Wigan Album

I love looking at the clothes ladies were wearing at that time. They dressed up in those days to go shopping, it must have been a warm day, bare arms and floral dress with high heels. Very smart..

When I was at school the buses were always those ones where you got on and off at the back, steadying yourself with the pole that was situated in the doorway, and the platform you stepped up on on was corrugated.
Men, on just missing the bus, would run alongside it, grab the pole and jump on whilst was moving.....Albert Finney does that in "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning". Sadly, the mother of a boy at our school got her high heel caught in the ridged floor and was thrown off the bus and died of her injuries. They had a bus like that at Beamish Open Air Museum when we went to the 1940s event but the stairs were so narrow and steep that I sat downstairs and just kept the memory of when I could run up and down them as a girl!

true Veronica, and as can be seen in the photo most women and some girls too even during hot weather, would also cover their hair with a scarf or hat, and that bloke has no chance of getting on before her, not with that big bag nudging him out the way, and those Cuban heels crushing his toes.

Irene, I remember hearing gruesome tales about those buses with the rear open platforms with folks trying to get on, and also getting off whilst the bus was moving, especially so drunks, though even with a sign on the bus saying that folks enter or leave the bus whilst in motion do so at their own risk, or worded to that effect, it didn't deter folks from doing so. Was it DTease who said he did a double somersault when getting of a bus before it had stopped?

It was Dennis who did a tumble Cyril. It did make me laugh but how dangerous those buses were. It’s no wonder they were changed.

No, I think it was Dennis, Cyril. xx

Once, and only once. I thought it was cool to drop off the bus as it turned into Library street after coming up Wallgate At the time my shoes, like all shoes at the time, had leather soles As I dropped off the platform I slipped and tore a hole in the knee of my suit trousers. Suit then was ruined..

What a strange picture, This " Wigan Corporation " bus has an Irish
registration number in the lower window.

When I worked on Liverpool's buses as a guard the last leg of one route to Kirkby took you round the industrial estate. Except when the factories were opening or closing, this was a waste of time - the bus was empty by then, and you never picked up any passengers. To make sure there was time for a cuppa before heading back to the Pier Head, the drivers would see how quickly they could do this circuit - leaving the poor guard to hang on as best he could - usually braced between the rear and central poles.
We also had a bell code to let drivers know if we wanted to get off the bus between stops when travelling home from a duty... he wasn't allowed to stop, and drivers had a different idea about what slowing down for you to jump off the platform meant.

Ray, I saw that and thought maybe it was a Fleet number, but they were painted onto the bodywork as of course you would know, however looking at the buildings it doesn't look to be Wigan, so I'm surmising that maybe they used a stock photo of a bus and a queue then added into the photo the name or route of whichever town the adverts were being sent to. Like how they use Photoshop nowadays. Perhaps we'll never know.
The photos of same era Wigan Corporation buses below show Fleet Numbers on the bus body, though you may well have seen the photos and web pages before.

https://wigantransporttrust.wordpress.com/our-collection/wigan-corporation-103/

https://www.old-bus-photos.co.uk/?cat=481

Here's a photo of a Dublin bus from the same era, similar mono paint pattern and the Z registration. http://www.olddublintown.com/uploads/1/7/5/0/17506079/6914011_orig.jpg

From here. http://www.olddublintown.com/dublin-buses.html

My previous comments haven't been posted yet or they've gone to where odd socks in the wash go to. However, Ray you were right noting the Irish Reg, Dublin buses in the 1950s were very similar in monochrome photos to the one in the advert. Also here's another Ferodo Stair Treads advertisement and it's the same bus and queue, but there is more of the surroundings in this photo, so it isn't Wigan or a district, and is most likely a stock photo of a bus and a queue and they're using whatever the Photoshop photo editing was in the 1950s for to add or cut out objects etc., for use in different adverts.
http://www.jsh1949.co.uk/Bus%20Adverts/WFERODO%201956Adverts4245.jpg

Cyril thanks for the info It would appear the company added the destination of the bus, depending on which town the advert appeared in.

They had us fooled Ron, all except Ray who spotted the Irish registration number, very clever advertising by Ferodo to make it seem that folks' local buses used their products.

The dropping off from the rear platform when the bus was turning the corner at the top of Wallgate/Library Street was done regularly by busmen particularly inspectors, though I'm sure the drivers would slow down a lot more for them to hop off with only a slight run along the road.