North Birmingham Busways

Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlantean AN68, fleet no 70, registration A700 HNB, of the former North Birmingham Busways.
This was delivered new as fleet number 8700 to Greater Manchester Transport in January 1984, which later became SELNEC – South East Lancs North East Cheshire.
Withdrawn from service in August 1997, by which time SELNEC had become part of the Stagecoach group, the vehicle was purchased by North Birmingham Busways, along with a number of other former SELNEC machines.
Retired from North Birmingham Busways in January 2006, the vehicle was purchased by the SELNEC Preservation Society, and moved to a site in Openshaw, Greater Manchester, where it spent the next 12 years in open storage.
Examination of the bus in the summer of 2019 showed it to be in remarkably good condition, and it was purchased by a friend of mine and subsequently driven under its own steam to a secure and covered location in Tameside.
During its time with GMT/SELNEC, the vehicle was based for all of its working life at the Daw Bank garage at Stockport, so is no stranger to Tameside – one of its regular routes was the service 330 from Stockport to Ashton-under-Lyne.
Here we see it at its new home in Tameside, where it will be restored into the original GMT/SELNEC colours of orange white and brown.
Mon22Jul19.