One odd routing, supposedly for safety reasons, was the pre-deregulation Metro 516 between Halifax and Blackshaw Head. Buses from Halifax climbed directly up to Heptonstall, but on the return journey, they came down into Heptonstall village, around the estate then back up through Heptonstall to Slack. They then turned right to travel via Lee Wood Road down into Hebden Bridge. I first encountered this on a day trip to the Calder Valley in my bus-spotting schooldays (never imagining for a moment that I would one day live there and indeed drive this route!), and the driver told me the
junction where the road from Heptonstall met Lee Wood Road was considered too dangerous to negotiate in a bus in the downhill direction.
Come deregulation and this seemingly became a safe manouevre overnight. The Halifax-Heptonstall section was split out as the 591, and the Hebden Bridge-Blackshaw Head section became minibus route H2. Both now ran directly downhill from Heptonstall, with the 591 converted to double-deck operation. Further, as it interworked with the 590 Rochdale-Halifax service, 1 of the 5 buses on the circuit was a GMT (later GM Buses North) vehicle from Rochdale.
I agree with you about that junction!
I've driven down it several times and not been happy. It could easily be fixed with traffic-lights stopping traffic shooting up from Lee Wood Rd.
Concerning the Hebden Bridge area, there's another junction which I think is dangerous - the sharp left coming up from Dodd Naze to Old Town at Mount Skip - easier with the short solos TLC now uses, but tricky with the longer buses of the past. I remember one trip in the reverse direction where the driver misjudged the right turn, hit the wall and had to reverse - my heart was in my mouth as its a long drop down into the valley below. Interestingly, that bus terminated in Hebden Bridge and the driver did not do the return trip.