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!960s view of Trinity Street, Bolton, at its junction with Newport Street, where the bus is coming from. The photo was taken from the offices of Hick Hargreaves in Crook Street. A J&A Smith of Maddiston Leyland Comet (I think, but the wheelbase might make it a Beaver) artic is prominent. Since the photo was taken the only constant is the redundant Trinity Church. The road and junctions have been completely re-planned and re-aligned. The large Railway Hotel (behind the bus) next to the station has been demolished, the station frontage has been rebuilt. The scene today is totally different.Talking of wheelbases, what about that bus? It looks like an earlier one, which would have had a 27’ body, with a replacement 30’ body. Someone will know!
Robert
Yes Robert, the bus does look odd, and it will look even odder in a second when the car crashes into the side of it.
I’ll look in my Bolton Corporation Transport books as I don’t recall any policy of re-bodies at Bolton. It was a highly individual municipal fleet, for example it was the first to specify Leyland PD2 variants with air brakes (1948 batch IIRC) and also synchromesh gearboxes.
Synchromesh in 2nd, 3rd and 4th to be precise! Yes, thanks, it’ll be interesting to see if that was a re-bodied bus! Robert
Hello again Robert. As I thought Bolton Transport didn’t pursue a bus re-body policy, so the bus in the photo was built with a long rear overhang. It is a Leyland PD3/4 with East Lancashire Coachbuilders front entrance / front staircase body. The first buses with this design that Bolton bought and the first ones entered service in 1959. I remember them well, they were frequently used on the Number 52 Bolton to Bury route, which served the district where I grew up. Incidentally Bury had some as well but with a bellows type folding door. Bury Corporation often followed Bolton’s policy, the air braked PD2/4 was also used by Bury, and it’s claimed that Bolton and Bury were the only two municipal fleets to purchase that variant of a PD2.