LIFE on the buses has been been a family affair for retired driver Jack Wilson.

His connections with Howe Bridge bus depot go back to the turn of the century.

Father Tom carried ashes on which the LUT company's tramlines were laid.

Jack, now 84, started work at the Howe Bridge depot in 1929/30, serving as a conductor, trolley bus driver and bus driver until he retired in 1977 - the day before his 65th birthday.

And brothers Fred and Jim, both now dead, were also LUT men.

Jack, who lives in Hope Fold Avenue, Howe Bridge, read in The Journal about a Manchester Museum of Transport plea to find the oldest surviving ex-Lancashire United employee.

And, with the 90th anniversary of the old LUT company this weekend, the memories came flooding back.

His father, who lived in Bolton Road, Atherton, was custodian at the transport company's social club.

Then came Jack's turn. "Driving during wartime was really difficult," he recalled. "Headlamps were completely blacked out apart from tiny slits."

Back in peace time one particularly awkward inspector was given a surprise when he collared Jack for being a lamp post or two ahead of schedule on the trolley bus run to Bolton.

"We were timed at Four Lane Ends, Hulton Lane and Daubhill Station," he said. "This inspector was really difficult and held me up to tell me I was early. I listened to him for a while then he told me I was going to be late and I'd better get a move on!"

Transport has always been part of Jack's life. Before the buses he worked at Pratt's Anglo American fuel depot alongside Leigh bridge.

"Petrol and paraffin was delivered on a canal barge and we distributed it from there. Petrol we delivered in two gallon cans," he recalled.

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