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We had one of those Iveco Daily heaps when I was at Stagecoach in Worthing. It was a pile of shite, heaters jammed on full & the only manual bus in the depot so the new 'uns got to avoid it as they trained on autos. It used to rattle about the no16 so slow you'd drop an entire run on each shift.

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Some gems there. The blue and cream bus behind the Stevensons Titan is an ex WMPTE ex LT DMS type Fleetline. Some garages took the non standard DMSs as a challenge to WMPTEise them and so got fitted with WMPTE standard indicators, windows and seating. That one was one of two (I think) that got a complete WMPTE destination panel and blinds. Unfortunately it didn't quite fit as only three track number blinds could be fitted instead of the usual four.

As delivered from Ensign.

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As "customised".

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See, that's why I like this place. We are mainly a car forum but still people come up with stuff like this. I could see it was ex WM but wouldn't have known it was ex LT as well.

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Day 2. Penrith to Glasgow.

 

That doesn't sound too far does it? But this was one action packed day. First of all the border at Gretna.post-20743-0-36888800-1510774988_thumb.jpg

Where this turned up.

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Note also that we had special blinds made up for every leg of the journey. Did I mention it was a very well organised trip?

 

Saw this sign and had to stop for a photo.

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Well it would be rude not to. I think this was the old A74 before it became the M74. Looking at the pictures it did look like quite a dangerous place to stop and wander about.

 

I think this is Motherwell garage.

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I'm not saying this from memory, I found this.

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Then onto Whitburn bus museum.

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I should have taken more pictures there but I didn't.

 

Then onto Glasgow. Lots of these about.

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Alexander bodied Leopards. The national bus of Scotland.

 

This is Thornliebank garage.

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From here RML 903 was put into service on Clydesides route 10/11. At the same time Clydeside gave us RM 447 to follow with. Some of these pictures were taken from the platform of 447. There were about fifteen of us on the platform and stairs!

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And one more for today. Saab Routemaster.

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This is RM 17 which still exists. Wouldn't it be good to return it to this livery. Make a change from all the red and would really stand out at a rally.

 

Day 3 tomorrow.

 

Oh actually one more thing. If we look at this again.

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Halfway down the second page it says L613 and a * tells me that was a Clydeside Leopard which did prick my memory. They gave us this to go and get some chips! With a Clydeside driver of course because he knew where the best chippy was. What more could you want.

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I bloody loved those DMS Fleetlines when I was a kid. The doors opened to the middle as I recall, which was just the bets thing ever. Apart from slammy Mk1 Metrobus doors perhaps.

The DMSs weren't around for long though.

About five years if I recall correctly. Bought in a part ex deal with Ensign to replace the native jumbo 33ft Fleetlines as they had major structural issues and were running out of certification (no MoT in those days but a certification for a fixed number of years based on condition and the ministry mans whim) all were gone by late 85/early 86.

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6082207896_a1697fbcee_b.jpg?resize=720%2

 

I used to enjoy this very DMS every day before and after school, circa '91 to '92.

 

Years later, I charted its history, and it seems to have gone to America, after a spell with the Big Bus sightseeing company in London. Astonishing, really, as I thought it was on its last legs in the early '90s.

 

Full write-up: bit.ly/2im8tgZ

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Back in July 1978, a group of about 12 of us that were associated with the preservation of ex Sheffield 874, an Alexander bodied Regent V took it for a weeks touring holiday in Scotland, bit Cliff Richard style but without the singing and low bridge!.  It was a bit of a bus mans holiday for me as I'd only returned to Sheffield the month before having been working at Rosyth dockyard in Fife the previous 6 months. We'd actually taken her to London (traditional picture on Westminster Bridge, but with a Metro Scania Decker passing her) as well as to Portsmouth the previous month for a long weekend and bus rally.

Built to cope with Sheffield's notorious hills, she had (and still has) a top speed of 37MPH.  That extra 5MPH of RML903 would have taken just a little bit of the boredom out of the slow progress we made on both trips. 

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Day 3. Glasgow to Newcastle.

 

Day 3 was fairly quiet. We stopped off for the obligatory tourist shot in Princes Street, Edinburgh.

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Then popped into a bus rally in Dunbar but none of the pics were that interesting so I've skipped that.

 

This is a nice scenic shot somewhere on the north east coast though I've no idea where.

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Day 4. Newcastle to London.

 

Some men watch a bus starting up.

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The chap in the middle is Ernie. I met him on this trip and 18 months later I bought RM 2037 with him and my other friend Barry. The guy on the right is Graham, co owner of RM 2116 who convinced us on the night of the last Routemasters in Southampton that buying an RM was feasible and not a completely stupid thing to do. Me and Barry were 19 at the time and the most expensive thing I'd ever bought was probably my camera (Canon T70 if anyone's interested). We couldn't even drive a car.

 

Ernie sadly died a couple of years ago and we took the bus, by then owned wholly by me (there's another story there, but another time) to his funeral full of all his friends. Interesting fact - the gates of Mortlake crematorium are about 4 inches wider than an RM.

 

Anyway back to the trip. The above picture was actually Newcastle university halls of residence that were empty because August.

 

Then we went for some more tourist shots

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The lorry driver coming up the inside could have ruined this but realised what was going on (there were about 20 people stood around me with cameras) and held back.

 

Obviously no mobile phones back then, we just stopped the bus on the other side of the bridge and said give us five minutes. This was the other side.

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I included this shot mainly for the Fiesta van! We all like old vans here don't we.

 

And this Olympian must have been nearly new at the time.

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This is at some random services on the A1.

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We used to see these Newcastle Clipper Metroliners in London all the time. It was only on seeing this picture that I realised you don't anymore. I dont know who they were, I assume they were part of some bigger bus group but i dont know who. Someone else will.

 

A quick trip to Sandtoft trolleybus museum was not entirely unexpected.

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But the highlight of the day was stopping off at RAF Dishforth. This was a masterstroke and whoever thought of it deserves a round of applause. Star exhibit was this Bristol K.post-20743-0-06256800-1510861814_thumb.jpg

Which my notes tell me

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Was registered JHT 122 though there's no sign of the reg in the photos. And what is that lorry between the two buses. The Bristol was apparently a mobile canteen.

 

But then they they started driving the buses up an down the runway!

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This was taken from the Bristol with both buses moving. And they were letting anybody drive, not just bus drivers.

 

One more random services on the way home.post-20743-0-38199000-1510861996_thumb.jpg

And that was it.

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Have to say I don't. I do remember British Coachways (I've a tie somewhere) who briefly competed with National Express. This was a few operators who joined together, if I remember correctly this included Grey Green, Tratherns, Wallace Arnold amongst others.

I also seem to remember that as part of this Wallies Trollies put in an application for a Leeds, Sheffield London express service. It was rejected by the traffic commissioners when they did some simple maths on the timings. The Sheffield London bit worked out to have an average speed of 70 mph, doable in the late 70's in s Reliance, but hardly legally.

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I believe Armstrong Galley was a coach firm that was taken over by the Tyne & Wear PTE. Presumably the name lived on with the formation of the Busways group sometime in the mid 80s. Busways were later taken over by Stagecoach.

I well remember the former Busways Atlanteans plodding on in service around Middlesbrough and Stockton in Stagecoach colours.

 

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WonKeepeeja....

 

Armstrong Galley[edit]

On 24 August 1973, Tyne & Wear PTE acquired two associated Newcastle-based businesses, R Armstrong (Bus Proprietor) Ltd. and Galley’s Coaches Ltd., and immediately the "Armstrong Galley" name was adopted for the PTE's coaching and private hire division. Initially retaining the original PTE yellow and cream colours (of Newcastle Corporation),[22] a new colour scheme of mid-blue with yellow, orange and red stripes was adopted around 1980.[23] Armstrong Galley introduced a flagship service to London in the early 1980s, competing with National Express, and branded "Non-Stop Clipper".[24][25] and used the striking 3 axle double deck coach, the MCW Metroliner. The Armstrong Galley operations continued unchanged with the creation of Busways in October 1986, but in the early 1990s it expanded into low-cost bus operation (using other divisions' cast-offs),[26] culminating in an "Armstrong Galley Buses" operation being set up. These vehicles used a livery of mid-blue and white[27] After the Stagecoach takeover, the Armstrong Galley operations were closed down, with buses being transferred to Blue Bus Services.

 

TS

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Oh actually one more thing. If we look at this again.

attachicon.gif20171115_194601.jpg

Halfway down the second page it says L613 and a * tells me that was a Clydeside Leopard which did prick my memory. They gave us this to go and get some chips! With a Clydeside driver of course because he knew where the best chippy was. What more could you want.

L613 would have been M613 by this time as Clydeside didn't use chassis designations and an L would denote Largs depot... unless it was still red & cream and they hadn't bothered. 613 had been a Thornliebank bus from new (hence the M depot code... aye!) when it had been delivered to Western SMT as their ML2613. It passed to Ulsterbus as their 1885 in 1988.07799e96a1d47b91adda6041d62b0d69.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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WonKeepeeja....

 

Armstrong Galley[edit]

On 24 August 1973, Tyne & Wear PTE acquired two associated Newcastle-based businesses, R Armstrong (Bus Proprietor) Ltd. and Galley’s Coaches Ltd., and immediately the "Armstrong Galley" name was adopted for the PTE's coaching and private hire division. Initially retaining the original PTE yellow and cream colours (of Newcastle Corporation),[22] a new colour scheme of mid-blue with yellow, orange and red stripes was adopted around 1980.[23] Armstrong Galley introduced a flagship service to London in the early 1980s, competing with National Express, and branded "Non-Stop Clipper".[24][25] and used the striking 3 axle double deck coach, the MCW Metroliner. The Armstrong Galley operations continued unchanged with the creation of Busways in October 1986, but in the early 1990s it expanded into low-cost bus operation (using other divisions' cast-offs),[26] culminating in an "Armstrong Galley Buses" operation being set up. These vehicles used a livery of mid-blue and white[27] After the Stagecoach takeover, the Armstrong Galley operations were closed down, with buses being transferred to Blue Bus Services.

 

TS

I have a mug somewhere with an Armstrong Galley Metroliner on that I found in a charity shop. The blue livery was actually a Scania demonstrator colour scheme adopted by TWPTE after they bought an ex-demonstrator and liked the colours. One of my local firms, Marshalls of Leighton Buzzard, did exactly the same so the AG livery always seemed familiar to me. Marshalls did have a second-hand Metroliner in the late 1990s but sadly never put the stripes on it, otherwise it would have looked like an AG coach.

 

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Marshalls SJI 8102 by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

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I know nothing much of buses but find this thread quite educational.  This popped up on eBay, I was curious about its history as it looked like a mega-expensive conversion left to rot and it turns out to have had quite an interesting life.  Weird looking thing, I thought it'd be a lot newer than it actually is.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Neoplan-skyline-coach-spares-or-repairs/112640146083?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

 

s-l500.jpg

 

It started out in life rather differently on a different reg...

 

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/h981gdv/

 

I read somewhere that the conversion was done for an insurance company who spent a fortune on several buses for a promotion, then after a few weeks ordered them to be stripped out again.  That company later went bust, strangely enough.

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^^^ a Geordie, me, sitting in traffic [as you do!] spent a fair part of my life behind T&W Atlanteans.

 

Sickyellow+Cream...

 

SCN xxS seems burned in somewhere. There are deffo some (1+ poss?) still in SickyellCreem for preserved.

 

Busways_bus_268_Leyland_Atlantean_SCN_26

 

TS

 

A Busways one lives in the same storage place I keep my car trailer, in Peterlee. AFAIK.

Always great to see it out and about. :D

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I know nothing much of buses but find this thread quite educational.  This popped up on eBay, I was curious about its history as it looked like a mega-expensive conversion left to rot and it turns out to have had quite an interesting life.  Weird looking thing, I thought it'd be a lot newer than it actually is.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Neoplan-skyline-coach-spares-or-repairs/112640146083?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

 

s-l500.jpg

 

It started out in life rather differently on a different reg...

 

14070748340_dba8b9cf48.jpg

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/h981gdv/

 

I read somewhere that the conversion was done for an insurance company who spent a fortune on several buses for a promotion, then after a few weeks ordered them to be stripped out again.  That company later went bust, strangely enough.

 

I used to drive one of them, for a different company. Lovely grunty things with a four over four box. Only tri-axle 'decker I ever got sideways too :D

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I was asked to take a Volvo down to Scratchwood Services (now London Gateway) early one Sunday morning." Meet the fitters there, they're already set off" they said. Sure enough, our ex Shell Chinese six Scammell wrecker was in the park, and one of our drivers waiting for the Volvo. The plan was to go with the fitter then to Reading and drag one of our Tigers back to Sheffield that had gone bang big style. We rang the depot (no mobile phones in the eighties) and they said that a Neoplan wouldn't start at Battersea coach park, go start that first.

"You know where that is "said the fitter. "Why ?" "'cause your driving" was the reply.

To cut a long story short about blocking a bridge, various roads and a well known coach station in London off with our attempts to tow start it, all I'll say is the Germans are ingenious. Start a British diesel up and you don't then need batteries, on a Neoplasm, if the batteries are faulty then there's an auto kill system that cuts in. It was a long way back with it on a fixed bar at 40mph.

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