Bus Shite

[catsinthewelder]

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, catsinthewelder said:

the cut-n-shut Routemaster  

[Yoss]

13 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Karsan E-jest, 

RHD model now being demonstrated in the UK on the back of selling some to Japan. It’s probably shorter than some cars. 

https://www.route-one.net/news/first-stock-karsan-e-jest-electric-microbuses-for-uk-arrive/

Looks very much like what I saw in Sibiu, Romania a couple of weeks ago. 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Loads here, innit:

 

[sierraman]

On 06/05/2025 at 13:42, Cookiesouwest said:

Was in the pub for lunch, when this turned up at the petrol station next door

 

Northern Bus in Sheffield used to use those up until the mid 90’s. They were practically antiques by that point. 

[Inspector Morose]

Going back to bus recovery vehicles a second. I knew I'd find the pic eventually. Yup, a national bodied Matador.

[EyesWeldedShut]

18 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

Going back to bus recovery vehicles a second. I knew I'd find the pic eventually. Yup, a national bodied Matador.

That is absolutely fantastic - how many man hours went in transferring the coachwork over? Maybe best not to ask [edit] Apprentices maybe?

[Inspector Morose]

16 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

That is absolutely fantastic - how many man hours went in transferring the coachwork over? Maybe best not to ask [edit] Apprentices maybe?

I'd assume it was an apprentice special. Apart from the roof and windscreen, there actually isn't a great deal of standard national in there.

The best bit for me is the headlight being set lower on the body and a proper blank panel in the place where they would have been. A lot of work has going into that.

[SunnySouth]

10 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

I'd assume it was an apprentice special. Apart from the roof and windscreen, there actually isn't a great deal of standard national in there.

The best bit for me is the headlight being set lower on the body and a proper blank panel in the place where they would have been. A lot of work has going into that.

Presumably the original National got twatted and the front end was recycled thus?!

[quicksilver]

1 hour ago, SunnySouth said:

Presumably the original National got twatted and the front end was recycled thus?!

More likely it was built with new bits from the parts stores, back in the days when bus companies had such things. With a big fleet of Nationals, they'd have had enough spare parts stashed away to make that without cannibalising a bus.

[Volksy]

On a roadtrip around the arse end of California, I stopped for a couple of nights in Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea. 

Very bizarre place, most residents living semi off grid. 

I spotted this, and recognised the First Bus colours.. seems it made its way over here, and still showed it's UK plates. 

 

[mk2_craig]

10 minutes ago, Volksy said:

UK plates

Isn’t it customary for old UK buses imported into the US to display plates that are anything but the true identity? 

[Volksy]

7 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

Isn’t it customary for old UK buses imported into the US to display plates that are anything but the true identity? 

OJD830Y On this one. 

Bit of googling shows it as an ex Go Ahead London reg. 

[lisbon_road]

3 minutes ago, Volksy said:

OJD830Y On this one. 

Bit of googling shows it as an ex Go Ahead London reg. 

That was an MCW Metrobus, a much older bus that the one we're seeing here.  The Metrobus was destroyed by fire in the ABUS depot in Bristol in 2018.  Perhaps the number plate survived?  Perhaps many things!

[Volksy]

10 minutes ago, lisbon_road said:

That was an MCW Metrobus, a much older bus that the one we're seeing here.  The Metrobus was destroyed by fire in the ABUS depot in Bristol in 2018.  Perhaps the number plate survived?  Perhaps many things!

Interesting,

Mind you, around that area, nothing is as it seems. 

I did think it looked a bit modern to be an '83. 

 

[busmansholiday]

On 11/05/2025 at 20:33, mk2_craig said:

Isn’t it customary for old UK buses imported into the US to display plates that are anything but the true identity? 

Let's just say I knew a company that exported buses to the USofA and to say that the first thing they did was throw the real identity of the bus in the skip might* be an understatement !!

[busmansholiday]

On 06/05/2025 at 20:22, Inspector Morose said:

Air assisted power steering was retrofitted as a way to modernise the Fleetlines a bit to make them a bit more tolerable compared to the Metrobuses flooding into the fleet. Problem was, it was utterly hopeless and soon gained many nicknames from drivers, such as threppeny bit steering to Auto-veer. The irony was that Daimler offered proper hydraulic power steering for the Fleetline but WMPTE was too tight to pay for that option.

We had a couple of Reliances retro fitted with AEC's version of that back in the late 70's. They were just as bloody bad to drive as you describe, and yes,you could get proper power steering fitted from new but, well you guess.

[MT606]

Spotted this on todays bimble around edinburgh whilst dodging twats who were walking and looking at their fuckin phones but not the people in the line of travel!

it's some sort of mobile cafe malarkey.... had led headlights which spoilt it even further.....

 

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[mk2_craig]

36 minutes ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

Looks smart that, there was one on demo over here a few months back. Nice bit of kit but the ex works price was apparently about half a million quid! 

[myglaren]

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

Copied from the Facebook post.

If Carlsberg made Atlanteans… Some love it, many loathe it, but it is unique. ARC666T was once NCT’s best known vehicle. It was named “Andrew Pickering” after a young lad from the Bullwell area who had a life-limiting affliction and loved the vehicle, going out to see it and waving at the driver as often as possible. It was also nicknamed ”Damien” due to its fleet number 666. It is preserved with Nottingham Area Bus Society at Ruddington Fields!!

[myglaren]

While that is obviously for amusement, I was on a bus a while back, the driver very friendly and effusively welcomed everyone onboard.  Half way through the journey he was asking people which way to go as he hadn't driven that route for thirty years and there are three different busses, the 82, 81 and 81a that have slightly different routes at different times of the day and on weekends.

On one particular road he shouted out "Must be on the right road as there is a bus stop there".

Very cheerful bloke.

Last time I was on the same bus it crashed into a Sainsburys wagon the pulled out in front of it on a roundabout.  Get out and walk time.

[artdjones]

Sounds like a well run company.

[busmansholiday]

 

11 hours ago, 83C said:

Sounds normal to me. The better ones might be really generous and give the driver a hastily scribbled and largely useless map on a bit of paper fished out of the bin.

Arrhh, the days when you asked where the route went before leaving the depot and the answer was always "you'll know when you get back".

[danthecapriman]

I was watching a video on YouTube about Routemaster’s, archive footage, and one of the drivers accidentally missed a junction. Went straight on instead of a left turn. He realised pretty quick but he had to reverse the bus against traffic to get back enough for the turn. Fortunately the Routemaster has a conductor who acted as a banksman to help reverse. 
Would that be a bollocking for doing that? 
Obviously doing it back in the 80’s was bad enough but I wonder what would happen now. Full license suspension and go home without pay until we’ve investigated I expect!

[Snipes]

Hope the conductor has done his banksman course and has the correct PPE!

[Remspoor]

23 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

I was watching a video on YouTube about Routemaster’s, archive footage, and one of the drivers accidentally missed a junction. Went straight on instead of a left turn. He realised pretty quick but he had to reverse the bus against traffic to get back enough for the turn. Fortunately the Routemaster has a conductor who acted as a banksman to help reverse. 
Would that be a bollocking for doing that? 
Obviously doing it back in the 80’s was bad enough but I wonder what would happen now. Full license suspension and go home without pay until we’ve investigated I expect!

I seem to remember my dad saying that it was illegal to reverse a bus (London Transport) with passengers on board. Other than that I cannot help.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

I seem to remember my dad saying that it was illegal to reverse a bus (London Transport) with passengers on board. Other than that I cannot help.

Something in the basement of my (reducing) memory suggests that applied to open platforms, RM's etc? 

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

I seem to remember my dad saying that it was illegal to reverse a bus (London Transport) with passengers on board. Other than that I cannot help.

 

2 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Something in the basement of my (reducing) memory suggests that applied to open platforms, RM's etc? 

No idea if it was legal or not. The bus definitely had passengers onboard though. 
It was a funny road, like a multi lane one way in London with a two way normal road joining and the Routemaster just drove past it. Stopped and reversed back against the traffic then turned into the road it overshot. It looked quite strange seeing it. 
I bet the driver didn’t count on someone standing there filming though!