Bus Shite

[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 ?

 

[busmansholiday]

8 minutes ago, Joey spud said:

Anyone know what this ugly duckling is ?

 

Which do you mean, the Metrobus or the Wright (yes, the lot from Northern Ireland ) bodied Bedford of Maidstone Corporation or Boroline as they regarded themselves...

 

 

 

 

[Joey spud]

1 hour ago, busmansholiday said:

Which do you mean, the Metrobus or the Wright (yes, the lot from Northern Ireland ) bodied Bedford of Maidstone Corporation or Boroline as they regarded themselves...

Yeah the yellow "prison bus" the MCW was my local bus to get home.

Would the Bedford have been as grim to operate as it look ? Bedford or Leyland powered ?

[cms206]

13 minutes ago, Joey spud said:

Yeah the yellow "prison bus" the MCW was my local bus to get home.

Would the Bedford have been as grim to operate as it look ? Bedford or Leyland powered ?

They were Bedford engined, Allison auto boxes. Maidstone seemed to get on well with mediumweight chassis, they operated a few Wadham Stringer Vanguard Bedfords too IIRC.

[busmansholiday]

8 minutes ago, Joey spud said:

Yeah the yellow "prison bus" the MCW was my local bus to get home.

Would the Bedford have been as grim to operate as it look ? Bedford or Leyland powered ?

Looks like CKM142Y, Bedford YMT, so has their own engine. Actually very much liked by small operators as they were a pretty reliable bus / coach, if somewhat "wank" to drive and underpowered. We (the National Bus Company) had some with both Duple Dominant and Willowbrook 'Spacecar' bodies and despite our best efforts they survived quite well, if you ignore having to ask the passengers to get off and walk up the hill because the bastards wouldn't get up fully laden.

[cms206]

Culture shocks abound... what do you mean I have to give change and issue tickets? Where is the second door?!

I NEED TO EXIT THE CAB TO DEPLOY THE WHEELCHAIR RAMP?!?!?!

[busmansholiday]

2 minutes ago, cms206 said:

Culture shocks abound... what do you mean I have to give change and issue tickets? Where is the second door?!

I NEED TO EXIT THE CAB TO DEPLOY THE WHEELCHAIR RAMP?!?!?!

The yoouffee of today, don't know they were born..

 

"When I was a lad....".

 

fill in your favourite Monty Python sketch..

[cms206]

2 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

The yoouffee of today, don't know they were born..

 

"When I was a lad....".

 

fill in your favourite Monty Python sketch..

The very first job I did after passing my test was in a Leyland Leopard seven years older than I am... then I graduated onto a manual Tiger 245.

I had a harder start than most my age 😂