cattle wagon man:
Ray Smyth:
Ribble fleet number 570, a Leyland Leopard, and a Western Scottish Bristol RE at Lowther Street
bus station in Carlisle in the 1970s. NMP.
Ray SmythHi Leyland 600 ,
If my memory serves me right , is that Ribble Leopard bus one longer ones that had the front 4 seats removed to bring it down from a 53 seater
to a 44 or 45 seater for the purpose of not needing a Conductor.Conductress ? I travelled on some of those Leopards between Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale in the late 1960`s .Cheers , cattle wagon man .
That’s absolutely right - some of the 36’ Leopards were reduced to 45 seats, with large luggage pens on each side at the front of the saloon, due to a union agreement about one-man-operation. This would be around 1970-ish. This was most inconvenient when an 11 year old boy, on the way home from school, wanted to sit at the front and watch the driver! 
They were later reverted to 53 seat
Even better, route 2 from Blackburn to Preston, deposited me at the end of Edward Street, Walton-le-Dale, where I could walk straight into the offices of Atkinson Vehicles at 4.55 pm to get a lift home with the old chap 