Wigan Album

As someone else has commented Stuart, a brilliant set of photos.

Great pic. Note the fact that the bus was 'Pay As You Enter' When did they ruin things and get rid of bus conductors?

From the scaffolding and blank spaces, it looks like the row of shops opposite what is now Primark (formerly C&A) were under construction when this was taken

Not too sure about Ribble buses Bill, but the old Corporation/later GMPTE buses still had a couple of conductors in the mid '80s on the Abbey Lakes route.

This single-deck bus dates back to 1967, when it was first registered. Although Ribble buses was "Preston based", they had a depot at lower Wallgate. It was the late 60s when Wigan Corporation took charge of it's first Leyland Atlantean fleet of new generation buses. Many of the older buses with conductors became part of Greater Manchester Transport in April 1974, although some was repainted in the new tangerine livery of GMT. So at a guess I would say the mid 1970s was the demise of the bus conductor from Wigan's buses. (and they say thats progress)

i worked on that development opposite c&a,s for a company called henry boots,i date the picture as sept or oct 1971

when I was training to be a clippy on the Ribble. I used to be picked up and taken to Preston, bus depot. There they took me around the depot and the seats where going through a machine and it vibrated the seats. They told me that it shook all the dust etc out of the seats(along with the fleas) Don't know if they where joking or what. Was it a wind up with the newby, A bit like asking a trainee in engineering to fetch a bucket of steam. But I used to work on the open ended double deckers. My sister remembers when it was so foggy she would have to walk in front of the buses
and was sometimes lifted onto the front and sat outside the bus trying to guide the driver along.

The Leyland Leopard was the standard Ribble single decker in the 1960s. There were a few hundred as buses, coaches, and dual purpose (coach seats) that operated from Liverpool and Warrington, all the way to Carlisle. This bus one is 211, ECK211E on the infrequent 326 route to Roby Mill. Always operate with a conductor, but these vehicles could be one man operated, unlike front engined double deckers that was impossible to run without a conductor. Lancashire United had newer Leopards, JDK921-925P, LTE486-495P and MTE13-32R, that later operated with GMT and then GM Buses.