Same here!Confusing that the Museum Chairman is called Dennis, at first I thought the quote from him was from someone at Dennis/ADL
Is that the same company as the current Bullock's, based in Cheadle?
Stagecoach Ribble brought a batch of 5 Dennis Berkof single deck low floor buses to the M10 service in I think 1996Good to hear that.
We shouldn't however forget that it wasn't Stagecoach that were first to bring low-floor buses into service in Manchester - it was in fact R. Bullock on the 42 and/or 157 by 1998 with Optare Spectras, with a livery proudly proclaiming they were first. I don't think Stagecoach were far behind, though.
This vehicle was one of the originals:
I certainly would not dis agree with that, Bullocks were an extremely well run progressive company who were at the forefront of post de regulation services in south ManchesterI stand corrected...perhaps Bullocks had the first low floor double decker, then? It definitely had a proud proclamation like that on the back.
Low floor bus on the M10
That would make sense in terms of the timeframe as there was a big gap between the first low floor buses appearing and the first low floor double decker entering service
Good to hear that.
We shouldn't however forget that it wasn't Stagecoach that were first to bring low-floor buses into service in Manchester - it was in fact R. Bullock on the 42 and/or 157 by 1998 with Optare Spectras, with a livery proudly proclaiming they were first. I don't think Stagecoach were far behind, though.
This vehicle was one of the originals:
R1 NEG wore the same livery when new, the Gold of Bullocks replaced by the blue of TWM.
I wonder if they did the thing that local firms sometimes do of making an arrangement to tag a couple of vehicles onto a big order from a PTE or a larger company.
Ahem! Could we have captions for each photograph and a credit to the photographer when it's not your own work? Thank you
Must have been riling to be beaten by what looks like one of "those" independents 
I recall that Abus got wind about the Nat-Ex pair (one for TWM and the other for Travel Dundee), they had just picked up R222AJP and worked through the night to get it ready, beating the Nat-Ex ones into service by a few hours.Fixed, apologies.
Though that one was "accessable", so that's OK
Accessable (!) Optare Spectra R222 AJP in Brislington, Richard Simons
I think it was used as a driver training vehicle until recently.
My sentiments exactly. Stripes just sat so well on nearly everything it was applied to, from Routemasters & Lodekkas to PSes, Merc breadvans & Olympians through to ALX400-bodied Tridents, ALX300-bodied MANs & ALX200-bodied Darts. Hands down my favorite livery from the Stagecoach stable.
Indeed, we had some comments about this in the "enthusiast attitude" thread back in the summer. If someone has the money available to buy and look after a vehicle or their choice, then it's entirely their choice what they buy! Whilst it can seem slightly odd to see a vehicle in Stagecoach stripes in preservation, it's worth remembering how old it is already - getting on for 22 years old - so actually isn't that recent at all.
I read elsewhere that it wasn't even beaten by a few hours, but just under one hour!
Without veering off topic too much.... Abus picked up theirs the day before from Hughes DAF. A chance conversation revealed Nat Ex were launching their Spectra at mid day the following day. Alan got back to Bristol, fitted a ticket machine, prepped it for service and launched it on the first 349 at 0650 the following day.
You'd think that Perth (being Souters home turf) would get all the new toys, but it's always Manchester for some reason. They were among the first to get both generations of the Enviro 400 too.
Because historically Manchester has made the best margins, though that's been pegged back in recent times with all the negative effects of the franchising uncertainty.
