In the past we have secured the last of the first two batches 1467 and 2040 and had been in contact with First Manchester and thereafter First Group/First Glasgow regarding 7001 and 7010 as they had been moved to First Glasgow on 8^th August 2007 along with the rest of the batch, 7002-7009.   We had kept in contact with the Head Office of First Group in Aberdeen who were fully aware of our desire to secure the first of the batch 7001 (H701 GVM) and the last of the batch 7010 (J710 ONF).  The last two of the batch differ in terms of being J-Reg from the first eight H-Reg vehicles and also had a different body construction.  7001 to 7008 are H41/32F whereas 7009 and 7010 are H45/28FL.  They had a two tier offset step on the front entrance door and inside on the lower deck in the centre of the vehicles were four inward facing seats on both nearside and offside which could be folded up and away in order to allow wheelchairs to be parked up.  In fact this structure had been removed on 7010 many years ago by First Manchester and they decided also to remove these fitments on 7009, luckily we were able to secure them to put them in stock to eventually put back on 7010, should we secure it for preservation.

Although we kept in touch with both First Group Head Office in Aberdeen and First Glasgow about our desire to secure the first of the batch, 7001, in keeping with our desire to secure firsts and lasts of the batches we were also very keen to secure 7010 as not only was it the last of the batch but the every last SELNEC/GMT/GMB Standard ever and a complete bookend to the First Standard built 22 years before EX1 (PNF 941J).

As far back as 16th December 2003 First Group�s Head Office had acknowledged our interest in 7001 and 7010 (as well as 1481 and 3305 at the time) and gave us in writing the following commitment.

Bury Depot:

Prototype Volvo  Citybus 1481 (C481 CBU)                  30094

First Standard Volvo B10 7001(H701 GVM)                  30340

Last Greater Manchester Standard 7010 (J710 ONF)    30349

Queens Road Depot:

Olympian 3201 (C201 CBU)                                        30154

Bolton Depot:

Last Leyland Olympian 3305 (F305 DRJ)                     30215

The locations to which the vehicles are currently domiciled have been instructed to notify our central engineering function when the vehicles are to be removed from service.  All locations have been instructed that under no circumstances should these vehicles be cannibalised for spare parts.

As a safety measure, we have tagged the units in our maintenance system with a footnote indicating that upon disposal, the vehicles are reserved for the SELNEC Preservation Society.

I anticipate that some of the above listed vehicles will not be available for a considerable period of time, but offer you the reassurance that when they do become available, you will be the first to know.

Although we regularly kept in contact with First Group and First Glasgow we had a disturbing message from one of our members who had seen 7001 in a scrapyard in Scotland in mid-May 2009 and immediately we got on to First Group who investigated and discovered that it had been sent to a scrapyard and whilst they were preparing to have it returned to them so that it could be restored by taking one of the remainder of the batch 7002-7009 out of service by the time our message had been relayed to us, relayed to First Group and they had contacted the scrapyard, all the windows had been taken out and the bodywork had been melted down into aluminium and steel ingots. 

Hence there was no possibility of the vehicle being rebuilt but in fairness to First Group they did apologise for this happening and in order that nothing would go wrong with us securing 7010 or 30349 as it is the National Fleet Numbering System, it was taken out of service immediately upon the discovery of what had happened to 7001.  It was removed from passenger service the day after the matter of 7001 had come to the attention of senior engineering management at First Group in Perth, leaving the remainder of the batch or most of them still in service.  It was then checked out over the pits at First Glasgow and in recompense for the difficulties with 7001, First Group had it driven from Glasgow to Greater Manchester.  Because we were unsure as to what time or day it would arrive and they were not sure where our storage premises were in East Manchester we agreed that it could be delivered to First Manchester�s Queens Road Depot and this actually happened on Thursday 4th June 2009.  It was again put over the pits in Queens Road and checked over in order that we could collect it, as we did on Sunday morning on our working day on 7^th June 2009, taking it to our storage premises in East Manchester and parking up in the space vacated the same day by moving 3277 (D277 JVR) to Leigh in order for rectification work to commence upon it. 

It was delivered new to First Manchester on 27th March 1982 with Northern Counties body number 4172 and chassis number 26865 and was officially transferred to the owner of SELNEC Educational Trust on 4th June 2009, the very day it was being driven from Glasgow to Manchester.