1958 Leyland Worldmaster RT3/2

This is one of the vehicles that took part in the Greater Manchester Transport Society's Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1996.

It's a 1958 Leyland Worldmaster RT3/2 and is one of the Greater Manchester Transport Museum's own vehicles. A note about it in the programme of the event says this:

Leyland Worldmaster, Plaxton Body, 1958                                                                                              SDK 442

Entered by                       S. Lord, Wardle, Rochdale, Lancs

Former operator - Ellen Smith (Tours). The Leyland Worldmaster was built for  overseas use, but a few

were  sold  in the UK. Ellen Smith  Tours  took  delivery of 2 Worldmasters.  SDK 442  is  one of the few

survivors if not the only one in the UK. The original body was by Duple, but rebuilt in 1972 by Plaxtons.

1958 Leyland Titan PD2/30

This vehicle took part in the Greater Manchester Transport Society's Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally in Heaton Park, Manchester in September 1993.

It's a 1958 Leyland Titan PD2/30 that was delivered new to Wigan Corporation in November 1958 with fleet number 115. It is chassis 581260 and has a 9.8 litre diesel engine with bodywork by Northern Counties. It remained in service with Wigan until 1971 and then became a driver training bus. It's not listed in the programme of the event, but when it took part in the Rally in 1996 there was this note in the programme:

Leyland PD2/30, Northern Counties Body, 1958                                                                           DJP 754

Entered by S Lord, Wardle, Rochdale, Lancs

Former operator - Wigan. This 'Tin Front' bus is housed in the Museum of Transport. The style of

bus dates back to a BMMO design and later known as 'An Edinburgh Front'.

Greater Manchester Transport Museum

I took this photograph at the Greater Manchester Transport Museum in June 1983.

On the left is the former Rawtenstall Corporation 1950 Leyland Tiger PS2/1 with East Lancs B35R body, which I understand is now in the Bury Transport Museum. On the right is the 1947 Bedford OB that was originally operated by Warburton Brothers (Bury), and is still in the Greater Manchester Transport Museum.

Greater Manchester Transport Museum

This is a photograph taken on a visit to the Greater Manchester Transport Museum in Boyle Street, Manchester, on 19th June 1983.

The first bus on the left is the electrically driven Seddon Pennine RU, designated  Silent Rider and numbered EX61 and originally with SELNEC PTE. It's apparently since been dismantled, but its sister car EX62 is now part of the museum collection. Wikipedia has this to say about the bus:

'The Seddon Pennine RU (for rear-underfloor, the location of the engine) was launched in 1969 as a competitor in the market for rear-engine single deckers. Although a very different product to the Pennine 4 it followed the same market-driven philosophy. Viz: offer the same major features as the most in-demand model but cut out most of the complexity, some of the purchase price and offer it for sale quickly and cheaply with the choice of in-house Pennine Coachcraft bodywork. The market leader was in the rear-engine single-deck segment was the Bristol RE and Seddon decided to use similar mechanical units, notably Gardner engines and Self-Changing Gears semi-automatic transmission.

The final RU to be delivered to a new customer was equipped with a Chloride sponsored battery-electric driveline and was called the "Silent Rider". It was sold to SELNEC (later Greater Manchester) PTE who numbered it EX61 in its experimental series, registering it XVU387M. The Chloride battery pack weighed four tonnes and the vehicle (unladen but for those batteries) weighed 13 tonnes (almost double the unladen weight of the Gardner-powered version) so payload was limited, by the axles fitted, to one tonne which equalled a capacity of B41D + 9 standing and although it featured regenerative braking the bus (like Lucas battery-electric Seddon Midi EX62 XVU364M which followed in 1975) was not a success. The Silent Rider project alone cost £100,000 at mid-1970s values, promotional tours to Sheffield and Chicago, Illinois, USA may have been prestigious for the Executive and for the manufacturers of vehicle and batteries, who were both major employers of voters in the PTE area, but Cook County Transit and the South Yorkshire PTE were, lacking the electrical-charging and cell-care infrastructure installed in a Manchester garage as part of the project, able to get even less use out of the thing than Greater Manchester who tried to employ its advertised 100-mile range by using it sporadically on one morning and one afternoon peak-time journey on routes 202/3. It was out of service by 1976.'

The next bus is a 1963 Daimler CVG6K with a Metro Cammell H37/28R body that was originally in service with Manchester City Transport, and the vehicle on the right is a 1939 Bristol K5G with a Willowbrook L27/24R body that was fitted in 1951 and was originally part of the North Western Road Car Company's fleet.