Wigan Album

I wonder who thought that making one corner of it blue would be an improvement?

In 1986 the Ribble bus company was split up, the northern area at Carlisle and Penrith became Cumberland, and the southern area in Merseyside, West Lancashire and Wigan became the new North Western. The old North Western company used to operate in South Manchester, Cheshire and Derbyshire finishing in 1972. This bus was one of 104 Park Royal bodied Leyland Atlanteans new to Ribble in 1973-76, 1301-1404 RTF612-653M, GBV121-148N, NRN397P, but Wigan depot generally didn't have any of this type for any length of time, one reason that being full height they could not be used on the Wigan to Chorley route because of the low railway bridge in Coppull (only low height double deckers could). In this batch those that passed to North Western were RTF612 614 616-627 629 631-649 651 652M, GBV121-138 140-145 147 148N, NRN371-376 379-382 387 389 391 403P. Newer ECW bodied Leyland Atlanteans TRN466V, FBV486-515W and ECW Olympians DBV133 135 136Y, A139-141MRN, A144 146 147OFR, B148-151 153-155TRN, B960-969WRN (the large majority were in the Liverpool area). Wigan and Skelmersdale depots mainly had the Leyland National single deckers and those that passed to North Western were PTF720 721 723 725 726 733-735 737 738 741 747 755 766L, SCK687-693 698-701 704 706 710-712P, UHG729 731 735 746 750 751 758-760R, ACW761-765R, CBV766 767 769 773 774 786 787 791-796S, and National 2s GFR799W, DBV844 845W, JCK850-853W, LFR854 855 865 867 869 874-876X and also eight ECW bodied Bristol RESLs OCK344 345 356 358 361 363 369 370K. This was the initial North Western bus fleet in 1986 before the company expanded into other parts of Merseyside and Cheshire in 1987 (the former Crosville area and acquiring many green Crosville buses).

I see you lifted my picture off Flickr.

Stuart, Thank you for your comment above. I hope that I have
not done wrong by posting the picture. I know very little
about Flickr, but I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that because
this picture and millions more are in the public domain, I
thought it OK to let many others have the pleasure of seeing
the pictures. If I have done wrong, please let me know.
Regards, Ray.