I coulda been a contender - a photo on Flickriver

Apologies for the Sylvester Stallone reference, but it sums up this bus perfectly. For it's a 'Metrobus' made by Metro Cammell Weymann of Birmingham, thankfully more often known by its initials MCW.

MCW had been a coachbuilder, making bodywork for other people's chassis (actually two coachbuilders, but let's not go there today). Now and again it made 'integral' vehicles, where the chassis and body are one like almost all modern cars, and MCW's chosen partner was Leyland - the two firms worked closely together.

But by the 1970s, Leyland was turning from a partner for MCW into a threat. It has introduced its Leyland National single decker, an integral made completely by Leyland, and it was planning to make an equivalent double decker that eventually became the Titan.

This meant no role for companies like MCW, so the firm first partnered with Swedish company Scania to make integral buses of its own; then in 1978 it launched the Metrobus, its own integral double decker with engine usually by Gardner or Cummins.

By now Leyland was having its own problems: its near-monopoly in the UK worried bus operators, especially as the supply of chassis and spare parts from Leyland was badly affected by the wave of strikes that swept the UK in that troubled decade.

So the Metrobus was welcomed with open arms by some very influential bus companies, including Greater Manchester Transport who ordered over two hundred in the following years. They were fast and popular with drivers, but there were clouds on the horizon by the mid 1980s. Firstly, the prospect of deregulation in 1986 made most bus companies cut back on orders with the uncertainty of the change. Some companies with broad offerings of buses and lorries, and selling to many countries, could weather the storm; MCW, selling a small range almost completely to the UK, could not. And by the late 1980s a fairly crucial defect was coming to light: MCW buses suffered badly from rust.

And so MCW went out of business before the 1980s was out. Its buses lived on of course, and some had long lives especially if given expensive rebuilds to replace rusty subframes and rear ends.

5083 seen here was a lucky one: it lasted long enough to be donated by First Greater Manchester to the Museum of Transport, where at the time of writing it awaits restoration. But its time will come and so the characteristic whine of a Metrobus transmission will be heard once again in Manchester.

If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester and its collection of vintage buses, go to www.motgm.uk.

© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.

Taken in: UK / England / Blackley (show map)

Taken on: January 1, 1984

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www.gmts.co.uk

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Sets appears in: • Selnec/GMT/GM Buses • Manchester more » • Manchester streets « less

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