Recently I was looking at the 'Westlinks' (Associated Motorways) timetable for 1960 and recalled that this formed just part of a vast number of express services which had been built up over the years and became an important part of the Ribble operations, vastly expanded during the summer season, which also brought the excursions and extended tours onto the scene. I was fortunate to take a small (small) part in it all during that time.

Drivers, and in some cases, conductors from all three Merseyside depots were involved although most of the vehicles were housed at Aintree (AY). Liverpool depot had a small allocation to cover the rostered express services such as X61, X24; the latter being extended to Paignton in the summer season

During my time at Liverpool depot I was on the Keswick & Edinburgh roster, but that's another story. At AY, as mentioned in a previous instalment, 'promotion' to 'big wheel' work as it was called, was quite rapid, at any rate during summer weekends. Any driver, however new to the job, had a taste of it when he was given a cushy three-hour 'buck' (the term used for overtime on Merseyside) known as a "Warrington relief". Travel out to Warrington by a Crosville service, then relieve the X24 driver who had done a round trip to Cheltenham in the day and would have exceeded permitted hours if he had worked through to Liverpool. The relief driver thus had the opportunity to drive a Royal Tiger or Tiger Cub coach.

I well remember on one occasion when I waited at Warrington and when the X24 appeared it was a Midland Red service bus complete with their driver, so I travelled back as passenger as well - easy money! The Ribble coach had failed at Wellington.

When I worked a season with Crosville myself I had the pleasure of giving my former colleagues a ride on a Bristol K or Lodekka. Not once did I ever get the chance to drive one of their coaches!

Seniority as such did not apply to 'Extended Tours' work. Any driver with a reasonable period of service could apply, initially as a tour relief driver. They were then interviewed for suitability for this, the Company's prestige work.

The top fifteen drivers usually worked the excursions, then working down the ranks would be Westlinks routes southbound, followed by the Glasgow/Edinburgh duplicates then Keswick, Blackpool and probably the odd trip to Scarborough, though these would often be covered by hired-in vehicles, as would any other work on expresses due to shortage of available coaches. Long after I left the Company, I found myself doing Ribble 'hires' when part-time driving for Toppings Super Coaches of Liverpool. I worked a few Bristol 'overnights' using their Plaxton bodied Foden 2 stroke coach, a most unusual vehicle with rear engine and Crash gearbox, making gear changes rather difficult when you could hardly hear the engine revs.

Any driver on a 05:00 standby could find himself on an express duty when he only expected a local. One Saturday morning when I was still on the Second Schedule roster, one of the tour drivers failed to appear for his off-day allocation (he probably didn't bother, having returned the previous evening from a twelve day Scottish Highlands tour) so I was handed the green running sheet. It consisted of running empty to Cheltenham, then returning as a duplicate with the 9am Bristol to Blackpool service. Fortunately for me, the duty took a senior conductor, so I avoided getting lost. I had newly delivered Tiger Cub 973, and found myself having endless trouble with the two-speed axle, a contraption I had never seen before. It made me very wary of such things for some time to come. Of course the top fifteen had been given the chance to become familiar with them but it obviously never occurred to anybody that other drivers just might have to take one on service!

Actually my very first coach job shortly prior to the above experience happened one day when I had just completed an early turn on locals. The Duty Inspector asked me if I would return at 4pm to cover an excursion to Morecambe Illuminations. I agreed, of course, no way was I going to turn down a big wheel job. The coach allocated was 31-seater Duple half-cab, a type I had previously driven and found that the gearbox was much the same as the TD5s of which type we had several at that time.

1) Travel passenger on Friday night all the way to Torquay to relieve a driver there on Saturday - he had brought one of the night services down and would return north on the Saturday night service.
2) Drive Friday night service as far as Cheltenham, staying there overnight and returning Saturday.
3) Drive the Torquay service as far as Tewkesbury on Saturday morning then relieve the driver returning from Torquay that evening.
4) Drive an X25 to Bristol on Friday, staying there overnight and returning as a duplicate on Saturday on the Bristol to Blackpool service. You were supposed to be relieved at Liverpool, but invariably would be persuaded to carry on to Blackpool and return empty.

Some weekends you may be given a complete change and work a Glasgow, Edinburgh, or Scarborough, or maybe just a Blackpool or Morecambe.

Of course there were no motorways so it would be quite a battle to keep time in the heavy holiday traffic. I well remember it could take up to an hour to get from say Scotforth to Morecambe.

I had often wondered why the Scarboroughs were not very popular. However I soon found out when I did my first one, having to find and call at, nearly every bus station across Lancashire and Yorkshire! Sometimes there were passengers for both Filey and Bridlington too if you were unlucky. On arrival at Scarborough it was a quick snack and load up the stragglers hoping that there were none for intermediate points. One of our wise 'old hands' asked me how I fared. When I told him, he said, "Next time arrive there very late." I took his advice and by the time I reached there everything had been cleared and the inspector said "Run empty back to your own depot." You certainly live and learn!

Running empty to or from Exeter or Torquay (we seldom went to Paignton on duplicates) was not unusual at the beginning or end of the season, particularly Exeter where there were vast loads transferring from Cornwall arriving on Royal Blue, etc. The easiest and most remunerative of these was the Saturday morning 07:50 ex-Liverpool departure, travel as a sort of courier, dealing with vouchers, luggage, etc, then as driver from Tewkesbury (where the first driver was relieved) to Torquay and stay overnight. On Sunday morning you had no coach because the one you brought in had returned on the Saturday night service back to Liverpool. However you had the choice of a lift back to Cheltenham on Royal Blue, Black & White or Midland Red as they all had services to various destinations using Cheltenham. We usually travelled partway on each of them, changing over at Weston-Super-Mare perhaps, or Taunton, and if desired, giving each driver a short break and sampling driving something different! At Cheltenham you could pick up our own Ribble X24 back home at 4:30pm. Sometimes the Sunday was rest-day, about 14 hours at double time, more than half the week's pay without officially turning a wheel. I am sure that in the old Ribble days we were far better off with conditions then than are today's drivers.

If we worked hard in the summer with rarely a day off, so did the coaches. For example when the night services returned to depot at 8am on Sunday morning, they were met by fitter and cleaners (even the D.T.S. was usually there lending a hand), preparing them to work that day's excursions within an hour or two.
On a Saturday, although the service coach driver took charge of the convoy, (making sure all booked passengers were picked up correctly, as he carried the passenger chart) the mobile inspector, Dick Davies, would take the car to Cheltenham and then travel on some of the coaches in turn, much to the amazement of the passengers who were used to seeing inspectors on local routes, but not expecting to see one boarding an express in the middle of nowhere! I think he went over to the Oxford area later on to supervise the London services.

It was so interesting in those days to meet up with such a variety of coaches from all the big companies. Some could run rings round us too. I particularly remember always being overtaken by the Yelloway A.E.C. Reliances and the half-cab Albions of Red & White between Gloucester and Taunton. Looking back as a lifelong enthusiast, they were some of the most interesting years of my varied career, working with many great colleagues who I recall with pleasure, and who were always ready with advice and guidance to help the beginners.

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