Bus Shite

[busmansholiday]

13 minutes ago, cms206 said:

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 😂

Luxury!!!!

[Yoss]

2 hours ago, Joey spud said:

Anyone know what this ugly duckling is ?

 

That must be the earliest thing I've seen with a Wright badge. They must have been quite a minor player back then?

[Yoss]

29 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?!?!?!

Bluestar have a tap on tap off system. Nothing unusual there you say. And for many years they have run dual doors at least on the double deck fleet. But some buses have the tap out machine by the rear door as you would expect and some of the second hand ones have it by the front door which makes no sense at all. So those of you with physical tickets get off by the rear doors and those using tap on tap off have to get off at front and battle through the people getting on. 

And now the new batch of Enviro 400s are single door anyway. It's very inconsistent. I don't see why we need to tap out when it's a £2 flat fare anyway. I guess it won't be £2 forever but whilst it is it can't be that hard to ignore the tap out bit. 

[artdjones]

On 12/05/2024 at 20:16, Zelandeth 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.

I don't know how true it is, but the driver survived. Apparently his previous shift was 20 hours.

[Zelandeth]

2 hours 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 ?

Given my - admittedly only on preserved vehicles - experience with Bedfords, it will probably have been slow but pretty much utterly dependable.

Duple Dominant II on a Bedford Y series would still be in my lottery win garage.  STA380R was pretty much solely responsible for my interest in all commercial vehicle type things, so that combo has a very special place in my heart.  Also the first coach I ever drove.

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

I don't know how true it is, but the driver survived. Apparently his previous shift was 20 hours.

Sadly that wouldn't surprise me.  Something happening to the driver just seems more likely with the way that unfolded.  Most modern vehicles are smart enough to cut power even if the throttle pedal is physically jammed if the brakes are applied.  In the case of such a dual input situation, priority will be given to the brakes and power will be cut.  I guess that wouldn't do anything if something happened to the fuel pump itself...but this is all speculation.

[willswitchengage]

I may have accidentally found the best public transport system I've ever come across, and it's bizarrely in Mallorca.

Get ready for a very underwhelming post as I didn't take many photos!

Here is the very unusual underground bus station in Palma which took me ages to find and was very confused by Google Maps until I realised it literally was underground - as was the small train station (which sadly I didn't have enough time to use).

https://www.tib.org/en/inici is the PTE and its ticketing and route planning system is not only very cheap but is an exemplar digital public transport information system. Lots of kudos there. The busses are all Scania from what I could see and pretty much brand new and looked very nice and colourful. They were all very appropriately optimised for their routes -  mix of low and high floor including a very unusual high floor bendy bus which took me to the airport on my way home.

I was on a cycling holiday and an additional surprise highlight was our lunch stop in Soller where the café we randomly picked had a vintage tram go past every five minutes!

Also saw a HMMVW and a weird Chinese car

[busmansholiday]

On 13/05/2024 at 21:02, 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?!?!?!

16th December 1978 was a miserable morning and it wasn't going to get better or warmer, as this 1963 ex East Midlands Willowbrook bodied Leopard, fitted with manual transmission, no power steering and those BFO handbrake levers was my enjoyment* for a shift.

 

[Weird Car]

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!

If I’d had known you were coming to my work I’d have brought the Rolls in 😆

[Remspoor]

21 hours ago, willswitchengage said:

I may have accidentally found the best public transport system I've ever come across, and it's bizarrely in Mallorca.

Get ready for a very underwhelming post as I didn't take many photos!

Here is the very unusual underground bus station in Palma which took me ages to find and was very confused by Google Maps until I realised it literally was underground - as was the small train station (which sadly I didn't have enough time to use).

https://www.tib.org/en/inici is the PTE and its ticketing and route planning system is not only very cheap but is an exemplar digital public transport information system. Lots of kudos there. The busses are all Scania from what I could see and pretty much brand new and looked very nice and colourful. They were all very appropriately optimised for their routes -  mix of low and high floor including a very unusual high floor bendy bus which took me to the airport on my way home.

I was on a cycling holiday and an additional surprise highlight was our lunch stop in Soller where the café we randomly picked had a vintage tram go past every five minutes!

Also saw a HMMVW and a weird Chinese car

There has been a fair bit of investment in urban public transport in Spain. By urban I mean non long distance as run my ASLA or Flexbus.

The Lynk & Co car is a Chinese/Volvo brand. I think the only factory is in China.  The company are getting more and more popular. This is the Spanish website for them https://www.lynkco.com/es-es

There does not seem to be many agents for the cars. But buried in that website it says one one the pick up points is Palma

[willswitchengage]

I thought Lynk appeared as some kind of online only Chinese brand, then died away, but I want to say they were ahead of Tesla in going for the asset-light sales model.

Also saw loads of 'dr' branded cars, never even heard of that one before.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR_Automobiles

 

[puddlethumper]

On 13/05/2024 at 21:01, busmansholiday said:

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.

I was in Yorkshire back in the 70's somewhere round Halifax, I think, and I was on a double decker and we came down a hill where, at the bottom, was a cross road with traffic lights and we hit it on the red. Off up the other side and it stopped about half way up and lots of people got off. I'm upstairs and thinking, 'fuck me that's a busy bus stop'. Then the ticket bloke came up and, basically, asked me to join the rest walking up the hill while the bus ground it's way up where we all got back on. Seems that if you get a green at the bottom it can make it if not it's walkies time. Yorkshire eh!

[martc]

[busmansholiday]

Gateshead and District Atlantean on the left.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Below is an 1950s ad for Reginol engine oil as 2 Norwegian Scania buses passed 400,000km without an engine overhaul or reboring on Reginol oil. Reginol oil was then used motor oil that had gone through a process and was then sold as new oil. According to what I read from several sources, this were terrible stuff, but still 1950s engines lasted to high mileages on this.

[auntiemaryscanary]

On 15/05/2024 at 12:30, busmansholiday said:

16th December 1978 was a miserable morning and it wasn't going to get better or warmer, as this 1963 ex East Midlands Willowbrook bodied Leopard, fitted with manual transmission, no power steering and those BFO handbrake levers was my enjoyment* for a shift.

 

A nice hilly route for you and that delightful* conveyance too!

[SunnySouth]

On 15/05/2024 at 15:12, Weird Car said:

If I’d had known you were coming to my work I’d have brought the Rolls in 😆

Have to say it’s changed a bit since it was my work!  No shagged minibuses dumped in the compound out the back, and no Evening News employees parking their sodding cars in the bus area in the yard!

[doug]

Old Edinburgh bus now in Australia and has been converted to a motorhome.


Sent from my SM-A145R using Tapatalk

[cms206]

Back to life in the provinces. Busy* shift last night, 1656-0102 on the X25.

[mk2_craig]

On 13/07/2023 at 22:24, mk2_craig said:

Potential bus futureshite.

Mellor Sigma.  I had a sniff around it today, either the industry will love it and they'll shift bucketloads of them, or it'll turn out not to be so well screwed-together with total sales of about 7.

I was wrong, it appears that Mellor have given up after registering only five of these.

[martc]

Renault TN4

[martc]

GM New Look 

[martc]

Worswick Street  Bus Station, NuT, 1988.

[egg]

From last week's Faversham festival of transport (I didn't go, just seeing some pics), probably travelled on this bus when it was in service.

[Yoss]

Probably of no interest to anyone but me but I've just seen another DOE in blue. The third to be treated. 

DOE 11

I can't help thinking that if they are keeping all the ones they acquired it will take about 12 years to paint them all at this rate. 

There will of course be a tipping point where there are more blue than red ones. At this point I'll start posting pictures of the red ones. 

[danthecapriman]

On 21/05/2024 at 20:05, martc said:

GM New Look 

I love those fishbowl buses! They look so cool. Detroit diesel power too.

Got myself a 1:43 model of one late last year which is equally huge!

[martc]

[martc]

Somewhere in or near NuT.

[busmansholiday]

2 hours ago, martc said:

My favourite foreign bus, the Merc 0302

[SunnySouth]

On 24/05/2024 at 12:31, Yoss said:

Probably of no interest to anyone but me but I've just seen another DOE in blue. The third to be treated. 

DOE 11

I can't help thinking that if they are keeping all the ones they acquired it will take about 12 years to paint them all at this rate. 

There will of course be a tipping point where there are more blue than red ones. At this point I'll start posting pictures of the red ones. 

They do look smart though! 
 

Have a new Wilty Dorset “Morebus” e400 as per the Bluestar ones. Same cumfy seats (except for that stupid mismatched pair on the front offside upstairs!)

 

Bonus Morebus content, OmniCity slumming it in Swindon until death catches up with it, presumably.

 

[SunnySouth]

And now for something Shite…

Dead Firstbus stuff spotted in Worcester. Can’t be that much stuff still knocking about in Barbie livery these days surely, although some fleets seem to have achieved a truly glacial pace of repainting. Unusual Plaxton Centro in purple, and of course a Citaro in the middle. None of them long for this world, presumably. “VOR”, RIP!