Both editors spent the weekend in the north-west, with attandance at the Manchester Transport Museum's open day on Sunday. Adjoining First's depot in the city on Boyle Street, free transport was laid on in the form of vintage buses operating to a 20 minute frequency, picking-up in the city centre at Victoria Station. We rode on TTD 386H, a Leyland Titan PD3/14 dating from 1969 that has been restored to its former operational status as part of the Ramsbottom Urban District Council Transport fleet.
We'd both been to the Manchester Transport Museum before, though by tram, which is a fair walk from the Woodlands Road stop so were impressed that within 5 minutes of leaving Victoria we'd arrived at the Museum.
Once inside, having paid the £4 admission fee, it was clear to see that this was a stall-orientated open day, in part no doubt to the lack of parking space outside the museum for visiting vehicles. The poster online advertising the open day - it was in fact part of an open weekend - stated 150 stalls would be on display and at a guess an amount near to this number were in attendance.
Having typically spent far too much money on the merchandise that I'll only ever read a couple of times or merely look at on a window cill, I had a wander round the main exhibition room within the museum, which housed the following vehicles:
BND 874C - a 1965 Manchester Corporation Leyland Panther Cub
NDK 980 - a 1956 Rochdale Corporation AEC Regent V
A706 LNC - a 1984 Greater Manchester Leyland Atlantean
LMA 284 - a 1949 R Bullock Leyland PVSC6
HVM 901F - a 1968 Manchester Corporation Leyland Atlantean
PTC 114C - a 1965 Leigh Corporation AEC Renown
MJA 879G - a 1969 Stockport Corporation Leyland Titan PD3
DB 5070 - a 1925 North Western Tilling Stevens TS6 petrol
PND 460 - a 1956 Manchester Corporation Leyland Titan PD2
C 2367 - a 1921 Todmorden Corporation Leyland G2/Phoenix
DBU 246 - a 1947 Oldham Corporation Leyland Titan PD1
JND 791 - a 1949 Manchester Corporation Crossley DD42
TNA 520 - a 1958 Manchester Corporation Leyland Titan PD2
HTF 586 - a 1947 Warburton Bros (Bury) Bedford OB
D676 NNE - a 1987 GM Buses MCW Metrorider
VR 5742 - a 1930 Manchester Corporation Leyland Tiger TS2
EDB 575 - a 1951 Stockport Corporation Crossley DD42
JBN 153 - a 1956 Bolton Corporation Leyland Titan PD2
122 JTD - a 1959 Lancashire United Guy Arab IV
BEN 177 - a 1952 Bury Corporation AEC Regent III
ORJ 83W - a 1981 Greater Manchester MCW Metrobus
B65 PJA - a 1984 Greater Manchester Leyland Olympian
Plus a few more that I couldn't physically get to, such was the way in which those at the museum had managed to park so many vehicles in such a small 'depot'.
Also on display was the Metrolink tram prototype, an Officine Casertane Caserta on a T68 (prototype) chassis, all built in Italy and given fleet number 1000.
Operating the shuttle service in the afternoon was HEK 705, a 1961 Leyland Titan PD3A in Wigan Corporation livery with the destination set to Red Rock. This didn't stop a passenger attempting to board for a free ride using her concessionary free travel pass as we alighted at Victoria Station, asking for a destination in the opposite direction of the Transport Museum!
It was an enjoyable day at the museum, not least because of the additions to my tie collection (update due within the next week). The day's photography of vehicles seen at the museum has been uploaded to My Fotopic.
