Category: Articles

  • To School by Bus – Part Four

    Not read Part Three Click here I mentioned that the daytime schedule on the #31 was not enhanced at rush periods and there was a good reason for this – the #31A. The #31 ran from Manchester, by 1958 using the Chorlton St terminus, to the Cheshire village of Bramhall and was exclusively MCTD. Never…

  • To School by Bus – Part Three

    Not read Part Two Click here The alternative route to school in 1958 was through Didsbury and Withington, along Wilmslow Rd. As with the route along Kingsway there were two services available but they were of an altogether different nature to the #29 and #40. The Manchester #1 was a limited stop service between Gatley…

  • To School by Bus – Part Two

    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Leyland PD2s (3300-3329) all of which were delivered to Parrs Wood where most stayed for the next 15 or so years until withdrawn – apart from…

  • To School by Bus – Part One

    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, often changing…

  • Days out with Martin Hannett

    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 of 43…

  • SELNEC and New Half Cab Bus Production

    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 found a…

  • From Heaton Moor to Ashton under Lyne 1956

    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 much wider…

  • Stockport Corporation Transport Fleet 1958-1969

    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 fares at…

  • North Western Road Car Company 1958-1974 – Part Four

    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 which had,…

  • North Western Road Car Company 1958-1974 – Part Three

    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 current BET…