Bus Shite

[MiniMinorMk3]

Phwoar! Look at that pair of big Bristols

[MiniMinorMk3]

[artdjones]

I went to the Carris museum in Lisbon today. It's just like a transport museum should be, with everything in good shape, well explained (with English translation), not trying to be painfully relevant. The vehicle section is buried in the middle of the Carris works right underneath the 25th April suspension bridge. So you pay just inside the works entrance, look around the first part of the museum, and are then taken down to the vehicles on the old red tram in the photos. There's a huge amount about the history of Carris as well, with lots of other equipment on display. Amazingly, only €4.50 entrance. The only disappointment was that they don't seem to have any of the rather wonderful locally bodied AEC Regent Vs they bought inthe sixties.

[RoadworkUK]

Of Gardners (and speaking from an entirely emotional perspective), am I allowed to really like the 6LYT? 

Very occasionally, a Plaxton Paramount 4000 on Gardner-powered Neoplan underframes served on my school bus route, and I liked a) how it sounded, b) the fact that it said "Turbo 330" on the side, and c) the fact that it took off at a rate of knots compared with the Daimler Fleetlines we were usually cooped up in.

[cms206]

Last horse in tonight at 0153, barring the N238s: 0123 finish at Chingford and a full shift with 19782.

 

[Eyersey1234]

6 hours ago, cms206 said:

Last horse in tonight at 0153, barring the N238s: 0123 finish at Chingford and a full shift with 19782.

 

Speaking of horses, one of my colleagues and I took a group of uni students to Doncaster Races yesterday for a piss up. My chariot was the Evoseti on the right.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Reading that Zetor book and is a special bus used by Zetor in one of the pictures but what kind of bus is it? A little research and this is a Skoda bus, but I don't know more.

But I guess it was used as a mobile workshop.

[Joey spud]

I was dragged up in Cliffe as a youngster so was chuffed to see this posted online recently. No idea what the bus is but the image was captured in Gravesend eight miles away.

[Inspector Morose]

3 hours ago, Joey spud said:

No idea what the bus is but the image was captured in Gravesend eight miles away.

If you really wanted to know, it's an Eastern Coachworks bodied Leyland Tiger TS8, owned by Maidstone and District that was sold in 1954 to British Railways North East region for departmental use.

No, thought you didn't.

[Yoss]

4 hours ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Reading that Zetor book and is a special bus used by Zetor in one of the pictures but what kind of bus is it? A little research and this is a Skoda bus, but I don't know more.

But I guess it was used as a mobile workshop.

It will be a Škoda 706 of some sort. Probably a 706 RTO. I don't know why but it seems all their commercial vehicles of the time were 706s wether bus or lorry then they had a two or three letter suffix for the individual model but I don't know enough about them to say any more.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

If you really wanted to know, it's an Eastern Coachworks bodied Leyland Tiger TS8, owned by Maidstone and District that was sold in 1954 to British Railways North East region for departmental use.

No, thought you didn't.

Yes. I think we, Eastbourne, the first municipal bus co in the UK  used them too at one time. Love that you know this detail.

[Yoss]

12 hours ago, Yoss said:

It will be a Škoda 706 of some sort. Probably a 706 RTO. I don't know why but it seems all their commercial vehicles of the time were 706s wether bus or lorry then they had a two or three letter suffix for the individual model but I don't know enough about them to say any more.

The reason they are all called 706s is apparently because they are built on the same chassis. The buses look so stylish, in my biased opinion, but perhaps they might be rather agricultural to travel on.

But I have a chance to find out as I've found one for sale in Plovdiv, Bulgaria which is good because it's somewhere I've always wanted to visit. It's a bit pricey even if it's a quality restoration so far.

Power looks decent. 160hp from 11.7litres seems about the same as you'd expect from a Leyland or AEC of the same era.

The advert, which I used Google to translate from Bulgarian says the bodywork is finished, the engine works and it is drivable and all parts are present except the seats. 

So all I have to do is pop over to Bulgaria for a week or so, refit all the windows and lights and drive it back. Perhaps I could stop off in CZ to find some seats on the way. They came in bus and coach versions. I'm off this week too.

This a coach seated one.

Simple but comfy looking perhaps? But look at the cab. It is front engined. 

I'd be fighting over that front passenger seat but I suspect normals would be trying to sit as near the back as possible. And not really suitable for one man operation.

[busmansholiday]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

And not really suitable for one man operation.

Ha, ha, ha. Many a small operator has fitted a ticket machine on the top of the engine cover to use such things for one man. The difficult bit was the doors, either a mechanical arm / handle or even a piece of rope. Ask me how I know.

 

Don't also forget Ford offered their R192 or R226 (both front engined) with Plaxton Derwent bus body for one man operation. 

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, busmansholiday said:

Ha, ha, ha. Many a small operator has fitted a ticket machine on the top of the engine cover to use such things for one man. The difficult bit was the doors, either a mechanical arm / handle or even a piece of rope. Ask me how I know.

 

Don't also forget Ford offered their R192 or R226 (both front engined) with Plaxton Derwent bus body for one man operation. 

If I don't ask are you going to tell us anyway?

[busmansholiday]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

If I don't ask are you going to tell us anyway?

No......

[martc]

[martc]

A DO56„Schnauzenbus“, 100 used to potter around Berlin, only it's mother could love it.

[martc]

And to prevent disappointment...

An Ikarus 250.09 picking up tourists at Kursk Station Square, Moscow, 1974.

[martc]

AERFER Firenze 426's   (based on a FIAT 412/1 chasiss. They had two staircases and the driver sat in the middle; the conductor sat at the back, the exit was at the front.

[busmansholiday]

30 minutes ago, martc said:

Leeds, one of the ex London Feltham cars on the left.

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, busmansholiday said:

No......

[Yoss]

59 minutes ago, martc said:

A DO56„Schnauzenbus“, 100 used to potter around Berlin, only it's mother could love it.

It's almost like they finished building it then realised they'd forgotten the engine. 

[Yoss]

@Dyslexic Viking, look what you made me do!

I suddenly felt there was a gap in my knowledge that needed filling. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

7 minutes ago, Yoss said:

@Dyslexic Viking, look what you made me do!

I suddenly felt there was a gap in my knowledge that needed filling. 

Great, now you also need this one

 

Looking forward to lots of Skoda bus and truck info.

[Yoss]

9 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Great, now you also need this one

 

Looking forward to lots of Skoda bus and truck info.

I do already have this one. 

It's a nice book with English captions under the Czech ones and everything is listed chronologically so you end up with trams, trains and trolleybuses on the same page and you never know what's coming next. 

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, martc said:

A DO56„Schnauzenbus“, 100 used to potter around Berlin, only it's mother could love it.

Odd looking thing, but you have to admit there's a certain logic to it.  Keep all the noisy, hot, smelly mechanical gubbins well clear of the cabin.  Looks like it's pretty well optimised for service access too.

Imagine traffic was rather lighter back then so the giant front overhang was less of an issue.

[Inspector Morose]

3 hours ago, martc said:

A DO56„Schnauzenbus“, 100 used to potter around Berlin, only it's mother could love it.

I had a mate (sadly no longer with us) who managed to get a spin in this. He described it as the worst torture ever to be inflicted on a driver - crash box, manual steering, etc. You'd certainly know you'd done a shift in one.

[High Jetter]

Emergency stop at full speed, unladen, might be interesting?

[busmansholiday]

23 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

He described it as the worst torture ever to be inflicted on a driver - crash box, manual steering, etc. You'd certainly know you'd done a shift in one

A bit like an ex SBG Y type Leopard then on local services in South Yorkshire (or even a Reliance with AEC's crash box on a full shift of contracts and schools).

Yep, been there, got the T shirt and taken days to recover...

 

[willswitchengage]

Bi for export. Random post that came up on my TheFacebook, interesting that they are being loaded into a bulk carrier instead of a roro ship - maybe busses are too large for them which are presumably designed to carry cars only.