Coaching at Devonshire Road, Blackpool had always had two depots, Talbot Road for service vehicles, and Devonshire Road for coaching stock, and , prior to 1969, Standerwick and Scout services of all sorts.

We will concentrate on the happenings at Devonshire Road, as I remember them from 1966 to 1973.

It was very hard for newcomers to understand the system used by Ribble at Blackpool to denote which depot a driver should report to. A conductor would always sign on at Talbot Road, but a driver would need, initially, to look at the diagram.

A running sheet underlined meant a Dev Road start.

Usually, for a newcomer, this would mean a Leopard DP for use on service of many varieties, or another Leopard/Harrington for use on Manchester, Liverpool, or Salwick.

Or it might be a Trent vehicle for use on Manchester, and/or East Midlands service.

I first became acquainted with Devonshire Road as a depot clerk at Talbot Road, when we were required to visit there on a Thursday to pay wages in the stores. At this time, Scout were still a nominally independent company, wages paid by, who knows, as with Standerwick road staff.

I became better acquainted with events at Devonshire Road from July 1968, when I became attached to the Ribble staff at Blackpool.

In the height of summer, all things were possible. On Fridays, in particular, all types of vehicle would run in from all parts of the BET and Tilling empire. I can remember vehicles from United, Rhondda, West Yorkshire, North Western, Trent, Hebble at least, being pressed into service round the Fylde when sufficient Ribble vehicles were unavailable. Funnily, we never got a Standerwick or Scout machine.

It was strange that all operations involving Trent machines, on the X1/X2 services, were stick box jobs. the machines sent through by Trent at this time were always old wrecks from a variety of sub depots of Nottingham or Derby. Having just returned from a spell on NCT, I knew where all these depots were. The X2 seemed to produce a lot of Hucknall machines, while the X1 generated many Belper examples.

Ribble depot engineers, usually, didn't want to know about these foreigners, so we usually had to struggle on with a "demic", to either end of the route.

I remember one particular time, I had fallen, hurting my left knee on the Friday at Talbot Road, and was scheduled to run an early trip on 173 (Kirkham - Lytham via Moss Side) followed by the 0930 Nottingham as far as Manchester. I pleaded for 923 or 924, Devonshire Road allocations that were spare that day, but to no avail. No way are those Trent ******* getting their hands on a semi was the reply!

I have briefly, in my original musing, talked about the J7, Blackpool/Barnsley or Doncaster service.

The former, the morning departure from Blackpool, to Barnsley, was worked by a Yorkshire Traction crew, based in Blackpool. Quite when or why this arrangement was made I do not know. I think both Percy and Jack moved from Tracky territory to the Fylde, possibly in the Fifties. They always had Tuesdays off, when a Blackpool express diagram crew would operate the trip, with their machine. Similarly, in cases of holidays or sickness, Blackpool provided the crew. The financial accounting involved in this must have been interesting, to say the least. To digress slightly, the afternoon departure from the Coliseum, to Doncaster, was the return leg of a round trip worked by Donnie depot.

Ribble always provide an afternoon shunter,to assist wth refueling and parking, but only Ribble and associated companies machines. I presume we were not regarded as capable of moving the Standerwick machines.

After Summer 1968, Scout was split, its service work, and crews, transferred to Talbot Road, with their coaching colleagues joining Standerwick. This caused much chaos and heart-searching for the Scout conductors in particular, who now had to learn such routes as Knott End, Garstang and Manchester, as well as actually take fares!

1969 was the last year when new, express, coaches came to Devonshire Road. Next year, the short version of these Leopards arrived, but were not a success, and I seem to recall some being transferred to Standerwick.

The most frequent visitors staying at Devonshire Road were the West Yorkshire Bristols and the North Western AECs or Leopards, as well as the Yelloway 6 speed AECs, which operated the X79. I also remember an anomaly with the Yorkshire Pool schedules, which occasionally brought a Hebble 6 speed AEC to Blackpool, appearing at Burnley on the 2045 changeover.

Later Blackpool and Leeds crews ran right through, Leeds men being relieved at Talbot Road, whilst the Blackpool crew relieving them ran through to Fleetwood and back. This worked fine until!! -The summer Sunday change over was given to Talbot Road's crew(normal) diagram. Very few of us had ever seen, let alone driven a crash-box. The technique for Leylands was totally different from Bristols. So the normal drill was for all available crews to somehow loiter by the Fleetwood stand at 1247!!

I worked it once, with a ERG, I think I only made one bad change, first to second leaving Talbot Road. But others!!

It was established practice that a Blackpool driver, whether old hand or novice, would go anywhere. It was said that a book of route descriptions existed at Talbot Road. I never saw one. You would talk to an old hand, make copious notes, and get through. We had so many standby duties at the Coliseum, especially at weekends, that we could, and did, go anywhere in Lancashire, and beyond.

And that is probably the thing, nearly 40 years later, that I am still most proud of.