Manchester Corporation/Selnec PTE Buses

[Orla Nutting]

How great to see Stockport County's players going to their civic reception last night in the former SCTD fleet number 97 from the GMT museum......the same bus as used in their last promotion procession in 1997. 38 years old and maturing nicely (the bus that is): will it yet take County to the Championship again?

Lest anyone wonder what bus I'm blathering about see it all at this link:

Hatters' fans hail heroes - News - Manchester Evening News

[Phil Blinkhorn]

Couldn't agree more. The match was the best of the play offs, the transport for the celebration was a classic let's hope next season is a continuation of this year.

As we used to shout from the railway end on Friday nights in the 1960s:

GO, GO, GO County!!!!

[mr angry]

Also noticed Portsmouth using a PD2 or 3 in their FA Cup winners parade

[mr angry]

Hello again,

I have another bus related question. I left Radcliffe in 1988 and moved to Handforth and wonder what buses would have been used in this area during the municipal/PTE period.

There are two routes through Handforth, the 130 Manchester-Macclesfield, which was Crosville and I know was operated by Bristol VRTs, and the 378 Stockport-Wilmslow which used to be GMT. This is the one I am curious about.

I assume it would have been North Western and incorporated into Selnec in 1972, correct?

What vehicles would have been used on this from North Western days throughout the Selnce/GMT period. When I first started going to Handforth in about 1985/6 I vaguely remember MCW Metrobuses seemed to be on it quite often at that time

[Phil Blinkhorn]

North Western ran the 29 and 30 from Manchester to Macclesfield (with different routings at either end of each service) under running agreements with MCTD. A preserve of BET bodied Tiger Cubs and later Reliances in the 1950s (in profusion during the morning and evening rush hours, even into the early 1960s) the routes had double deckers during the day from the arrival of the East Lancs bodied Lolines and became established Loline routes by the time the Alexander bodied examples arrived.

Later these were supplemented by a mix of Fleetlines and Renowns - the three model mix continuing into Crosville days as the routes were always run using Macclesfield based vehicles.

The 378 (78) was once the preserve of Stockport based North Western Guy Arabs rebodied by Willowbrook but, like most North Western double deck services, anything and everything could and did appear. When SELNEC took over Alexander bodied Fleetlines had been the regularly rostered vehicle for some 7 years and this continued until they were withdrawn. Stockport based SELNEC/GMT Standards took over until Stockport was allocated Metrobuses.

[aidanorourke]

I have noticed that Stagecoach have a training bus painted in North Western livery operating from the Daw Bank depot in Stockport. I will see if I can get a photo of it. It's nice to see those familiar colours on the streets of Stockport again.

[Orla Nutting]

Originally Posted by aidanorourke

I have noticed that Stagecoach have a training bus painted in North Western livery operating from the Daw Bank depot in Stockport. I will see if I can get a photo of it. It's nice to see those familiar colours on the streets of Stockport again.

I think that you must be refering to one of these two (see photos) as seen at the Stockport and NWRCC day last May. Don't ask me what they are. They were made after 1969 so I haven't a clue . Just for comparisons sake I've added a photo of what a Stockport bus should really look like!!

[mr angry]

Following on from my earlier postings about Bury's buses there was one other point I omitted as I did'nt have much information on, this was transfers of Bury buses to other depots following the take over by Selnec.

As far as I can recollect Bury's buses never featured stongly in transfers and I only know of a few instances.

Firstly the last few Weymann bodied PD2s on the 6378-86 series were transferred to Ashton shortly before withdrawal in 1971-2 Also seven of the REN registered Atlanteans of the 6302-16 batch went to Ramsbottom in exchange for the whole Ramsbottom fleet sent to Bury and a few of the final batch of Fleetlines which were ordered by Bury but new to Selnec, 6344-50 went to Rochdale, this was when Bury got the first Standard Fleetlines, 7164-72

After this I am struggling although I have heard that 6375/GEN 225, the last one of the Weymann PD3s was loaned to Princess Road for a short time in exchange for one of the ex North Western Alexander Fleetlines, YJA 2, which I remember we had in Bury for a bit, in overall advertising livery for Quicks for Ford. I dont know if this is correct

Finally, I have also heard that one of the four East Lancs PD2s, 6387-90, was sent to Northenden shortly before withdrawal. Again, anyone know?

As far as I know all other Bury buses spent their entire lives at Bury, as did the early batches of Standards, 7164-72, 7358/9, 7442 and 7464. I cant recollect which ones Bury got after these as my interest started to go a bit at that point. I liked the Standards at first but when the entire fleet began to be made up of little else I sort of stopped noticing them. For some reason, I liked the early flat windscreen ones best, in the 70/71/72/73xx series and I have also heard that that the Park Royal bodies were better than the Northern Counties ones.

Over to you Phil!!

[Orla Nutting]

And on the subject of Stockport Corporation buses (which we weren't);can anyone tell me why all their exposed radiator buses were fitted with radiator blinds that rarely seemed to be used? Even buses purchased as late as 1969 had them fitted from new.
In all the years I lived in Stockport I wasn't aware of living in an Artic micro-climate and I've yet I've seen only one photo of a '60's Stockport bus with the blind extended....and that was in the height of summer judging by the clothing on pedestrians.
I mean, I can understand, just, the need on pre-war and early post war vehicles but it's not as if Stockport's buses were routed to the frozen wastes of the Pennines or covered the snow bound peaks of the Buxton-Macclesfield NWRCC route. Even in the big freeze of '62-3 central M/cr and Stockport got off pretty light.
Manchester, Ashton and SHMD all ran exposed radiator Leyland Titan PD2's into Stockport with nary a thought about fitting radiator blinds before they crossed the border into the sub-temperate zone so why did SCTD feel the
need for them to be fitted as standard?

[Phil Blinkhorn]

Originally Posted by mr angry

Following on from my earlier postings about Bury's buses there was one other point I omitted as I did'nt have much information on, this was transfers of Bury buses to other depots following the take over by Selnec.

As far as I can recollect Bury's buses never featured stongly in transfers and I only know of a few instances.

Firstly the last few Weymann bodied PD2s on the 6378-86 series were transferred to Ashton shortly before withdrawal in 1971-2 Also seven of the REN registered Atlanteans of the 6302-16 batch went to Ramsbottom in exchange for the whole Ramsbottom fleet sent to Bury and a few of the final batch of Fleetlines which were ordered by Bury but new to Selnec, 6344-50 went to Rochdale, this was when Bury got the first Standard Fleetlines, 7164-72

After this I am struggling although I have heard that 6375/GEN 225, the last one of the Weymann PD3s was loaned to Princess Road for a short time in exchange for one of the ex North Western Alexander Fleetlines, YJA 2, which I remember we had in Bury for a bit, in overall advertising livery for Quicks for Ford. I dont know if this is correct

Finally, I have also heard that one of the four East Lancs PD2s, 6387-90, was sent to Northenden shortly before withdrawal. Again, anyone know?

As far as I know all other Bury buses spent their entire lives at Bury, as did the early batches of Standards, 7164-72, 7358/9, 7442 and 7464. I cant recollect which ones Bury got after these as my interest started to go a bit at that point. I liked the Standards at first but when the entire fleet began to be made up of little else I sort of stopped noticing them. For some reason, I liked the early flat windscreen ones best, in the 70/71/72/73xx series and I have also heard that that the Park Royal bodies were better than the Northern Counties ones.

Over to you Phil!!

Sorry to have taken so long to reply but I've been busy since returning from holiday.

In addition to the Bury vehicles you mention I seem to recall a short lived transfer of at least one front entrance PD2 to Oldham and have seen a photo in recent years on the Web but can't find it at present.

As for the bodies of the SELNEC standards, the Northern Counties bodies of the production batches up to adoption of the light alloy body frame on 8433 suffered from cracking on the vertical window pillars and most received re-inforcements - normally a small horizontal bar just above halfway up the pillar - often in line with the window vents. The Park Royal bodies were less prone to this but also had similar problems.