rml2345 Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 The B7LAs don't drive too bad above 5mph to be honest - it's just trying to stop the damn things smoothly I couldn't master. Nowhere near as cumbersome as you'd expect as due to the geometry of the thing you don't need to worry about the tailswing on the trailer. Basic math I found was that you needed to allow for two feet additional clearance on a turn from the rear axle of the front section when turning sharply if that makes sense. Hearing the engine respond from so far away was probably the thing I found most disconcerting. I know Aberdeen had massive headaches with them in reliability terms, but I don't know how much that's actually the fault of the buses versus the depot insisting on trying to fix a complex vehicle like that on the cheap forever. As for the BMCs... don't ever, ever take one out on a damp day in the winter. The demisting system is beyond a joke, all it does is make a great deal of noise and actually seems to make the windscreen mist up more rather than less. Except for a strip about 3" from the very top. Apparently the only thing worse is the headlights.IIRC the B7LAs at Aberdeen had a tendency to piss air out the trailer as the day went on so that by lunchtime or thereabouts they could no longer bus. It was probably a combination of the two that led to them being a bit hopeless, Volvos toilet engined buses were never especially popular here.Thankfully were using the BMC in the summer so no real headlight or demister issues so far. Having the wee Cummins 4 pot slung out the front makes the steering pleasantly weighty and they handle alright. The two I've driven have been rough as arses bodily with plenty of aluminium corrosion but are solid to drive and not too slow. 847% better than a bloody Streetlite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 The Streetlites arrived about a month after I moved out I think. Can't say I'm sorry to have missed them! Last big changeover I really saw was the introduction of the Northern Lights branding. Still don't think Aberdeen is the same without the sound of the Cummins L10 engined Olympians burbling along Union Street. Glad that at least one of them has been preserved. Think there's one of the earlier B plated ones in a shed somewhere too. rml2345 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidfowler2000 Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 As for the BMCs... don't ever, ever take one out on a damp day in the winter. The demisting system is beyond a joke, all it does is make a great deal of noise and actually seems to make the windscreen mist up more rather than less. Except for a strip about 3" from the very top. Apparently the only thing worse is the headlights. A bit like the first of the megabus Van Hool deckers. Also rather irritatingly the temperature sensor for the lower saloon was located somewhere near the cab which was always cooler than the saloon. So when you put the demisters on on a winters day when it was -5 outside, the computer would think the lower saloon temperature was 26 degrees and bung the air con on full blast. Thankfully they fixed both on the TX range. Thankfully I don't drive those any more as I'd have driven a Plaxton bodied Volvo any day over one of those things. Unless it was an Elite i then I would have picked the Van Hool. Still don't think Aberdeen is the same without the sound of the Cummins L10 engined Olympians burbling along Union Street. I'm sure we could recreate that with my Olympian. rml2345 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busmansholiday Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 Ha, Ha. I stated off driving Leopards with vacuum brakes. Air braked Leopards (early 60's & 70's ones) were wank. Standing joke used to be they gave you a pile of postcards addressed to Leyland's brake fitters, you just filled in the other side telling them where you wanted the bastard to stop and posted them.Vacuum was a different world, and when fully loaded with passengers was even more fun. You learnt to anticipate what was going to happen! As for Tigers and B10M, we were the first National Bus Co operator to buy B10Ms. Apparently, we were so pissed off with BL and stikes so we defied everybody and ordered a small number. They were a revaluation, that ultimately BL would not recover from.We had Tigers with all three options of gearbox, manual, hydrcyclic and epicyclic, the B10Ms were manual. Better performance, easier to drive and a shit more reliable, we are though talking of the late 70's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspector Morose Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 Leopards were all air but early L1 and PSU leopards (no doubt the ones you’re on about) well, you might as well be treading on a block of wood, the use they were. I had an early psu4 tow truck and between those brakes and the light* steering those earlier leopards posess just driving it on its own was knackering. It used to be a touring coach when new and I shudder to think that some poor sod had to drive these round twisty country lanes for hours on end fully loaded.Vacuum brakes. Yup they can be shit and were a work of art to set up properly. Our PD2 at work has them and I can vouch that they can be made to work extremely well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roverageous Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 I wonder if anyone can help me with this... I have memories of very modern (for the 90s) looking coaches at motorway service stations whenever we went on holiday. They were silver (almost like aluminium finish) and I can only really describe them as looking very modern. This would have been mid 90s. I had it in my head that they were Wallace Arnold coaches, but on googling they all appear to be orange. Can anyone else remember this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busmansholiday Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 FPB7Posted Today, 07:21 PM Leopards were all air but early L1 and PSU leopards (no doubt the ones you’re on about) My post was supposed to say Leopards AND vacuum brakes. The first Leopards were actually designated PSUC1 Specials and were built for Sheffield Transport with Weymann Fanfare bodies. PSU (Passenger Singledeck Underfloor) and C was for cub, the 400 engine. Sheffield had 600 engines and this became the L1 and then L2 before they went back to sensible chassis IDs. This was something Volvo inherited. In the old days, before King Long decided having as many numbers as possible was the way forward, an AEC 2D3RA was a second series, double deck with synchro box (2 was monocontrol, 4 crash), righthand drive and air brakes. Oh, they were the days.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 I'm sure we could recreate that with my Olympian.I sure wouldn't complain! Just be aware that I'll quite likely just wind up in a state of almost trance like relaxation in the offside rear corner for the duration of any trip! What power unit is in your big yellow beastie? Have only ever seen them briefly in passing in Aberdeen, so don't actually know half as much about them as I probably should do. Through all of the nonsense I've dealt with growing up, have always found that parking myself in the most mechanically noisy location on a big vehicle like that, especially if sitting at a steady speed like on a motorway, is one of the few times that I can just chill out and almost visibly see my blood pressure dropping! Well... that's the second best seat. The best one is the one up front with the wheel in front of it, but everyone knows that. Really do hope I can find the time to get my cat D licence fully one day...much as to prove to myself I can as anything. Have been told by two examiners that I would pass the test "nae bother" which I took as a compliment. Bloody rusty now though, going on three years since I last drove one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 I wonder if anyone can help me with this... I have memories of very modern (for the 90s) looking coaches at motorway service stations whenever we went on holiday. They were silver (almost like aluminium finish) and I can only really describe them as looking very modern. This would have been mid 90s. I had it in my head that they were Wallace Arnold coaches, but on googling they all appear to be orange. Can anyone else remember this?Bova Futura? They really did look like they'd landed from another planet compared to most buses in the early 90s. They might have rusted faster than a 70s Lancia, but they were handsome looking things I reckon. In silver they would definitely have looked very modern indeed. The only other candidate that springs to mind would be Berkhof. They had some quite modern looking coaches (using Fiat Tipo tail lights on one model I believe! - seems to be a running theme, some of their earlier ones had Saab 900 front sidelight/indicator clusters). Most of the other mainstream coaches like your Plaxton Premiere, Jankheere Mistrals, Van Booked Alizee were pretty conservative iterative steps from their earlier designs in comparison (totally irrespective of the technical side - I'm purely speaking external appearance - and that's very much down to personal opinion anyway!). Have to admit that it was the day that the chrome and veneer disappeared from coaches that my interest started to wane. Plastic and carpet as finishes just aren't the same! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
83C Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Even now the Futura still looks good: TANAT VALLEY 470 WA03EYM PENTREFELIN 270713 by David Beardmore, on Flickr The Magiq looks even better, and is a lovely thing to drive. M800 DLC by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busmansholiday Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Neoplan by any chance ? They were always different to mainstream vehicles rml2345 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rml2345 Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 Neoplan kit from the early 80s looked like The Future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 All right, here's one for you lot. Anyone know anyone with a breaking MAN 18.220 or similar? Simple reason: my box of random panel indicators etc is getting thin on the ground, and I know the dash on them has about a thousand nicely modularly fitted lights. Not something that's likely to get busted up in use I'd think, so I doubt there's a huge demand for them spares wise. Time was I'd have known someone who would have told me to go help myself and make a contribution to the coffee fund...sadly those days are gone. I know a "proper" breaker will ask something daft like a tenner each, so that's a non-starter for something that's purely restocking one of my "that'll be handy maybe one day" boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
83C Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 H622 ACK is alive and well at Winkleigh, no photo yet as I was seriously pushed for time. In other news, Volvo B6BLEs are horrendous sacks of shit. Collected this one from Yeovil this afternoon, although it maxes out at 56.25mph (annoyingly fractionally quicker than a HGV), it takes an eternity to get there. Engine is a case of much noise, not much go. Gearbox won’t kick down, I was down to 15mph for half a mile through the Blackdown Hills. Eventually I arrived at Winkleigh with it, and to celebrate it popped a water hose just as I was parking it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felly Magic Posted August 3, 2018 Author Share Posted August 3, 2018 Lucky it didn't catch fire, B6s like to do that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Sounds about the same as every B6* I've been on! Surprised and happy to hear H622ACK is still on the go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felly Magic Posted August 3, 2018 Author Share Posted August 3, 2018 I've driven a few, most struggle to hit 45, and that is with a tail wind, only good thing about them is they have a tighter stering lock than a Dart. Volvo quietly axed the B6LE, and replaced it with a rebadged DAF SB120 called the Volvo Wright 'Merit', and getting spares via Volvo was nigh on impossible, and they always said 'it is a DAF, call DafBus parts'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rover414 Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 I've joined the ranks of having my own bus now, bought my old Optare Solo off work earlier this week for not a lot of money. Always had a soft spot for it and couldn't turn down what I was offered. rml2345, Ghosty, 83C and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted August 3, 2018 Share Posted August 3, 2018 Lordy...have to admit that I've not much love for the Solo. Having said that though, while I'd not want one in my garage I do think it's very important that some are preserved as they did a lot to get accessible transport to markets where it just wasn't possible before. Probably not too bad to live with either I guess - so long as you're handy with electronic detective work. Now, the Alero, now there was a bag of monkey excrement. Whoever came up with the driveline setup should have been shot. LightBulbFun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
83C Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 I've joined the ranks of having my own bus now, bought my old Optare Solo off work earlier this week for not a lot of money. Always had a soft spot for it and couldn't turn down what I was offered.Fair play for doing so! SoSlos for me were always a bit hit and miss, the early Merc engined ones were rather slow if they were trying to push around the longer versions. The Cummins ISB6 engined versions were much better, easily capable of 90mph if the limiter broke. Allegedly*. Electrics are a pain on the Solo, and rot can get into the lower box sections, but I have to say Optare’s system of easily removable side panels does help with access. They’re pretty cheap to run otherwise, tyres are the same as a Vario, easy to get bits for - I may know to one being broken if you need parts or want to come and get some spares. LightBulbFun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rover414 Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 I am after some bits to be honest, some engine pipework and interior parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
83C Posted August 4, 2018 Share Posted August 4, 2018 Drop me a PM and i’ll See what’s about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cms206 Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 The Cummins ISB6 engined versions were much better, easily capable of 90mph if the limiter broke. Allegedly*.Your bollocks are clearly far, far larger than mine. We had one. An 09-plate ex Demo M950 with an ISB6 hanging off it's arse. It was absolutely shitting terrifying and within an hour of my first shift in it I had almost put it in a field - considering at the time my shift bus was a 210bhp 6-pot Dart SLF with an on/off throttle pedal and no retarder to speak of, the Solo was the scarier of the two by far. I never worked out why Solos just refuse point blank to actually handle... they work up to about a 780 but anything bigger is pointless. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cms206 Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 Our workshop tonight, taken from my office door - many generations of Plaxton. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk 83C, Ghosty, rml2345 and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandeth Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 What's under the skin of the Premiere then? They're starting to get a bit of a rare sight now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rml2345 Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 What's under the skin of the Premiere then? They're starting to get a bit of a rare sight now.Usually it's ferrous oxide... That one is a B10M new to Oxford. davidfowler2000 and 83C 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghosty Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 Aye, there was a time Premieres were everywhere, and I've been treated to journeys on them for various reasons more times than I care to imagine. Decent bodies, whatever was under them. Haven't seen one for a good while now I think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cms206 Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 What's under the skin of the Premiere then? They're starting to get a bit of a rare sight now.Premiere indeed!!! Excalibur I'll have you know! It's a '98 Volvo B10M auto under all that, new to City of Oxford as their 9 registered R9 OXF. Framework all replaced in the recent past, no holed stretch panels. Goes like a bat out of hell too, properly quick even for a B10M. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon.k Posted August 22, 2018 Share Posted August 22, 2018 I’m on holiday and it’s raining... my friends will be amazed if any one can identify the coach in this morning’s “artwork”. pompei 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quicksilver Posted August 22, 2018 Share Posted August 22, 2018 Those triangular-ish windows immediately made me think MkIII Plaxton Paramount Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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