*AMAZING ZF* Ride on First Manchester 69154 - MX06 VOH - Wright Eclipse Urban - Shuttle Run

The second ride I got was of a type that did run here in Leicester for 15 years, yet I never went on here due to the crap selection of routes that I had no reason to use outside of bashing.
This is 69154, which has been on my bucket list for quite a while now. This might not have been the fastest run, only running down to Rotherham Interchange, but it was enough to hear that beautiful ZF. Don’t you just love when the preservationists have picked a brilliant example?
69154 was one of 250 B7RLEs delivered to Manchester during 2005 and 2006, which consisted of 66794 all the way through to 66933, as well as 69135 to 69244. These were split across nearly all the depots, complete with Overground branding for various key routes across the county. A few left during 2008-2010 as some of these routes were converted back to double-deck, such as the 36 and 37, the 180 and 184, and the 409. They transferred to operations that rarely got their own deliveries like the Potteries, Essex, Hampshire, Dorset, Cornwall and South Wales, while others ended up in Stagecoach ownership when First sold their Wigan depot to them in December 2012. It was only really the 2019 sales that started to see the rest out.
This one was delivered new to Bolton and was part of the 69149-69156 batch that were branded for the 582 between Bolton, Atherton and Leigh, so not really a city visitor. 69154 was allocated to Bolton for its entire time with First Manchester, right up until they sold the depot to Diamond in August 2019. After being on loan with them for a short while until they got their own vehicles, it transferred to the Potteries, where it operated up until the summer of 2022, before retiring and later going into preservation. It now carries its original Barbie livery and has even had its 582 branding restored.
I actually did use to go on a few of the Manchester examples on the 97 and 98 back in the day, though in later years, it was more B9TLs that kept turning up whenever I visited.
It is owned by the Wigan Bus Preservation Group, who also had Arriva North East Wright Renown 4515 on display. In addition to this, they are also the proud owners of First South Yorkshire/Manchester Renown 60663 (or 845), Stagecoach North East MAN ALX300 22027, and Stagecoach Manchester Volvo B10BLE NC Paladin 21104 (or 604).

[@ChilternTransportProductions]

They certainly have picked a great example to preserve, I’m with you on that! Also, thank you for the history lesson on their service life - very helpful for an alternative history project I’m interested in working on! And can those veg shut up? They should have respect for those wanting to film like they’d expect when they want to take photos…

[@leicestertravels4705]

I was thinking the exact same thing as I was filming. Still, at least they weren’t as bad as those disrespectful assholes I was on 3606 with a while back. I’ll probably refilm this on a longer stretch if an opportunity arises anyway. I’m actually working on a history project myself with buses from this era, mainly looking into original allocations.

[@ChilternTransportProductions]

@@leicestertravels4705 If you ever need help with Shires based stuff, especially in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, give me a shout on my email address. I don’t do social media so that’s the only way to contact me now