Big Bus Mileage by a
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Herefordshire "Independent" Fleet DROBABLY the best' known of the / independent bus .operators in Herefordshire, Messrs. Yeomans Motor Services, of Canon Pyon, provide by means of daily, twice and thrice-weekly bus services valuable links between many of the villages and towns in the county. For over 10 years the firm have employed A.E.C. single-deckers on their principal routes, most of which involve ear, and often sustained, climbing. The oldest of these A.E,.C.s is still at work after running over 500,000 miles.
Having first operated goods vehicles for conveying locally brewed cider into Merionethshire, Radnorshire and South Wales, Mr. H. H. Yeoman, founder at the firm, entered the passenger-carrying field by inaugurating a twice-weekly market-day service from Canon Pyon to Hereford and a once-weekly service to Leominster. He followed these by another market-day service from Dilwyn to Leominster, and by 1928 had established weekly services in Kington, 'Knighton and Weobley districts.
From 1930, after the firm had purchased their first A.D.C. single-decker, A.E.C.s began to appear in the growing fleet. By 1934 six machines of this type were' in operation: by 1936 a further three had been put on the road.. The .first direct-injection, oil-engined Regal was acquired in 1939, and this was followed soon after by another.
All these A.E.C.s have given good service under exacting .conditions, Almost w'thout exception they have been travelling over 50,000 miles yearly and the first of the two oilers has, for some time, maintained an average annual mileage of over 70,000. The first Regal bus, now fitted with its third engine, is still running after 550,000 miles, two machines purchased in 19) and 1931 have each a round 500,000 miles to their credit, and two more dating from 1934 and 1935 have both achieved 250,000 miles without having had their engines out.
In the immediate pre-war days the buses of Yeomans Motor Services were maintaining 36 services, a number of them being operated daily. Among the most important were those connecting Hereford with Bush:Bank, Leominster, Weobley, Kington and Llandrindod Wells; and Kington and Holme Marsh, Eardisley and New Radnor, In all 13 services, such as those between Leominster and Kington, Leominsteriand Knighton (via Ludlow), and Hereford and Dilwyn, still remained weekly runs. Since the war there has been, of riecessity, a considerable reorganization of services. Some have been reduced, others increased, and in some cases entirely new services have had to be
instituted. Increased traffic in certain areas has called for more accommoda,tion, and in 1940 the firm began to operate double-deckers for the first time ; among those acquired have been two second-hand A,E.C.s, one a Regent and the other a Q-type 60-seater.
Yeomans Motor Services are now erecting a new gam ge‘which, during the war, will materially assist the maintenance staff, and afterwards will enable a maintenance and overhaul system , based upon mileage to be put into operation.