Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986
Thanks for the updates MPTE I used 1834 a fair bit as it used to be on the 9B and 111's a lot in 87-88. It was distinctive as it was the only one with the WWM-W reg out of that 1821-42 batch.

I know Walton/Litherland had some from that batch in PTE days from old pics on Flickr of them on the 28's and a scene in One Summer showed one on a 20 before the lads decide to leg it to Wales.

It was interesting that when Speke lost the Dominator's non of the '00' fleet ran in South Liverpool apart from a odd few on GL's 92's to Penny Lane and GM's 192/later 217's until the revisions and garage closures in '89 and more so 91.

[MPTE1955]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986
Don't ever remember getting 1834 at any stage, I didn't actually think it made it to GM but found a photo showing it did. 1834 met with an early end, not sure what happened to it. The engine of 1834 ended up in 1063. That's true about the 00 series of buses, probably none ended up back in South Liverpool until the closure of Walton in 1989.

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986
Might be wrong but I think 1834 moved to GM in July 91 when pretty much all of Edge Lane's fleet moved to GL and the remaining 1821-42 batch at GL along with GL's MTJ-S Atlantean's moved out.

GL had some big changes in 92-93 when the ECW and A-Reg Alexander Olympian's and remaining Willowbrook Atty's moved (mostly sold on) and got replaced by Alexander Atlantean's of various ages too.

GL had a interesting loan in August 92 when one of LS's NC Olympian's from the 0264-70 batch was running on a Sunday 41 to Huyton once. I can't remember which one it was and never saw any more of these NC's on GL routes again but weird to see it although the SH batch were quite regular in that area on the 10's. Maybe it was cover for the 0064-68 batch leaving GL and being refurbished for LS's 'Silver Service' routes in that Autumn.

It was also interesting that the acquired London Titan's pretty much were all at GM until about 95/96-ish when GL, SH, Speke and what was left of Fareway got them too... more so when MTL took over Liverbus and transferred the ex-London Surburban ones.

[MPTE1955]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986
Well a few Ecw of Olympians went to Fareway in blue and yellow, don't think they seen further service on Merseyside after that and were sold on. At one time in the late 80's/Early 90's GM had most of the East Lancs Atty's for a while. The influx of titans saw them moved with some of course going to Manchester

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986
IIRC the remaining ECW's that went to Fareway moved to Black Prince after Fareway closed. Not sure how long they lasted with them?

Black Prince also got the ex-London Alexander Scania's in 99 too it's possible a odd one of these survived long enough to be taken on by First too.

[teenagewasteland]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986
Thanks for the additional information. I will update my fleetlist accordingly.

Can anyone dispel or confirm a long-heard rumour that a couple of East Lancs VRs 2103/17/36, based at Garston, actually ran in revenue-earning service for Merseybus? What is true is that some VRs ran up to the last bus on 25/10/86, but may have been mistakenly sent out for a few days after dereg until someone realised the error and they were quickly withdrawn?

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986

(02/08/2020 14:01)teenagewasteland Wrote:  Thanks for the additional information. I will update my fleetlist accordingly.

Can anyone dispel or confirm a long-heard rumour that a couple of East Lancs VRs 2103/17/36, based at Garston, actually ran in revenue-earning service for Merseybus? What is true is that some VRs ran up to the last bus on 25/10/86, but may have been mistakenly sent out for a few days after dereg until someone realised the error and they were quickly withdrawn?

I wonder if these were the one's Fareway acquired as it's 101-10 in early '87? Always interesting that most of the N-reg EL/VR's apart from the Fareway one's and a odd few that went to the likes of Maun Chestfield and later our own Blue Triangle just vanished when dereg happened so were most of these scrapped? I suppose it was to stop rivals maybe getting hold of them but considering older and similar aged Atlantean's lasted in the fleet almost a decade longer they'd have still had some life in them? In fact Fareway had them until '94/95 after MTL haf taken them over too.

It's not impossible a few may have ran briefly for Merseybus from Garston after D-Day especially if they had vehicle shortages and changes with the ex-PTE garage's and allocations in South Liverpool with PAR closed, VR's and Metropolitan's withdrawn and maybe standardising requiremenrs there on Alexander Atlantean's brought in from other garage's etc.

Speaking of Metropolitan's cI remember passing Gillmoss in the Summer of' 86 and loads of the MCW/Scania Metropolitan's were parked up withdrawn at the rear of the yard. I know Kingston-upon-Hull got some RKA-N's but like the VR's you didn't really see many others on the secondhand market and they'd near enough vanished by the late '80's too.

All good stuff in this thread!

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986
Out of interest, does anyone know when the Bristol RE's left the PTE/Merseybus fleet? They seemed to just disappear.

[teenagewasteland]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986

(03/08/2020 19:52)St Helens Rider Wrote:  Out of interest, does anyone know when the Bristol RE's left the PTE/Merseybus fleet? They seemed to just disappear.

2146-55 GTJ382-91N Bristol REs left the Merseyside PTE fleet in May 1986, and became 1822-31 in the Tyne & Wear PTE fleet in readiness for dereg as Busways.

[teenagewasteland]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986

(03/08/2020 19:35)Gillmoss 0324 Wrote:  I wonder if these were the one's Fareway acquired as it's 101-10 in early '87? Always interesting that most of the N-reg EL/VR's apart from the Fareway one's and a odd few that went to the likes of Maun Chestfield and later our own Blue Triangle just vanished when dereg happened so were most of these scrapped? I suppose it was to stop rivals maybe getting hold of them but considering older and similar aged Atlantean's lasted in the fleet almost a decade longer they'd have still had some life in them? In fact Fareway had them until '94/95 after MTL haf taken them over too.

It's not impossible a few may have ran briefly for Merseybus from Garston after D-Day especially if they had vehicle shortages and changes with the ex-PTE garage's and allocations in South Liverpool with PAR closed, VR's and Metropolitan's withdrawn and maybe standardising requiremenrs there on Alexander Atlantean's brought in from other garage's etc.

Speaking of Metropolitan's cI remember passing Gillmoss in the Summer of' 86 and loads of the MCW/Scania Metropolitan's were parked up withdrawn at the rear of the yard. I know Kingston-upon-Hull got some RKA-N's but like the VR's you didn't really see many others on the secondhand market and they'd near enough vanished by the late '80's too.

All good stuff in this thread!

The big problem in compiling a fleetlist for this period is so much happened at the last minute that what actually happened is lost in the mists of time. Merseybus were not properly prepared for dereg (who was??), they had let too many serviceable vehicles and staff go too quickly. What Merseybus didn't take - the Metro-Scanias (both types) but the DDs were rust buckets so they couldn't stay. The Fleetlines were mechanically destroyed. The VRs didn't stay simply because they weren't Atlanteans. But then Merseybus kept 3 Swifts and 3 ex-Southport AN68s in revenue-earning service for a while, so what do I know?

Compare with North Western, who had wrapped up their preparations for dereg about six weeks before it happened - therefore compiling a fleetlist for them was relatively straight forward. The Ribble Enthusiasts Club had their spies and were very thorough in getting the correct information in what stayed with Ribble and what went to North Western.