Bus Shite

[Yoss]

DOE2 is in Southampton now. As far as I can tell DOE31 is still the only one in blue but I don't know how long it takes Hants and Dorset Trim to knock one out (fnarr fnarr). Obviously Bluestar and H&D share a building so you would get them to do it.

Seeing the bus behind in your picture, we have at least one Scania Omni City in that livery on loan here too. Obviously they are in the same number series as the Bluestar ones.

[puddlethumper]

8 hours ago, Yoss said:

With regards to my previous post, I finally tracked down the blue Trident.

Tracked down quite literally with the Bluestar bus tracker. This is the nearest stop to my house. Just walked out waited less than two minutes and went home again. Modern technology is good for some things.

I do like the proper blinds on these things and the fact that they are in almost Johnston typeface. The number is anyway, the destination should be all capitals but that's something even London changed many years ago. But they are so much clearer and neater than the dot matrix stuff. Although I've noticed some of the new stuff in London now has dot matrix so fine they can replicate Johnston typeface but that sort of thing doesn't seem to have filtered down to the provinces yet.

I used to have a thing for blinds when we first had our RM. Back in 1989 they could be had really cheap, even at rallies. Even managed to get a few for free. We got a full set from Norwood and Victoria garages, just walked in and asked. A guy at Norwood went and found some for us and the chap at Victoria walked us over to a cupboard, opened the door and said help yourself and left us to it. The cupboard was knee high in used blinds. Victoria and Norwood were our bus's first and last garages in London so we really wanted those and of course a set from Southampton CityBus that came with it when we bought it but I ended up with loads more.

Both times I sold the bus I let the blinds go with it because, quite frankly they take up a lot of room if you don't have a bus to keep them in. I can see why operators prefer dot matrix but they don't look as nice.

 

Some years ago I had a Merc 609 ex Isle of shite shuttle  with the blind still in it. I converted the bus into a camper and every time I moved I used to put a different IoW destination up. Dunno what the Spanish and Portuguese thought about it.

[cms206]

Today was a weird day.

A few of us Barking based loan drivers have been more recently sub-loaned out to Leyton, but today was my turn to go... to Selkent at Plumstead.

0900 report, duly arrived at about 0845 and was handed a route learning sheet and told to learn the 96 (Woolwich - Bexleyheath - Dartford - Bluewater).

I duly trotted off, got to Bluewater before the news we'd been waiting for... it's over. After our current hotel bookings expire, we will all be returned to our home garages as we are "no longer required".

Plumstead's driver shortage is 27% as of this morning, leading Rainham at 23%, Catford at 19% and Leyton at 14%.

Tomorrow starts my final run of six shifts in London, with a 145 tomorrow, 462s Friday & Saturday, 362 Sunday, a bank holiday on Monday, a 462 on Tuesday and a final 362 on Wednesday finishing at 00.25 on Thursday morning.

 

It's a bittersweet goodbye; I was actually really looking forward to a spell at Plumstead and by London's own admission they both can't afford to lose us all, but equally can't afford to keep us.

I return to my home garage from May 13th, thereafter starting my next adventure possibly the following week at Oldham as part of the Bee Network's ongoing fuckery.

 

Onwards and upwards!

[High Jetter]

There'll be another opportunity along in a minute. Or, three of them 😀

[cms206]

The operations manager at Bluestar is very much an enthusiast at heart and is himself a massive fan of the DOEs - there are still a handful of them in London (on the 151 from memory) and they are tremendous performers. If memory serves they are actually first generation Enviro 400s under the East Lancashire bodies.

[Eyersey1234]

23 minutes ago, cms206 said:

The operations manager at Bluestar is very much an enthusiast at heart and is himself a massive fan of the DOEs - there are still a handful of them in London (on the 151 from memory) and they are tremendous performers. If memory serves they are actually first generation Enviro 400s under the East Lancashire bodies.

We have 5 DOEs in service at East Yorkshire, they are nice to drive to be honest. Don't know if ours will get repaints or not given the age of them and the fact they are only really used on school runs

[martc]

Marlborough Crescent bus station, NuT.

[MiniMinorMk3]

[SunnySouth]

Bit of Portsmuthian shite for you all…

Firstly, a batch of the new Wrightbus Kite electrolical thingies, sat in the current Hilsea parking area. I rode one of these the other week, first electric bus I’ve been on. I was pleasantly impressed, I have to say! I’d much rather see these in use than Chinese BYD and Yutong crap.

Hilsea depot has for years parked some of it’s stuff in the yard of the local newspaper across the road, I believe the whole site has now been acquired for a brand spanky new depot and it’s currently mid-demolition, with the buses sort of dumped safely out of harm’s way down the back.  A Streetshite looks on in envy at the sort of decent, bombproof heavyweight vehicles that Wright used to body a few years ago! These Volvos are the current driver trainer fleet down here, seem to be a fair few of them. MX55 plates, not local.

And lastly, an E200 sniffs the air having been serviced in the ‘proper’ former Southdown Hilsea West depot building, before a fittery type individual rags the shit out of it around the block and across the road to the afore mentioned parking area!

[Remspoor]

Is this any one here?

JakeSCOC channel

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

Bit of Portsmuthian shite for you all…

Have just booked to bumble down that way early June. Much excite, revisiting historic dockyard for free.

[Yoss]

14 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

Bit of Portsmuthian shite for you all…

Firstly, a batch of the new Wrightbus Kite electrolical thingies, sat in the current Hilsea parking area. I rode one of these the other week, first electric bus I’ve been on. I was pleasantly impressed, I have to say! I’d much rather see these in use than Chinese BYD and Yutong crap.

 

 

I've seen these in Southampton. They come up from Fareham and Portsmouth and are the only First Bus we get in the city now since they pulled out. I haven't been on any because they go completely the wrong way for me. 

But my observation was that putting the batteries on the roof which is what it looks like, you'd think would make them a little unstable compared to having them under the floor but I'm sure they know what they are doing. I guess it's no different to having a top deck full of passengers.

[busmansholiday]

On 06/05/2024 at 15:38, SunnySouth said:

Bit of Portsmuthian shite for you all…

My parents always went to Southsea for holidays, so I've found memories of the area from a very long time ago, the TD4s were the open toppers. 

 

If you look back through this thread I've posted a fair few B&W pics from the late 60's, early 70's.

[busmansholiday]

Whilst GO Ahead's bus tracking is generally excellent, it's not always up to date..

 

And what actually turned up...

 

[Yoss]

46 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Whilst GO Ahead's bus tracking is generally excellent, it's not always up to date..

 

And what actually turned up...

 

Same here, DOE 31, the blue Trident I posted a few days ago still appears as red on the tracker.

But as you say it's a very useful tool generally and when we get a Southern Vectis or More bus on loan they are usually listed as the right colour.

[quicksilver]

Engineering works on Sunday saw rail replacement coaches in operation from Milton Keynes. About 40 vehicles altogether, mostly Mercedes Tourismos and various other modern coaches but with a few oddities thrown in. Passengers on this departure got a real contrast: those going to Bedford had the oldest vehicle, a 2006 Wrightbus Eclipse, but Watford-bound was the newest, a Yutong GT12 little more than a month old.

[Noel Tidybeard]

BX56XCJ used to be called Margaret & numbered 1765 in its Travel West Midlands days and first appeared in the "toothpaste" livery

http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/1750-1953/1765.html

[cms206]

London?

Completed it, mate.

 

Next stop Oldham Depot, pencilled in for June 2nd.

[cms206]

A final photodump of my last three weeks in London.

[Remspoor]

 

2 hours ago, cms206 said:

A final photodump of my last three weeks in London.

I can't quite put my finger on it but I think something about  Geoff Baxter has change.😀

[busmansholiday]

On 06/05/2024 at 15:38, SunnySouth said:

Bit of Portsmuthian shite for you all…

Firstly, a batch of the new Wrightbus Kite electrolical thingies, sat in the current Hilsea parking area. I rode one of these the other week, first electric bus I’ve been on. I was pleasantly impressed, I have to say! I’d much rather see these in use than Chinese BYD and Yutong crap.

Hilsea depot has for years parked some of it’s stuff in the yard of the local newspaper across the road, I believe the whole site has now been acquired for a brand spanky new depot and it’s currently mid-demolition, with the buses sort of dumped safely out of harm’s way down the back.  A Streetshite looks on in envy at the sort of decent, bombproof heavyweight vehicles that Wright used to body a few years ago! These Volvos are the current driver trainer fleet down here, seem to be a fair few of them. MX55 plates, not local.

And lastly, an E200 sniffs the air having been serviced in the ‘proper’ former Southdown Hilsea West depot building, before a fittery type individual rags the shit out of it around the block and across the road to the afore mentioned parking area!

At least 13 of those Wright milk floats have been in store in Sheffield recently. 63621/4/70/1/2/7/8/9/80/1/2/91/6.

[MrT]

On 09/02/2024 at 16:27, martc said:

The gas turbine powered Vibretti 'Golden Dolphin', capable of doing 200 km/h. Unsurprisingly only one was made. Also panoramic.

http://www.bubblemania.fr/en/bus-viberti-golden-dolphin-1956-turin-italie/

And the subject of an 'Eagle' cutaway about the same time with a confident prediction that it represented the bus of the future. Thinking about my journey the other day on a nondescript Arriva double decker, what went wrong. 

[martc]

Northumberland St, NuT. The trolley bus is dressed fro some Royal occasion, I'm guessing the Coronation of 1953 as 'The Lusty Men' was released (in the USA) in October 1952 so could have taken a few months to get over here. It's a film about rodeos and ambitions to own farms and not what you're thinking.

[Asimo]

 

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, Asimo said:

 

Seven dead apparently.  What the actual hell happened there?  You'd have to think catastrophic brake failure from the looks of it.  Which simply Should Not Happen on a vehicle like this.

[High Jetter]

Throttle jammed open?

[Yoss]

I had to pop in to Shirley this morning. It's a seven minute drive with free parking so of course I made a two hour round trip on four buses starting with one going in the opposite direction. This is because a quick look at the tracker before I left showed a Southern Vectis Scania Omni City heading to Lordshill. 

I'd not been on this before but the interior is exactly the same as Bluestars own examples. And looks much much better on those. It clashes with the green somewhat. 

 

At Lordshill I jumped on DOE 27 which arrived right behind it despite the service being a 15 minute headway. 

These look exactly as they left London inside as you would expect, but again they would look much better on a blue bus. 

But the front upstairs legroom is intolerable so I had to move. 

There is still some evidence of its London life. 

 

One of Bluestars own Scanias. 

 

On the way back I got one of their brand new Enviro 400's. Again this wasn't a coincidence. I could see on the tracker that one was in the City Centre which gave me time for a coffee and a cinnamon bun in Coffee #1. 

We did get a batch of Enviro City 400s a few years ago with the fancy glass staircase and rounded roof dome. 

 

However these have the same bodystyle as the slightly older batch we got for Unlink. 

But once on board it was apparent that these have the same stop start technology as the Enviro 400 City's. So I don't know what they are exactly. 

But the best bit is the seats. 

Properly squishy seat bases. The backs are a little upright but overall still very comfy. 

I assume these are part of a bigger batch for Go South Coast. As far as I can tell we have 1749 to 1761. We have no other buses in the 1700 range so I guess the first 48 are somewhere else. 

 

[Yoss]

The nearest stop to my house is four stops short of the Lordshill terminus but I noticed on the tracker that DOE 31 was just in front of us so I thought I'd probably have time to jump on it  at Lordshill and get that the four stops back to our house. The significance of this is that it is one of the two DOEs that have been painted blue so they are still a bit of a novelty at the moment. 

Then by sheer chance when I got off the other blue one, DOE 33, was coming the  other way so I managed to get a picture of the two together. 

 

I realise that by the time they've painted them all this won't be an unusual picture but for now it was a real stroke of luck. 

 

[Yoss]

And lastly (for now), this is probably not the image that a company with the word blue in its name would like to present. 

 

Closer. 

 

Bingo 

[Joey spud]

Anyone know what this ugly duckling is ?