Wigan Album

I had two friends work here, Bev Proctor and Norman Smith. I worked at Leyland Motors and only ever saw the chassis leaving for Northern Counties with the driver protected by an angle iron and plywood cage round the drivers seat.

Peter, I knew Bev Proctor years ago when he and I were members of
the Wigan & District Model Railway Club. Cheers, Ray.

I never knew you were a member of the W&d mrc Ray .
You wouldn’t have come across a bloke by the name of Lennie Ball by any chance would you ?
The first time I saw one of his layouts was at the Lineacre back in about 1968 when model railways weren’t nearly as popular as they appear to be nowadays , the entrance fee being about 10p at that time.

I seem to recall the event used to occur around December or January .

The venue moved across the road to the college the following year and the admission fee may have gone up to 20p, but It was far more genuine back then , as the event hadn’t at that time morphed into a market place , full of traders selling stuff .

I stopped going to Robin park years ago when they started charging 4 quid or thereabouts to try to squeeze in , and you could barely move in the place , with more trade stalls than layouts.

I have no idea what they’re charging these days , ( probably a tenner the thieving gits ) , and I have no intention of finding out either , but Lennie was still going strong when the group were up at Rylands mill in the 90s , as they allowed me to run some of my stuff on their track , although I got the distinct impression that several members of the group weren’t altogether impressed , as all my stuff is American outline.

“ Gadzooks Carruthers , the absolute nerve of this wretched swineherd, having the barefaced temerity to operate his blasted abominable new world HO stock on these sacred old world OO metals wot Stephenson bequeathed to us…..
..…Us indeed !!!….
the beneficiaries of an empire wot the sun never sets upon “.

Needless to say , I only did it the one time…
… Bloody rivet counters.
You come across the buggers everywhere .

It’s a few years now since I’ve seen Lennie , but I do bump into his sister Eileen in Wigan from time to time .

To correct my comment it was Roger Smith.
Ray, my wife and I are still in touch with Bev he lives in Ashton.

Regarding Peter's comment on the bus chassis delivery method - I remember seeing these on the roads in the late 1970s, with that sheet of plywood for protection, the very exposed driver dressed up like the Michelin Man, wearing gauntlets and a motorbike crash helmet. I'm sure there wasn't a seatbelt, so have to hope he was sitting securely in his seat - and was being paid "danger money".

These were the rear-engine Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline buses by that time, and the funny thing was, when I saw them, they were always being driven along Atherton Road in Hindley Green *towards* Wigan.

Seemed a very roundabout way to get from Leyland Motors to Northern Counties works. I wonder if each new chassis was delivered from Leyland to Selnec HQ in Manchester first and needed some kind of inspection or "tick of approval" before it went to Northern Counties for the body?

This photograph was obviously taken near the fuel pumps outside Northern Counties former premises on Wigan lane , the site of which has been a car park for the RAEI for the past 30 odd years , apart from a brief spell when travellers occupied the site in 1986 or thereabouts , yet the wording on this promotional shot gives their address as Enfield St. Pemberton .
The registration on the bus indicates that it was registered 1979 / 80
yet Northern Counties only quit their Wigan lane site in 1984/5 to the best of my knowledge , which would appear to suggest that they operated both sites simultaneously for a number of years .
Would this be correct ?

Ozy, NC finally closed their doors 26th January 2005 2 days after the last bus left the premises. Documented in the book "Northern Counties" by Bob Rowe. Published in 2006.

I also remember them being driven through Hindley down Liverpool road.The drivers just seemed to sat in the open on a seat.A bloke I knew Elwin Mulvey told me he delivered these chassis,he worked at BL.Always liked the livery on the bus in the photo.

Thanks for the info Barrie . I’ll readily admit that I know very little about Northern Counties , but I’ve had a look on the Northern Counties thread and it appears that my assumption was correct inasmuch as certain work , ( precisely what I do not know ) , was carried out on the buses in Wigan Lane , whilst other operations on the same vehicles were performed at Enfield St. by all accounts .

An old friend of mine , whose converted lifeboat features on the L&L canal thread coincidentally , served his apprenticeship at Wigan lane , and his photo appears on the NC thread , taken during his dinner hour at the Bellingham bowling club. He was known to his mates as Scouser evidently , although I know him as Keith .

This is GMT standard Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlantean 8264 FVR264V new in late 1979 or early 1980. This particular bus would never be seen in the Wigan area after delivery as the depot it was allocated to was Manchester Princess Road. Wigan got FVR251 258 262 266 268 278 285 286 287 288 289 297 298 299 300V (8251/8/62/6/78/85-9/97-8300).

For Ozy:
According to my husband, one of Keith’s favourite lunches was a crusty loaf, with the middle scooped out, stuffed with a pie.