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6 minutes ago, Yoss said:

That sounds quite plausible. Of course there was a batch of RML's with the advert panels too but they all got binned sadly when they got refurbed. 

yeah I believe just 2 remain still, my mum actually spotted one a couple weeks ago RML2588 :) 

I do wonder if they retained the same tube setup, or if when they got changed during refurbished (or if they just fell into disuse and where used as regular advertising frames only?)

I was rather surprised to find out a while back that the fluorescent light fixtures in 1990s refurbished RMLs, actually use US Spec T12 single pin "slimline" tubes

I was not expecting that in the slightest! (but it explains tho why us lighting collectors find US Slimline tubes in bus depots from time to time)

 

I do wonder how preservationists get replacement tubes, as finding US Spec fluorescent tubes in the UK can be quite tricky unless you know where to look (and even then they can be quite expensive)

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Alas I was born in 96 so don't have any of the good grandfather rights on my license!

If I rip out the seats and stick a bed and a cooker in it, that's enough for it to be a camper right? I think all of these students and whatnot living in the back of knackered transits are doing it wrong.

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If you pass a Class D test you can drive a bus, you'll need the CPC shit for work but not for your own one.

If you take all the seats out and convert it to a camper you'll probably need a class C licence.  Presumbably if you leave 17 passenger seats in it'll still be a bus so can be driven with a D licence despite having a bed and cooker.  Best to ask one of the Andys for proper advice before breaking out the savings though.

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This book plopped through my letterbox today. I was drawn to it  on eBay by the fact the two buses on the front were photographed in my town of birth, and indeed both definitely accommodated me on my trips to school - early Nat (SNB103 spotter fans) and an AEC Merlin (think it's MBS399). Loads more shots of St Albans buses inside too including on the first page another MBS (292) in the lovely green/yellow London Country livery and with destination blinds showing the estate I was brought up on. Much nostalgia...

lcb.PNG.1a9e803765f61795a3ace17c1f14ad6a.PNG

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7 hours ago, Scotty2 said:

Or get an old coach and drive it under "Vintage Coach Rules"

If vehicle is over 30 years old and you passed your test before 96(?) you can drive a preserved coach on your car licence as long as you have no more than 8 passengers AND it is not for hire or reward.

 

As far as i can see, that's a bit of a grey area RE the grandfather rights on old buses. (I've looked into it because i'd genuinely love to buy an old Ailsa ? )

Some places say its as the above and the licence needs issues before the cut-off date, others say buses over 30 years old all fall under exempted passenger vehicle status. According to the governments own information leaflet, i can see where the potential issues come in. I certainly wouldn't chance driving one on a car license without getting it cleared!

bus1.thumb.PNG.7fa96be23917e44cf19102496513c6e1.PNG

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So far as I understand it, over 3.5T + more than 9 seats (1 driver + 8 passenger) = classed as a normal PSV. The DVLA classify licence category 'D' as:

Quote

Category D

You can drive any bus with more than 8 passenger seats (with a trailer up to 750kg MAM).

So if you had a 12m coach with a drivers seat, courier seat and 8 other seats (maybe arranged as two 2+2 table bays?) and it was over 30 years old, you could claim it is a PSV and drive it on a category 'B' licence. Keep the outside smart, don't make it obviously like a camper (heavily tint the side windows) and jobs a good un. I keep thinking of doing similar for family holidays over the next few years, I know to a lovely 9m Volvo B10M that would make a lovely little camper.

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6 hours ago, 83C said:

So far as I understand it, over 3.5T + more than 9 seats (1 driver + 8 passenger) = classed as a normal PSV. The DVLA classify licence category 'D' as:

So if you had a 12m coach with a drivers seat, courier seat and 8 other seats (maybe arranged as two 2+2 table bays?) and it was over 30 years old, you could claim it is a PSV and drive it on a category 'B' licence. Keep the outside smart, don't make it obviously like a camper (heavily tint the side windows) and jobs a good un. I keep thinking of doing similar for family holidays over the next few years, I know to a lovely 9m Volvo B10M that would make a lovely little camper.

I showed Molly a few plaxton bodied Volvos and the overriding response was "why are they so big?". Which got me thinking, how many caravan sites will let you in with a dirty great coach? And you can't really hide in a layby in a coach, can you?

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6 minutes ago, reb said:

I showed Molly a few plaxton bodied Volvos and the overriding response was "why are they so big?". Which got me thinking, how many caravan sites will let you in with a dirty great coach? And you can't really hide in a layby in a coach, can you?

I guess you could find a caravan site that will take the big american 40 footers since those are based on coach platforms anyway :) 

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On 8/7/2019 at 8:32 PM, Yoss said:

"Portsmouth City Coaches, Southbourne"

Risen from the ashes of Emsworth and District late 2018. Invested in some 5 year old Scania coaches, but seem to picking up and dropping Olympians as if they're going out of fashion for school stuff.

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28 minutes ago, Slappy said:

Risen from the ashes of Emsworth and District late 2018. Invested in some 5 year old Scania coaches, but seem to picking up and dropping Olympians as if they're going out of fashion for school stuff.

Surely Olympians will be getting too old for school runs now? DDA isn't always an issue with school runs though as it depends on the contract 

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Personally I think the world has gone soft.

There's nothing wrong with a class of screaming little bastards swinging around the pole on a rear entrance double deck whilst their friends slide sideways on the top deck because it's a lowbridge body with four seats abreast, on the trip back from Hillsborough baths (now a Wetherspoon's) to their school at Malin Bridge.

In those days if you fell off it was your own fucking fault for being at total arsehole!!!

 

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When I was looking into this a few years ago it was insurance that was the biggest headache.  Driving the bus on the car licence wasn't a problem (used to keep a printout from the DVLA website on me when driving a friend's one), however all of the insurers I spoke to wanted me to have a full cat D licence before they'd give me insurance.  Given I was having issues arranging storage back then as well as the owner of the shed I'd been planning to use had gone incommunicado it was one thing too many and I abandoned the idea.

Will come back to it one day... especially as with a bit of reconfiguration I've room for one at home now.  It's a few years away at least though given how precious a commodity time is these days...and from what I've seen the biggest resource you need looking after an old bus or coach it's TIME.  Something I have in short supply nowadays.

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No it's money, no matter what people tell you. It really is cash that's the deciding issue.

Trust me, if money wasn't an issue I'd still have a fleet of Reliances. Cars can be fitted in your or friends drives, buses are different. Despite sis having a stately mansion in Suffolk, storing a bus there is definitely a no no 

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6 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Cars can be fitted in your or friends drives, buses are different. Despite sis having a stately mansion in Suffolk, storing a bus there is definitely a no no 

After years of taking shite from my neighbours for parking a Cinquecento in the allotted spaces (apparently too small a car and they should be reserved for larger cars), if i ever got an Ailsa, i'd say fuck it and park it in the bay outside, show them what an actual problem looks like, ?

My local bus group offers storage of any buses in their warehouse for £50 a month, which is frankly phenomenal value considering that works out less than a council lock up.


RE insurance, can definitely imagine that being a problem on a B license, but like all things with vehicle insurance, there'll always be someone, somewhere who'll cover it. It's always just finding who will. Normally after about 3 weeks of online searching, contacting every broker and company you can find and spending 4-5 hours a day on the phone and being turned down by every last one, you finally find someone who'll insure something nobody else would touch as simply as a 50 year old female doctor insuring a diesel astra. It's sods law, always pretty much the last one on the list ?

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30 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Personally I think the world has gone soft.

There's nothing wrong with a class of screaming little bastards swinging around the pole on a rear entrance double deck whilst their friends slide sideways on the top deck because it's a lowbridge body with four seats abreast, on the trip back from Hillsborough baths (now a Wetherspoon's) to their school at Malin Bridge.

In those days if you fell off it was your own fucking fault for being at total arsehole!!!

 

I used to do part time conducting work for a friend in Watford who had a small private hire business with two RMs (1571 and 1959 if anyone's interested) and we started getting school work from some of the local coach companies. It suited them because they could hire a coach out for the whole day and not have it tied up for a couple of hours in the morning and afternoon and it suited my friend because most of his work was at weekends - weddings and rail replacements generally. 

I loved the school buses and after a while got to know the kids after which they gave me less hassle. We picked up at three schools, Bushey Meads first, and they were the best school and they would just pay me as they got on as we would be parked outside the school they came out in dribs and drabs. The next two, Bushey Hall and Queens would be waiting for us when we arrived. The first couple of times I treated it as a normal crew operated bus, let them all get on then try and get fares. They gave me the runaround. Firstly by passing tickets down the bus so by the time I got to the ones at the front they already had tickets even though I knew they hadn't paid. Then they started swapping school ties to confuse me. 

I actually admired their ingenuity but by the third time I did it I treated it as a pay as you enter bus and got the money off them before they got on and after a while we all got along. They actually seemed pleased to see me, though this was probably because there were a couple of conductors they really didn't like. 

As to last the paragraph in the quote above , I gave up trying to stop them getting off before the bus stopped and showed them how to do it properly - ie, always jump off going forwards even if you want to go the other way. Jump off forwards then turn round, if you try jumping off facing the other way you WILL fall over. 

This was 1992 and 1993. After that Hertfordshire County Council wanted all buses to be less than 15 years old unless it was an emergency. If it meant a bus being cancelled then they'd make an exception. I thought that was the end of it until I got a phone call one day saying what are you doing tomorrow? I won't say the name of the operator we were subcontracting from (don't actually know if they still exist) but they suddenly started having a lot of emergencies*. They were also using another local RM operator but it all came to end when a council hobnob turned up outside Bushey Meads one afternoon to find to two RMs and an RF sitting there! 

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1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

When I was looking into this a few years ago it was insurance that was the biggest headache.  Driving the bus on the car licence wasn't a problem (used to keep a printout from the DVLA website on me when driving a friend's one), however all of the insurers I spoke to wanted me to have a full cat D licence before they'd give me insurance.  Given I was having issues arranging storage back then as well as the owner of the shed I'd been planning to use had gone incommunicado it was one thing too many and I abandoned the idea.

Will come back to it one day... especially as with a bit of reconfiguration I've room for one at home now.  It's a few years away at least though given how precious a commodity time is these days...and from what I've seen the biggest resource you need looking after an old bus or coach it's TIME.  Something I have in short supply nowadays.

If tomorrow goes to plan, the need for a cat D license won't be an issue, it'll just be the remaining problems of money and time!

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25 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

This is our local bus yard 5 miles away with all the school run buses, I often meet them and the road to their village is unclassified.

The question is what am I looking at, highs, lows or are the whole lot the biggest pot of grey porridge you have seen in a long time? 

P1100102 broad.jpg

 

The bus in front of you is a Toyota.

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1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

This is our local bus yard 5 miles away with all the school run buses, I often meet them and the road to their village is unclassified.

The question is what am I looking at, highs, lows or are the whole lot the biggest pot of grey porridge you have seen in a long time? 

P1100102 broad.jpg

P1100111 broad.jpg

P1100110 broad.jpg

P1100118 broad.jpg

The bottom picture left to right is a Jonckheere bodied Volvo, Plaxton President, East Lancs bodied something, Plaxton coach probably Volvo chassis and an ADL Enviro200. 

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22 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

The bus in front of you is a Toyota.

I'm amazed that old Toyota Optimo is still going, they've had it about 15 years now and there can't be many left. It still seems wrong to see Langston & Tasker running fairly decent coaches as I remember that yard being full of Fords and Bedfords, the archetypal village school bus operator. 

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32 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

I'm amazed that old Toyota Optimo is still going, they've had it about 15 years now and there can't be many left. It still seems wrong to see Langston & Tasker running fairly decent coaches as I remember that yard being full of Fords and Bedfords, the archetypal village school bus operator. 

A couple of independent operators near me have had to update their fleets over the last few years after getting into trouble over the average age of fleet, in one case they were given about 4 months to replace pretty much the entire fleet if they wanted to keep school contracts. TBF maintenance was fine but a fleet of 30+ year old Bedfords and Fords was too old. 

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When you release the parking brake, you quickly have to dump a lot of air into the parking brake system to overcome the springs that hold the brakes on (safety features, run out of air, brakes come on automatically). Depending on the design of the pipes and valves, you get different noises.

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7 minutes ago, lanciamatt said:

Drove up from barnsley to Northumberland today, nearly crashed on a1 near Newcastle, saw a Leyland atlantean come past, people on it too, wonder if it's still in service 

Be on their way to a rally, been there, done it, got the T shirt and broken down more than once ( I used to know the head bolt sequence and torques for an AEC 470 off by heart!).

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