Bus Shite

[Sir Snipes]

Are you boys familiar with Mayne of Manchester? A small, family owned bus operator covering a few niche routes East out of Manchester city centre, usually out to Ashton under Lyne but a few others too. They ran from 1920 all the way to 2008, being the last such independent operator and sold to Stagecoach when the owner retired and his sons didn't wish to continue running the business. Save for a few book listings and a wikipedia footnote, there's little left to show for their long history, and I dare say the Metrolink extension  would have consumed their routes eventually regardless. They ran their buses in a distinctive burgundy, initially with blue stripes later cream.

I have many memories of them, as they were the best service for my home journey (230-235 services) but were less frequent than the Stagecoach services (216, 236,237) that ran parallel then diverged before hitting Droylsden - I was often faced the dilemma of jumping on the 216 or waiting for the "better" Mayne service to show up, often if having to jump off the Stagecoach and hoping to flag down the Mayne in time to switch when they passed one another. Also the driver changes mid-service, when the bus passed the depot in Clayton (now an Aldi) or the infrequent trip to Glossop on a Sunday/Bank Holiday (237) and having to give the driver directions through the scenic High Peak route. Don't know why I'm posting this now, just feeling nostalgic I guess.

Ashton Under Lyne bus station, in classic colours for the anniversary.

Heading toward the main bus station, Piccadilly Gardens Manchester. My brother was a big fan of Vinyl Exchange back in the day, who are still going strong, amazingly. Also these Scanias had the best seats - well stuffed benches!

My stop at Piccadilly gardens. These "modern" Dennis things had the worst seats - horrible individually moulded plastic things. Disgrace! 

Nothing worse for me than ignoring the 216 and sprinting for the Mayne only to round the front and see it was the useless 217! Same place - I used this stop outside the Natwest for many years.

One of the few single deckers they operated. This is Clayton, now thoroughly dominated by the Manchester City FC presence. Also left is the "B of the Bang" art piece for the 2002 Commonwealth games - what a disaster that thing was. If you google street view this junction and flip back through time you can see it being cut up after bits of it fell off into the road. Asda and bits of the Velodrome in the background on the right.

Not sure where this is as I never used this service. If I had to guess I'd say Deansgate and that Weatherspoons is The Moon under The Water but really not sure. They ran a few of these models for years. I'm not really a bus guy so don't know what it is? Atlantean? The quintessential Mayne before more modern busses arrived in the late 90s.

When Stagecoach bought them out many of the staff and vehicles transferred over. Quite bizarre seeing distinctive vehicles in new colours (full disclosure I'm not sure if this is an ex-Mayne bus but it's close enough for illustration).

[artdjones]

33 minutes ago, Sir Snipes said:

Are you boys familiar with Mayne of Manchester? A small, family owned bus operator covering a few niche routes East out of Manchester city centre, usually out to Ashton under Lyne but a few others too. They ran from 1920 all the way to 2008, being the last such independent operator and sold to Stagecoach when the owner retired and his sons didn't wish to continue running the business. Save for a few book listings and a wikipedia footnote, there's little left to show for their long history, and I dare say the Metrolink extension  would have consumed their routes eventually regardless. They ran their buses in a distinctive burgundy, initially with blue stripes later cream.

I have many memories of them, as they were the best service for my home journey (230-235 services) but were less frequent than the Stagecoach services (216, 236,237) that ran parallel then diverged before hitting Droylsden - I was often faced the dilemma of jumping on the 216 or waiting for the "better" Mayne service to show up, often if having to jump off the Stagecoach and hoping to flag down the Mayne in time to switch when they passed one another. Also the driver changes mid-service, when the bus passed the depot in Clayton (now an Aldi) or the infrequent trip to Glossop on a Sunday/Bank Holiday (237) and having to give the driver directions through the scenic High Peak route. Don't know why I'm posting this now, just feeling nostalgic I guess.

Ashton Under Lyne bus station, in classic colours for the anniversary.

Heading toward the main bus station, Piccadilly Gardens Manchester. My brother was a big fan of Vinyl Exchange back in the day, who are still going strong, amazingly. Also these Scanias had the best seats - well stuffed benches!

My stop at Piccadilly gardens. These "modern" Dennis things had the worst seats - horrible individually moulded plastic things. Disgrace! 

Nothing worse for me than ignoring the 216 and sprinting for the Mayne only to round the front and see it was the useless 217! Same place - I used this stop outside the Natwest for many years.

One of the few single deckers they operated. This is Clayton, now thoroughly dominated by the Manchester City FC presence. Also left is the "B of the Bang" art piece for the 2002 Commonwealth games - what a disaster that thing was. If you google street view this junction and flip back through time you can see it being cut up after bits of it fell off into the road. Asda and bits of the Velodrome in the background on the right.

Not sure where this is as I never used this service. If I had to guess I'd say Deansgate and that Weatherspoons is The Moon under The Water but really not sure. They ran a few of these models for years. I'm not really a bus guy so don't know what it is? Atlantean? The quintessential Mayne before more modern busses arrived in the late 90s.

When Stagecoach bought them out many of the staff and vehicles transferred over. Quite bizarre seeing distinctive vehicles in new colours (full disclosure I'm not sure if this is an ex-Mayne bus but it's close enough for illustration).

They preserved 8859VR, one of their Regent Vs for years, but some time after the sale it got shipped out to Japan.

That's how it looked in service.

That's it as last seen in Japan. It got reregistered before export, as 8859VR would be valuable. It's on a 2008 Volvo C30 at present, and the registration is probably worth a lot more than the car.

[Sir Snipes]

Never imagined an old bus from east Manchester would find it's way all the way to Japan!

[Austin-Rover]

12 hours ago, Sir Snipes said:

...but really not sure. They ran a few of these models for years. I'm not really a bus guy so don't know what it is? Atlantean? The quintessential Mayne before more modern busses arrived in the late 90s.

It's an iconic and ubiquitous Greater Manchester 'Standard'. 

The mainstay of Greater Manchester Transport, GM Buses and their successors until the early years of this century. A development of the futuristic 'Mancunian' bus from Manchester Corporation. 

Many 'Standards' were sold off in the 80's at deregulation and went to other operators such as Maynes. 

I didn't live in Maynes territory, but saw them in Piccadilly Gardens on trips to Manchester when I was younger. 

[danthecapriman]

Some time back I asked on here about ex London Transport AEC Regent interior colours for a model I was making.

Well, I’ve just finished spraying the livery on. Finally. I think it was @Zelandeth asked to see it after.

Quite time consuming to mask up but it’s come out pretty well. There’s a few bits I need to tidy by hand still too. 
I’ll post another pic once it’s fully rebuilt. 
It started life as one of the 1:43 IXO based buses of the world partwork models.

[AndyW201]

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Dibbles Bridge coach disaster in North Yorkshire, in which 33 people, including the driver, lost their lives. An event which still causes pain for the people of Thornaby on Tees, a neighbouring town to mine, but is still largely forgotten everywhere else, despite the fact that it was, and remains, Britain's worst road accident in terms of loss of life.

The coach, JRH 758E, an 8 year old Bedford VAM/Duple Viceroy operated by Riley's Luxury Coaches of Thornaby (new to  Grey Deluxe of Hull) set off from Lanehouse Road in the town with 45 ladies (mostly  pensioners) on board for a Bank Holiday mystery tour of the Yorkshire Dales, organised by former Mayoress and Thornaby's "Good Samaritan" Dorothy White, who had been running her mystery trips for decades. They enjoyed stops at Knaresborough and Ripon before heading to the final leg of the trip, afternoon tea in Grassington.

Heading along the B6265  between Pateley Bridge and Hebden,  the coach descended the 1:6 Fancarl hill. Driver Roger Marriott missed a gear and the coach picked up speed. Despite survivors reporting that he 'fought like a lion' to slow down and control the coach, he shouted "The brakes have gone! The brakes have gone!"  The coach completely failed to negotiate the tight right-hander at the bottom leading onto Dibble's bridge, it hit the wall on  the right, tore through the safety barrier, crashed through a 3 foot high stone parapet, turned over in mid-air and landed on its roof 17 feet below, by the side of the River Dibb. The roof and sides collapsed on impact.

A young couple who were staying at the cottage next to the river, and three teenage lads from Hull, who were camping in a nearby field, were first on the scene and helped to free the first of the survivors. At first, after the alarm was raised, one single ambulance arrived, witnesses said that the ambulance driver saw the scene and his face just drained, he got straight on the radio and yelled an emergency code down it. Later, the ambulanceman, David Rhodes, said that the scene he was faced with was the worst thing that he had ever seen. Getting the survivors out was a long, laborious process, being in the mid '70s. Car jacks and hacksaws had to be used and seats had to be slowly unbolted to free the trapped. Survivors were taken to Airedale Hospital near Keighley, a long 18 mile journey in Bank Holiday Monday traffic. In all 32 people died at the scene, only 14 survived, all seriously injured.  One died later in hospital, bringing the final death toll to 33.

The coach (or remains) was taken to a garage at Pateley Bridge. Engineers found that although the coach had been serviced a week earlier and had new brake linings fitted, the handbrake had been wrenched fully on before the impact, and the nearside rear wheels could still be rotated fully, with signs of contamination on the linings. The brake expander on that corner was also inoperable. At the inquest, one driver said that after it had been serviced, the brakes had been a bit iffy on a trip to Redcar, so a replacement coach was sent out and JRH was recovered and the brakes seen to. Two other drivers had subsequently taken the coach on trips to the Lake District and Blackpool, and found no issues. It was deemed that the brakes would probably prove to be fine under normal driving conditions, the fault only manifesting in an emergency situation.

The verdict was accidental death on all the victims, caused by the inability of the driver to negotiate the bend, possibly due to faults in the coach's braking system. Owner Norman Riley was fined £75 for operating a vehicle with defective brakes. Seemingly a fairly lenient punishment but Mr Riley was a broken man after the disaster and the trial, and the company,  a very well known and popular firm in Thornaby since the 1950s,  doesn't seem to have survived long afterwards.

One positive thing that did come out of the disaster was that it highlighted the need for better coach safety. Only a few years earlier, in 1969, the Crawleyside coach disaster occurred near Stanhope, which took the lives of 19 people on a bowls club trip returning back to Blackhall from a tournament in Consett. Again, it was a case of a runaway coach down a steep bank due to brake failure,

I read somewhere that Ray Hardwick, the owner of the Middlesbrough coach firm Bee-Line had something to do with Telma retarders and had them in all his coaches. He had been extremely vocal about the need for retarders to be fitted as standard to new coaches and to be retro fitted to older ones. To demonstrate, just after the Crawleyside crash, he took one of his Telma equipped coaches, fully loaded, to Crawleyside bank. The coach went safely down the 1:5 hill, using the retarder only.

Indeed, just after the Dibbles bridge disaster, the Yorkshire Post had a Telma equipped National Express coach travel down Fancarl hill, out of gear, just on the retarder, completely safely. The MP for Thornaby at the time, Ian Wrigglesworth, also fought tirelessly for improved coach safety, which, eventually, did happen.

The coroner after the Dibbles bridge inquest pronounced it as "Britain's worst road disaster, may it always hold on to that title". Indeed.

Local film maker Derek Smith made a very good documentary about the disaster, featuring accounts from  survivors, witnesses, reporters, emergency workers and families of the victims. Well worth a watch.

[auntiemaryscanary]

Thanks @AndyW201, I knew nothing about either of those 2 major accidents. I'll watch the documentary later.

[danthecapriman]

Thanks for posting that @AndyW201 definitely something that shouldn’t be forgotten.

I was aware of both those events, both before my time of course, but there was a documentary about them on TV some years ago. Absolutely shocking. 
I suppose if you want to take something from those awful events it’s that they probably contributed hugely to bus/coach safety improvements.

 

[artdjones]

That was the second coach disaster at Dibble's bridge.  In 1925 a charabanc stopped up the incline. It had also recently had the brakes relined, and the driver stopped, got underneath, hit something, then pronounced the fault fixed. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and the vehicle went through the parapet at the same spot as in 1975. Seven people were killed that time.

[auntiemaryscanary]

On 26/05/2025 at 13:40, AndyW201 said:

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Dibbles Bridge coach disaster in North Yorkshire, in which 33 people, including the driver, lost their lives. An event which still causes pain for the people of Thornaby on Tees, a neighbouring town to mine, but is still largely forgotten everywhere else, despite the fact that it was, and remains, Britain's worst road accident in terms of loss of life.

The coach, JRH 758E, an 8 year old Bedford VAM/Duple Viceroy operated by Riley's Luxury Coaches of Thornaby (new to  Grey Deluxe of Hull) set off from Lanehouse Road in the town with 45 ladies (mostly  pensioners) on board for a Bank Holiday mystery tour of the Yorkshire Dales, organised by former Mayoress and Thornaby's "Good Samaritan" Dorothy White, who had been running her mystery trips for decades. They enjoyed stops at Knaresborough and Ripon before heading to the final leg of the trip, afternoon tea in Grassington.

Heading along the B6265  between Pateley Bridge and Hebden,  the coach descended the 1:6 Fancarl hill. Driver Roger Marriott missed a gear and the coach picked up speed. Despite eyewitnesses reporting that he 'fought like a lion' to slow down and control the coach, he shouted "The brakes have gone! The brakes have gone!"  The coach completely failed to negotiate the tight right-hander at the bottom leading onto Dibble's bridge, it hit the wall on  the right, tore through the safety barrier, crashed through a 3 foot high stone parapet, turned over in mid-air and landed on its roof 17 feet below, by the side of the River Dibb. The roof and sides collapsed on impact.

A young couple who were staying at the cottage next to the river, and three teenage lads from Hull, who were camping in a nearby field were first on the scene and helped to free the first of the survivors. After the alarm was raised, one single ambulance arrived, witnesses said that the ambulance driver saw the scene and his face just drained, he got straight on the radio and yelled some sort of code down it. Getting the survivors out was a long, laborious process, being in the mid '70s. Car jacks and hacksaws had to be used and seats had to be slowly unbolted to free the trapped. Survivors were taken to Airedale Hospital near Keighley, a long 18 mile journey in Bank Holiday Monday traffic. In all 32 people died at the scene, only 14 survived, all seriously injured.  One died later in hospital, bringing the final death toll to 33.

The coach (or remains) was taken to a garage at Pateley Bridge. Engineers found that although the coach had been serviced a week earlier and had new brake linings fitted, the handbrake had been wrenched fully on before the impact, and the nearside rear wheels could still be rotated fully, with signs of contamination on the linings. The brake expander on that corner was also inoperable. At the inquest, one driver said that after it had been serviced, the brakes had been a bit iffy on a trip to Redcar, so a replacement coach was sent out and JRH was recovered and repaired. Two other drivers had subsequently taken the coach on trips to the Lake District and Blackpool, and found no issues. It was deemed that the brakes would probably prove to be fine under normal driving conditions, the fault only manifesting in an emergency situation.

The verdict was accidental death on all the victims, caused by the inability of the driver to negotiate the bend, possibly due to faults in the coach's braking system. Owner Norman Riley was fined £75 for operating a vehicle with defective brakes.  Seemingly a fairly lenient punishment but Mr Riley was a broken man after the disaster and the trial, and the company,  a very well known and popular firm in Thornaby since the 1950s,  doesn't seem to have survived long afterwards.

One positive thing that did come out of the disaster was that it highlighted the need for better coach safety. Only a few years earlier, in 1969, the Crawleyside coach disaster occurred near Stanhope, which took the lives of 19 people on a bowls club trip returning back to Blackhall from a tournament in Consett. Again, it was a case of a runaway coach down a steep bank due to brake failure,

I read somewhere that Ray Hardwick, the owner of the Middlesbrough coach firm Bee-Line had something to do with Telma retarders and had them in all his coaches. He had been extremely vocal about the need for retarders to be fitted as standard to new coaches and to be retro fitted to older ones. To demonstrate, just after the Crawleyside crash, he took one of his Telma equipped coaches, fully loaded, to Crawleyside bank. The coach went safely down the 1:5 hill, using the retarder only.

Indeed, just after Dibbles bridge, the Yorkshire Post had a Telma equipped National Express coach travel down Fancarl hill, out of gear, just on the retarder, completely safely. The MP for Thornaby at the time, Ian Wrigglesworth, also fought tirelessly for improved coach safety, which, eventually, did happen.

The coroner after the Dibbles bridge inquest pronounced it as "Britain's worst road disaster, may it always hold on to that title". Indeed.

Local film maker Derek Smith made a very good documentary about the disaster, featuring accounts from  survivors, witnesses, reporters, emergency workers and families of the victims. Well worth a watch.

Just watched the documentary. Very well made, poignant and sympathetic. Made in 2019 with contributions from the few remaining survivors. It could do with showing on one of the national channels.

[Sir Snipes]

On 24/05/2025 at 22:47, artdjones said:

They preserved 8859VR, one of their Regent Vs for years, but some time after the sale it got shipped out to Japan.

That's how it looked in service.

That's it as last seen in Japan. It got reregistered before export, as 8859VR would be valuable. It's on a 2008 Volvo C30 at present, and the registration is probably worth a lot more than the car.

Now I think about when stopped at the depot there was always an older bus parked inside that looked "vaguely Routemaster-ish" (I'm so sorry lol). Perhaps it was this.

In addition to the various old rammel they had parked in a gravel yard around the back.

They also had an old ERF wrecker too. I wonder what happened to that?

[mat777]

Going through some very old posts on Facebook earlier reminded me of this (ex)-Bus shite I had the pleasure of riding around Smallwood vintage show on in about 2009:

 

One of, I believe, 2(? - there's another, restored one numbered BD2 but photographed with 2 different numberplates - one bus 2 plates, or 2 buses one livery?) survivors of a rare(?) type of Leyland Tiger with a particular type of flareside body , later shortened and repurposed by operators Ribble  (I'm sure someone will soon fill in the details!)

It did belong to an old Land Rovering friend until a few years ago, I dont think he still has it now. Mechanically it was all there but cosmetically it was looking increasingly faded/flaky, I wonder if it has since been restored too?

 

[quicksilver]

Autonomous bus experiments are clearly going well*. This ugly thing (an Aurrigo Auto-Shuttle made in Coventry) isn't even five years old but is already confined to static display and unlikely to ever run again. Solihull Council became the first authority to own one when they bought it, no doubt at a huge cost, with a grant from the local enterprise fund. I don't think it ever ran on public roads and it has now been donated to the Wythall Transport Museum with its batteries removed.