Calderdale JOC PD2 and SELNEC Mancunian in Rochdale - 3 Apr 1972

Monday 3 April 1972 – Contrasting buses seen in Smith Street, Rochdale.

On the right is a Calderdale Joint Omnibus Committee Leyland bodied Leyland PD2 that had been new to the Todmorden Joint Omnibus Committee around 1951 (looks like one of the KWX 12-19 batch). It was ready to operate to Burnley via Littleborough, Summit and Todmorden.

On the left is a SELNEC PTE Mancunian (Park Royal bodied Daimler Fleetline or Leyland Atlantean), a style introduced by Manchester City Transport in 1968 so the bus would have been new within the previous four years. After SELNEC was formed in November 1969 various exchanges of bus types occurred and this Mancunian was now working at Rochdale garage (so quite likely it would have been a Daimler Fleetline). It sports service number 6, the former Rochdale Corporation number, operating to Littleborough and Summit. So the two buses were heading in the same direction.

Directly behind the Mancunian is one of the 10 Seddon Pennine bodied AEC Swifts delivered new to SELNEC in late 1971/early 1972 that were said to have been ordered by Rochdale Corporation. Registered TDK 540/541J and TDK 542-549K they would have been numbered 40-49 by RCT but became SELNEC 5040-5049.

The roadway behind the buses became the trackbed of the Metrolink tramway some forty odd years later. The site on the right is where the Council Offices and Bus Station were subsequently built and having outlived their usefulness were later demolished so that, other than the tramway infrastructure, the view doesn’t really look a whole lot different in 2017!