As soon as I saw this picture I knew that it was something unusual! A line of six small buses, some clearly Leyland Cubs, all full to bursting with men in Army uniform, led by a camouflaged Austin 8 car and accompanied by nine motorcycles and riders. The buses are quite smart, but have had white marking added to the wings, the destination blinds removed and in some cases the headlight bulbs taken out. All of the vehicles have labels reading ‘TRAFFIC CONTROL’.

The print is a modern one, with no clues as to its origin on the reverse as is often found with old photographs, but is of good quality and has the appearance of being an official view, by a competent photographer, rather than a personal snapshot. Two of the buses could be identified quite easily, the vehicle at the head of line, which in addition to a full complement of men had a luggage rack equally full, has fleet number LC244; this is clearly seen on the dash panel. This was former Lincolnshire Road Car Leyland Cub TL 2180 acquired from J.H. Pearson of Dorrington near Sleaford, along with his business in November 1933. The last vehicle in the line shows 3881 on the registration plate, identifying it as LC358, with registration VL 3881, a Bracebridge bodied Leyland Cub acquired with five other Cubs from G.W. &T.H. Hutson of North Hykeham, south of Lincoln, in December 1934.

The second and third vehicles in the line have the same very distinctive bodywork with coach type (or slam) doors, unlike all of the others which have folding, bus style doors. A comparison of photographs shows these to be bodied by Leyland at Kingston, narrowing the search to two former Hutson vehicles which began life as Leyland demonstrators. The second vehicle in the line shows part of a fleet number, LC 35x on the dash panel, enough to confirm that they are LC 354 and LC357, PL 9901 and PJ 392, although not which is in front! What was needed all those years ago was for a commanding voice to announce “All men, one step, left, and smile”, but then that might have obscured other details!

Attempting to identify the two remaining buses, fourth and fifth in the line, requires a little more detective work. Lincolnshire Road Car bought large numbers of Leyland Cubs throughout the 1930s having chosen this model after trials in the autumn of 1931 with four vehicles, a Bedford WLB (which became Road Car B191 FW 2486), a Leyland Cub and two other unidentified makes, one of which was almost certainly a Commer. As a result twenty Leyland Cubs were ordered for 1932 delivery, with Rainforth bodies at £657 each. This order was followed with one for ten ECW bodied Cubs in 1934, fifteen with Brush bodies in 1936, thirty, also bodied by Brush, in 1937, another eighteen Brush bodied in 1938 and finally two with Duple coach bodies in the same year. A number of excellent photographs are available of the Cubs purchased new by Lincolnshire Road Car and these show that none of the vehicles in the Traffic Control photograph were from these batches of buses.

Thus all of the vehicles in the photograph were from the eight Cubs acquired with businesses taken over in the 1930s; the livery style and other details making it unlikely that vehicles of other makes, or from operators other than Lincolnshire Road Car, are included in the line. The presence of a small light placed centrally on the front of the roof of each vehicle confirms them as Road Car buses. These lights, to enable passengers to identify the company’s buses had originally been blue, but were changed to amber in 1938 at the insistence of the Traffic Commissioners. Since four of the eight are already identified as being in the picture, four remain as potential candidates. One of these, LC353 VL 3880 as a partner to VL 3881 in the photograph, can be discounted since neither the fourth nor the fifth buses in the line resemble it, whilst another LC356 DT 3994 with Burlingham bodywork, which also came from the Hutson fleet, appears to have remained in active Road Car service until 1948. This leaves LC 355 TL 2149, a much travelled bus latterly with Hutson, and LC554 WJ 3893, which was acquired with the business of Berry Brothers of Broughton near Brigg in January 1938. There is just a hint of the final figure of the registration number of the fifth bus which could be a figure 9, indicating that this vehicle might be TL 2149.

At this point some documentary evidence is useful, for in October 1939 the Road Car board recorded in the minutes of its meeting that twenty-seven Chevrolet buses and one Crossley bus had been sold to local authorities for conversion to ambulances and twenty-seven other vehicles were to be stored. Consequent upon the outbreak of war, the reduction of service frequencies and the withdrawal of many minor services, it had proved possible to take over fifty of the oldest vehicles in the fleet out of service. A subsequent Road Car minute in March 1941 records that..............

“in pursuance of Regulation 53 of the Defence (General) Regulations 1939… 25 vehicles had been acquired by the Secretary of State for War”. The buses are then listed by registration number, and include nineteen of the twenty Rainforth bodied Cubs new in 1932 (FW 2779 was not included), and TL 2180, PL 9901, TL 2149, PJ 392, VL 3881 and WJ 3893. Here are listed the six vehicles which are the most likely contenders for places in the photograph.

Finally we do not know the date or location of the photograph nor the precise function of ‘Traffic Control’. The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act of September 1939 gave the government sweeping powers to control every aspect of life in Britain, such as the evacuation of children, but it also included traffic control measures. Lincoln seems the most likely location, and the smart styling and sound construction of the houses in the background to the photograph are typical of the city. The date, it could be in late 1939 when everything in Britain was being put on a “war footing” or it could be after 1941 when the Cubs were sold to the War Department.