Ribble 1638 (NCK 627) at Rochdale - 17 July 1972

Monday 17 July 1972 - As a schoolboy bus enthusiast my favourite Ribble Motor Services bus was Metro-Cammell bodied Leyland Atlantean 1638 (NCK 627) which was delivered in February 1960, a few weeks before my tenth birthday. The Atlantean was a revolutionary design and to an impressionable bus mad ten year old was the epitome of modern design. It was allocated to Blackburn garage for most of its life.

This morning I just happened to be in the town centre early on and noticed 1638 on the stand in Packer Street outside the Trustee Savings Bank waiting to work the 0740 service to Preston. The crew had nipped off for a cup of tea and I took a photograph. In those pre-digital photography days one never knew how a photo would turn out until the prints came back from the shop. The bus was in the shadows and the morning was bright sunshine (yes, Rochdale did get some bright sunny days!). When the crew returned to the bus I asked the driver if he wouldn’t mind pausing in the sun as he departed. He very kindly obliged going that step further to turn the bus round completely for me but in doing so the roof ventilators very nearly brought down some bunting which was in place for a local event!

Only a matter of months later 1638 left the Ribble fleet and was one of a number of former Ribble Atlanteans sold on by W North (a dealer in Sherburn in Elmet, South Yorkshire) to the Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited in Hong Kong. With its new owner it received fleet number 2L49 with registration number BE 3615 and was operated by KMB until 1977. (A photograph of the bus with KMB appears in the insert photo).