Blackpool means different things to different people. To some it’s the beach To some it’s the illuminations. To some it’s the sea or maybe the Tower but to me it has always meant transport and lots of it.
There are old and new trams, the railway, there is the airport, there are enumerable holiday coaches and of course there are the buses.
I have written about both the trams and coaches in recent times so now it is the buses turn to take their bow.
The largest operator in the town is ‘Blackpool Transport Services’ which used to be the old ‘Blackpool Corporation Transport’.
For many years they faced competition from ‘Fylde Borough Transport’ which was the old ‘Lytham St Annes Corporation’ operation until it was taken over in 1994.
Competition is still evident today. This time it comes from ‘Classic Bus North West’ and it is these two operators who feature. (plus a brief appearance by Stagecoach).
Most of Blackpool’s double deck fleet appears at first glance to be fairly uniform. The bodies are a mix of ELC Lolyne, Myllennium Lolyne or Myllennium Lowlander and bear a family resemblance to each other.
The chassis are a mix of Dennis or Transbus Trident 2’s and DAF DB250LF’s.
The Tridents are a further mixture of buses built for Blackpool and others that came from ‘Blackburn Transport’, ‘Blue Triangle’, 'Green Triangle' and the Isle of Man operator ‘Bus Vannin’.
Whilst the DAF’s are all from ‘Bus Vannin’.
PO51 UMT
Is an ex ‘Blue Triangle’ Trident.
PN52 XKJ
Is an ex ‘Blackburn’ Trident.
J800 BTS
Is an ex ‘Bus Vannin’ DAF.
E13 BTS
Is an ex
‘Bus Vannin’ Trident.
PF06 EZL
Is a bus actually built for Blackpool.
There is also small number of Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians but I didn’t see any of them.
The single deck fleet includes
Optare Solo’s
YJ08 PFD
Seen in ‘Resort Pass Hopper Bus’ livery.
PN03 UGH
is seen in fleet livery.
BF60 UVP
A Volvo B7RLE with Plaxton Centro body.
AU06 BOV
Another Volvo B7RLE this time with Wright Eclipse bodywork. One of a batch of five purchased from ‘Anglian’.
T218 HCW
A rather snatched image of this Optare Excel being the only one I saw. This was new to Blackpool although there are other Excels that came from ‘Go Northern’ and ‘Reading Buses in service.
I only saw ‘Classic Bus’ vehicles operating along the promenade. All that I saw were elderly and all were indeed ‘Classics’.
XAU 701Y
A Leyland Olympian with Eastern Coach Works body is an old friend from its days with ‘Trent Buses’ (for whom it was built) as they were then.
On the previous occasion that I saw it in Blackpool, it was sat at the back of ‘Blackpool Transport’s Rigby Road depot looking rather forlorn. It had joined the Blackpool fleet in 1997 together with 9 others of the type.
Now with its front painted in traditional ‘National Bus Company’ red and white, while the rest of it wears this rather garish advert for ‘Hot Ice’.
BNK 324A
You cannot get more ‘Classic’ than this 50 year old Park Royal bodied Routemaster.
The unlikely registration number hides the fact that it is really RM 1568 and was originally 568 CLT in 'London Transport' service.
While many much younger buses sit in museums around the country. It is a credit to its original constructors and to the engineers who keep it in daily service now.
Long may it continue !!
P269 PSX
A Volvo Olympian 56 with Alexander Royale bodywork that was new to ‘Lothian Buses’ in 1997.
F69 FYE
You do not see many 6 wheel Metrobuses. This one was built for The China Motor Bus Company as its ML81.
It was repatriated and worked for the ‘Big Bus Tours’ in London coming to Blackpool this year (2013).
MX55 KPL
Almost mundane following what has gone before is this Alexander ALX 400 bodied Dennis Trident working for Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire out of Preston depot.
Finally a bit of humour are these 3 ‘buses’ included in Blackpool’s illuminations. If you go, they are up at the North end of the promenade.
I suspect they are based on the ‘Routemaster’.
Nice
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