Bus Shite

[artdjones]

On 03/10/2024 at 12:05, busmansholiday said:

Incase non of you have seen one yet, Stagecoach have decided to ditch the "new" livery for another new one.

New to Stagecoach South West and now with Stagecoach Yorkshire, 15660 displays the new 'dark blue' livery. 

It was almost invisible under Eldon Street railway bridge as it's closer to black.

 

Not the best, but a lot better than turquoise or magenta swirls. A lot of modern bus liveries are in similar colours to the clothes of a man who allows his wife to dress him.

[Metal Guru]

12 hours ago, artdjones said:

Not the best, but a lot better than turquoise or magenta swirls. A lot of modern bus liveries are in similar colours to the clothes of a man who allows his wife to dress him.

I’m surprised we don’t see all white buses with transfer logos. Lorries all seem to be going that way.

[Inspector Morose]

1 hour ago, Metal Guru said:

I’m surprised we don’t see all white buses with transfer logos. Lorries all seem to be going that way.

We do. Dealer white with vinyls has been the defacto livery for most coach companies for years.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Inspector Morose said:

We do. Dealer white with vinyls has been the defacto livery for most coach companies for years.

And this rental vehicle which Stagecoach Bluebird had on fleet for well over a year that confused the heck out of me when I caught glances of it for months.  It was a totally different type to anything else they had on fleet.

Finally managed to get a snap of it in the station one day.

Turns out it was a long term rental while another vehicle was getting accident repairs undertaken.

[SunnySouth]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

And this rental vehicle which Stagecoach Bluebird had on fleet for well over a year that confused the heck out of me when I caught glances of it for months.  It was a totally different type to anything else they had on fleet.

Finally managed to get a snap of it in the station one day.

Turns out it was a long term rental while another vehicle was getting accident repairs undertaken.

Did they eventually put a screen in it, or was the destination selotaped to the windscreen for its entire tenure?

[SunnySouth]

Milling around the middle of Southampton the other day amongst the ranks of Bluestar machinery parked/dumped between runs. Does anywhere else see this many buses daily deposited on the roadside between duties? I wondered how long it would take anyone to notice if the local juvenile test pilots decided to nick one! Anyhow, selection of average Bluestar fayre, their fleet is getting quite long in the tooth these days:

 

The E200 rattlers sent from next door subsidiary Morebus seem to be a permanent fixture now, but are still branded up for Poole operations.

Then I took a gratuitous spin over the Itchen bridge and back on a pair throaty ex London E400s. Hellfire!

 

Ding Ding!

[Zelandeth]

59 minutes ago, SunnySouth said:

Did they eventually put a screen in it, or was the destination selotaped to the windscreen for its entire tenure?

It had a Hanover one in it, but it was never programmed as far as I know.  Only thing I ever saw it displaying was the Stagecoach logo.  Was only about for about a year and a half!

[artdjones]

8 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

We do. Dealer white with vinyls has been the defacto livery for most coach companies for years.

Another way that things have regressed.

[Inspector Morose]

Just now, artdjones said:

Another way that things have regressed.

Brown bomber.

[Metal Guru]

12 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

We do. Dealer white with vinyls has been the defacto livery for most coach companies for years.

Yes, coaches are like that now I think about it, ( with obligatory non ageing number plate).

Buses however are by and large  painted bold (or sometimes awful) colours all over.

[Yoss]

On 07/10/2024 at 17:24, SunnySouth said:

Milling around the middle of Southampton the other day amongst the ranks of Bluestar machinery parked/dumped between runs. Does anywhere else see this many buses daily deposited on the roadside between duties? I wondered how long it would take anyone to notice if the local juvenile test pilots decided to nick one! Anyhow, selection of average Bluestar fayre, their fleet is getting quite long in the tooth these days:

 

The E200 rattlers sent from next door subsidiary Morebus seem to be a permanent fixture now, but are still branded up for Poole operations.

Then I took a gratuitous spin over the Itchen bridge and back on a pair throaty ex London E400s. Hellfire!

 

Ding Ding!

The Scania in your first picture, 1131, was until recently still in Southern Vectis livery. This was taken in May. 

And behind it here, DOE 27, is also now blue. 

Both 58 reg so yes, getting on a bit. But they all look quite smart once painted. I don't think most normals would realise they were 15 years old. 

Most of the DOE's have been painted now. The only red ones I ever see are 30, 32 and 37. Only this morning I saw DOE 28 in blue for the first time. I don't know how long it takes to paint them but some of them disappeared for months, so long in fact that I thought they'd been moved on. DOE 21 reappeared a couple of weeks ago after a long absence too so I still don't know exactly how many we have. I like them for the simple reason that they still have real blinds, they look so much neater than the dot matrix blinds. I also like the fact that they've kept their London fleetnumbers. 

 

The noisy Volvos still put in occasional appearances but they seem quite rare now. I thought once they got 16 brand new Enviro 400s these would disappear but they must have kept some for contingencies. I've seen them on school work recently. This one was taken on Sept 11th. 

[gm]

a famous car park in gateshead

[Leyland Worldmaster]

First Lynx in service:

 

[83C]

I do like a Lynx, this was mine:

G38 YHJ (SLC 38 in Crosville Cymru days). I owned it in 2009/10 but had to sell as I was moving and had nowhere to store it. The new owner had plans for it to be a mobile dog grooming vehicle but I never saw or heard anything of it again. 

At the time I worked for Tanat Valley Coaches in Llanrhaeadr who ran a properly Autoshite fleet including a number of Lynx such as this one:

J658 UHN was one of a pair bought for £1500, mainly for the two sets of brand new tyres which were worth more than the actual vehicles. They were both going to be for spares but after a quick look underneath this one got the nod for a brush/roller repaint and went back on the road for a further 3 years. J653 UHN (the other one of the pair) wasn’t quite so fortunate, but it did help keep the other 6 Lynx going. 

[Inspector Morose]

3 hours ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

First Lynx in service:

 

And now the weird bit. This is indeed B60-02 that was exported as an underframe and partially completed body, to be completed as a bus by Bolton in Perth. Other notable early Lynx were of course the Ulsterbus/Citybus examples with Alexander bodies. Other non-Leyland bodied Lynx were Pressed Metal Corporation bodied examples for Australia, another Alexander bodied example for Singapore and a Camo bodied example for somewhere I can’t remember off the top of my head.

One of the Earliest examples of Leyland’s own Lynx body in service was in fact on a Leyland Tiger, produced in 1985 to bid for a contract to supply to New Zealand (Hino won this contract in the end and the Tiger remained unique).

[catsinthewelder]

6 hours ago, 83C said:

I do like a Lynx, this was mine:

 

At the time I worked for Tanat Valley Coaches in Llanrhaeadr who ran a properly Autoshite fleet including a number of Lynx such as this one:

J658 UHN was one of a pair bought for £1500, mainly for the two sets of brand new tyres which were worth more than the actual vehicles. They were both going to be for spares but after a quick look underneath this one got the nod for a brush/roller repaint and went back on the road for a further 3 years. J653 UHN (the other one of the pair) wasn’t quite so fortunate, but it did help keep the other 6 Lynx going. 

I'm going to guess they were new to United in Durham as I have a model of J657UHN.

[Vantman]

[martc]

On 06/10/2024 at 09:17, busmansholiday said:

Nope, I see a knock off copy of a low floor Neoplan (cannot remember the exact code)

Turns out it's not a knock off, but a built under licence Neoplan N4016. Although MAZ couldn't afford the western components so it contains quite a lot of old Soviet engineering underneath the sleek western design.

https://autosharm.com/eng/press-tsentr/stati/item/1738-maz-103

Here's a pukka Neoplan version in that Liverpool.

[martc]

Any of our bus drivers competed in a Roadeo?  I quote from NY Transit - 'Bus Roadeos happen all over the world and are hosted by local and regional transit companies to test bus operators on driving skills, safety regulations, equipment maintenance and more. Competitions are fun and lively and winners can go all the way up to the international level!'

They don't just use modern buses, above is a Fifth Avenue Coach Company bus built in 1938 and appearing in the 1993 New York City Transit Authority Bus Roadeo at Steeplechase Park, Coney Island. The Parachute Jump provided an interesting backdrop to that year’s event.

[martc]

Shaftesbury Avenue in front of an illuminated Lyric Theatre on 29th September 1954.

[83C]

14 minutes ago, martc said:

Turns out it's not a knock off, but a built under licence Neoplan N4016. Although MAZ couldn't afford the western components so it contains quite a lot of old Soviet engineering underneath the sleek western design.

https://autosharm.com/eng/press-tsentr/stati/item/1738-maz-103

Here's a pukka Neoplan version in that Liverpool.

Driven that one. Along with L408/409 TKB (and 410 as a parts donor) it went to Tanat Valley, because they were a cheap entry into low floor motors. Cheap for a reason - they were a pain in the arse to get parts for and had been thrashed to fuck around Liverpool. I’m fairly sure it was 404 that came to us with most of the hopper windows made out of polycarbonate, I still have the emergency window hammer from it that had been made from a piece of flat bar with some all thread welded to the top. Obviously we did what Arriva’s budget didn’t stretch to and replaced it with a proper emergency hammer as part of getting it ready for service. 

The MAN engines sounded great, they were a big turbo 5 pot of some sort mated to a Voith slushbox that did its very best to assist the engine in its primary mission of turning vast quantities of diesel into noise and smoke. Forward movement was an afterthought, and reverse something to be considered only in extreme circumstances. They were fun to drive if you wanted to be a bit of a hooligan - sit at the lights, hold it at a fast idle on the handbrake and deck the throttle once they went green. The revs would go straight to maximum, the front would rise a bit and they’d surge forwards like they’d been held on a big bungee cord whilst leaving a huge cloud of black smoke. Max revs held right through to 20mph, step up into 2nd at 20-22 and then into 3rd (top) at 28-30mph where they’d drop to ‘normal’ revs and then build back up from there until topping out at 50 or so. 

Unfortunately they were fairly shit to drive ‘normally’ because of the Voith box, they needed to be driven hard to make any real progress. They were also horrendous on fuel, averages of 4-5mpg when a Lynx or B10B on the same work would return 10-12mpg pretty much irrespective of who was driving. 

L404 TKB at Pentrefelin. L410 TKB is the one next to it, acquired as a spares machine. None of them lasted more than 18 months in service, there was a plan to stuff a ZF box and a Cummins L10 in one when the MAN engine went bang but it was too long for the engine bay. Apparently there was a brave attempt to preserve one but in the end they all went for scrap.

[martc]

An SE&CR C class and a Maidstone & District coach cross the old Kingsferry Bridge connecting the Isle of Sheppey with the mainland. The new bridge, opened in 1960, can be seen under construction behind the loco. Any idea what the coach is?

[martc]

Queens, Noo Yoik.

[artdjones]

39 minutes ago, martc said:

An SE&CR C class and a Maidstone & District coach cross the old Kingsferry Bridge connecting the Isle of Sheppey with the mainland. The new bridge, opened in 1960, can be seen under construction behind the loco. Any idea what the coach is?

It's a Beadle-AEC coach from 1955 belonging to Maidstone and District. I think they were some kind of unitary body built by Beadle using othermanufacturers mechanical units.

Edit:- Apparently built by chopping the middle out of a prewar AEC chassis, and incorporating the ends with the mechanical units as subframes in the unitary body.

[gm]

“100 years of glasgow buses”

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DhDT6zGS3/?mibextid=WC7FNe

 

not sure they’ve got the whole 100 years covered but it’s nice seeing them out on the road 

[Inspector Morose]

2 hours ago, gm said:

not sure they’ve got the whole 100 years covered but it’s nice seeing them out on the road 

Well that first bus (Leyland Titan TD1) was built in 1928 so they're only four years out!

[SunnySouth]

On 10/10/2024 at 17:57, Yoss said:

The Scania in your first picture, 1131, was until recently still in Southern Vectis livery. This was taken in May. 

Most of the DOE's have been painted now. The only red ones I ever see are 30, 32 and 37. Only this morning I saw DOE 28 in blue for the first time. I don't know how long it takes to paint them but some of them disappeared for months, so long in fact that I thought they'd been moved on. DOE 21 reappeared a couple of weeks ago after a long absence too so I still don't know exactly how many we have. I like them for the simple reason that they still have real blinds, they look so much neater than the dot matrix blinds. I also like the fact that they've kept their London fleetnumbers. 

 

I thought after I took the pic that it looked shiny! And it isn’t a native Island ‘HW’plater, so it started life on the mainland and has come full circle!
 

As for DOE37, confirmed as now being blue!

[Yoss]

3 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

I thought after I took the pic that it looked shiny! And it isn’t a native Island ‘HW’plater, so it started life on the mainland and has come full circle!
 

As for DOE37, confirmed as now being blue!

Ah, that was red the last time I saw it. They seem to be going through them at quite a rate now after a slow start. I spend half my working day wandering up and down Shirley Road so I keep up to speed but I've been on holiday for that last two weeks. 

So the red ones are now rather rare. I think only DOE 30 and 32. I was hoping 32 would be one of the first to be painted as the fleet numbers annoy me. The DOE bit is proper LT style Johnston typeface but the number looks like Poundland wheelie bin numbers. 

Not my picture, I had to pinch it off the Internet. 

The one on the back is even worse, the numbers aren't even straight. 

[ETCHY]

On 11/10/2024 at 08:47, 83C said:

I do like a Lynx, this was mine:

G38 YHJ (SLC 38 in Crosville Cymru days). I owned it in 2009/10 but had to sell as I was moving and had nowhere to store it. The new owner had plans for it to be a mobile dog grooming vehicle but I never saw or heard anything of it again. 

At the time I worked for Tanat Valley Coaches in Llanrhaeadr who ran a properly Autoshite fleet including a number of Lynx such as this one:

J658 UHN was one of a pair bought for £1500, mainly for the two sets of brand new tyres which were worth more than the actual vehicles. They were both going to be for spares but after a quick look underneath this one got the nod for a brush/roller repaint and went back on the road for a further 3 years. J653 UHN (the other one of the pair) wasn’t quite so fortunate, but it did help keep the other 6 Lynx going. 

I liked the Lynx. Only thing was the ones that Fishwick's had didn't half leak in wet weather. It'd literally drip down the pillars inside at times.

[Yoss]

23 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

I thought after I took the pic that it looked shiny! And it isn’t a native Island ‘HW’plater, so it started life on the mainland and has come full circle!
 

As for DOE37, confirmed as now being blue!

The Bluestar bus tracker can't keep up with the speed they are knocking them out now.