Coventry Buses - past and present

That's the only copy I've seen, mcsporran - would the reg. be HP462?

I think it ends in 442 but the first two letters are hard to read. Although... it could be 462. I do think that the second letter is a P. Though are we sure that is the license number and not the service number? Could the first part be No with the o in superscript?

The number in the top right hand corner of the bus looks clearer, I am pretty sure it is HP442

Coventry Corporation Tramways were allocated the eight registration marks HP445 to HP452 in 1919, and this is mostly confirmed by the card index of registrations held by the History Centre. However 447 was a Maudslay goods lorry and the card for 449 hasn't survived. The corporation's first seven single deck buses were given fleet numbers 1 to 7. Here is HP449, the fleet number, below the coat of arms on the driver's door is again unclear.

I wondered if it was possible that it wasn't a Coventry Corporation bus. Above the side windows it looks like words across the top rather than windows. Could it possbly be a bus belonging to another town or even a private company bus? Is it possible to find out where the reg number 442 was issued to? Just a thought!!

20A-Manor House, Can I ask, do you know the year the first bus service ran by your shop in Hall Green?

Kaga. 29th June 1928, bus services to Walsgrave were extented to serve Alderman's Green.

20A-Manor House, Can you check that bus route for me, as the buses could not cross Tusses Bridge in the early days. I believe it may have ran to Lentons Lane in the early thirties. Thank you.

Sorry it's been awhile for my reply Kaga. From the newspapers June 1928: It does seem they were some of the first 'monobus' services:

20AManor House Thanks a lot. As I thought, they couldn't get over the little humped back bridge so they went to Lentons Lane and back, that was until 1936/7 when the new bridge was built. Neither could the first cars - amazing, three years before the war and no road to the north.

For anyone that knows Roger Bailey (Local Councillor & Blue Badge Tour Guide), you may well be interested to hear about a brilliant new book that he has produced, to tell all about his family and their life spent working on the buses! Roger has delved into his archive of old family photo's and transport related memorabilia and has now had it all featured in over 70 pages, so it's something that I'd highly recommend anyone seeing and it's very much like a Family Photo Album! Besides featuring information and photo's relating to the "BAILEY'S MOTOR BUS SERVICE" company in Stourport on Severn and also "MIDLAND RED" buses to, there are loads of "COVENTRY TRANSPORT" photo's featured in it, lots of which have both Roger's parents (Maurine and Jim) posing in front of their vehicle, which they both either drove, or were conducting on at the time? Even if you're not particularly interested in the buses themselves, the book is certainly still interesting to see and is well worth every penny (and more!) of the £7.00 it costs to buy it! Maurine Bailey sadly passed away earlier this year and will always be very much missed, but a lot of people will have no doubt seen and spoken to both Maurine and husband Jim during the Heritage Open Days event every year, as they were often to be found manning the platform of one of the vintage buses that would tour the city, taking people to all the different Heritage destinations? Both of these lovely people have always been great ambassadors for the City of Coventry and were always around to support anything that would help to promote and benefit Coventry, which is why I think it's such a lovely legacy to them, that Roger has done by producing this new book! Only "100" copies of it are available and a number of them have already been sold / reserved for people, so please don't miss out on it and grab it quickly while you can??? Unfortunately, Roger is unable to do postal delivery of it, but he has kindly offered to do any local deliveries of it himself, or failing that, is more than happy to meet up with anyone at a neutral place in town, so as to personally hand the book over (somewhere like Coventry Cathedral (by the entrance), or in Broadgate by the Lady Godiva statue etc, but anywhere like that really???)

One of my favourite photos of Coventry Transport's "WHITE LADY" (the 1951 Crossley), seen here passing "H. Samuels" & "Timothy Whites" in town!

CKV 1D, At that time, as a youth, I remember the bus because it was different. But why was it a one off and what happened to it?

The Coventry Evening Telegraph once described the Crossley "White Lady" (No.100) as being unlike any other bus in the fleet, as it had neither a gear lever or a gear pedal or clutch, as it changed gear automatically. Bus 100 remained to be the only Crossley in the fleet and was the second Coventry Transport double-decker painted in reversed colours, to identical style of Pre-War Daimler No.205, and created lots of interest during its time in service. 100 was licensed for service on 25th May 1951 and was a DD42/7T type, powered by a Crossley 8.5 litre engine. A 58 seater bus, weighing in at 7.17.2 tons, the same as bus no's 1-96 (the Daimler CVA6's). It worked on the Inner Circle 14 service a lot and passed the Harnall Lane Bus Garage, so that the engineers there could keep an eye on it! The bus was purchased for evaluation, as Crossley offered the automatic transmission as an alternative to the conventional type of clutch pedal, gear stick, operated crash gearbox and fluid flywheel preslector gearboxes. Manchester C.T. had sent down their automatic geared Crossley, 1217, GNE 247 as early as 1946, it was put to trial on the 6 route (Walsgrave service). The automatic gear system in the Crossley was known as the Brockhouse Turbo-transmitter, built by Brockhouse and Co Ltd. through its subsidiary Brockhouse Engineering Ltd of Southport. To move the bus forward, the driver depressed a heel pedal and pushed a small lever into forward position. He then pressed the accelerator pedal and the bus moved forward and as it gathers speed, the 'gear' then changes automatically. To put the bus into reverse, the lever is pushed backwards. But its unlikely Coventry will see any more buses fitted with this transmission (the Coventry Evening Telegraph reported), for although they are liked by drivers, to whom they are less tiring to operate than the buses with a manual gearbox (like the Guy Arabs), its fuel consumption does not compare favourably with other buses in service with Coventry Transport. And because of its poor fuel consumption, the bus was dispatched to AEC in Southall in the autumn of 1953 to have an AEC 7.7 litre engine and crashbox fitted in place of its Crossley and Brockouse units. Back on the 14 service, the bus (and its new crashbox) was well liked by some drivers and some even asked to drive the bus as part of the schedules. In September 1954, bus 100 (looking 'super' smart) had the starring role when it was driven though the wash bay to officially open the new Sandy Lane depot. Some might ask why CCT did not have AEC fit a fluid fly wheel preselector gearbox in the Crossley, as all postwar double-deckers had instead of a crashbox? That came finally 8 years later in 1961, when all the Guys with crashboxes including the Crossley were withdrawn on 1st September and the fleet became standardized on the Preselector gearbox. Its future looked bleak, but all the doubts were resolved three months later on 1st December when the White Lady reappeared for a new lease of life fitted with a fluid flywheel preselector gearbox, which was donated by withdrawn wartime Daimler 352. The Coventry Evening Telegraph were there too, as they published a picture of the bus driving out of Watery Lane Bus Works in Keresley, with a guy named Colin Holloway (who fitted the gearbox) at the wheel and Mr. Russell Bloom (the Overhaul Superintendent) looking on. Mr. George Hands, the Coventry Transport Chief Engineer told the Telegraph that: "When we carried out an inspection on her, we found she was in very good condition indeed and had another six years service ahead of her. We decided therefore to convert the conventional transmission to the new requirements and that has been carried out in our own Keresley workshops under the supervision of Mr. Bloom"! Missing though when it returned back to service, was the Crossley badge off the front of it, as it had been given away to a visiting enthusiast!!!! Sadly though, the White Lady is no more and it was withdrawn from service early in 1965 (due to a cracked chassis!) and was scrapped in Barnsley, South Yorkshire in May 1965! (Hope all this information is of help to you Matchle55?).

CKV 1D, That was very informative and more than I expected. Thank you