Bus Shite

[83C]

1 hour ago, Inspector Morose said:

Voith gearboxes

[busmansholiday]

5 hours ago, martc said:

 

Another Sheffield bus, this one is a Daimler CVG6-30. The front end treatment here is certainly better thought through, although I prefer the blue and cream livery.

I bet the inhabitants or Rotherham rather preferred their buses in blue and cream rather than the crappy brown and cream PTE livery as well.

[quicksilver]

17 hours ago, martc said:

Commercial Street, Leeds in 1971. As part of the 'Leeds : Motorway City of the Seventies' grand scheme, cars were removed from a big chunk of the retail centre. To compensate for this Leeds City Transport introduced the 401 Shoppers Bus connecting the bus and rail stations. A flat fare of 2p , no change given, was introduced.

These must have been among the first Merc minibuses in the UK and I bet it was controversial that a corporation fleet bought foreign-made vehicles. How times have changed.

[martc]

20 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

These must have been among the first Merc minibuses in the UK and I bet it was controversial that a corporation fleet bought foreign-made vehicles. How times have changed.

I wonder if it's a Mercedes chassis but with a UK built body? The compromise that still prevails today.

[busmansholiday]

2 hours ago, martc said:

I wonder if it's a Mercedes chassis but with a UK built body? The compromise that still prevails today.

Deansgate (Williams Motors of Manchester).

Here's the one at the motorshow.

 

[Yoss]

On 13/10/2025 at 20:19, SunnySouth said:

The Open Top Bus Site ( “opentopbus.net” ) says:

“Previous Registration Numbers

WOW 531J was previously HNP 898J, WOW 529J”

So, allegedly, it now masquerades as a former classmate? Which is, well, odd… Assuming of course that there was a 531J back in the day? 

Link to the page:

https://www.opentopbus.net/w-England---Dorset.pdf

Here it was in its earlier days, I'd say pre October 86 as it still carries Southampton City crests. 

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

Maybe repeats.

[SunnySouth]

23 hours ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

Maybe repeats.

I’d often wondered; was the Bond bus especially battered for its film role (aside from pre-cutting the roof for the bridge scene, etc) or did they genuinely look like that in service over there?

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

I’d often wondered; was the Bond bus especially battered for its film role (aside from pre-cutting the roof for the bridge scene, etc) or did they genuinely look like that in service over there?

Not sure but it was handy Roger Moore still had his PSV licence from before he was an actor.

[ProgRocker]

Captured this one on the dashcam a few weeks ago. Did an MOT check of the numberplate (knowing very little about buses) and it comes up as an AEC Root Master . 

[loserone]

29 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

AEC Root Master

 

[Metal Guru]

Saw a bus being towed (single decker , don’t know what model etc) on the A14 yesterday. 
No one had checked the overhang at the back, so when lifted at the front it was dragging on the ground. I passed it in a lay bye with large quantities of smoke billowing from a smouldering back “bumper”.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

Walsall Corporation 1951 built Sunbeam F4 trolleybus Reg No NDH 956 Fleet No 339 is seen here on driver training duties at the Cavendish Road terminus on Bloxwich Lane in 1967.

[Remspoor]

17 hours ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

Walsall Corporation 1951 built Sunbeam F4 trolleybus Reg No NDH 956 Fleet No 339 is seen here on driver training duties at the Cavendish Road terminus on Bloxwich Lane in 1967.

I am so glad of the white  lettering on the front or I would have never guessed.

[Inspector Morose]

On 24/10/2025 at 14:06, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

Walsall Corporation 1951 built Sunbeam F4 trolleybus Reg No NDH 956 Fleet No 339 is seen here on driver training duties at the Cavendish Road terminus on Bloxwich Lane in 1967.

One of the same batch, NDH959, Walsall 342! Was taken into the works and rebuilt (as Walsall was at want to do). It emerged three feet longer, gaining space for an extra 8 seats, the windows mounted in white window rubber, and it gained an 8 ft front axle of something else, the difference in width to the 7ft 6 inch body being taken up with wider front wings. 
 

An odd beast (as were most things in the fleet, of around 301 vehicles, approximately 200 were one-offs, prototypes, rebuilds, or vehicles peculiar to that fleet), it managed to survive into preservation at the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft.

[martc]

Can only be loved by it's mother, the 1971 Citroen NDP with bodywork by Currus. Mad at the front, uber bland at the rear, I think the designer ran out of time -

Thrupnee bit type curb spotting windows.

[martc]

1951 Mercedes-Benz Type O 6600T trolley buses on their way to Argentina, from a batch of 300. Apparently they were still in use well into the '70's and perhaps beyond.

[Yoss]

A few pictures from the Muswell Hill running day today. 

[Yoss]

But a rather poignant day as one of the main organisers, Trevor Muir, died about two weeks ago.

I had known Trevor for 38 years. I first met him on RM 2037, which went on to become my bus, on the last night of the 68s. I have posted this picture before but make no apologies for doing so again here. 

But I got to know him properly about a year later when we went on a four day trip from Finchley to Glasgow with RML 903. Trevor was a conductor at Finchley for many years until they lost their RMs.

RML 903 inside Finchley garage when we arrived. 

This was a well organised trip with Finchley management arranging with Clydeside to run it in service when we got to Glasgow. I love this picture, this is about as Glasgow as it gets. 

But at one point whilst stopped in traffic Trevor decided to jump off to get a photo of something and of course the bus pulled away whilst doing so and he had to run like buggery to catch us up again. I took this sat on the stairs of 903 looking out the back window. 

This was August Bank Holiday 1987.

Trever co owned RM 2116 for many years but 903 was always considered his bus. On all these modern running days Trevor was always on the back of 903. Technically it's not even preserved. It was Finchleys showbus. When Finchley shut it moved to Holloway garage which was sold to MTL upon privatisation which became Metroline and it is still part of their commercial fleet. Trevor himself moved over to the Underground as station staff and only retired from that in January this year but RML 903 rarely went anywhere without him. 

He was also instrumental in me buying RM 2037 the first time. Last day of the RMs in Southampton, 14th January 1989, all finished at Portswood garage about 8pm and Trevor had come down with RM 2116, along with RM 308 to follow the last bus around. I posted a picture of this quite recently so I won't do so again.

Anyway me and my friend Barry who both live in Southampton and could have been home in half an hour decided it would be fun to cadge a lift back on RM 2116 to Tilbury docks where it lived. Trevor then dropped us off in Palmers Green in his Escort Huntsman at about 3am so we could get a nightbus back in to town to get the first train home. 

But it was on this trip when we stopped at Fleet Services for food that Trevor and Graham convinced us that owning a Routemaster was possible and not just some fantasy that happened to other people. Bearing in mind that me and Barry were spotty 20 year olds who didn't even have driving licences (who needed a car when there were great things like this going on all the time? ). I didn't even have a bank account, I still used to queue up on a Friday lunchtime for an actual cash pay packet! But we knew somebody else, who had also been on 903s trip to Scotland who was considering buying one so we offered to go in with him, but it had to be RM 2037. And that's where it all started. 

So thanks Trevor. 

[DSdriver]

Something I noticed reading a heap of these pages, why do trolley buses have two poles and trams only one?

 

[jim89]

4 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

Something I noticed reading a heap of these pages, why do trolley buses have two poles and trams only one?

 

Trams earth through track?

[Inspector Morose]

Psst! Want some pictures of buses? Well, step right this way. Here's a little selection of my pets, who I had the misfortune to run... checks notes.... 35 BLOODY YEARS AGO!

I'm off for a lie down.

 

[Zelandeth]

Is there a good central calendar somewhere for running days etc?  I only ever seem to find out about them when I see photos on here.

[LightBulbFun]

44 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Is there a good central calendar somewhere for running days etc?  I only ever seem to find out about them when I see photos on here.

this!, I keep seeing @Yoss at various London ones, and I keep thinking, I keep missing an opportunity to add some 1970's-1980's to the scene photobombing some of the shots with REV  

I do know that 13th December is when the commemorative Route 159 (and Christmas light tour) is due

https://www.facebook.com/events/826237700361475

not sure what the etiquette is, or if there will be somewhere for me to park REV close to the buses?

but I would like to be there, if @Yoss is going to be there

[N19]

Believe there is one on Chalk Farm routes on 16th November.

I did know about this one, but promptly forgot and was only reminded when a 'normal' friend of mine asked if I knew why there was a green RM going down Colney Hatch Lane! I did swing by in the Capri and saw various RMs and an RF.

[Yoss]

6 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

this!, I keep seeing @Yoss at various London ones, and I keep thinking, I keep missing an opportunity to add some 1970's-1980's to the scene photobombing some of the shots with REV  

I do know that 13th December is when the commemorative Route 159 (and Christmas light tour) is due

https://www.facebook.com/events/826237700361475

not sure what the etiquette is, or if there will be somewhere for me to park REV close to the buses?

but I would like to be there, if @Yoss is going to be there

This is the Camden running day in two weeks time. But I'm not going to make that one. 

But for events nationwide this is useful. These are just screenshots so none of the links will work but you can go to the website itself if you want, I just can't do links on this phone, or at least I don't know how to. 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

From the LW archives. No longer involved. Remain a Leyland Man though, innit:

 

[Dyslexic Viking]

The story of how Ikarus buses ended up in the US. And has an AI voice but that's due to the creator's lack of English.

 

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

May include repeats.

[Metal Guru]

On 26/10/2025 at 16:33, martc said:

1951 Mercedes-Benz Type O 6600T trolley buses on their way to Argentina, from a batch of 300. Apparently they were still in use well into the '70's and perhaps beyond.

20 years isn’t an exceptional service life for a bus shirley? Personal number plates conceal the age of a lot of private stuff these days, particularly if they’ve got a school contract.