Bloody Buses.

[RedSparrow]

Re: that 'EUREKA' bus,Was Eureka a kids TV show? was that bus something to do with it?

[dollywobbler]

 

Oooh, a Daimler Fleetline DMS! One of my fave buses. Saw one on the M6 yesterday in Brum. Sadly, I think it now belongs to some Christian folk as it seemed to have messages about Jesus all over it...

 

Looked like they were treating it well though.

[AnthonyG]

As if by magic - click for bigger pics

 

 

Even by 1970s British Leyland standards, that is spectacularly crap - did it just have some cables snaking between the trailer and the power unit?

[Mr Lobster]

Re: that 'EUREKA' bus,Was Eureka a kids TV show? was that bus something to do with it?

It is / was a kids entertainment type place in Halifax IIRC.Edit - Google reveals it to be 'The National Childrens Museum'. Whatever that is.http://www.eureka.org.uk/

[hammy]

As if by magic - click for bigger pics

 

 

Even by 1970s British Leyland standards, that is spectacularly crap - did it just have some cables snaking between the trailer and the power unit?

In fairness I think it was converted by Ribble who operated the bus. It was terrible as the trailer weighted loads and was really awkward to tow around.

[Guest]

It's on the wrong side of the road too, useless!

[chester drawers]

I have to say I've started to enjoy looking at old buses in my old(er) age, I find Flickr has a great collection of old bus photos that people have uploaded, Most of them are excellent period photos., GR8 4 SPOTTIN TAT.

 

 

 

 

The composition of Martyn’s shots is always bang on.

 

Stoniers and Berresfords had something of a reputation for operating shite, and I’ve vivid memories of peering through loose access panels at spinning propshafts on school trips.

 

Some years down the line I’ve had the pleasure of travelling on some of his (Reliance Bus Works’) restorations and very good they are too!

[brammy777]

The only operator i can think of now which still operates shite is centrebus, based all over england, north of london.

The buses LOOK TERRIBLE

for example

 

LOOOOL

 

That one still has old in motion livery.

Theres another picture somewhere of a centrebus Dart with stagecoach livery still on the roof but i have no clue where its gone.

[brammy777]

edit.

found the roof

i used to have to wait here for a bus most of last year, to see my ex.

[Guest]

I wonder if Centrebus are still running Metrobuses in Leicester, they certainly had a good selection of them when I stayed there 2006-07

[brammy777]

I remember on one occasion, the bus i was on (the x31 to dunstable), the ticket machine broke, so the driver drove back to the depot with me inside, to pick up a new one, all you could hear in the garage was a panel being beaten with a hammer, and a load of polish. There was a dart being broken for parts too. I remember thinking that was funny as it was newer than the one i was in.

[Justin Case]

West Midlands Travel are still running some B reg Metrobuses in their old livery. These two were captured in Walsall only a couple of days ago:

 

http://newimages.fotopic.net/?iid=yzgj7 ... quality=70

[dollywobbler]

Yup, the Metrobuses refuse to leave Birmingham! They're slow old things but I like them, though obviously the earlier assymetrical windscreen ones are the best.I think most of those Leicester ones are ex-Brum. I've also seen one up on the east coast somewhere, roofless doing the coastal routes and there's an operator around here who seems to use a lot of ex-Brum and ex-London ones.

[pogweasel]

Oooh, Belgrave Gate.

Used to spend alot of time in that part of town, pissing away what little money I had in dingy hostelries & even less swanky night-spots.

[AnthonyG]

The only operator i can think of now which still operates shite is centrebus, based all over england, north of london.

LOOOOL

 

 

A company amusingly named 'Sunny Travel' has old shitboxes like that in Birmingham, painted blue. God knows who travels in them given they operate on the same routes as the proper West Mids ones, and are also timetabled a minute before or after them. The only one I have ever been on still had Stagecoach decals and stickers in the interior - Respect our Employees, etc.

 

Nicest buses on the Hagley road (a main road from the west into Brum) are 'Black Diamond Royale', brand new single decker Scanias with proper air con and leather seats. Well worth the extra 50p on a hot day, particularly as the higher prices keep the mouth breathers away.

 

Which manufacturer makes double decker Enviro 9000's? - WM has loads of 09 reg ones running down the Hagley road and other key routes as well. Are they running on LNG or anything interesting to justify the 'Enviro' tag?

[michiel]

Just spotted this one on Wulfrun's flickr:

 

 

[pogweasel]

GR8 for 66.6% of my offspring!

[Guest]

I see "POG" buses around here all the time, some little independent runs them.

 

 

Amusingly they operate their own fare system which is about half the price of the usual Arriva buses. Nice work!

[dollywobbler]

I think I've got a model of a POG Metrobus somewhere...They're all Brummies.

[Albert Ross]

Would this be the Daimler you saw on the M6? I remember them buying loads of buses about 15/20 years ago when a friend of mine lived there. I was part of the team that designed the paint scheme.......not this one however! i recommended a grey roof, as the times I saw shitty white ones in Broad Street in Reading, when I worked for Dixons, was just unbelievable. Might be worth doing a search on Flickr for "Jesus Army" and see what comes up in peoples albums.....that's how I found this one.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27791616@N ... -jesusarmy

[Justin Case]

You want 'POGs', then you shall have 'POGs' :

http://community.fotopic.net/search/sim ... trobus+pog

 

[brammy777]

Alexander dennis makes those enviro buses.9000 isnt a number they use though haha, its from 200-500400 and 500 are double deckers, the rest are single deckers, the 300 being the longestAs far as why its called an enviro, im not too sure, im sure someone on here knows more than me in that respect.But i think the ones round here doing the shuttle bus to the leisure centre run on LPG or some other form of zero emission fuel.Theres metrobuses being used round here, on school runs, most probably ex london examples. But some carry the livery of their ex operator too.

[hammy]

edit.

found the roof

i used to have to wait here for a bus most of last year, to see my ex.

Its sad but that is at the back of the Arndale Centre in Luton! What a really dingy horrid place fit to dump bus travellers who have to visit Luton.

 

The old bus station was a terrible terrible place, it was dark and dingy, and when Luton & District buses pulled out, hardly any buses continued to go into it except Stagecoach!

 

One night my trusty Leyland steed refused to restart after I'd switched it off, I rang our helpline but nobody would come out from Bedford - Arriva would have to come and sort it. I waited 2 hours for the mechanic to come, about 5 minutes by van. He took one quick look before reaching for a giant lump hammer (like some banger racer set to straighten a Mk2 Granada) and clouted the starter motor housing. It was enough for it to restart on the button!

 

 

[brammy777]

i used to hate waiting for buses there, i remember seeing a building over the road semi demolished for ages. Had it exploded?But yeh, the luton bus station was demolished over the course of 2008are they building a new one there? Congestion in luton is terrible.

[Split_Pin]

How an Edinburgh bus should look:

 

 

Lovely. Note mk2 Fiesta in the background, so bus definitely in its twilight years. These lasted a full service life in Edinburgh by the way - whatever structural problems the big windows might have created, they must have managed to keep on top of them, unlike the Glaswegians.

Why cant EFE modify their Alexander model casting to panoramic windows??

 

All panoramic Atlanteans had the same problems. The difference being that Edinburgh just got on with it and remedied the problem, whereas Glasgow tried all sorts of bizzare things, such as converting some to single deck, inserting short window bays in the lower deck of others, and scrapping the worst cases, some of which were only 7 years old at the time.

[dollywobbler]

Would this be the Daimler you saw on the M6? I remember them buying loads of buses about 15/20 years ago when a friend of mine lived there. I was part of the team that designed the paint scheme.......not this one however! i recommended a grey roof, as the times I saw shitty white ones in Broad Street in Reading, when I worked for Dixons, was just unbelievable. Might be worth doing a search on Flickr for "Jesus Army" and see what comes up in peoples albums.....that's how I found this one.http://www.flickr.com/photos/27791616@N ... -jesusarmy

Could be, though I thought it was blue, with proper posh font. I was travelling quite quickly the other way though...

[Cavcraft]

edit.

found the roof

i used to have to wait here for a bus most of last year, to see my ex.

 

I like what you've done there. Pretend to take picture of bus roof and 'accidentally' manage to capture what appear to be a pair of clam jousters walking in hand in hand

[trigger]

The excellent Lady Wulfrun on Flickr has posted these pictures recently

 

 

Academy Street, Inverness 1977

 

 

Pershore Road in Cotteridge, Birmingham 1985

 

 

Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton 1979

 

 

High Street, Eston, Teesside 1968

[Split_Pin]

 

Sister bus (albeit with Alexander body) UCS 659 survives splendidly in preservation today. I had a shot on it on the free bus service to the GVVT open day last October and watched the driver wrestle (and win) with the manual gearbox. It was the only one bought by SBG to be so fitted, the others having autos.

 

 

The light green bus is a Roe bodied Alexander-copy - anyone know the operator.

 

PS just noticed the rust on the victors wing. LOL

[trigger]

The light green bus is a Roe bodied Alexander-copy - anyone know the operator. PS just noticed the rust on the victors wing. LOL

I'll just qoute what she's wrote -

A picture possibly taken in the Summer of 1968, after the opening of the last trolleybus route extension in the UK. This had occurred on 31st March 1968, when Teesside Motor Traction linked the Grangetown and Normanby trolleybus services via Fabian Road and Birchington Avenue. Still wearing ‘Teesside Railless Traction Board’ hedge green livery, No16 (CPY287) a Roe re-bodied Sunbeam ‘W’ pauses outside the Ship Inn in High Street, Eston for a brief photographic stop on an enthusiasts tour, as an unidentified Teesside Municipal Transport, Roe bodied Atlantean is caught by the camera passing the 1945 vintage trolleybus. Despite the 1968 route extension, the Teesside trolleybus system closed on Sunday 4th April 1971.In retrospect, it seems incredible that Teesside were still extending their small trolleybus network, when virtually every town and city in the UK had at that time either abandoned, or were in the process of abandoning trolleybuses. I just wish that the system could have survived at least into the late 1970s.