H M S Catherwood - map of Ireland showing routes covered by regular services and motor coach tours ; May 1930
In their ten short years of existance H M S Catherwood made quite an impact on the Irish bus and coach scene. From their foundation in 1925 until the effective nationalisation of their services both North and South of the border in 1935 they developed not only an extensive network of stage carriage services, a series of coach touring routes and holidays but they gained a reputation for the utilisation of the more modern type of vehicles, latterly being known for their use of Leyland chassis.
This map from the May 1930 timetable shows the weekday services across Northern Ireland, into Donegal from Londonderry/Derry and the East Coast cross-border services between Belfast and Dublin, along with their feeder services. This is a little a year after they rather contentiously acquired the short lived Londonderry Corporation Transport system having effectively bankrupted them by competition - something they'd tried and failed to achieve earlier in Belfast. Londonderry's bus services had come into being in 1920 after the closure of the city's horse tram system in 1919 and ranks amongst the shortest lived of municipal operators. Alongside passenger services Catherwood's also ran road freight services. All this activity must have been to the detriment of the variosu Irish railway companies.
In 1932 the British combine Thomas Tilling's took a substantial shareholding in the company but in 1933 the Irish Government acquired the routes and services in the Republic and in 1935 the remainder of the company was folded into the new Northern Ireland Road Transport Board.
H M S Catherwood - map of Ireland showing routes covered by regular services and motor coach tours ; May 1930
In their ten short years of existance H M S Catherwood made quite an impact on the Irish bus and coach scene. From their foundation in 1925 until the effective nationalisation of their services both North and South of the border in 1935 they developed not only an extensive network of stage carriage services, a series of coach touring routes and holidays but they gained a reputation for the utilisation of the more modern type of vehicles, latterly being known for their use of Leyland chassis.
This map from the May 1930 timetable shows the weekday services across Northern Ireland, into Donegal from Londonderry/Derry and the East Coast cross-border services between Belfast and Dublin, along with their feeder services. This is a little a year after they rather contentiously acquired the short lived Londonderry Corporation Transport system having effectively bankrupted them by competition - something they'd tried and failed to achieve earlier in Belfast. Londonderry's bus services had come into being in 1920 after the closure of the city's horse tram system in 1919 and ranks amongst the shortest lived of municipal operators. Alongside passenger services Catherwood's also ran road freight services. All this activity must have been to the detriment of the variosu Irish railway companies.
In 1932 the British combine Thomas Tilling's took a substantial shareholding in the company but in 1933 the Irish Government acquired the routes and services in the Republic and in 1935 the remainder of the company was folded into the new Northern Ireland Road Transport Board.