East Kent Road Car Company Ltd E-Book

Richard Wallace

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

East Kent Road Car Company Ltd - A Century of Service, 1916-2016, celebrates one hundred years of a bus operation that is still very much recognizable for its origins. Unlike so many proud names that have diasppeared in recent times, the old identity of East Kent Road Car Co Ltd is still carried as the legal lettering on the Stagecoach-owned buses operating in the area today. This book takes the reader on a journey through those one hundred years. It covers the initial developments of the 1920s and 30s, the challenges of World War II, the halcyon days of the 1950s and the descent into the economic struggles of the 1960s. Nationalization and an eventual move back into the private sector are also covered, finishing with a description of the innovative approach to new services developed by the local Stagecoach management today. With over two hundred illustrations, both black and white and colour, many previously unpublished, this book provides a wide-ranging historical and pictorial record of the buses, artefacts and operations of the East Kent Road Car Company. Fully illustrated with over 200 colour and black & white illustrations, many previously unpublished.

Leseprobe

RICHARD WALLACE

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2016 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2016

© Richard Wallace 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 101 7

Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible if it had not been for the M&D and East Kent Bus Club and its members recording aspects of East Kent operations since the 1950s. In particular, thanks are due to the club’s current editor, Nicholas King, who has provided invaluable assistance in checking and correcting drafts and adding important information unknown to the author. Without that input this would be very much a lesser work; any errors are, however, down to the author. Thanks are also due to Brian Weeden, Barry Ovenden, Geoff Dodson, John (Fred) Wilson, Phil Drake, David Harman, Mike Ansell and David Morgan, as well as many others who have provided assistance and historic documents, including the management of Stagecoach East Kent for permission to use archive material from the former company. Photographs are individually credited where known but apologies are made for any incorrect attributions or omissions; these are unintentional. Images of artefacts and unattributed photographs are credited to the appropriate owner or custodian of the collection, for example AUTHOR’S COLLECTION. Lastly, thanks are due to all the author’s former East Kent colleagues who made it so much fun and contributed to making it a really colourful bus company.

CONTENTS

Network Map (1966)

Introduction

PART ITHE FIRST THIRTY YEARS

CHAPTER 1COMPANY ORIGINS

CHAPTER 2TRAFFIC AND OPERATIONS – POST-FIRST WORLD WAR CONSOLIDATION

CHAPTER 3THE 1930s – TOWARDS A VIRTUAL EAST KENT MONOPOLY

CHAPTER 4EAST KENT IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR – THE ‘BUSMAN’S MALTA’

PART IITHE POST-WAR ERA OF BET’S EAST KENT

CHAPTER 5REBUILDING THE COMPANY

CHAPTER 6THE 1950s – FROM INDIAN SUMMER TOWARDS A WINTER OF ECONOMY

CHAPTER 7THE 1960s – THE ECONOMICS BITE

CHAPTER 8TOWARDS THE 1970s AND NATIONALIZATION

PART IIITHE NATIONALIZED YEARS

CHAPTER 9THE 1970s – NBC TAKES CONTROL

CHAPTER 10STAGE SERVICES OF THE 1970s

CHAPTER 11THE EARLY 1980s – A NEW DAWN?

PART IVDEREGULATION AND PRIVATIZATION

CHAPTER 12THE NEW ‘EAST KENT’

CHAPTER 13THE STAGECOACH ERA

PART VAN INSIDE VIEW – EMPLOYMENT AND TICKETING SYSTEMS

CHAPTER 14WORKING ON BET’S EAST KENT

CHAPTER 15BUS TICKETING SYSTEMS

PART VICONCLUSION – INTO THE NEXT 100 YEARS

Appendix – East Kent Service Number Scheme from 1937

Bibliography

Index

The East Kent route network circa 1966

INTRODUCTION

The year 2016 sees the centenary of the founding of the East Kent Road Car Company, which, in various incarnations – including nationalization in 1969, a brief return to a local identity as a privatized concern in the 1980s/90s and finally takeover in 1993 by one of the new dominant players in the UK bus industry, the Stagecoach group – has served the people of east Kent well throughout those 100 years. This book takes the reader through those years and whilst it does not pretend to provide an exhaustive record of every facet of East Kent’s operations, it is hoped that it gives a comprehensive account of the company’s history as well as providing a brief insight into what it was like to work for East Kent.

For the author, the East Kent story started at the Light Railway Station at Hythe, terminus of the busy 103/A services from Folkestone. As a small boy attending infant school in the 1950s, I made the daily trip with my mother, around the corner to the bus stop, with its two quaint Greenly-designed wood and brick gabled bus shelters serving the buses but built by the RHDR; then boarding a smart burgundy and cream bus for the short journey of four stops to the eastern end of Hythe. Such a brief journey would seem odd to many people today familiar with the car-borne school run, but this was a different era and East Kent never let its passengers down.

At the start the regular vehicles were CJG-registered Leyland lowbridge PD1s but in 1956–7 a seismic change occurred with the arrival of the MFN-registered Guy Arab IVs with a well-proportioned Park Royal body. Even better, they offered an extremely good view of the driver’s cab from the lower saloon – heaven-sent for a small boy of five years of age! The MFNs appeared to take over many of the 103/A services from then on but a move of schools brought these first East Kent journeys to an end until secondary school. Interest temporarily transferred to the sister Maidstone & District Company, coming into Hythe and Folkestone on the jointly worked service 10 from Maidstone. This was probably because of the rarity value and the fact that they were one of the early users of the futuristic rearengined Leyland Atlantean, while East Kent stuck doggedly to traditional double-deckers until the late 1960s, being one of the last concerns to continue to receive the AEC Regent V chassis.

However, interest in East Kent returned, and a later need to pursue gainful employment led to an approach to the Company and a temporary position as a traffic clerk at the head office in Station Road West, Canterbury. A permanent position followed, then in later years moving to work as a conductor at Folkestone and a driver/conductor at Thanet. Little did that small boy of over a decade beforehand realize that he would be working on many of the vehicles that captured his interest in the late 1950s and early 1960s. While a longer-term diversion into the rail industry followed, East Kent always occupied a special position in the author’s mind, not only through general interest but perhaps because the company was very much a social organization and friendships with old colleagues from the 1960s remain to this day. Even in retirement, East Kent is still there; the author is part-owner of an East Kent Regent V, PFN 874, which is rallied across Kent each year.

So while this work celebrates East Kent’s centenary by recounting the history of the company over that time, it also reflects the author’s experiences and personal recollections, with a focus on the pre-nationalization East Kent and particularly the post-war years. The more recent past is not forgotten though, and the success of the local Stagecoach management in developing an efficient network, meeting today’s needs and at frequencies we could only have dreamed of in the 1960s and 1970s, is also recorded here. Finally, we should not forget the many groups and individuals who keep the memory of the traditional East Kent alive, particularly those who have preserved former East Kent vehicles, allowing the distinctive red and cream livery to be a regular sight still throughout the county. Welcome aboard!

Richard Wallace MA FCILT

Kenilworth, Warwickshire

Hythe Light Railway Station, where the author first became acquainted with East Kent, is the location of AJG 26, one of the last of the Leyland TD5s from 1939 remaining in service until the early 1950s. The smartly uniformed driver is of note. MDEK CLUB – C. HILLMER

PART I

THE FIRST THIRTY YEARS

CHAPTER ONE

COMPANY ORIGINS

FORMATION OF EAST KENT ROAD CAR COMPANY

Although the formal inception of East Kent as a registered company operating bus services was in August 1916, its origins go back further – to when a young entrepreneur, Mr Sidney Garcke CBE, stayed with friends in Kingsdown, near Deal, in 1906. While he was one of the few in possession of a primitive motor car, his attention was drawn to the fact that the majority of residents had to either cycle or walk to access the town of Deal; the only other option was a horse brake (small carriage), which ran three or four times a day. Although the railway was already established, the closest station of Walmer was some miles distant and there was no direct connection to Canterbury apart from a circuitous route via either Minster or Dover.

As fate had it, Garcke was already engaged in transport services, working for the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company (BMMO), which was experimenting with early forms of petrol-driven buses as an alternative to the extensive, but limited in terms of range, tramway services in the Birmingham area. These Brush-built vehicles with Peter Brotherhood engines could not cope with the strenuous conditions of urban operation in Birmingham so a decision was taken to withdraw them. Garcke saw an opportunity for operation in the easier conditions of Deal, although whether he had considered their ability to cope with the hilly conditions surrounding the area is not recorded. He gained approval to use six of the cars on experimental services around Deal and they were re-equipped with new bodies – five as single-deck buses with bodies by Birch of London and the remaining one with a double-deck body by Brush of Loughborough, recorded as an ‘Olympia Show body’.

After earlier resistance by Deal town council to the issue of a licence, approval was gained, finally, for Deal & District Motor Services to commence operation and the vehicles were transferred from London to Deal, one driven by Garcke himself, although the time taken was excessive and arrival after dark resulted in a well-recorded prosecution for driving without lights. In April 1908 the services started, one between Kingsdown and Deal and the other, worked by the double-deck car, from Walmer to Deal. These are generally recognized as being the first regular, timetabled bus services in the United Kingdom.

Expansion followed and soon another service was run between Deal and St Margaret’s Bay, albeit only twice a day. Each route took one car, according to Garcke’s recollections in the East Kent Silver Jubilee brochure of 1941, with the other three needed as spares owing to poor reliability. Despite this, the venture was successful and by 1909 three more vehicles of Leyland manufacture were acquired, allowing the St Margaret’s service to extend to Dover and a new service to Sandwich –and later Canterbury – to be introduced. At first Deal & District was a subsidiary of the midlands-based BMMO operation, provider of the vehicles, but in 1910 the Deal undertaking passed to the British Automobile Development Company, which then became the British Automobile Traction Company (BAT) in 1912, which itself was part of the larger British Electric Traction Company (BET), which had tramway interests as well.

The first Deal & District cars were mostly Brush single-decker but one, 0 1283 pictured here, carried a double-decker body. Behind can just be distinguished one of the single-deck cars. EAST KENT OMNIBUS

Meanwhile, in other areas of east Kent, omnibus and local coach services of various degrees were developing, some of which had commenced well before Garcke’s enterprise, although perhaps not to the regularity introduced by the Deal concern. Records exist of services as early as 1899, while London & South Coast, Folkestone (later taken over by W.P. Allen) was reportedly operating by 1905. Wacher and Company, a coal merchant of Herne Bay, had taken over some early services there that may have been operated as early as 1905 or before; services in Margate were started by Walter French, whose company was eventually titled Margate, Canterbury and District Motor Services Ltd. French also had an interest in the neighbouring Maidstone and District (M&D) concern operating in west Kent; the well-renowned Thomas Tilling had established services in the Folkestone area by 1914, while back in Thanet George Griggs set up Ramsgate and District Motor Coaches Ltd.

Thus the scene was set for what eventually became ‘East Kent’. The advent of war in 1914 – with vehicles requisitioned, the consequent ban on supplies, the prospect of future competition and with three of the companies having a degree of common ownership in one way or another – led to negotiations to amalgamate the five concerns. Negotiations were complex and challenging but a successful conclusion was reached in 1916. The East Kent Road Car Co. Ltd was formally registered on 11 August 1916 with operations commencing on 1 September.

The constituent companies at the time of the formation of East Kent and their respective services (numbers based on East Kent numbering in 1937) were as shown in Table 1.

One of the reasons for lack of expansion in the populous areas of Thanet and Dover was the existence of tramways in those areas, which already served the densest traffic corridors of Ramsgate to Margate/Westbrook via Broadstairs at the former, and Harbour to River and Maxton at the latter. The Isle of Thanet Electric Supply Company (IoTES) also ended up operating a fairly extensive network of bus services in the local area before their takeover.

The war years were characterized by many demands on the emergent company; conductresses were employed to fill the gap created by many male employees either volunteering or being called up to fight, while the limitations on the availability of fuel saw some vehicles equipped with gas-filled bags on their roofs as an alternative means of engine propulsion. One oft-reported anecdote records that on one windy day, two cars operating the Dover–Folkestone route near Capel had their bags blown off and out to sea, never to be seen again! It is reported that in May 1918, 7,915 miles (12,997km) were operated by gas-equipped vehicles; this was probably less than 6 per cent of the normal monthly mileage but gave a saving of 1,584 gallons (7,201 litres) of petrol.

In terms of governance, Garcke became chairman, a role he was to undertake until 1946, remaining a director until his death in 1948, whilst the other directors joining him at the start were Messrs French, Grant, Griggs, Howley, Wacher, Wolsey and Wolsey Jnr, many names already recognizable from their interests in the aforementioned constituent companies. Alfred Baynton (awarded the OBE in 1945) became the company’s first secretary and was to have a long association with East Kent, becoming joint general manager in 1926 and sole general manager from 1942 until retirement in 1948. In 1966 the company’s Jubilee brochure records him as still attending company social functions at the ripe old age of eighty-four! While the first chief engineer was a Mr T. Clabburn, the key influence in engineering matters throughout these inaugural years was his successor, Major C. Murfitt OBE, who took over in 1919 and continued in the post until his resignation in 1942. In the intervening period he became joint general manager (with Alfred Baynton) in 1926. His positive direction in achieving a high degree of standardization on Leyland and Dennis chassis and the modern fleet that ensued should not be underestimated.

Table 1 East Kent Constituent Companies

Company

Routes

‘East Kent’ Service No. (1937 scheme)

Deal & District

Deal and Walmer/Kingsdown

Deal and Folkestone via Dover and St Margaret’s Bay

Deal and Eastry via Finglesham

Deal and Canterbury via Sandwich

Dover and Canterbury

Canterbury, Ashford and Hythe

79

80, 90

13A

13

15

1, 10

Ramsgate & District

Margate, Ramsgate and Canterbury

9, 52

Margate, Canterbury

& District

Margate and Ramsgate

Margate, Canterbury and Faversham

52

3, 8

Wacher & Co.

Herne Bay and Canterbury

Whitstable and Canterbury

6

4

Tilling

(Folkestone District)

Folkestone, Sandgate and Hythe

Folkestone and Cheriton

103

106

After one year, East Kent was recorded as having seventeen routes in operation, which, allowing for overlaps on some of those listed above, shows that the constraints of wartime had provided little opportunity for further development at this stage. The focus was on establishing the new company on a firm basis; one of the first actions was to set up their head office from 1917–18 in a property already owned and used as a depot by BAT in Station Road West, Canterbury, thus establishing East Kent at a location that became synonymous with their operations for more than sixty years. Nearby, a Central Works was established in Kirby’s Lane from 1920, taking over the functions previously located at Deal (No. 2 shed) between 1918 and 1920. Prior to this, work was often farmed out to Tilling-Stevens at Maidstone and other concerns in London. The Central Works also carried out body work, transferred from Deal, before the coachworks as well as a new depot were established at St Stephen’s in 1925–6.

EAST KENT’S LEGACY FLEET

The company inherited a mixed set of vehicles, as was to be expected. A total of seventy-two (excluding one not operated) came into stock. From Deal & District the Company acquired a varied set, totalling seventeen, of Daimler, Leyland, Burford, Straker-Squire and Brush chassis; the three Margate, Ramsgate and Wacher concerns likewise provided a mix of Sunbeam, Lacre, Daimler, Commer, Straker-Squire, Ensign, Karrier, Maltby and Albion chassis totalling twenty-seven whilst Folkestone District brought some degree of continuity with twenty-seven Tilling-Stevens TS3 petrol electrics plus a 24hp Tilling-Stevens. One of the Deal acquisitions, O 1284, had its origins with Garcke’s original enterprise. Information published in the company’s staff magazine, the East Kent Omnibus, in 1948, suggests a Thames chassis was also acquired but there is no evidence of this marque being acquired in the Maidstone & District and East Kent Bus Club’s (hereafter recorded as MDEK Club) Fleet History of 1978. All were single-decks with a mixture of bus, charabanc and coach bodies from various builders; again continuity came from the Folkestone concern, with most bodies built by Tilling.

Table 2 East Kent Vehicles at Inception (1916)

TypeChassisBodyRegistrationsTotalDate/NotesSingle-deck charabancTilling-StevensTilling 32-seatLC 419711916 Ex-Folkestone DistrictLeyland/Burford?FK 340/KT 601421912/15 Ex-Deal & DistrictLacre/Commer/Karrier? 26- or 27-seatD 8251/D 9578/KT 6930bb/7090/62951912bb/13/15/16 Ex-Wacher Herne BayStraker-Squire/Albion? 27- or 28-seatKT 7779/LF 316bb/9976/82/9051912/16 Ex-Ramsgate Motor CoachesSunbeam/Lacre? 10- or 27-seatBB 247/D 9412219?/13 Ex-Margate, Canterbury & Dist.Daimler?KT 875211916/NewTilling-Stevens?LP 9300/694/LR 800831916/NewSingle-deck coachLacre/Commer/Ensign? 26- to 32-seatFM 535/KT 3849bb/6149/352/458/LN 999361911/14/15 Ex-Margate, Canterbury & Dist.Single-deck busBrushBrushO 1284bb11906 Ex-Deal & DistrictLeyland/Straker-Squire?D 8827bb/KT 1557/KT 8013/11741913/14/16 Ex-Deal & DistrictDaimler/Straker-Squire? 28- to 31-seatKT 384bb/2503/4487/6857/722851913/15 Ex-Margate, Canterbury & Dist.Commer/Daimler28-seatKT 2152/680221914/15 Ex-Wacher, Herne BayTilling-Stevens TS3Tilling 32-seatLH 88xx/LH 9xxx/LP 8249-51261914 Ex-Folkestone DistrictStraker-Squire/Maltby/Daimler?KT 8166bb/8833/8934/899541916/NewSingle deck, type unknownBrush?O 12bb87/9/9031906 Ex-Deal & DistrictCommer?FH 9031? Ex-Wacher, Herne BayDaimler/Burford?AC 29/30/36/KT 7086/LH 8863/M7741/271913/15 Ex-Deal & DistrictEnsign?KT 614811915/chassis only Ex-Margate, Canterbury & Dist.Tilling-Stevens TS3?LC 509211916 (lorry body) Ex-Folkestone District

Source: MDEK Bus Club

Note: One ex-Wacher Daimler charabanc, KT 2153, was not operated and not recorded here although briefly taken into stock.

The Club’s records also list a mix of eight new vehicles arriving in 1916 after the take-over, variously coming from Daimler, Straker-Squire, Maltby and Tilling-Stevens. These vehicles are believed to be the fulfilment of earlier orders from the acquired companies and again were all single-deck. A number of vehicles owned by the acquired companies were probably not taken into stock or not fit for service even if they were. Reports, again from the Omnibus, suggest that in the second full month of operation, October 1916, a maximum of thirty-six vehicles were in service with a total mileage for the month of 86,626 (142,243km).

VEHICLE LIVERY

The livery carried by the company’s vehicles was a deep burgundy red, of various shades over the years but specially produced for East Kent, coupled with cream relief. The application changed over time but at the start, for single-decks (the whole fleet at this time) red covered the lower panels with cream above, being supplemented by black mudguards and lining out – yellow for coaches and black for buses. The lining was phased out from the mid-30s and the black mudguards reverted to red from 1948. To distinguish between coaches and buses, from around the mid-1930s the company introduced a predominantly red livery for the former with, depending on body design, a cream band below the windows and a cream flash above. Some vehicles had mulberry-red window surrounds, and later deliveries, probably from the Leyland TS8 coaches of 1937, introduced two shades of red applied to lower and upper panels respectively.

The company was quite forward-thinking in terms of paint application. Post-war anecdotes in the Omnibus record that East Kent had adopted a new synthetic paint process in 1921, at that time in its infancy. It is also recorded that prior to 1919 the company did not carry out its own painting; certainly an outside paint shop was recorded in use at Ringwould. The function was finally brought in-house, with both paint and body work being carried out at Deal until around 1920. In this period the company employed only seven personnel in the body repair shop. These comprised three body makers, two panel beaters, one blacksmith and one trimmer. Once a premises at Dane Road, Margate was acquired with the Sayer’s business in 1919, the paint and trimming shop was located there from 1920. At the time cars received twelve coats of paint and took three weeks to complete. By 1939, following the move to new premises at St. Stephen’s, Canterbury, which took place in 1925/6, a more efficient process had reduced this to four coats, which took only five days to complete, resulting in an annual output of 388 cars. ‘Cars’ was always the term used by East Kent for its vehicles, deriving from the ‘Road Car’ element of their title and is used in this book where appropriate.

One of the original acquisitions, AC 36 a Daimler of 1915 ex- Deal & District with a later East Kent charabanc body at Deal Pier with her crew, before South Street was brought into use for services. Note the conductor’s Bell Punch machine. The ‘ring numbers’ either side of the dash were to do with licensing; the two different numbers were needed due to services crossing two local authority areas. MDEK CLUB – JESS WILSON

An unidentified car, probably one of the Daimlers with Birch bodies, stands at St Peter’s Place, as evidenced by work on the new bus station, which opened in 1922. RICHARD ROSA COLLECTION

RENEWAL OF THE ORIGINAL FLEET

Upon cessation of hostilities, the company was at last able to purchase new vehicles; in 1919 thirty single-deckers arrived, comprising fourteen TS3s, twelve AEC/Daimler YCs, two Daimler Ys and two Thornycrofts. As far as is known, most were buses of 26- or 29-seat capacity, the most numerous being the Hora 26-seat bodies on the AECs with the rest being a mix of bodies by Tilling, Palmer and Birch.

The following year set the scene for the vehicle composition of the fleet in the 1920s with the arrival of thirty-nine Daimler Ys and one Daimler CD with Short, Palmer or Birch 29- or 30-seat bus bodies, although three Palmer 28-seat charabanc bodies were included in the order. Two TS3s also arrived, but one was the completion of the earlier 1919 order and the other is thought to be a re-registration of an earlier chassis already in stock. This demonstrated that the focus was on expanding bus services rather than the excursion business, although there was nothing to prevent buses being used on excursions, as well as the vehicles originally acquired, and many actually would have been used as such in the summer season.

FN 4334 was a Daimler Y of 1920. The basic nature of chassis construction with solid tyres is evident, although the multi-doored charabanc body looks in pristine condition. MDEK CLUB COLLECTION

Most of the initial acquisitions were disposed of by the early twenties, the AECs only lasting until 1921; and only a number of the ex-Folkestone TS3s and a few other isolated vehicles survived to the early thirties. At this stage East Kent was embarking on a process of re-bodying or body transfer and a number of existing chassis had bodies either transferred from other chassis or were equipped with new bodies, a number built by East Kent themselves. The bodybuilding activity of the company commenced in 1922 and continued until 1934, mostly concerning their own vehicles although some were built for other concerns. They were all single-deck buses and coaches, mostly low-capacity vehicles of fourteen or twenty seats on Morris and later Dennis Ace chassis, although some 32-seat charabancs on Daimler chassis were manufactured in the earlier years.

In this period the company also took on major engineering modifications, rebuilding a number of War Department Daimler chassis to normal-control pattern and one, uniquely, to a three-axle design. The other aspect of vehicle intake was the use, again of War Department chassis, of lorry-type vehicles, placing seats on them and earning them the epithet ‘lorribuses’. By 1927, the year when double-deck vehicles were first directly purchased, the fleet was largely of Tilling-Stevens or Daimler manufacture with the exception of vehicles acquired from absorbed operators, although from 1925 an increasing number of low-capacity 14-seat Morrises had been taken into stock complemented by some Gilford 20-seaters from Aldershot & District in 1930, as operations began to be extended out to more rural areas; some of these were used for new ‘one-man’ services in towns as well.

The company generally favoured local bodybuilders such as Shorts of Rochester or Beadles of Dartford, although a fair number of Brush bodies were purchased in this period as well. They were a mix of bus, coach and charabanc bodies with capacity generally between twenty-nine and thirty-eight seats, mostly with rear entrances except for the 14-seat Morrises, which had front-entrance bodies to facilitate driver-only operation, and the charabancs. With the exception of two Thornycroft open-tops acquired with the Sayer’s business in 1919, double-deck buses had not been taken into the formal operational stock up to this time; the only other one used had been that operated by the Deal & District Company at the start and this was not among the vehicles acquired by East Kent in 1916.

The Sayer’s buses were soon disposed of, within a year, and probably remained in the Margate area during this time. There is photographic evidence of other companies in the area using double-deckers, for example on the Canterbury–Herne Bay route, but it is not thought that any of these were acquired by East Kent. However, in 1927 the company purchased three ex-London General open-top 46-seat bodies, which were, by then, fitted to Daimler Y chassis; the bodies were possibly from ‘B’ type vehicles but, if so, much-modified. They were purchased as an experiment to assess the viability of introducing double-deckers to some routes; photographic evidence shows one employed on a Margate local service. As the rival IoTES concern also purchased open-toppers in 1928 and the Sayer’s business had operated the type much earlier, it may indicate that the authorities there were more kindly disposed to the use of this type of vehicle.

FN 5006 was a Daimler, also from 1920, but with a bus body – pictured here on a Margate local service. It has pneumatic tyres, a later addition. MDEK CLUB COLLECTION

All of East Kent’s experimental batch were withdrawn by 1933, by which time nearly fifty new conventional double-deckers had entered service. The initial ten purchases also had open-top bodies but thereafter covered-top lowbridge buses comprised the normal intake.

The Sayer’s and Isle of Thanet Motors (as distinct from IoTES) businesses were taken over in 1919 and 1925 respectively. These two scenes taken at Birchington Square, presumably prior to 1919, show Sayer’s KN 2873, a Thornycroft new in 1919 which probably accounts for its being retained by East Kent, one of the first double-deckers operated. On the right, Isle of Thanet’s D 9480 is a Straker-Squire charabanc of 1913, which was not operated. Note the competing horse-carriage, soon to be supplanted, while behind D 9480 is another competitor, one of the IoTES buses. RICHARD ROSA COLLECTION

CHAPTER TWO

TRAFFIC AND OPERATIONS – POST-FIRST WORLD WAR CONSOLIDATION

INITIAL OPERATIONS – COMPETITION AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES

After the First World War, the operations of the company were based around what were called stage carriage services (that is, bus services), a term dating from a legislative Act of 1832, and, of course, a good degree of private hire or local tours and excursions. Soon after the war, however, an additional business opportunity had emerged from an unexpected quarter. A rail strike in September 1919 saw large numbers of people stranded in the Kent coast resorts and East Kent stepped into the breach by providing special coaches to transport people to and from the coast. Having experimented with the concept by default, the company set about exploring options for limited-stop ‘express’ services to and from London and these commenced in 1921, albeit on a summer-only basis at first.

One operator acquired in 1927 was Wills of Folkestone. Car D 3913 was a Maltby charabanc from 1908, although it did not pass to East Kent, having probably already been withdrawn. RICHARD ROSA COLLECTION

Competition was rife in these early years, an issue foreseen when the initial five companies were merged into the East Kent operation in 1916. However, these competitors did not have the combined resources and sustainability that the ever-growing East Kent had. Competing operations were generally based around individual services or coach tours, running one or two vehicles acquired from war disposals and based around the peak of summer operations. Many could not survive and made approaches to East Kent during this period, resulting in their acquisition. This certainly helped East Kent, as it could not work sensibly in a situation such as that recorded on the Dover–Folkestone route at one time, when there were eighteen departures by a multitude of operators in a period of 20 minutes.