Bus Shite

[martc]

Bus 5127 is on 42nd St in Manhattan. It was one of 350 rebuilt General Motors 'New Look' TDH-5303s.  These buses  sent to the Blitz Corporation of Chicago for complete overhaul and rebuilding in the 1980s. When they returned to New York, they were renumbered in the 5xxx series and known as 'Blitz Buses'. 

Running on Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island routes, some Blitz buses were transferred to MTA Long Island bus routes before their retirement in the late 1990s. 

[martc]

Marlborough Bus Station, NuT, 1960s. Bleak.

[martc]

Could be a dreary Newport (note Aunties DW reg number). 'Vile Brothers Mineral Waters', nice name, were Newport based. So I think it's Newport.

[martc]

Orion V Noo Yoik coaches. Note the correct spelling of centre, how strange.

[cms206]

I'm continuing to lead a much quieter life after London, but by god do I miss it.

Today's shift is 1430-0200, all the way through with this Cummins powered 2013 Wright Streetlite DF.

[Yoss]

7 minutes ago, martc said:

Could be a dreary Newport (note Aunties DW reg number). 'Vile Brothers Mineral Waters', nice name, were Newport based. So I think it's Newport.

The Rover looks more like an OW which would make it a Southampton reg but I'll admit the resolution isn't quite good enough to be sure. 

[busmansholiday]

2 minutes ago, Yoss said:

The Rover looks more like an OW which would make it a Southampton reg but I'll admit the resolution isn't quite good enough to be sure. 

Southampton buses were red, Newport were Green and cream. They look like some of their Longwell Green bodied PD2's.

[artdjones]

Those are the Newport Corporation colours on the bus. 

Anyway, I can't see Vile Brothers being the kind of branding that would spread as far as Southampton.

[Yoss]

9 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Those are the Newport Corporation colours on the bus. 

Anyway, I can't see Vile Brothers being the kind of branding that would spread as far as Southampton.

No but it's quite feasible for a rover P4 to make the journey from Southampton to Newport. That's all I meant, I can see they aren't Southampton buses. 

[martc]

Not Newport, in fact not even the northern hemisphere, we're in Argentina -

A Neoplan bodied Mercedes Benz made under licence by Cametal.

[martc]

'First' are encouraging the passengers to take a more hands on role in their travelling. Not sure how much further up this hill they are going to get.

[lesapandre]

22 hours ago, martc said:

Marlborough Bus Station, NuT, 1960s. Bleak.

 Metro-Cammell bodied AEC Regal IV?

[Inspector Morose]

2 hours ago, lesapandre said:

 Metro-Cammell bodied AEC Regal IV?

A very early reliance, apparently.

[High Jetter]

I saw a routemaster (I think) heading into Eastbourne about 2pm yesterday afternoon, and again heading out just after 5pm. Both times I only saw it side-on, so couldn't get the reg, but it had 'Route 73' and 'leaside Buses' branding similar to this:

A bit of googling suggests it could well have been this one, as it's operated by an outfit called Southern Transit, based near Brighton. Must have been for some event, I guess.

[SunnySouth]

On 20/10/2024 at 12:59, High Jetter said:

I saw a routemaster (I think) heading into Eastbourne about 2pm yesterday afternoon, and again heading out just after 5pm. Both times I only saw it side-on, so couldn't get the reg, but it had 'Route 73' and 'leaside Buses' branding similar to this:

A bit of googling suggests it could well have been this one, as it's operated by an outfit called Southern Transit, based near Brighton. Must have been for some event, I guess.

Ah, the chap who owns Southern Transit is a bit of an LT licker! His fleet has all sorts of interesting stuff in it, with a strong London theme. At one time the yard contained some sort of original ALX400 prototype shell or something similar, and pride of the fleet are his pair of ‘Citymaster’ E400s - which carry appropriate fleetnames CM1 & CM2! Note also the appropriate seat moquette!

[Yoss]

That's Neil. I once took my bus to him for a brake overhaul. I tried to do most of the work on it myself but I'm not going to start messing about with Routemaster brakes in an open yard. 

Here are some pictures of my bus in his yard. 

 

RM 116 is the unique hydraulically suspended Routemaster 

 

I looked at this and wondered why I took it (something that happens quite regularly) and then noticed his fork lift and my bus are consecutively numbered and I considered that photoworthy apparently. 

 

Neil is also the man to see for original RM interior bulbs. 

[Yoss]

Looks like DOE 32 is the last red bus in Southampton. 

Taken yesterday. 

 

I tried to get a picture of the shoddy fleet number that makes my teeth itch but failed miserably, but you get the idea. Not only are the numbers bigger than the letters, there's a gap between the two numbers and one is higher than the other. If it was my bus company this would have been the first one that got painted just to get rid of that. 

 

The only other one I'd seen in red in the last few weeks was DOE 30 but bustimes.org says it hasn't worked 8n service since September 26th so I assume it has gone in for painting. 

So one has to assume they are here for a good while now or else they wouldn't have spent all that time and effort painting them. Might even see their 20th birthday here. 

 

[martc]

These Isuzu's are known as the 'Bonnet Bus' in Japan.

[martc]

A LAZ-699R 'Tourist-2'.

[Inspector Morose]

On 24/10/2024 at 17:38, Yoss said:

That's Neil. I once took my bus to him for a brake overhaul. I tried to do most of the work on it myself but I'm not going to start messing about with Routemaster brakes in an open yard. 

Here are some pictures of my bus in his yard. 

 

RM 116 is the unique hydraulically suspended Routemaster 

 

I looked at this and wondered why I took it (something that happens quite regularly) and then noticed his fork lift and my bus are consecutively numbered and I considered that photoworthy apparently. 

 

Neil is also the man to see for original RM interior bulbs. 

Crikey, I didn't know RM116 still existed. Quite the interesting bus, that one, you remember active suspension that was developed by Automotive Products in the late70s that was eventually seen on the Williams 1984 season F1 cars? Well, this has a big version of the very same thing.  Apparently, the ride on it was a bit weird as it initially leans around the corners but then the hydraulics wake up and push the bus vertical again - to those on the top deck this was quite the sensation. 

[quicksilver]

On 24/10/2024 at 17:38, Yoss said:

 

A former Charlton Services Plaxton Paramount looking incongruous among all the London buses there. They've been running for years as a family business and still use that same livery, now on a fleet of Volvos that are on the older side but very smartly turned out.

 

[SunnySouth]

One for @Yoss then, when was the last time So’ton had a pink bus brightening the place up?  Presumably there must’ve been some hideous all-over ad on an Atlantean at some point?!

[Remspoor]

1 hour ago, SunnySouth said:

One for @Yoss then, when was the last time So’ton had a pink bus brightening the place up?  Presumably there must’ve been some hideous all-over ad on at Atlantean at some point?!

My wife hates pink. Wonder how many other women do too.

[SunnySouth]

16 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

My wife hates pink. Wonder how many other women do too.

In fairness, the rest of the buses are blue!

[martc]

Did you know Ikarus and Rothmans snouts sponsored the Hungarian Rally team in the '80's? In fact did you know Hungary had a Rally Team in the '80's?

Don't panic, the 5's were the actual rally cars, the Volga was a service car and the coach was the teams overnight accommodation.

[martc]

Pakistan, 1953. All the gubbins on the roof is for the onboard air conditioning. Anyone got any idea what the coach is? There's a touch of Bedford about it.

[busmansholiday]

On 19/10/2024 at 20:12, Inspector Morose said:

A very early reliance, apparently.

Yep, with vacuum brakes, that brings back fond* memories !

[busmansholiday]

On 19/10/2024 at 17:00, martc said:

Not Newport, in fact not even the northern hemisphere, we're in Argentina -

A Neoplan bodied Mercedes Benz made under licence by Cametal.

Those four axle ones were available in Europe also. Somewhere I've pictures of them, in I think, Spain and Greece.

[Inspector Morose]

9 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Those four axle ones were available in Europe also. Somewhere I've pictures of them, in I think, Spain and Greece.

Yup, the Neoplan Megaliner. Did manage to get on one at a trade show once, bloody awsome things but the upper deck headroom was, erm, lacking due to being built to a maximum height of 4m.

[Metal Guru]

On 19/10/2024 at 17:01, martc said:

'First' are encouraging the passengers to take a more hands on role in their travelling. Not sure how much further up this hill they are going to get.

I remember going to a rugby international at Twickenham with my school in the 70s and we all had to get out to push the bus out of the muddy car park.