoned in November, 1926. In more recent years passenger train services toSwadlincote and the surrounding places have also
ceased. •
Sold to B.M.M.O.
Mr. W. I. Lloyd, now the principal of Viking Motors, Ltd., and Victoria Motorways. Ltd., and his brother-in-law. Mr. G. V. Dennis. in 1921 started the Regent Bus Service, working from Gresley to Burton via Woodville and via Swadlincote. Mr. Lloyd left the company in 1926 and it was soon afterwards sold to the Birmingham • and Midland Motor Omnibus Co.. Ltd. The following year Mr. Lloyd started Viking Motors for coach work and later added haulage. He built up a fleet of 12 lorries, mostly carrying sanitary ware to London and returning with fruit.
In 1941, after selling the haulage section to Mr. W. G. Cooper, of Acresford, Mr. Lloyd bought Victoria Motorways, then operating a stage service between Netherseal and Burton, from c22 Mr. E. M. Sales. Both Viking and Victoria were busy during the war, and to help out with contract services (mainly to aerodromes) had at one time about 30 vehicles on hire from other operators.
The stage service of Messrs. Brooks Bros., from Linton to Swadlincote was bought in 1946, and almost immediately sold to B.M.M.O. as part of an arrangement whereby Mr. Lloyd was left with a clear field for through passengers on his two routes:— Burton-Measham via Castle Gresley, Overseal, Netherseal and Acresford; and Burton-Donisthorpe.
Parts of these routes are also covered by B.M.M.O. on four of their services, but Victoria have the road to themselves between Stanton and Castle Gresley and between Overseal and Measharn. Eleven journeys a day (Mondays to Fridays) are run by Victoria between Burton and Donisthorpe. 19 on Saturdays and nine on Sundays, whilst on the Measham route there are II Mondays to Fridays, 18 Saturdays and eight Sundays.
In addition, extras arc run for miners and for workers at the Ordnance factory and the Marley Tile Co., Ltd., at Branston. The service to the tile factory is via Swadlincote. Certain peak-hour journeys are authorized to start from Woodville Road, Overseal, some way off the regular route.
Four school services are provided in the Tutbury area, to the west of the company's stage routes. Last year a regular service was started to ChiIcote, a village south of Netherseal. but despite the initial public demand receipts were so poor that it was cancelled after three months.
Many of the roads over which the company work are liable to subsidence and there are some bad patches. A low railway bridge at Measbam precludes the use of double-deckers.
Victoria Motors have excursion and tour licences and can pick up anywhere on their stage routes, but most of Mr. Lloyd's activities in this category arc channelled through Viking, who have about 200 destinations on their excursion and tour licence. Week-end express services are run in the holiday periods to Blackpool, Bridlington, Scarborough. Yarmouth, and Torquay.
For journeys eastwards, there are picking-up points as far as Measham and Coalville. whilst for the Blackpool service Uttoxeter is the limit. The Torqua■ service starts from Derby, where a booking office is maintained, and differs from the others in being run overnight on Fridays.
The Viking fleet numbers 14 oilers, 10 being of A.E.C. make, two Daimler and two Leyland. Included in the A.E.C. vehicles are four Reliance with Willowbrook 41-seat bodies. Mr. Lloyd told me that these will do 15 m.p.g. on stage work and 18 m.p.g. on express service. The Victoria fleet numbers four Deimler and five A.E.C. Six vehicles are required fat the Monday to Friday services, seven for Saturdays, one is kept in reserve and one is usually in for maintenance or overhaul.
Mr. Lloyd's policy is to buy two new vehicles a year as replacements, and when doing so to buy machines which are good
enough for coaching but will not be out 3f place on stage work. When they are in the early years of their life Ally are used on the express services, when these are working, and put on hire to Victoria at other times so as to work the maximum mileage. The odd jobs involving only small mileage are covered by vehicles wholly or mainly written-off.
The fleet is well maintained by quite a small staff, consisting of two fitters; with an apprentice, a bodybuilder who is also a painter and four others who ()kali, fill up and do other routine tasks. Engineering work is done at High Street, Woodville, where Victoria own a large site formerly occupied by a brewery. The only drawback is that it is nearly two miles off the nearest point on the stage routes
Viking work from Union Street, Burton, where Mr. H. Atkins, the company's secretary and a director, is in charge. Mr. D. J. S. Leitch, another director, is usually at Woodville. Mr. Lloyd, senior, is also assisted by his son, Mr. J. E. Lloyd, in the management of the business.
North of Burton and connecting it with
Derby by two routes are the Blue Bus Services of Tailby and George, Ltd., which can also be traced back to the period immediately after the First World War, when Messrs. Dean and Allen started coach trips in the Willington district. In the early 1920s, Mr. Allen was replaced by Mr. P. J. Tailby and later Mr. C. George, who had joined the company in 1924, took the place of Mr. Dean.
The result has been BURTON
a flourishing business.
The old garage at Wiffington bee am e inadequate and in June. 1956, a move was made to newly built premises across the road.
Mr. George died in 1948. Mr. Tailby died after a short illness in October, 1957, and the business is now being rnn by Mrs George, who has been responsible for the office work for many years. She is fortunate in being able to rely on a loyal staff of 35, most of whom have long service with the company. Included in this figure is an engineering and cleaning staff of 12.
The fleet consists of nine 55-seaters. three 39-seaters, three 35-seaters and a 26-seater which is a 21-year-old Bedford retained mainly for sentimental reasons.. All the others are Daimlers, including four of the CD650 type: these are claimed
C040n
to have been the first public service vehicles in Britain to be fitted with powerassisted steering. Doors are now standard on the company's double-deckers.
On both services, an hourly headway is given with extras as necessary on the Repton route. The latter service is also stepped up to half-hourly on Saturday afternoons arid evenings. A parcels service is operated and is well patronized. Both this company and Victoria still use pre-printed Bell Punch tickets.
[Services to the east of Burton weredescribed in Tire Commercial Motor on February 15.1