Bus Shite

[Felly Magic]

You were the poor sod that collected it from Escrick then? It had no 3rd gear half the time. It's now living about a couple of miles from Belle Isle depot, so almost home. there is progress on the other survivor, but it's still a long way off being roadworthy

[Inspector Morose]

I think during its time down south it had its box rebuilt twice by someone who knows SCG boxes backwards (ex Carlyle works gearbox man so he knew his stuff) even he couldn't get the damn thing to stop burning out its brake bands.

 

Still, it's one less thing to cross off in my "book". One day I'll get a shot at the Q. Now there's weird for you.

[Felly Magic]

Inside Dewsbury Bus Museum, the other Wulfrunian survivor, this actually served with an operator in Scotlandshire, taken in August, getting there, slowly. 

 

[wuvvum]

What the actual fuck is "Cave-Brown-Cave cooling"?

[rml2345]

One of those ideas that worked a lot better in theory than in practice. It was originally intended as a more efficient way to cool the engine whilst warming the passengers, using a heat exchanger usually mounted next to the front destination and removing the conventional radiator. The problem was that in stop-start traffic there was no air flow through the heat exchangers, so the engine wasn't cooled and boiling coolant would be lost as the system wasn't pressurised. Usually all over the top of the bonnet and potentially the conductor. They also had a tendency to leak in other places and some had thermostatically controlled shutters for the air inlets which caused even more grief as they weren't very reliable and often led to the bus boiling even faster.

Basically an ingenious way to overheat a diesel engine.

[twosmoke300]

Rover design ? 😄

[martc]

One of those ideas that worked a lot better in theory than in practice. It was originally intended as a more efficient way to cool the engine whilst warming the passengers,

 

GR9 idea - particularly in the summer. Is that why the one that saw actual service was based in the chilly lands of Scotlandshire?

[Felly Magic]

CBC heating was actually the cause of a fatality on a West Riding Wulfrunian, one of the pipes upstairs ruptured and showered someone in scalding hot water, they suffered quite substantial burns and later died from the injuries

[Inspector Morose]

They finished service for west riding the same day as the last trolleybus ran in great britan - TRUE FACT!

[rml2345]

GR9 idea - particularly in the summer. Is that why the one that saw actual service was based in the chilly lands of Scotlandshire?

It was a surprising popular option on Bristol Lodekkas, except in Scotland where it was dismissed as overcomplicated. Like semi automatic gearboxes and spring parking brakes.

[Felly Magic]

They removed the upper deck front seats as well, to try and reduce the weight over the nose. Fat chance of that making a difference with a socking great 10.45 litre Gardner 150 in front of the axle. They got severely knock knee'd. A bus that drove GUY into virtual bankruptcy, and West Riding into THC control. Many of the engines salvaged from the Wulfrunians were sent to Daimler to be fitted in Fleetlines to replace the Wulfrunians and drafted in Lodekkas. When both of these hit the road again, bus cranks will flock far and wide to the Wakefield area to sample them

[rml2345]

Wulfrinian is not what drove Guy to bankruptcy, although it didn't help. What did drive Guy to bankruptcy was an ill advised adventure in South Africa. Guy brought their dealer network in house and it absolutely haemorrhaged cash. Rather unfortunatey, the Wulfrinian was taken on in an effort to try and save the company.

[willswitchengage]

These are not in Manchester

 

 

 

 

 

[MarvinsMom]

that bristol lodekka (have i spelt it right?) takes me back, i never rode one, even in my youth BUT i do remember United having one for "driver training"

 

it was as i recall beige in colour with several l-plates and "driver under instruction" signs on it, especially over the back of it.

 

i always thought that been taught to drive a bus like that would make the driver ready to drive anything.

[Roverageous]

I tell you what chaps. Bit of a coincidence.

 

I grew up in EYMS's stomping ground. I attended Bishop Burton College (coz I is speshul isn't it) and as such used to get the BC1 service to college each day. We had lots of busses and no regular as such, but two busses were much more frequent than others. The first was R782 SOY- bus number 637 and the other then wore the registration A10 EYD - Bus number 600. An  Alexander-Royale bodied thingymajig. Originally ordered to run on the 'Classic Line' out to Withernsea. I used to like that bus, not a clue why. Perhaps it was because it was fitted with coach seats, I dunno.

 

I was very sad when EYMS transferred it onto its original registration (N660 BRH) and sold it to a company called 'Direct Coach Sales Ltd'. Anyhow. Last year I ended up moving to Aylesbury for work - some 200 miles from where I grew up. What did I see the other day? N660 BRH! 'Direct coach sales' seems to be a subsidiary or Motts Travel which are Aylesbury based and the bus (along with sister N590 BRH) are used as School busses - seen most regularly at Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School in Aylesbury. I guess they're used as school busses as they're not disability compliant or whatever - unless they've had low floor gubbins installed which I doubt.

 

I always give it a cheery wave. Driver probably thinks I'm mad.

 

(Yes, I know.)

[Felly Magic]

Direct Coach Sales is I'm certain one of Mr Shipp's companies, as it is where all 2nd hand EYMS motors end up

[Noel Tidybeard]

saw a linlong kingkong kinglong xmq6900 tonite- what iis the world coming to?

[Ghosty]

Chinese coach innit? I've seen a couple of those over here.

[cms206]

King Longs are fucking hopeless; their UK arm started buying up coach companies to fill with the sodding things 'cos no bugger else was buying them. Then the cash dried up and all the firms went bust.

 

The other Chinese mob in the UK are called Yutong who's stuff is actually the business - the UK importer (Pelican Leyland DAF) expected to sell a handful in the first year but managed fifty - the third batch are currently on route from China.

 

King Long are now using Iveco Cursor engines which are as popular as Herpes, but Yutong are offering DAF engines with ZF 'boxes and full DAFAid support - the same as VDL, Van Hool and Irizar integrals which use the same running gear, but much cheaper.

[quicksilver]

King Long are a sore point round here at the moment. They owned Jeffs, once one of the biggest and best local firms, who this week have followed seemingly all their other subsidiaries into bankruptcy. The staff haven't been paid for the last month's work and are now unemployed just before Christmas, only a few years after Jeffs' previous owner went the same way, a very sad end to a once-proud operator.

 

King Long UK seem dodgy as hell from what I've read. Their backer is a mysterious investment company called Island Fortitude with a registered office in Barbados for obvious tax-avoidance reasons. That's apparently just a forwarding address though and nobody knows where the actual office is or who the owners are, supposedly not even the directors of KLUK.

[MarvinsMom]

i have seen ione of those tingtong kingkong chink coaches on the road.

 

i'm glad that they are utter wank, those less glad at the numbers of folks loosing their job cos the foreigners have bought and then run into the ground once fine coach operators.

 

bastards.

[Pillock]

Although it does say right above that Jeff's went bankrupt once before being bought out by KL, so it hardly sounds like their fault.

 

And a bit less casual racism would be grand, too.

[lisbon_road]

This is a sad story and a local operator to me, Brijan Coaches, has gone the same way.  That company was also in a bit of a state prior to the takeover - but it remains a sad story.  The company was indeed based off shore but although there seems to be no real evidence of who owned it, the names of all the people involved are very British.  Have a look at the Route One article.  So this story really appears to have nothing to do with the Chinese, and we have only ourselves to blame for it in my opinion.  

[dollywobbler]

In other bus news, I'm determined to achieve a dream in 2016. I simply must drive an MCW Metrobus. I've managed short stints in various other double deckers (including a Fleetline and an Atlantean) but have yet to match Brummie-built bus joy with a screaming Voith retarder. 

 

I quite fancy actually driving a bus on the road too, thought that's not very easy to achieve it seems. I can't really justify getting all proper and going PCV. Or maybe I should revisit that £3000 question again. I mean, I only need some of it for the Dyane...

[Inspector Morose]

See Scotland.

[rml2345]

^ That, though none of us have easy access to a Metrobox. Unless something has changed recently...

[Felly Magic]

Just messaged DW, a mate of mine has an X plate Mk2 Wumpty example, NOA482X to be exact, fully resto'd to as new condition

[harvestman]

If you cut pieces off of a shite bus, is it still shite?

 

Cincinnati Metro 945 (7) by Cincinnati NKY Buses, on Flickr

 

Yes - it's even more shite, remarkably. This one gave its life (read: front trim) to another that hit a telephone pole.

 

939 by Cincinnati NKY Buses, on Flickr

 

See if you can spot the couple of missing vital components.

 

This little jewel caught fire a few miles away from my house, on the highway.

 

Gillig 2126 R.I.P. by Darius Pinkston, on Flickr

 

Less of it remains now.  Don't ask why...

 

Cincinnati Metro 2126 by Cincinnati NKY Buses, on Flickr

[Vantman]

Updating my camera and found these. Bus rally at Romney Hythe and Dymchurch light railway in 2015,despite my camera showing 2009.

 

[Vantman]

And some more----

 

 

Whilst I was there--