Greater Manchester's Museum of Transport

About The Archives

Although not strictly speaking an archives collection, the Museum’s library of books and other printed materials, images, films and videos, and so on, has always been known as “the Archives”.

From its earliest days, the Society collected material that it thought would be of value to future transport historians, but this was not organised in any systematic manner. After the Museum moved to its present location, attempts were made to catalogue this material, but it was not at the time a major element of the Society’s activities, the main interest being in the vehicles themselves. It was not until the writer, a chartered librarian, became involved as a volunteer, that the Collection started to receive more detailed attention.

The range of material in the Collection is very wide. We have virtually every published book on local transport history, plus a large number of standard transport histories, histories of individual operators and manufacturers, directories and yearbooks, and technical workshop manuals. Around 200 periodical titles are held, including the main enthusiast and professional magazines, with long runs of titles such as Buses Illustrated (later Buses), Commercial Motor, Coaching Journal, Motor Transport, and Tramway & Railway World (later Transport World), and a set of the Notices and Proceedings of the North Western Traffic Commissioners from 1930. Other printed materials include over 2000 time and fare tables, annual reports and accounts, commemorative brochures, Acts of Parliament, Statutory Instruments / Orders, rule books, byelaws and regulations, and a set of reports from the Transport and Road Research Laboratory. There is publicity material from manufacturers of vehicles, ticketing and other equipment, and from operators for holidays, tours and excursions, supported by posters for such activities. There are many hundreds of maps, plans and drawings, for routes, buildings, chassis and bodywork, and “deposited plans” for proposed tramways. We have examples of tickets from all the local operators, and other ephemera such as handbills, leaflets, certificates, trade union membership cards, and so on, and around 70 volumes of newspaper clippings compiled by various local operators.

Then there are the images - several thousand photographs, transparencies and glass plate negatives, film and video, taken by official photographers, manufacturers or interested amateurs, depicting buses, trams, trolleybuses, personnel, buildings, street scenes or events.

Some of the most important items are the unique hand written minutes of the SHMD Joint Board, 1898-1969, and the personnel records, wages books, accident reports and similar internal documents produced by the various transport companies, and not intended for the general public.

The Archives is also of course the repository for the Society’s own records and history - the Board minutes, accounts, the Journal, posters, leaflets, tickets for events, and so on - the “Collective memory” for the Society and Museum.

All this material supports the work of the Museum, by providing the background resources for exhibitions and displays, and is available for use, by appointment, by serious students of transport history. The Museum responds to enquiries, and assists schoolchildren, students, authors, family and local historians, local organisations and businesses, and the PTE itself.

As a Registered Museum, we have to strive to meet the standards required to retain this status, and with the support and guidance of the Museums Libraries and Archives Council, we are working to improve the conditions in which the Collection is housed, and to improve access. As a voluntary body, this is a demanding task, but one which we approach with enthusiasm, as it is only by preserving our history can we maintain the Museum’s standing within the local community and the wider Museums world.