When is a horse bus, not a horse bus?

Followers of the Heaton Park Tramway may well be aware that, a few years ago, the Manchester Transport Museum Society acquired a partially restored horse-drawn bus from Beamish Museum, where it had been declared surplus to requirements. The idea was that this vehicle, believed to originate from Manchester, could help to tell the story of the city’s transport history pre-tram. It was therefore moved to Heaton Park and placed in secure storage in a barn away from the tramway itself.

However, recently the MTMS were required to move its assets out of this storage site and therefore the horse bus had to be moved to the Lakeside Depot, where it joins various trams awaiting restoration. As the wheels were stored seperately and the bus could not be placed on them, an ingenious solution was thought of to keep it mobile – placing it upon the truck destined for use beneath Rawtenstall 23, which is presently stored in kit form as a future restoration project. This had recently been uncovered, cleaned and transferred to Lakeside but was moved again on 6th December to allow the horse bus to be carefully mounted upon it, with some additional wooden framing in place for stability. This means that two valuable items in the Society’s collection are now housed undercover in the new depot, but only taking up one space!

So, to answer the original question – a horse bus is arguably not a horse bus when it is mounted on a tramcar truck and runs on rails – although in this case it is only a temporary measure! It is now hoped that the bus will be displayed to visitors on special occasions whilst it waits its turn for restoration.

Blackpool Vanguard 619 was used to propell the Manchester horse bus on its temporary truck, with the odd couple seen shunting on 6th December.

The opportunity was also taken to pose the horse bus on the little-used 'Old Lakeside' siding, with 619 again coupled up. (Photos by Joe Savage)