Bus Shite

[catsinthewelder]

 

 

 Instead of a normal rear boot, these had the whole of the rear ended hinged at roof level.  Great for loading shelves of library books, or wheel chairs, bollocks all use for normal operations. Even better was the fact that unless you remembered to tie a piece of rope around the internal handle, when you let go the rear went so high you couldn't reach it. You had to climb inside and swing off the rear window rail, Tarzan like,  to get the back to come down again

 

 

Now I've got the image of Andy CMS hurling himself through the air at an oversized hatchback screaming a uniquely Scottish AArrrooooowwwwafuckingooooooooo.

 

 

 

 The white one behind it in the last photo is the native Dublin style of Alexander-bodied Olympian.

 

Thanks for that,  I saw one of these in Ely earlier this week and wondered what it was.

[Felly Magic]

The Optare Crud had concrete weights fitted to the rear of the chassis to try and make them more stable. Hateful things they are

[Asimo]

That - or another very similar in that series of registrations - used to be a caff on the A49 above Leominster.

 

 

This one? (as of yesterday)

[catsinthewelder]

I've been meaning to take a picture of that Atlantian for ages,  it's got a huge rubber bumper on the front so ex-Birmingham?

[quicksilver]

I've been meaning to take a picture of that Atlantian for ages,  it's got a huge rubber bumper on the front so ex-Birmingham?

Ex Nottingham. One of the batch with fairly standard Roe bodies rather than Nottingham's own unique design, but they did have the big bumpers that were a peculiar Nottingham feature.

[busmansholiday]

I never bothered taking a picture of the rear of these bags of shite, as it was embarrassing enough impersonating Tarzan in front of the punters without getting the camera out (no mobile phones or digital cameras in those days) . I think I've a shot of one of the two somewhere and a couple after that fatefull night...

[meshking]

Attention bus lickers, would you like to

 

1) impress* your friends with your encyclopedic knowledge of pre 1987 London buses?

2) drool at the black and white photos of some of the finest buses to grace greater Londons streets?

3) marvel at the sheer number of buses a person from the past has ticked off in a small booklet?

 

Then I have just the thing for you... Available for the cost of postage donated to this websites running costs.

 

 

Sent from my SGP621 using Tapatalk

[atlantean]

Attention bus lickers, would you like to

 

1) impress* your friends with your encyclopedic knowledge of pre 1987 London buses?

2) drool at the black and white photos of some of the finest buses to grace greater Londons streets?

3) marvel at the sheer number of buses a person from the past has ticked off in a small booklet?

 

Then I have just the thing for you... Available for the cost of postage donated to this websites running costs.

 

 

Sent from my SGP621 using Tapatalk

  Is it sad that most of my friends would actually be impressed with this?

[Vantman]

East Kent Road Car Co---- Bedford VAS1/Marshall B29F

[busmansholiday]

So am I !!

That's one of the ex GM Mk I Metrobuses on the front. Speaking of which, M1055 is still very much alive and well (well, was two weeks ago) in Bulgaria

[Six-cylinder]

I drove though Ayesbury this afternoon at the end of school home time and spotted 4 school double deckers returning empty. 1989, 1991, 2x 1999 is this a typical age for school buses?

[cms206]

I drove though Ayesbury this afternoon at the end of school home time and spotted 4 school double deckers returning empty. 1989, 1991, 2x 1999 is this a typical age for school buses?

Really depends on the council area Chris; five of my fleet om schools still have flying plugholes, the eldest dating from 1984. On the other side of Scotland, Fife Council have a very strict age limit and the vehicles must be DDA compliant.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[chaseracer]

Good to see the A49 Atlantean back on bacon duty - it disappeared for a while.

[lisbon_road]

What's a Flying Plughole?

 

With regard to Schoolbuses, I think it also depends if the school bus route is registered as a proper bus service.  Some are, so people could actually get on and pay a fare to go somewhere; generally no-one does, but it means that they need to be DDA compliant.  That happened with the Lydney service of Chepstow Classic bus which stopped being Bristol VR/Leyland Olympian when the DDA legislation for 'deckers came in.

[Inspector Morose]

[Six-cylinder]

When I went to school we had coaches from our village to High Wycombe, most of the time we got old Bedfords looking something like this.  I know one of them was 1960 and I guess that was about 1972 so just 12 years old!

[Vantman]

[Six-cylinder]

The Leyland Olympian K575 RRH I spotted a few months ago disappeared and as it was out of MOT I feared for its life.

 

It turned up again today parked where it was so I checked and it has been MOTed 27 Oct 2017, well I think that is great news!

 

It was done in Daventry with one advisory "Nearside rear air dryer unit starting to pass oil", what is an air dryer unit?

[Guest Hooli]

An air dryer unit dries air...

 

It's part of the brakes etc that use compressed air as you don't want damp air going into the tanks & rotting them along with all the pipe work.

[Six-cylinder]

bbnbb.jpg

A bonus Visa is hiding in the background!

[busmansholiday]

Here's another converted Olympian that I came across in a pub car park in Scarborough recently. Ex London but with a fair bit of North Yorks history as well.

 

When I spoke with the owners they didn't realise it was a 'red bus' as they put it originally.

[Felly Magic]

Ex Lodge's of Essex too, still in their livery under the vinyl graphics

[busmansholiday]

My sister came across this in Lowestoft recently. I've tried persuading Mrs BMH that it would be far more fun than the Ducato motorhome we have but she doesn't believe me for some reason.

[Six-cylinder]

I have been to see a friend in Milton Keynes today and on his estate there is a Leyland Olympian parked. I asked my friend and he said some people in the next street were converting it into a camper, but had not worked on it for 2-3 months. It seems it was red and white when it arrived and that have painted it black since it was there. Looking at it on google and it started as a Lothian Bus.

 

Looking it up (K876 CSF), it is taxed but no MOT details, does this mean it is still tested as a PSV? Can you look up PSV tests?

[tooSavvy]

 

I have been to see a friend in Milton Keynes today and on his estate there is a Leyland Olympian parked. I asked my friend

 

 

OK.... I will admit you had me going - just up to 'next street'.. lol

 

Estate... Corr, Missta

 

 

TS

[wuvvum]

Just found this whilst doing a Google image search - Citroën Belphégor bus.  Looks, um, interesting.

 

[Inspector Morose]

You know, I love it when those who have little interest in buses post things up in this thread. It shows that there are people who think "I think this is dull and tedious but I know someone might me interested in this". This is what I like about this forum.

[Felly Magic]

I spotted that Lodekka camper in August in Norwich near the bus depot

[Yoss]

Ok, been going through my archives again.

 

August bank holiday weekend 1987. The staff at Finchley Garage organised a four day trip from London to Scotland with their showbus RML 903. I know some of you will be groaning at Routemaster content but stick with me there's plenty of non RM action.

 

Day 1 - Finchley to Penrith.

 

We arrived very very early, I mean like 5am. Wandered round to the garage and found this.

903 had been freshly painted and had special adverts made up for Finchley Garage. It was also the first time we'd seen the yellow and red London Buses roundel (they'd just been plain white until then). It's worth saying that all London bus garages were NOT the same. Some took great pride in their buses and some didn't. Finchley were one of the best up there with Mortlake and Upton Park. It's a tragedy that all three no longer exist.

 

Anyway actual departure was at 7am from Tally Ho Corner (fabulous name for a bus terminus)

 

First stop was Stevensons of Uttoxeter. This is quite a long way from Finchley at 42mph and what most of us realised was we should have used the loo before we left. A lesson I've not forgotten to this day.

 

This is Stevensons yard.

The National was a taste of things to come!

 

Then we moved on to Manchester and tea had been arranged at Hyde Garage canteen (It was a spectacularly well arranged trip). We were given free reign to wander round the depot, cant see that happening now.

 

Here's some pictures inside and outside the depot. Someone else here will know more about these than I do, feel free to chip in. Lots of GM Standards but I'm not sure if they're Atlanteans or Fleetlines or both.

This dates it! Iveco Turbo Daily. These sprung up everywhere and then disappeared again just as quickly.

 

First nights stop, Penrith Station Hotel.

More to follow later.

[Inspector Morose]

Some gems there. The blue and cream bus behind the Stevensons Titan is an ex WMPTE ex LT DMS type Fleetline. Some garages took the non standard DMSs as a challenge to WMPTEise them and so got fitted with WMPTE standard indicators, windows and seating. That one was one of two (I think) that got a complete WMPTE destination panel and blinds. Unfortunately it didn't quite fit as only three track number blinds could be fitted instead of the usual four.

 

As delivered from Ensign.

 

As "customised".