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PBU949 former Oldham Corporation Roe-bodied 449, Titan PD2/30, now SELNEC 5349 and one of 44 of the chassis type new between 7/58 and 1/59, heads for Manchester on the 90 express route, which linked Rochdale and Manchester.
In 1965 these buses needed their first 7 years Certificate of Fitness tests carried out about the same time and Oldham's Transport Department did not have enough staff to do the overhauls as well as maintain the rest of the fleet. The infamous 1965 'M.o.T crisis' resulted and dozens of buses were taken off the road in one overnight visit by Government officials and M.o.T. inspectors. Oldham could not operate full services for weeks afterwards, despite borrowing buses from other operators. My Grandad worked at the garage as a mechanical fitter at the time and like other maintenance staff, was often expected to work 6 days a week, often making parts from scratch, because there weren't that many 'off the shelf' parts. Eventually, other Corporation transport departments helped Oldham by overhauling several of the buses, but after operations passed to the control of SELNEC, many of the batch didn't see a second CoF overhaul. Sister bus 436 remained in service until late 1975/early 1976, but unfortunately a feature in the 'Oldham Chronicle' looking for a preservationist for it, failed to find one, so none of the PBU batch survive.
Sister bus 441 had red backed seats and I always wondered how this had come about. Maybe it was overhauled at Stockport and received Stockport bus seats! In which case was there a Stockport bus running round with Oldham bus seats? Anyone know?

Photo taken by Peter Hadfield, Friday 16 October 1970, Junction of Burnley Lane and Broadway, Chadderton

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