Category: Articles
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To School by Bus – Part Two
Phil Blinkhorn Not read Part One Click here In September 1958 the Manchester Corporation #40 from Parrs Wood to Albert Sq was entrusted to the Northern Counties bodied 1953/54 batch of Leyland PD2s (3300-3329) all of which were delivered to Parrs Wood where most stayed for the next 15 or so years until withdrawn –…
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To School by Bus – Part One
Phil Blinkhorn 54 years ago few children were driven to school by their parents and most of those who, at ten or eleven, passed the Eleven Plus exam and went on to grammar school (and not a few who didn’t and went to secondary or technical school) found themselves travelling by bus using normal services,…
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Days out with Martin Hannett
Phil Blinkhorn If you Google the name Martin Hannett you will find details of a man who made his mark as a record producer with Factory Records to a level which some describe as inspired genius and was so involved in drugs and alcohol that they, it is said, eventually killed him at just short…
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SELNEC and New Half Cab Bus Production
Phil Blinkhorn Whilst not wishing to break the date limits of this site, I’ve recently come across something intriguing that I’d all but forgotten relating to a design that definitely falls within the site’s scope and has brought up memories of something I tried to sort out in the 1980s and to which I never…
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From Heaton Moor to Ashton under Lyne 1956
Phil Blinkhorn In early 1955 my father started work as a rep for a London based electronics components company, covering the whole of the UK and Ireland except the Home Counties – though visits to London were frequent. During school holidays I used to travel the country with him and was able to see a…
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Stockport Corporation Transport Fleet 1958-1969
Phil Blinkhorn At the start of 1958 Stockport Corporation’s transport undertaking was in a relatively healthy state. Unlike its large neighbour, Manchester, it had not suffered too greatly from public ire at the ever rising cost of fares as it had been able to keep fares relatively stable (apart from a halfpenny increase on all…
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North Western Road Car Company 1958-1974 – Part Four
Phil Blinkhorn Not seen this the start of this article Click Here The next batch of vehicles certainly kept up the level of interest in the goings on at Charles St. The Bristol single deck fleet was all but retired. Advantages of the design were a low height compared to the underfloor engined single deckers…
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North Western Road Car Company 1958-1974 – Part Three
Phil Blinkhorn Not seen the start of this article Click Here North Western then turned to the single deck bus fleet and ordered twenty 36 foot long AEC Reliance chassis. Since the first Royal Tiger deliveries all single deck buses, apart from the Burlingham Reliances, had conformed to BET body standards and it was the…
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North Western Road Car Company 1958 -1974 – Part Two
Phil Blinkhorn Not seen Part One Click Here As the new decade dawned, North Western was again at odds with BET policy. Double deckers were a necessary part of the fleet, not only in the part of the operating area that fell within what was to become Greater Manchester but also in Macclesfield and Northwich.…
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North Western Road Car Company 1958-1974 – Part One
Phil Blinkhorn In 1958 North Western Road Car Company Ltd was part of British Electric Traction a company with roots in electric tramway systems (the last tram it owned ran in Gateshead in 1951) which owned many of the non-municipal and non-nationalised bus companies in the UK between 1948 and 1969. At the time BET…