THE GMT MCW METROBUS AND THE PRESERVATION OF 5001 (GBU 1V)

The SELNEC Preservation Society has made efforts to seek out and preserve vehicles that represent the advancement of bus design that reflects the development of vehicles in the Greater Manchester area. In particular, we have been following the Mancunian vehicles, which were trail-blazing, purpose built, one-man operated double deck buses that appeared in 1968, of which we have five examples, 1066, 1142, 1177, 2130 and 2220.

Furthermore, we have concentrated on the design of the SELNEC Standard, from its very first prototype, EX1, back in 1970 and EX19, through to the production vehicles which numbered well over 2,000, by our acquisition of 6901, 6990, 7143, 7185, 7206, 7501, 7960 and 8001.

In addition, we have four Seddon Minibuses, 1700, 1711, 1733 and 1735, and a number of other examples of vehicles purchased for operation in the SELNEC/GMT area, being Bristol VRT 408, Bristol LH 1321 and the very rare Dennis Domino 1751.

We have also concentrated on looking at various vehicles that Greater Manchester Transport purchased 'off the peg' being Leyland Titans and MCW Metrobuses, which were both intended in the 1980's to revolutionise the double deck bus operating industry, being totally or partially integral vehicles, although in the end, neither made much significant difference to the existence of independent bus chassis and body builders.

Although London Transport bought large quantities of these two integral or partially integral vehicles, being over 1,400 of each, Greater Manchester purchased only 15 Titans and 220 MCW Metrobuses. The Titans were numbered in a special series 4001-4015, and the SELNEC Preservation Society acquired the last of these, being Greater Manchester's last Titan 4015 (GNF 15V) for preservation, on 7th October 1998.

In terms of MCW Metrobuses of the 220 purchased, 190 were the conventional Mark 1 vehicles being MCW Metrobuses, 5001-5190, plus 30 Metrobus chassis bodied by Northern Counties 5201-5210 with Cummins engine and 5301-5320 with Gardner engines.

The design of these Titans and Metrobuses (except for the last 30 Metrobuses) did not reflect the area from which they originated as do SELNEC/GMT Standards, but the SELNEC Preservation Society has been interested in their association with the Greater Manchester area. We therefore concluded that it might be appropriate to try to purchase 5001 (GBU 1V) the very first GMT Metrobus which was delivered new on 4th October 1979. Indeed, the batch of 190 MCW Metrobuses varied somewhat in construction - the first 10, 5001-5010 were DR101/6, whilst 5011-5030 were DR102/10, 5031-5110 were D102/21 and 5111-5190 were DR102/23. The 30 Northern Counties bodied examples were 5201-5210 DR132/8 and 5301-5320 DR102/51.

5001, which is the 21st Metrobus chassis also represents the earlier bodywork on the Metrobus that was exhibited on 5001-5030 that had different front grilles comprising narrow slats protruding onto the corner panels, small rectangular fog lights and indicators which curved round the front and sides of the bus. They also had single piece bonnets.

At deregulation in Greater Manchester on 26th October 1986, the first 10 Metrobuses, 5001-5010 were taken out of service as they were considered non-standard, particularly as they had hydraulic as opposed to air brakes which were exhibited on the remainder of the batch. GM Buses Ltd, upon de-regulation continued to run 5011-5190 and the 30 Northern Counties bodied vehicles. The first 10 were sold, five of them going to London Transport, being 5001, 5004, 5005, 5008 and 5009 - the other five being sold to other organisations.

We were in touch with London Transport in 1992, expressing to them our interest and the possibility of acquiring 5001, which ran as their M1443, for preservation when their use of it ended. We have since been in touch with 5001's subsequent operators in the Greater London area over the last seven years, and more recently, Arriva The Shires, from whom we purchased the vehicle on 1st November 1999, collecting it from their Stevenage operation on Sunday, 14th November 1999.

Arriva The Shires had the other four ex-Greater Manchester Metrobuses sold to London Transport, and by the time 14th November 1999 came around and we collected 5001, 5004 and 5009 had been taken out of service and cannibalised, and it was not expected that 5005 and 5008 would last much longer.

All these five vehicles were converted in 1986 when they were bought by London Transport and were given different destination displays, diptac internals and all the moquette and the seats were re-styled in London mode. Consequently we seek to acquire original parts to reverse this conversion from the other five Metrobuses in the batch of ten not sold to London (5002, 5003, 5006, 5007 and 5010) and have been very much assisted by Blue Triangle in Raynham who have 5003 and 5010, as on 11th April 1999, we were able to remove a number of parts with their assistance from 5010.

They currently operate 5003 and we are in touch with them with the view that hopefully, when this bus becomes surplus to their requirements, it will also become the donor of spare parts to allow us to return 5001 from its London conversion to its original GMT 1979 condition.

At the same time, we have been in contact with Cottrells of Micheldean, who are running 5002, 5006 and 5007 in service, with a view that when these vehicles become surplus to their requirements, they may also be of assistance to us to acquire appropriate parts either to return 5001 to its original condition or to provide a bank of spare parts to help in repairs and ongoing rectification for the future.

5001 is not the first Metrobus in preservation. Indeed, our colleagues at the West Midlands Bus Preservation Society acquired, in June 1998, one of the five pre-production West Midlands Mark 1 Metrobus being 6835 (WDA 835T), which has the 59th Metrobus chassis and was exhibited at the 1978 Commercial Vehicle Motor Show. In addition, the South Yorkshire PTE Preservation Group acquired South Yorkshire Metrobus 1861 (JHE 161W) in August 1999. Also, a few months ago, First Manchester placed 5083 (ORJ 83W) in the care of the Museum of Transport in Manchester which has the 1220th Metrobus chassis. However, we are very pleased that not only have we acquired a Greater Manchester Metrobus for preservation, but the very first one, 5001 (GBU 1V).

Indeed it was the case in 1998 that due to the Arriva policy of selling off cherished numbers, GBU 1V was taken off 5001 and offered for sale, so we purchased it to save it being bought by any other individual and had it placed on a Retention Certificate from 12th May 1998. Consequently, 5001 which ran as Arriva The Shires 5351 was re-registered in May 1998 as OPP 741V. It's last day in passenger service with Arriva the Shires at 20 years of age, was 4th November 1999, when it was taken out of service and parked up at their Stevenage Depot, although up to that point, it had operated out of their Ware operation.

Now we have acquired the vehicle for preservation, we have restored this original registration number, GBU 1V,  to the vehicle.

In preservation, we already had at that time the very first prototype SELNEC Standard, EX1 (PNF 941J), the first production Standard Daimler Fleetline 7206 (VNB 177L), the very first GMT Leyland Fleetline 8001 (XBU 1S) and the first Dennis Domino 1751 (C751 YBA). These have been joined, as indicated above, by GMT's very first Metrobus 5001 (GBU 1V). We were not able to obtain GMT's first B15 Leyland Titan 4001 (ANE 1T) as it was scrapped in 1990, but we do have Greater Manchester's last ever Titan 4015 (GNF 15V)

We also have two more lasts in that we have 7960 (BNC 960T), the last Park Royal bodied GMT Standard and 6990 (DWH 706W), Greater Manchester's last ever Fleetline. To these we hope to add, through negotiations with First Manchester, Greater Manchester's last Atlantean 8765 and via discussions with Stagecoach Ribble, Greater Manchester's first production Olympian 3001.

It is intended that 5001 will be our major restoration project in 2002. However, some initial work has already commenced on the vehicle.

In particular, we have decided to reverse the London conversion in respect of the destination display box area to return it to its original GMT specification.

We were kindly provided with spare parts in order to do this, by Blue Triangle in 1998, and we were able to secure some parts from 5010. Also, on several occasions during the latter half of 2000, First Manchester kindly allowed us to visit their premises in Oldham to secure spare parts from scrap Metrobuses.

We now believe we have all the parts we need for a full rectification of 5001 back to its original 1979 condition, except for the orange moquette for the seats. In order to ensure that this is the case we need, in particular, to undertake the conversion of the destination box area back to GMT spec from London conversion, and we have started to undertake this work as a preliminary issue and did so at our working day on 12th November 2000. We want to be absolutely certain that we have all the parts necessary for this conversion, hence why we are undertaking this element of the work on 5001 now, whilst scrap Metrobus parts are available, as a prelude to the major rectification in 2002.

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