Coventry Buses - past and present

Maudslay?

Yes, Maudslay Regent III

An accident on the Stoney Stanton Road here back in 1958, when a Bell Green bound Corporation bus collided with a Ford Consul in heavy rain, at the junction of Broad Street, resulting in the bus swerving across the road and into a shop window! The driver of the car had to be cut free from the wreckage and taken to hospital and was stated as being seriously ill? The driver and conductor of the bus both suffered arm injuries and were taken to the nearby Cov & Warwick Hospital to be checked over, but were both discharged soon afterwards! The bus itself (a 1951 Maudslay Regent III) was repaired and eventually put back on the road, but unfortunately I can't say the same for the Ford Consul!

Hi CKV 1D, hi all A life long Coventry driver Mr Ford, had an unblemished record except for when driving these JKV vehicles. He told me that he went into the back of a bread van coming out of the Pool Meadow. He said that he had to stand on the break pedal to stop them even a soft stop. He had two other mishaps as well, all in JKVs so was he the driver in this event?

Phil, An article in the Coventry Evening Telegraph dated August 1958 says the driver was a Mr Lloyd (it gives the full name). It was an empty bus being taken for a service. He had 10 weeks training before getting his PSV license and had never driven anything heavier than a motorcycle before. The driver of the car was a Mr Lee.

Thank you ever so much Philip for your post here above about the Maudslays, as it's very much appreciated!!! I'm quite shocked to hear how bad their brakes appeared to have been on them and am really shocked at how much of a jinx they appear to have been, whenever your driver friend (Mr Ford) was ever out in one? Such a fine looking vehicle as well, that sadly were all scrapped a very long time ago now! Regarding the Stoney Stanton Road accident and the collision with a Ford Consul and the veering off afterwards into a shop (at 691 Stoney Stanton Road), the accident itself happened in May 1958, but it was in August 1958 when the driver of the bus ("William Lloyd", of Meadfoot Street) appeared in court, charged with dangerous driving and was fined seven pound ten shillings and also ordered to pay four pounds in costs! Although he'd only ever ridden a motorbike before becoming a bus driver, he had already done 4 months of training with "COVENTRY TRANSPORT" before the accident and so he'd done approximately 50 hours of driving buses up to when the accident happened! (he hadn't just jumped off his motorbike into the cab of a bus and straight away crashed into a car and shop, I must just point out!!! lol). The bus conductor, who was also slightly injured, was "Henry Deegan", who lived in Hurst Road.

The "Baginton Oak" pub also once had its car park used as a bus terminus!

Thank you so much for your reply. Sadly Mr Ford died many years ago, he was living with his son & daughter in law in Ash Green, having always lived in Earlsdon. I often went to see him for him to reflect on stories.

Am so sorry to hear that Mr Ford has now passed away Philip, as guys like him are the sort of person that I could easily sit and listen to talking for hours on end! He must have had so many stories to tell and it's such a shame really that we'll never get to hear them now. Someone once said to me, that when an elderly person passes away, it's basically like having a library burn down and in a way that's very true, as so much knowledge and interesting information is then lost forever!!!!! (It's bad enough when you have a load of old photo's with people on them, but you just don't know who they are and the people who would be able to name them all, have now gone and passed away). Be good if you'd have had a Dictaphone with you Philip (lol) when you used to go and speak to Mr Ford, as his stories from his bus driving days would have been fantastic to listen to today!!!!!!!!

Hi CKV 1D, hi all Do you remember an inspector Graham ......... a very trim guy? Interested in railways too. I was playing at Turners Musical Merry-go-round near Northampton, when he brought a party to the venue, must have been the early nineties. The bus crews that I bumped into yesterday didn't remember him, he may have retired to Worcestershire way.

I haven't seen him for about 4 years now, but I do know Graham and remember the time when he was a Coventry bus inspector, as I used to see him around Pool Meadow in the late 1980's and early 1990's! A great guy he is, although I'm not 100% sure whether he still lives in Coventry or not these days??? Someone did say that he'd moved down to Gloucestershire, but then someone else said he's still in Cov, so I just don't know which one to believe??? lol. He loves his model railways too and I've got a publicity photo from a "WMPTE" Staff Newspaper, which shows Graham and another inspector both in uniform, but seen sitting down somewhere looking at some model trains! I've got a couple of photo's of Graham out on the road in his earlier bus driving days and I've attached one of him here, seen leaving Pool Meadow back in the early 1970's!

Hi CKV 1D, You are magic. Yes, that's him. Brill, brill & brill!

September 9 sees tours of heritage landmarks in the centre using either an ex-Coventry Transport double decker or a vintage open top bus. Tours last around 40 minutes and start/finish at Millenium Place - first one 10.00, last dep 15.00.

A view here of the 1963 "Coventry Transport" Daimler CVG6, which is currently on display in the "Ticket to ride" exhibition down at the "Coventry Transport Museum"! When I look at this lovely old Daimler, I can't help but to notice that above its front n/s top deck window, you'll see that the roof dome panel directly above it is slightly concaved and much to my annoyance, I unfortunately know just how this might have happened. From the mid-1990's up until around 2015, I was often the conductor on this bus whenever it went out on the road run for the "Festival of Motoring" (formerly "The Shakespeare Run") and I was on it to later on, during the Heritage Open Days weekend. On one occasion while out on the Shakespeare Run, we were travelling along the Brinklow Road (not far from the entrance to Coombe Abbey), when my driver at the time (who I'm certain had no respect for that bus, by the way that he often drove it) hit a thick overhanging tree branch so hard, that it broke off, bounced along the roof and fell down off the back into the road, resulting in an old coach that was following getting slightly damaged as well. As the branch came off the rear end of our roof, it landed on its end and bounced straight back up, causing it to then smash a light on the front of the coach. Fortunately, my driver back then doesn't drive this bus anymore, but there were a few other things he did at the time, that he certainly should never have done with such a beautiful old classic like this!!!! I personally still get a bit of a buzz whenever I see it, but even more so if ever I get to go inside it, as the distinctive smell of its original old seat moquette just evokes so many memories and especially so from when I occasionally travelled on them in service, when I was a kid back in the mid-1970's!

Low branches are a real problem with full height double deckers. Under the relevant section of the Road Traffic Act height above the road should be 5.2m v the 4.5m of 333CRW. I know to my cost this just is not enforced, the councils leaving it to high sided HGVs to clear a path.