More Massey Appeal

Lytham 70 squeezes through the gate at the entrance to Lytham Hall on the Club Day Park and Ride (David Umpleby)

LTT's Lytham St. Annes PD2 70 returned to use at Totally Transport on 22 June alongside PD1 19 and Blackpool 529 and again with 19 at a Park and Ride for Lytham Club Day to Lytham Hall. 70 celebrated its 50th birthday in May and this spurred LTT volunteer David Umpleby on to deal with some minor niggles that had left 70 laid up after failing with an air leak at the final LTT open day at their former Brinwell Road premises in September 2012. 

During its previous spell in use in May 2012 70 was used to take a party of Lytham Civic Society members around Blackpool hosed by their local counterparts. To kill time while members toured the Town Hall, the driver enjoyed an impromptu photoshoot in Talbot Road Bus Station  - probably one of the last buses to use this by then disused site. (Paul Turner) 

After rectification of the air leak and various other repairs, 70 was submitted for and successfully passed a Class VI test earlier this month - its first such test having only previously operated as a Class V since restoration in 2000.

Lytham 19 also saw use on the Club Day shuttle and is seen here towards the end of the evening lights ablaze outside the Hall (David Umpleby)

The Park and Ride ran from the Serco - once Guardian - car park opposite the entrance to the Hall. Please see the 2011 feature "Buses to the Hall" to see an equivalent shot from 1991 (David Umpleby)

The single track road to Lytham Hall requires buses to pass at a designated point - this bucolic scene is somewhat detached from the urban environment in which these buses typically ran. (David Umpleby)

70 from the side at Totally Transport

Back in 2010 the story of 70 and its two sisters was told in "Massey Appeal". At the time sister 68 was believed scrapped after being used for spares during 2009 - however it is believed it now survived into 2010. (See picture here for its condition as of 2008). Sister 69, heavily modified had a nomadic role around Europe - and Swansea - but has now left our shores for the USA where it stands outside Universal Studios (link to photo)