GM Buses South

[Damien]

GM Buses South
I decided to start, to a thread, to remember the good old days of GM BUSES SOUTH, the old routes, the vehicles, operating area.

Gm Buses South were

TE = Tameside Depot
HE = Hyde Road Depot
PS = Princess Road Depot

plus BT Bennett Street SOU - Seprate operating unit

[gilesbus1]

RE: GM Buses South
No not so Tameside depot TE closed in 1991 by GM Buses. There operatiosn where as follows

Main Depots:-

HE Hyde Road, Ardwick, Manchester
HEG York Street, Glossop (Sub Depot of Hyde Road)
PS Princess Road, Moss Side, Manchester
ST Daw Bank, Stockport

SOU's

BT Bennett Street, Ardwick , Manchester (Rear of Hyde Road)
CS Stockport - Charles Street

Charterplan

CN Stockport - Charles Street - also had some SOU vehicles allocated as well also for a short period a depot was openned in the London area for Chaterplan work - I guess it might also of been used if GMS had considered LT contracts at any stage, we have no evidence that they did or didn't do that.

Allocation on takeover was

MINIBUSES

Dodge S56/NCME, 73 of the 80 MCW Metroriders

MIDIBUSES

The remaining Dennis Domino's with NCME bodies

COACHES

A various assortment of Leyland Leopards with Duple body - rebodies from 1976 ECW bodied Leopards SND--X plates
Leyland Tigers with Duple 320 bodies and Leyland Tigers with Plaxton Paramount 3200 ii and Plaxton Paramount 3500 II and a solitary F plate example with Plaxton Paramount 3500 III
Kassbohrer Setra's new in 1983/4/90/1 (1990 examples secondhand)
Volvo B10M's with Plaxton Paramount 3500 III bodies new in 1987/8/9 and acquired from Parks of Hamilton or Wallace Arnold??
A solitary Volvo B10M with Van Hool Alizee HE body and a solitary Volvo B10M with Jonckheere Deauville P599 body.

Saloons

Leyland Nationals either new to GMPTE or Lancashire United plus a motely assortment of secondhand examples bought mainly from Gatwick handling and converted from Dual Door to single-door with many given Private plates ranging from ex Crosville WFM801K to RUF 41R as two examples most where of pre 1975 origin of these.

Deckers

1451 Leyland Olympian B45/ NCME body - GMPTE Experimental bus - NJA568W
1461-1462 Scania BR112DH / NCME bodies - GMPTE Experimental vehicles - FWH461-462Y
1463-1467 Scania N113DRB / NCME Bodies - H463-467GVM
1471-1473 Dennis Falcon V / NCME bodies - GMPTE experimental buses - A471-473HNC
2000-2030 Dennis Dominators / NCME bodies B901-920TVR, B 21-30 TVU
2031-2040 Dennis Dominators / NCME bodies later front end H131-140GVM
3001-3010 Leyland Olympian /NCME ANA 1 - 10Y
3016-3035 Leyland Olympian / NCME
30xx-32xx Leyland Olympian / NCME
32xx - 3277 Leyland Olympian /NCME Express layout
4xxx-41xx Leyland Fleetline / NCME - All moved to Birkenhead depot later on and painted in Birkenhead and District Pale Blue and Cream Livery reg's XBU--S, ANA--T, BVR--T, HDB---V, KDB---V, MNC---W
41xx-47xx Leyland Atlantean / NCME
5xxx MCW Metrobus MKI / MCW bodies
71xx Leyland Atlantean / Park Royal Open Top VNB132L
77xx Leyland Atlanteans / NCME bodies pre 1978
78xx-7xx Leyland Atlanteans / Park Royal bodies pre 1979 regs RJA---R, UNA---S, WVM---S, ANC---T, BNC---T.

Vehicles brought in after take over besides the assortment of coaches and Leyland Nationals included a Toyota Coaster Caetano Optimo III secondhand, 30 x Mercedes-Benz 811D Alexander Sprint AM 401-430 N401-430WVR and 20 assorted Volvo B6-50's with Alexander Dash bodies on load from Stagecoach which somewhat highlighted the way things where going to go.

Competition outside Manchester occured at Birkenhead with MTL using Fleetlines and in Liverpool using various newer Atlanteans from PS.

Stagecoach acquired the company aftera long sort battle in early March 1996 and quickly moved in a batch of Volvo Olympians with Alexander RL bodies intended for St6agecoach South then later moved in hundreds of Volvo B10M's with Alexander PS bodies a batch of Merc 709D's and a further batch of Olympians quickly these swept out most of the GMPTE types still existing especially Atlanteans and Metrobuses.

Gilesbus1

[Damien]

RE: GM Buses South
Thanks giles for the revised information, only wasn't some of chaterplans operation based up at BY at least that is what flickr shows

Also when did 1451 NJA 568W move to Queens Road?

[gilesbus1]

RE: GM Buses South
1451 NJA568W was new to Queens Road in Dcember 1980, later it moved to Charles Street when SOU's came about possibly via Stockport but can't be 100% sure about the latter.

In regards to Cahterplan in GMPTE days Warburtons of Bury, Lancashire Uniyed 's coach operatiosn and Godfrey Abbot where all bought out. Therefore seperate basis where maintained at Atherton and Bury for a handful of coaches, those at Atherton based outside the Workshops on the opposite side of the road to the main depot. Later everything was concentrated on Charles Street just after deregulation and under the Charterplan Banner.

Godfrey Abbot, Lancashire United and Warburtons all had diffrent versions of the Charterplan livery, eg LUT was Red and Yellow, Warburtons two tone blue and Godfrey Abbot Green and Brown.

Godfrey Abbot had been based at a seperate base on Cross Street in Sale but this closed with the failure of Ring & Ride in 1979 so everything was moved to Charles Street.

This isn't teh end of GMPTE's coaching story as many of you may not know GMPTE had the option to become the UK's largest coaching operator in the early 1980's when it had bidding rights which it didn't express on Shearings and Smith Hapopiway Spencers in the form of the holding company Pleasurama Group, how that might have fitted in isn't clear but the PTE would have also owned a portfolio of Hotels as well and garages in other area's of the Country as well as further garages in Wiogan (Where the drive though McDonalds is now) and Altrincham and a smaller shed at Levenshule and a further depot at Southport. To what might have been.