SELNEC PRESERVATION SOCIETY PUBLICITY

As the SELNEC Preservation Society's fleet of vehicles has grown over the years since our first acquisition of 7206 in January 1987, we have received quite a helpful amount of publicity in a number of transport related publications, mainly in the early days about our acquisitions, but as time has gone on, on rectifications as well as further acquisitions.

Although we have appeared in numerous transport related publications on a number of occasions, particularly after launching the SELNEC Preservation Society Membership Scheme on 1st September 1996, where we are often given a quarter page or half page exposure on a number of our acquisitions or rectifications, the three most major aspects of publicity commenced with an article in the March 1997 edition of Buses Magazine. In this there was a three page article on the Society and the 15 vehicles we had had the time depicting; five colour and two black and white photographs, which appeared between pages 36 and 38.

Thereafter, when our rectification of EX1 had been concluded it appeared resplendent on the front cover of Volume 2, No. 11 - March 2000 edition of Bus & Coach Preservation, along with a five page article between pages 4 and 8 depicting some 22 photographs (21 of which were in colour) cataloguing the vehicle from new, in operation, and through all the various stages of our rectification.

The third major element of exposure was in the same publication: Bus & Coach Preservation, in the Volume 3, No. 2 - June 2000 edition, where there appeared an article on the Society itself in general. This commenced on page 38 under the heading: 'Clubbing', which incorporated representation of our headed paper, six colour photographs and three black and white photographs and commenced with the following lines:

"SELNEC Society - setting standards. How has the SELNEC Preservation Society achieved so much in building up a unique collection of post half cab era Manchester area buses? The answer could be put in one word, as Nick Larkin reports, tenacity. The one word which really does sum up how one of the greatest ever achievements by a bus preservation group has come about."

The fourth major area of exposure was in the special publication: Buses Focus, No. 16 of September 2000, in which our preserved Leyland Olympian 1451, Greater Manchester's first and only prototype Olympian, was heavily featured. This was a special article depicting the Olympian style vehicle over 20 years, between the very first 'W' reg Olympians from 1980, from which the choice had been made of 1451 (NRJ 568W) 'W' suffix from the 1980 Commercial Vehicle Motor Show, and the very last Olympian, Yorkshire Coastliner 437 (W437 CWX) delivered in the year 2000, being 'W' prefix.

The two of them were both road tested and compared with each other and in fact the road test took place on 1451 during our attendance at the Trans Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally from the Museum of Transport to Heaton Park on Sunday 3rd September 2000, which it attended along with 7232, EX1, 8001 and 8765.

Although Yorkshire Coastliner 437 appears on the cover of this publication, the article on the Olympians, incorporating 1451, appears between pages 36 and 41, with a total of seven photographs of 1451 from new, whilst in service   and in our ownership, albeit in MK Metro yellow and blue colours.

Most impressive of all was the coverage in November 2002 edition of Bus & Coach Preservation of our rectification and restoration of 5001 (GBU 1V), Greater Manchester�s first Metrobus.  Not only was there a photo of it fully restored and looking resplendent in Greater Manchester Metropolitan Orange and White on the front cover, but there was also a photograph on Page 4 in the index and a full article covering some six pages running between Page 6 and 11 featuring 13 photographs.  Some of these featured the vehicle new in service, withdrawn and undergoing the rectification process with several shots of it fully restored taken around the City of Manchester on 1^st September 2002 when it was taken there for Phillip Lamb from Bus & Coach Preservation as is indicated under the article in this newsletter about our attendance at the Trans-Lancs Historic Vehicle Rally to Heaton Park on 1^st September 2002. 

The other vehicle launched on 1^st September 2002 fully restored was Bristol VR 408 (AJA 408L) and a photograph of our attendance in this vehicle at the EFE Showbus event in Duxford on 26^th September 2002 appears on Page 33 of the December 2002 edition of Bus & Coach Preservation. 

Here is a list of articles that have appeared in Bus and Coach Preservation:

November 2002
5001 (As Above)

December 2002
408 (As above)

November 2007 (Volume 10 Number 6)
1451 (NJA 568W) on the cover outside Queens Road Depot and with the title on the cover page "The One and Only Greater Manchester 1451". Thereafter a substantive feature on the vehicle under the heading "I am the One and Only" appeared between pages 14-18 being five pages of text and 13 photographs showing the vehicle in service in various liveries and during it's rectification process, along with shots of it fully restored, incorporating some taken by Phillip Lamb during his visit to Manchester on 14th September 2007.

March 2008 (Volume 10 Number 10)
7960 (BNC 960T) was featured between pages 28 and 31 - a four page article on the acquisition and restoration of 7960 by the SELNEC Preservation Society with nine photographs showing how the vehicle was secured by us in a very run down state in 1996, through it's restoration and launch fully restored in 2004.

July 2008 (Volume 11 Number 2)
A brief article indicated that 2040 (H140 GVM) had been passed to SELNEC Preservation Society  in June 2008.
1700 (YDB 453L) was featured between pages 43-45 with an article on the Greater Manchester Seddons, in particular the rectification and restoration of the first of these vehicles 1700, featuring eight photographs.

June 2010 (Volume 13 Number 1)
4002 (ANE 2T) was featured with a front cover photograph of 4002 outside the Manchester Evening News Arena. Between pages 12-15 was an article on the rectification and restoration of 4002, incorporating seven photographs.

March 2015 (Volume 17 Number 10)
8141 (GNF 16V) was featured with a front cover photograph of 8141 taken during a photo shoot in December 2014. Between pages 11-13 was an article on the rectification and restoration of 8141.

The SELNEC Preservation Society has also been featured in the Buses Restored handbook between 2001 - 2009, showing a list of vehicles in preservation with the SELNEC Preservation Society at the time of press.