125 Years!
On Saturday 6th, there was a "do" at the iconic bus depot in Queens Road, Manchester. Sheffield correspondent Roy trotted over the Pennines and provided fbb with some pictures of the omnibological jollity.
The building opened in 1901 as Manchester Corporation's tram depot ...
... surprisingly full of trams.
The Open Day leaflet continues the story into Corporation buses times ..
... and the change to SELNEC PTE and further to Greater Manchester but still a PTE. But privatisation loomed and Queens Road became a base for Greater Manchester Buses North ...
... which then became First Bus.
The Open Day leaflet gives a full history.
The above timeline encapsulates the somewhat tortured history of municipal buses and the latest phase is now in place with the un-privatised Bee Network.
In the tendering process, First Bus lost Manchester North to Stagecoach whilst Stagecoach lost South to Metroline. So Queens Road is now a Stagecoach Depot!
... whilst Lancashire United had this magnificent beast ...
... possibly WW2 surplus! These days, company owned and self- operated tow trucks are rare.
The Manchester Bus Museum is next door and was a joint sponsor of Saturdays event. 
There was a reminder that we live in an age of sub contracting and outsourcing.
How many bus companies these days have their own tow trucks? First Bus acquired one from the PTE ...
So you could enjoy Manchester's buses in all over red with narrow stripe ...
... but also one with a highly recognisable body style in the original livery which graced the Mancunian highways before economy trumped a quality image.
There were Bee Network buses, of course ...
... as you would expect at a working depot.
Not just buses reminded visitors of the practicalities of running a bus garage.
But the highlight for fbb was Stagecoach buses in "heritage" liveries.
We saw phase 2 SELNEC with district names in the logo.
There was G M Buses South ...
... and memories of vicious competition along the Wilmslow Road.
fbb is sure Roy had a great day, and thanks him for the excellent pictures. It is very obvious which are from Roy's camera.
Tomorrow, at last, a somewhat revived fbb aims to return to Wuhan via London.
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For the next few days, in a snippet on each blog, fbb will outline the possible reasons, the experiences and the possible consequences of the last week or so. The squeamish or hospital phobic should not read this diary!
EIGHT DAYS INSIDE (The Intermission 1)
To add to the angst, both fbb and Mrs were beset by heavy colds and a lack of enthusiasm for almost everything. So what turned out to be a potentially serious internal bleed was somewhat hidden. The coughs and sneezes may have hidden the diseases.
Melena made an occasional appearance but less violently than previously.
So it was that on Tuesday 26th May, Mrs fbb was able to battle with the electronics and secure her chubby hubby an appointment with a real live doctor. The fbbs thought he was Dr Carr, but he wasn't.
You’ve missed out the bit where First sold parts of its Manchester operations, including Queens Road, to Go Ahead in 2019, who then ran it until Stagecoach took over under Bee Network franchising.
ReplyDeleteQueen's Road pips Ipswich's Constantine Road depot by a year, since that was built, also as a tram depot, in 1902. However, in contrast to Queen's Road's chequered ownership, it has always been owned and run by one entity - even under privatisation Ipswich Buses is 100% Council-owned.
ReplyDeleteAnd Constantine Road has housed the full trilogy: tram, trolleybus, motorbus. Ipswich also had a Depot at Priory Heath (Constantine Road - now the Ipswich Transport Museum) which operated from 1937 to 1963 and only housed trolleybuses.
DeleteAnd an excellent museum it is - though it's bursting at the seams! One interesting feature is that they've preserved the old trolleybus switchgear (is it in what's now the tearoom? I can't remember).
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