North Western 796 - Nostalgic Journeys
North
Western Road Car Company (NWRCC), a much admired part of the BET Federation,
was based in Stockport, Cheshire.
Operating stage carriage services principally in Cheshire, Derbyshire and the
more urban parts of Lancashire in and around Manchester, it was also an
important express services operator connecting Manchester with destinations
such as Blackpool, Derby, Leeds, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Nottingham.
796 (LDB
796) was the last Leyland Tiger Cub purchased by NWRCC and it entered service
in March 1960 in the then standard dual purpose livery of black upper-works,
cream band and red panels. Not
surprisingly these vehicles were nicknamed “black tops” and were well regarded
by passengers and drivers alike; they could be found operating a mixture of
local and medium distance services throughout the Company’s operating area.
Initially,
796 was a Wilmslow based “car” (NWRCC generally referred to its vehicles as
“cars”) but sister vehicles numbered 792-795 were based at Urmston depot in the
early 60’s and this DVD sets out to re-create some of the services operated by
these vehicles in that area of south west Manchester which embraced both urban
and rural routes, some as far as Warrington to the west.
The
cameras of independent transport videos were there in the
summer of 2011 to record scenes such as the “black top” emerging from the
former depot (closed as long ago as May 1973) to take up service on route 107
which connected Eccles to Flixton. So enjoy, firstly, shots taken on part of the
route of service X60, Blackpool to Manchester then a short working of route 22x
from Barton Bridge to Urmston before taking in routes including 106 Flixton to Urmston and
service 102 Urmston to Warrington via Lymm, which at Statham passed through one of the infamous
low bridges beneath the Bridgewater Canal.
The DVD
closes with scenes filmed at Network Warrington’s (Warrington Borough
Transport-WBT) depot where NWRCC maintained a small outstation. There, 796 is
reunited with Warrington’s PD2/Special, number 148, which is still owned and
operated by WBT as a heritage vehicle.
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Filmed
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2011 |
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Duration
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70 minutes (approx). |
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Price
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Within UK - £16 |
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Rest of world -
£18 |
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Format
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DVD -R |
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Picture Aspect
16:9 |
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Order
Ref : |
D147 |