Shearings/Timeline Services

[CM]

Hello,

Can anyone remember the details of the bus services operated by Shearings/Timeline? Preferably post de-reg.

Google etc etc doesn't seem to have much info.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Hello,

Can anyone remember the details of the bus services operated by Shearings/Timeline? Preferably post de-reg.

Google etc etc doesn't seem to have much info.

Thanks in advance.

Can't recall individual services etc. They had depots at Altrincham, Bolton and Bryn in Greater Manchester - Bryn was vacated when Timeline was split off from Shearings and moved to Lowton. Think they then had a Timeline depot at Trafford Park that replaced Alty and Bolton?

They also had depots at Shifnal (ex Archway Coaches) and Tunbridge Wells (ex Eagle Coaches??) and Barnsley.

 

[philthetube]

I remember their tour drivers being really annoyed at having to do service work when no tours were available.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Also, the grey cells dragged up Jenkins of Skewen so had a look on flickr and yes, that was also part of the Shearings empire and ran some buses - in fact, the timetables are shown on this link https://www.flickr.com/photos/74746...pqv-aoBHcq-85WoLX-7vcVi4-4vW1U6-aewEXQ-qfotDP

 

[Baxenden Bank]

They ran the service between Derby and Manchester via Ashbourne, Leek, Macclesfield and Stockport. I think it was the 201 then the X1.

Buses were out-stationed at a service station on the outskirts of Leek. Sorry I don't know the location nor the dates of operation.

I do remember the route passed to some dodgy outfit and then to First then to Clowes. It is now very much truncated as Ashbourne to Leek and Leek to Macclesfield, both operated by Aimee's / Taxico.

 

[madannie77]

I wish my old notebooks and timetable collection were more easily accessible than they are at the moment, as I am sure I could fill in some details.

What I do recall is that around 1990 Shearings operated a route 111 from Kendray to Athersley North in Barnsley, and there was a 110 which served Worsborough Dale, although I can't remember whether it was a cross-town service in Barnsley

I also have a recollection of route 50 from Warrington to St Helens (and this might have been extended to Prescot at some point) and a route 127 from East Didsbury to Eccles via Manchester. I think the 127 was extended to Warrington as well, at some point.

All a bit annoyingly vague, but it seems like a long time ago.

 

[73001]

They definitely ran for a while from St Helens via Earlestown... not sure where that ended up but I was a revenue inspector for Merseytravel for a while and their high floor volvo buses made a change from the usual darts or nationals. I'll see if I can dig out my old info and see if there's any further details.

 

[Mitch in Notts]

They ran the service between Derby and Manchester via Ashbourne, Leek, Macclesfield and Stockport. I think it was the 201 then the X1.


I do remember the route passed to some dodgy outfit and then to First then to Clowes. It is now very much truncated as Ashbourne to Leek and Leek to Macclesfield, both operated by Aimee's / Taxico.

Shearings are shown as operating it at deregulation 26th October 1986, first arrival into Derby was at 1215pm! It was operated by Beresfords of Cheddleton at some point before that as I remember using it. Trent & Crossville still operating it in 1981.

 

[Ianno87]

They ran the service between Derby and Manchester via Ashbourne, Leek, Macclesfield and Stockport. I think it was the 201 then the X1.

Buses were out-stationed at a service station on the outskirts of Leek. Sorry I don't know the location nor the dates of operation.

I do remember the route passed to some dodgy outfit and then to First then to Clowes. It is now very much truncated as Ashbourne to Leek and Leek to Macclesfield, both operated by Aimee's / Taxico.

I always wondered about the genealogy of the X1 - that explains it. Seemed an odd First route - before its demise one bus of the two needed was supplied by First Manchester from Bury or Queens Rd depot.

In GM, I believe Timeline operated, amongst others, the 545 (Bolton-Harwood) and (I think) the 137/138 Bury-Manchester

 

[plcd1]

Looking on my Flickr collection I've got shots of a route 50 at Warrington heading to St Helens. Also a shot at Wigan Bus Station of a 606 service to Garswood. They're probably from around 1988 or so. Both vehicles are Leyland Tiger / Alexander (belfast) single deckers.

 

[Simon75]

I always wondered about the genealogy of the X1 - that explains it. Seemed an odd First route - before its demise one bus of the two needed was supplied by First Manchester from Bury or Queens Rd depot.

In GM, I believe Timeline operated, amongst others, the 545 (Bolton-Harwood) and (I think) the 137/138 Bury-Manchester

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rossendalian2013/29942956963/in/photostream
Timetable as 201

The X1 wa jointly run with the former First PMT Leek garage

 

[86247]

they used to do a 49 from prescot to huyton the 152 st Helens to rainford the Earlstown services I think ended up at Newton le willows station

 

[madannie77]

I wish my old notebooks and timetable collection were more easily accessible than they are at the moment, as I am sure I could fill in some details.

What I do recall is that around 1990 Shearings operated a route 111 from Kendray to Athersley North in Barnsley, and there was a 110 which served Worsborough Dale, although I can't remember whether it was a cross-town service in Barnsley

I also have a recollection of route 50 from Warrington to St Helens (and this might have been extended to Prescot at some point) and a route 127 from East Didsbury to Eccles via Manchester. I think the 127 was extended to Warrington as well, at some point.

All a bit annoyingly vague, but it seems like a long time ago.

Apologies for quoting myself, but I have found a couple of old timetables which tell me that I was right in remembering that Shearings route 50 ran between Warrington and Prescot in the early 1990s (every 30 minutes Mon-Sat daytimes) but by 1997 it was only Warrington to St Helens on an hourly frequency.

I also appear to have misremembered the 127: I can only find references for it running as far as Glazebrook, which meant it appeared in the Warrington area timetables (and possibly why I had it in mind that it ran to Warrington). In 1991 it ran hourly as 127 (Glazebrook to East Disdbury) with the return workings being 128 (Stockport to Glazebrook). I assume these hourly journeys were extensions of a more frequent service in the Greater Manchester area.

By 1997 the 127 was down to six return journeys per day, with an additional short working from Manchester to Glazebrook & return in the evening.

 

[northwichcat]

Shearings did operate the 288 Knutsford-Wilmslow-Altrincham service and I think they also operated a 287 Macclesfield-Wilmslow-Altrincham which interworked between Wilmslow and Altrincham. They later passed to Starline Travel.

 

[PaulWC]

Shearings had a depot at Whitchurch (Shearings Salopia?) and ran a few services around the Shropshire/Cheshire border prior to deregulation. They took on quite a bit of contract work from Cheshire CC from D-reg day across the county and took over routes like the E8 Macc to Stockport commercially.

By Spring 1987 they were running amongst others, the 127 Macc to Mcr Sundays, X3 Chester to Mcr, C84 Chester-Hanley Sundays, Warrington to Prescot/St Helens and locals in Congleton and Macclesfield plus Sundays in Northwich.

They also opened up a depot in Telford and had a fair sized operation down there as well. I vaguely recall them having the C84 Sundays took off them for poor timekeeping, and they did appear to take on a lot of work over a wide area.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

What I remember most about the early de-regulation operations of Shearings is the incredibly complex vehicle workings. While drivers generally covered a small number of routes in a shift the buses were scheduled to cover large portions of the South Lancs area network with the complete working cycle taking something like 14 hours to complete. So one vehicle could see all of Altrincham, Warrington, St Helens and Wigan across multiple routes during a single day. It certainly kept the bus spotters on their toes!

 

[Statto]

My Liverpool bus map from 1988 has
48/49 Huyton-Prescot Circular
50 Huyton-Warrington
52 Prescot-Warrington

 

[njlawley]

They definitely ran for a while from St Helens via Earlestown... not sure where that ended up but I was a revenue inspector for Merseytravel for a while and their high floor volvo buses made a change from the usual darts or nationals. I'll see if I can dig out my old info and see if there's any further details.

That would be the 51/51A, which was a complicated service! Buses ran every 10 minutes from St Helens to Newton-le-Willows, with one journey per hour continuing to Bolton, via Golborne, Lowton, Leigh, Atherton, Hag Fold, Daisy Hill, Westhoughton and Hunger Hill. The 51A ran on the opposite half hour as a de facto short working, but when it got to Hag Fold it returned to Atherton town centre via the railway station - this later became the 682 that Jim Stones operates. There was also another 51 per hour between Daisy Hill and Bolton forming a half hourly service between these points, in effect filling in the gap left by the 51A turning short. For a time, the 51/51A also called into the Asda store in Leigh, when that first opened.

The 127 was another oddball, being a cross-city service from Cadishead to Macclesfield. Although there was a period where the service split at East Didsbury with some buses running to/from Stockport via Edgeley. They also created a 136 when the Trafford Centre opened, which was another cross-city route that went as far as Heaton Park (not sure why it only went that far!)

Some other services they ran included:
- 56/57 Ashton in Makerfield to St Helens via Garswood ( I think they also ran a Wigan to St Helens via Garswood route for a time);
- 391/392 Stockport to Macclesfield;
- 508 and 560 between Bolton and Bury via the villages north east of Tottington;
- 555 from Bolton to Mosley Common (which for a time was merged into the 560 to create an interesting cross-Bolton route!);
- 639 between Wigan and Skelmersdale via Parbold;
- S1 Leigh circular, which was run under contract to Sainsbury's when the supermarket first opened.

I could go on, but I would have to do some serious digging, but I'd only have what's in my GM maps. It's a pity I got rid of the timetables I had when I thinned out my collection.

I do believe that, as well as Shropshire, Shearings also for a time had an operation in Kent! (Tunbridge Wells, I think).