Former Burnley & Pendle 163 is a Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympian, It was one of four 0261-0264, allocated from new in 1989 to Merseybus before it then changed hands to become Arriva Merseyside, it was transferred to Birkenhead in 2001 and mainly used on the 284 Crossens to Liverpool route. It spent a few more years in Birkenhead before being sent to Ensignbus and put up for sale in around 2006, it was purchased by Northern Blue of Burnley and painted up in Accrington Transport Heritage livery, it was used on routes into Accrington and around Burnley during its time it attended several events showing off it’s heritage around Lancashire. Northern Blue was then purchased by Transdev who operated Burnley & Pendle and all the Northern Blue operation was merged with Burnley & Pendle at their depot. In early 2014 it was painted out of it’s heritage livery into a very bright school bus yellow and transferred to Harrogate depot, it was used on several school services in and around Harrogate aswell as assisting at big events such as the Great Yorrkkshire Show and Harrogate Flower Show. It didn’t stay at Harrogate very long, in late 2015 with the DDA deadline for the end of step entrance buses fast approaching it was sent back to Lancashire as a reserve vehicle at Blackburn. It did the odd school service before eventually getting delicenced and parked up until it was acquired by Town & District Transport Trust in 2021 after being offered up for sale at the same time with it’s sister vehicle 262. This bus is one of 4 trust vehicles along with a Green Goddess Fire engine, Pennine Dennis Dart & Ribble Guy Arab. It will be on the rally scene in 2021.
