Wigan Album

This bus was new in 1956 and began it's Ribble career at Southport but spent most of it's time allocated to Bootle. It was based at Wigan from 1968 until 1971 where it was a training vehicle for a time. It went back to Bootle before finishing up in Preston and withdrawal in 1973.

An evocative photo Ray, which helps bring back quite a few memories for me and I'm sure countless others. This type of bus looks very much like having been a member of the 352 Wigan-St Helens service that took my school friends and myself to and from school during the early to mid-sixties, and may also have been 'dull red' in colour - there's something of the fairground attraction about them, isn't there. I'm also reminded of a particular clippie whose only utterance towards each group of sometimes noisy school children, and various other passengers, was "Any more fares now k'you?". She was slender, of a certain age, wore glasses, a hair net, and represented her employer magnificently, just as a colleague of hers at the time had also done; he was quiet too, a likeable gentle giant sort of bloke, whose grey frizzy hair might once have been ginger. He trundled along each ticket in a slow, ponderous
almost robotic manner and bore no ridicule. Two very individual and unassuming 'characters' receiving the best of attention, ... class acts? ... I think so. How times have changed.

Thank you to Stuart for his further info of Ribble 1438,
and also to Philip for his fond memories. This class of bus
would have been a regular performer on the 352 Wigan to
St Helens route in the mid 50s,through to the early 60s,
by which time Leyland PD3 buses with 72 seats,and Leyland
Atlanteans with 78 seats would have replaced the 61 seaters.
During my time of driving for Ribble in the late 60s,there
were just 4 of the old 61 seat buses, they were 1438, 1461,
1464,and 1486. Of these, 1486 was the best to drive. I will
post more pictures soon.

I can't get the OBJ beer jingle out of my mind since seeing the adverts on the front of the bus....
OBJ, OBJ - finest drink in the world today.
Picks you up when you are down,
you will never wear a frown,
Oh Be Joyful!
That's the bit I remember anyway....

Hi Reverend David, I liked your OBJ comment on this thread,
I think that if you remember the OBJ Jingle,you must be as
old as me and a few others on Wigan World, Kind Regards,
God Bless, Ray.

OBJ - a product of Duttons Brewery. Another local Lancashire brewery long gone.

That's what I call a proper bus. No intrusive CCTV cameras (its ridiculous how many they have on buses), and no ignorant bus drivers who shut the doors on people and can't be bothered to wait for them. Drivers won't let some old person use their pass because they're using it a minute before the time they can use it, and if they did they would possibly lose their jobs. No wonder the country's gone to the dogs.

You must have lived in an alternative universe from me, Alb - back in the 60s, bus drivers I worked with delighted in leaving a runner who didn't quite make it to the bus stop before they did. As for the twerlies - they've always turned up for buses before their passes were valid for them - looking all innocent - and us guards have always refused them in case a checker boarded next stop. Today it's worse - the ticket machines register the time a pass is scanned, so drivers can't use their discretion.

Bob Newhart- Bus Drivers School springs to mind -does any remember it from 1963? (The Best of Bob Newhart-12"LP came out late 70's)

I don't recall ever having heard Bus Driver's School before Barrie. Very amusing. Unlike quite a few American comedians, Newhart's humour appears to be appreciated internationally. His timing is perfect. My favourite has to be the Walter Raleigh sketch though. Whenever I think of Bob Newhart, I'm reminded of DTease strangely.

The link to the Bob Newhart sketch "Bus Drivers school" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5TTA4f7Q3E

Most people who have bus passes genuinely have one and are using them accordingly. It's the bus companies with their ridiculous rules that's not fair. I suspect the introduction of pass scanners was a sneaky way of allowing whatever information is contained on the passes to be databased. God knows where all that information goes to. That's becoming more common today, yet people don't question these things.

I agree Alb, and just because thee and me are both paranoid, that doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't out to get the two of us either.