November 2005

Frank Long & Robin Kitson
BCPT Experiences & Bradford Trolleybus Slides
Report - Gary Wilkinson

The scheduled meeting (Cine from Tony Wilson) could not take place and presented something of a dilemma for the organisers. Tony offered to present his eagerly awaited film show at the next meeting (December) and Frank Long, together with Robin Kitson, stepped into the breach. Frank talked about his experiences with BCPT from 1939 to 1953 – a talk previously reported in Trackless but thoroughly enjoyed again both by those who had heard it before and those who had not.

Frank started with Bradford Corporation as a Parcels Lad at Easter 1939 — just before the war. It was like an apprenticeship and he thought it was the ‘Bees Knees’ — having worked in the mill from the age of fourteen (and on short-time). He was 17 at the time and the 18 year-olds went conducting during the holiday period. He was finished at the end of August and the good lads were sent for the next year because of the scare of war. Drivers and Conductors in the Territorial Army were called up which meant that he gained full-time employment. The pay was ten shillings a week and 1/6d per month for being a good lad, but this monthly bonus was stopped if employees were late for work on more than three occasions.