These photographs are of bus no. 115 and were taken in May 1996 when the bus was on display in Market Place.
This photo was scanned from a postcard. It shows bus no 57 which is now preserved at the Greater Manchester Transport Museum in Manchester.
Contrary to popular belief, this bus WAS repainted in GMT orange and white but was rapidly repainted into Wigan Corporation livery. I remember that originally it had the 'County Borough of Wigan' legend on the upper deck panels (as in the photo of 3207 below) rather than the more common 'Wigan Corporation' lettering on the between deck panels. It also ran with various combinations of livery and fleet numbers. If anyone would like details of these, please let me know.The photos below were all scanned from the book 'Greater Manchester Transport Album' by Michael Stokes. I thought that this book was out of print but it has recently been re-printed so apolgies for the copyright infringement. The captions for each photo are taken directly from the book with additions where necessary by myself.
Apart from 3200, a 1958 PD2, the oldest double decks inherited from Wigan were ten pd3's of 1959. No 3207 had a Northern Counties body.3200 was the GMT fleet number of No.115 pictured at the top of the page.
Some of the first repaints into GMT livery were the PD3A/s delivered in 1961 and 1962.Bus no 3232 had a Massey body and is seen in Wigan Market Place on 22/8/75. It was withdrawn in 1979.
This bus was one of the same batch as No 57 pictured above.
Bodywork for Wigan was produced locally by Northern Counties or Massey and 3255's was by the latter. It is seen in Library Street on 22/8/75.The building on the right of the picture, behind the bus shelter, was the Mining and Technical College. Following the acquisition of alternative premises it was converted and now houses the Town Hall, Registry Office and Library.
The last Northern Counties-bodied PD2's were six delivered in 1966 and 1967. No 3288 had just been repainted when photographed on 22/8/75 near the town centre.This is actually Station Road around the corner from the two pictures above. The building in the background was the Art Gallery and Children's Library. This was demolished in 1985/6 to facilitate construction of Riversway. A photo of it can be found elsewhere on this site.
The last front engine double decks for Wigan were nine PD2's new in 1968 with Massey bodies. 3296 is seen in Library Street on 22/8/75. One or two of this batch were soon to be transferred to Oldham.
One of ten Atlantean AN68's delivered to Wigan in 1972, No 3335 is seen near the bus station on 1/11/82 wearing the new GMT livery.
Bus 3301 represents one of Wigan's first Atlanteans delivered in 1968.When one man operation was introduced with these buses it was limited to certain routes where reversal was not required at the terminii.
Before ordering twelve Leyland Panthers Wigan bought two Panther Cubs in 1967.All Wigan's buses had a green fog light on each side of the destination indicator, a practice that dates from the 1930's. It was only when writing this page that I noticed they were not in place on this bus. Can any bus enthusiasts shed some light on this? (Pun totally intended!!!)
1325 was one of six Bristol LH's ordered by Wigan that arrived new to GMT. Photographed in Wigan on 4/9/75 it was destined to have a short life like the rest of its batch and one or two are now working for Silcox of Pembroke Dock.These didn't have the fog lights either! 1325 is on the bus park on Station Road which can be seen in the background of the photo of 3288 above and is parked next to one of the Leyland Panthers mentioned above.
A view, taken from the Wigan Evening Post, of bus 89 photographed in Market Place in the early to mid-70s.