Wigan Album

Doesn't it look fresh and sparkling? I know this pic is in Black and White, but the colour of the bus would have been maroon/white or maroon/cream; buses and trains were painted in such lovely, rich colours then.

Great photo Tom, Leyland Atlantean with semi automatic gearbox...pre-select.

Correct Irene, coach painted Crimson and White beautiful...and then came Greater Manchester Transport in 1974 in that awful tangerine colour.

worked on buses 1962 /1988 bus no 166 was your worst nightmare it would'nt pull skin of a rice pudding total rubbish

tangerine was selnec

Agreed, Colin, and how classy those colours looked! And what pride I feel in seeing "Wigan Corporation" written at the top of the bus, instead of "Arriva" or "First Manchester".....those buses were OURS!

It should have done watchalot, 680 leyland engines were fitted to these, I drove a Forden with a 680 in the 1960s that could do 65 MPH and loaded with steel. It must have been been a bad driver who couln't handle the new gearbox.

Tangerine WAS GMB, these buses were painted that very colour...even the old back loaders aswell before evenualy fazing them out.

THEY MUST HAVE ALL BEEN BAD DRIVERS EVERYBODY COMPLAINED ABOUT IT

They should all have been trained to drive the pre-select g/box. can you think what sort of tune the bus men would play on my Foden 12 speed splitter box....loaded with 20 tonnes of steel,mmm they would'nt go very far would they.

Just a memory from my childhood! Would the script at the bottom of the panel just in front of the rear wheel arch still be reading 'James McKnight, General Manager' in 1968, or would he have been long gone by then?

Watchalot if it had a foreign badge on it I suppose it would have been a marvellous vehicle just like the DAF wagons with a Leyland 680 engine.Nothing to moan about now there`s no British vehicle manufacturers left.

took my psv in a stick bus no syncro, crash box on all gears plus had a single deck with two speed axle on crashbox
no problems with crash boxes in 1968/9

there was no power steering on then, on some buses you had to stand up in cab to turn down library st from wallgate

BILL IN 1965 MANY BUS DVRS HAD BEEN LORRY DRIVERS THEN IF U REMEMBER NO HGV LICENCE EXISTED U JUST BHAD TO BE OVER 21 TO DRIVE ANY TRUCK OVER 3 TONS INC ARTICS BUT FOR A BUS YOU HAD TO PASS A P S V TEST

This bus, FJP566G, new in October 1968 was the first Wigan Corporation rear engined Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlantean, and had the highest fleet number 166. Nine more identical buses, GJP2-10G followed in 1969, then longer KJP20-31J and NEK1-10K in 1971/2.