PRESERVATION CANDIDATES

As we move into the 21st Century the future in terms of the individuality of bus design and development has become very bland, with three major private operators in the field: Stagecoach, First Group and Arriva, and a narrowing range of chassis makes and bodybuilders. Quite regularly one can see the same design of vehicles in one of the three main colour schemes across the length and breadth of the country.

No longer do vehicles depict, as they once did, the individuality of the towns or regions in which they operate, or the operators that own the vehicles in question. Also, now, fleets no longer stay intact because of transfers of vehicles within the three major groups, from one company to another, between different areas of the country.

Many years ago, when watching television, one would know immediately where a film had been made - not just by the architecture of the buildings necessarily, but by the design of the buses therein, but this alas is not the case so much now and is less likely to be so in the future.

Although the SELNEC Preservation Society has tracked a number of vehicles from the late 1960's through the 1970's and 1980's, we realise there has to be an appropriate 'end' to our vehicle collection as we do not wish to enter the field of preserving Alexander bodied off the peg B6's or B10's, for example, or the production line standardised vehicles available today, although it may well be the case that younger and newer groups over the years would wish to do so.

We have carefully established the beginnings of our preservation collection through ex-Manchester vehicles and Mancunians and since that time have expanded our collection, in particular to reflect the design and development in the PTE area, originally SELNEC, followed by Greater Manchester Transport and more recently Greater Manchester Buses, developing through GM Buses (South) Ltd and GM Buses (North) Ltd to Stagecoach Manchester and First Manchester.

In this regard we have collected a number of ex-SELNEC/GMT Standard Atlanteans and Fleetlines, four Seddon Minibuses and along the way we have also added other relevant types of classes of buses operated in the North West, including Bristol VR, Bristol LH, Leyland National, MCW Metrobus, Leyland Titan, Leyland Olympian and a Dennis Domino.

In order to draw our preservation activities to a proper conclusion, and bearing in mind the firsts and lasts we have already secured, we believe there are four more vehicles we need to acquire that will reflect the end of the adaptation of the SELNEC/GMT Standard body, being its application to second generation rear engined chassis which just preceded the influx of 'off the peg' vehicles. These are Greater Manchester's First Production Olympian 3001 (ANA 1Y) and Greater Manchester's First Production Dennis Dominator 2001 (B901 TVR).

Both these vehicles were delivered in the later white/orange/brown GMT livery.

In addition, as well as these two final firsts in our collection there are two lasts to round off the end of the collection: the GMT's last Standard Leyland Olympian 3305 (F305 DRJ), which was delivered to GM Buses in all-over orange with a white roof and 'People on the Move' GM Buses livery, and 5320 (D320 LNB) Greater Manchester's last Metrobus, delivered in the express salmon livery with coach seats, being one of the rare 30 Northern Counties bodied Metrobuses.

We are in contact with the owners of these vehicles, being Stagecoach Manchester in respect of 3001 and 2001, and First Manchester in respect of 3305 and 5320, in the hope that we might be permitted to secure them for preservation when their use in revenue earning service comes to an end.

Recently there has been an interesting development in respect of one of these potential candidates, 3001 (ANA 1Y). Of the 305 production Standard Olympians delivered to GMT the first 15 had Leyland TL11 engines and were non-standard. Five of these, 3011-3015 remain in service with First Manchester, but the first ten, because of the arbitrary distribution of vehicles when Greater Manchester buses split North and South on 1st April 1994, remained in the south of Manchester and passed subsequently to Stagecoach Manchester. 3005, unfortunately, was the victim of a fire on the upper deck, which was burnt out and scrapped some years ago, leaving nine Leyland engined production Olympians with Stagecoach Manchester.

Upon commencing Magic Bus Operations, Stagecoach painted its remaining Leyland Atlanteans in this blue and yellow livery but as it started to dispose of Atlanteans the Magic Bus application was extended to the earlier Olympians and the batch 3001-3010 was targeted. This procedure has continued for several years and now a good proportion of the original Standard Olympians are in Magic Bus colours as all the service Atlanteans have been disposed of. Initially 3001-3004, 3006 and 3009-3010 were painted in Magic Bus blue livery straight from their GM Buses South orange livery, but 3007 and 3008 went into Stagecoach white livery with blue/orange/red stripes, although shortly thereafter they were painted blue in the Magic Bus colours to join their seven counterparts.

Once the Atlanteans had been withdrawn and more Olympians were being painted in Magic Bus colours, these odd nine Leyland engined Olympians were identified as being non-standard compared to their Gardner engined counterparts, and Stagecoach Manchester sought to transfer them to other Stagecoach companies. In this regard 3001-3003 went to Stagecoach Ribble and received for the first time Stagecoach white and coloured striped livery. 3004 and 3007-3010 went to Stagecoach Cheltenham and Gloucester. Since then 3004/3007-3010 have gone to Hardwicks (dealer), with 3007-3010 sold on to The Delaine, Bourne.

By January 2001 only 3006 of the Leyland engined vehicles remained at Stagecoach Manchester, and this was only because of the fact that it had a substantial amount of work undertaken on it as a result of an accident and a need to replace its gearbox. Indeed, it was reinstated and repainted early in 2001 and was then regularly again seen in service on the 192 Magic Bus route on Stockport Road, amongst other Magic Bus routes operated by Hyde Road.

Since 3001-3003 were transferred to Stagecoach Ribble as their 2147/2149/2150, we had been in regular contact with the Managing Director of that company, originally Michael Chambers and more recently Nigel Barratt. We had also maintained contact with the Managing Director of Stagecoach UK Bus Operations, Les Warnerford, who had originally been the Managing Director of Stagecoach Manchester when 3001 operated there. He had subsequently been responsible for Midlands and North West Stagecoach bus operations before taking on his UK-wide role. Our contact with him was to become invaluable with matters that developed in March and April 2001 when we discovered that Stagecoach Holdings Plc was to sell a good proportion of its Ribble operation to Blazefield Holdings, and that this would include 3001-3003.

In fact these three vehicles, ANA 1Y-ANA 3Y, appeared on the asset transfer schedule and we were faced with the uncertain future that if 3001 passed to Blazefield Holdings Plc, there was no guarantee that we could secure the vehicle for preservation in the future, which was something that for many years Stagecoach had indicated would be a realistic possibility.

Bearing in mind how busy Stagecoach must be with its bus operations across the UK and all the work that must have gone into the sale of a considerable number of Stagecoach Ribble vehicles to Blazefield Holdings, the fact that Stagecoach intervened with the future of 3001 (ANA 1Y) was quite extraordinary. With just one week to go before the transfer, on Sunday morning, 8th April 2001, as a result of a liaison between Les Warnerford (Managing Director of Stagecoach UK bus operations), Nigel Barratt (Managing Director of Stagecoach Ribble) and Tom Wileman (Managing Director of Stagecoach Manchester), an extraordinary exercise took place.

3006 (ANA 6Y) was taken out of service and driven in Magic Bus blue and yellow colours from Hyde Road to Stagecoach Ribble's premises in Blackburn, and the driver returned to Manchester with 3001 in Stagecoach Ribble white and striped livery. The vehicle was parked up at Hyde Road, effectively swapping ANA 6Y for ANA 1Y, thereby keeping 3001 in Stagecoach ownership and will thus allow them at whatever point in the future the vehicle becomes surplus to their requirements, to hopefully allow us to secure the vehicle for preservation, as has been contemplated for a number of years. Subsequently, 3002, 3003 and 3006 passed to Blazefield Holdings the following weekend, on 15th April 2001, allocated to their Burnley & Pendle operation.

Following the return of 3001 to Hyde Road on 8th April 2001, it has been placed in the reserved fleet, but we are safe and confident in the knowledge that the vehicle remains in Stagecoach hands and the difficulty we may have faced in having to start dealing with an entirely new company, Blazefield Holdings Plc, has been avoided.

We would like to place on record our heartfelt appreciation and thanks of all the trustees and working members of the SELNEC Preservation Society to Stagecoach Holdings Plc for their intervention and help and support in this matter. In particular, Les Warnerford, Nigel Barratt and Tom Wileman.

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