Lancashire in September 1987

13th September 1987

123 photos from the week of September 10th to 17th 1987, posted here in the order in which they were taken.

A week long trip to the North West of England in 1987 covered visits to Bolton, Manchester, Preston, Blackpool, Lancaster and Chorley, mostly by public transport. Apart from the rail trip from Holyhead to Manchester, all travelling was done by local buses, using vehicles belonging to Ribble, Greater Manchester, Blackpool and Shearings.

The time period in question was when the UK bus industry was just starting to get to grips with deregulation and privatisation, and as a result many unusual workings and vehicles were to be found. Ex London Routemasters were working in Blackpool alongside ex Crosville and Strathclyde Leyland Nationals. The visit to Blackpool co-incided with a TUC congress being held in the resort, and so there were many visiting vehicles on private hire workings found in the town on the day. Blackpool also still had a few AEC Swifts left, which by then were getting to be a rare breed (and doubly unusual being in the Leyland stronghold of the Lancashire area as well), plus of course its long-lived Leyland Titan PD3s.

Further north, in Lancaster, could be found second-hand Atlanteans from both Bournemouth and Aberdeen, as well as a batch of Leopards with the short window bay Alexander AY type bus body. The Lancaster City Transport buses were in a very smart livery of two tone blue with white window surrounds, except for the red ex Grampian buses which had just arrived and merely had their front panels painted blue, presumably to distinguish them from the similarly coloured Ribble vehicles.....

Among the ranks of red Ribble buses on one side of Preston bus station were the distinctive two tone green Fishwick vehicles. Other operators to be found in Preston were Mercers of Longridge(with a former London Country Leyland National and an ex London Transport DMS), Yelloway and Blackpool Transport. United Transport subsidiary Zippy was running yellow and red Ivecos on local services, and this in turn led to the introduction of Preston Bus's own batch of Renault midibuses working alongside their 66 or so Atlanteans and a couple of Olympians.

In Bolton (my base camp for the week), coach operator Shearings had started running elderly Leyland Nationals on local services, with buses being sourced from GM Buses and Midland Red amongst others. Elderly and noisy they may have been (I sampled one on the run to Harwood), but the application of Shearings yellow, orange and white colours suited them well. Also in Bolton I encuntered Ribble's sole Leyland Lynx, an ex SELNEC L registered Atlantean in Ribble livery, and the rare TWH 697T, a standard GM Buses Northern Counties bodied Fleetline cut down to single deck.

Not to be outdone by the Blackpool AEC Swifts, ex Preston Corporation Leyland Panthers had entered service with Citibus Tours of Chadderton working on routes 51 and 61, the latter serving Cheetham Hill and passing close to a certain well known transport museum. These Panthers had taken the scenic route from Preston to Manchester, via the Isle of Man. Long established operator Maynes put in an appearance with another DMS on route 231.

Seen entering Manchester Victoria was British Rail 2 car DEMU 156326.

British Rail loco 47344 seen at Manchester Victoria.

Class 47 in Manchester Victoria.