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Every time I go up to our yard something else has turned up. Today it was this.

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Unlike most buses here, I dont think it's local. Registration TYD911W. MOT website says it's a Leyland Leopard. Anyone any idea of it's history.

 

And I'm guessing this is supposed to be five across seating.

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We had some five across Dennis Javelins in Winchester but I'm sure they were wider than this. I mean can you honestly see two people sitting here

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Looks like nice spacious 2+1 to me.

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Some shite from my time with a firm whose bus operations were the very definition of shite until DDA came along:

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C262SPC & B109KPF, Leyland Tiger/ELCB EL2000 by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

 

6 of these rebodied Tigers passed through Tanat Valley’s hands, including my own B105 KPF. These two were the last to leave, pictures here on the day they were collected by new owners.


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IAZ3454, Dennis Javelin/Duple 320 by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

IAZ 3454 receiving extensive metalwork at the depot for the usual Duple rot. Known as IAShed because it was a proper nail. Not a tool for rice pudding skin pulling, which was very useful* in an area full of hills.


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Childish fun with blinds! by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

Tanat also had several Leyland Lynxes, including a few ex-TWM with 4-track blinds. One was once seen heading up the M54 by Telford with SHIT Excursion proudly on display during a staff outing....


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H150GGS, Leyland Olympian/Northern Counties by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

Bus shite collection. H150 GGS came from Slavecoach in the Fens, pictured here not long after collection at a petrol station somewhere in the land devoid of hills. It was a long slog home late at night but the heaters worked, I had a stock of batteries for my radio and a full flask of tea.

More as I find them...

 

(Edited to put proper pics in thread)

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Ha! They're all flagged as adult content...

That’s odd. I can’t change any safesearch settings on the mobile version of Flickr so I’ll try and remember to look at it tomorrow. They should all be set to ‘Moderate’ or ‘Safe’ anyway.

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Talking of LDV Convoys...

 

Does anyone know the unladen weight of an ‘02 15-seater minibus?

 

I’ve been asked to move one, but I think it’s probably too heavy for my trailer.

 

It’s plated weight is 3850kg if that helps.

 

Cheers.

The long wheelbase van was near enough 2 tonnes so a minibus must be heading on toward 2.5t, although this dealer reckons it's only 2.2t.

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Pictures properly inserted into previous post. And a few more:

 

Moar Lynx Effect:

 

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G38YHJ & H130LPU, Leyland Lynx by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

 

Former Crosville Cymru G38 YHJ was mine at the time and lived at Tanat's Pentrefelin depot. H130 LPU was also ex-Crosville Cymru and was probably the best Lynx at Tanat - it went well and didn't rattle too badly. 

 

 

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H150GGS, Leyland Olympian/Northern Counties by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

 

H150 GGS is seen mostly rubbed down for its repaint, most buses at this time were painted by hand with paintbrushes and rollers. I distinctly remember coming in for tea break after a morning with a DA sander on an ex-Arriva B10B looking like a smurf - all over turquoise with my white dust mask on my head...

 

And the finished article:

 

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H150GGS, Leyland Olympian/Northern Counties. by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

 

H150 GGS is seen not long after being released into traffic at Oswestry Railway Station. Part of the cosmetic work had also seen the reinstatement of the square headlights originally fitted, H150 GGS came to us with the usual bodge of 7" round headlights fitted. Whenever we used to go on scavenging runs to Barnsley we'd buy things like NC headlights and surrounds as a 'just in case' as 4 of the decker fleet at that time had NC bodies. 

 

 

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WIB7192, Volvo B10M/Jonckheere Deauville by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

 

My favourite coach in the fleet, I took it on as a 'pet' machine and had it for most coach jobs. Not the best cosmetically, but by far the strongest B10M at TVC. Another driver had 'his' machine and wouldn't take any argument that any other coach in the fleet was better - his was the best, end of. I might have enjoyed, just a tiny little bit, his rather sour face when I stomped past him uphill into Llandudno with a heavier load - WIB used to absolutely fly when given half a chance. 

 

More to come....

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Nice to see TYD 911W still exists. Other ex Safeway of South Petherton vehicles that I know still exist are MYB 33, a Bedford OB, ASV 900 (ex ETP 184) a Dennis Lancet and TYC 250G, an AEC Reliance new to H&C of South Petherton.

Bloody hell, I used to part own MYB33 many years ago! It was in a parlous state then (and I;m talking over 20 years ago now) so unless someone's done anything to it since, I fear the worst.

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And a few more:

A41 XHE was the first Tiger I drove at TVC, it was also the last in service there. On its last day this was printed up to commemorate the end of the Tigers at TVC:

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The Last Tiger by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

And the machine itself:

 

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A41XHE, Leyland Tiger/Alexander TE by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

And back at the depot just after I’d brought it in for the final time:

 

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A41XHE, Leyland Tiger/Alexander TE. by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

 

We did summer day trips to Llandudno from Welshpool & Llanfyllin, registered services so that pass holders could use them. The X1 ran Mondays only though the summer. The coach park at Llandudno was opposite the Alpine depot, who used a fleet of old VRs & Olympians on school runs. The suspension on one side of the Olympian pictured below had deflated during the day, no bother to the driver who hopped in, revved the bollocks off the engine enough to get the handbrake off and simply drove off making an awful racket as the side of his machine scraped down the side of its neighbour....

 

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Lean on me.... by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

 

On the subject of Llandudno-based Olympians, this was a lovely machine to travel on:

 

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C212GTU, Leyland Olympian/ECW by Scott Todd-Howard, on Flickr

 

Now preserved if I'm not mistaken.

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Bloody hell, I used to part own MYB33 many years ago! It was in a parlous state then (and I;m talking over 20 years ago now) so unless someone's done anything to it since, I fear the worst.

I saw MYB 33 at Showbus in either 2008 or 2009 and it looked in good condition then

 

ETA Just checked DVLA, MYB 33 untaxed since 2016, ASV900 on SORN and TYC 250G showing as taxed. Other ex Safeway vehicles that still exist according to DVLA are F751 ENE and K835 HUM on SORN. Theres also 200APB which is back with its original owner Safeguard of Guildford. Sadly Safeway no longer exists, being taken over by South West Coaches in 2008. I believe the Safeway fleetname was kept for a time although don't know if it's still used. 

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Strange that MYB 33 is now untaxed as I can't imagine it would have been scrapped. It was fully restored and belonged to the editor of Bus & Coach Buyer magazine. Here it is at the OB 70th birthday gathering at Bletchley Park in 2009 - it was the last to arrive after overheating on the road run from Luton (hence the lack of bonnet sides).

 

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Safeway MYB 33 by Adam Floyd, on Flickr

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  • 3 weeks later...

By some miracle Empress Coaches have managed to keep that Omni going all these years and I'm sure it's the only one left in passenger-carrying service, although there may be one or two knocking around as mobile (or more likely static) caravans. I'm sure Empress had two of them but the other one went a long time ago.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've said before that every time I go up to our yard something new has appeared. Today it was this.

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Looks to be of Southdown origin looking at the reg.

 

Anyway this was todays ride.

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Nice to know it's not just mine that does this when it's cold.

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And we're off.

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To here.

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Here being the Blue Star/Unilink depot at Barton Park, Eastleigh.

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We had an extensive tour by the manager himself, which started in the board room where we treated to tea and coffee and Scottish confectionery.

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The mugs were very popular but unfortunately we weren't allowed to keep them. The manager spent a fair while bigging up his company, as you would expect him to. Though for a long time now I've considered them the higher quality operator in Southampton. The original Southampton City Transport have been in slow decline ever since First Group took over about twenty years ago.

 

The entire Unilink fleet was renewed in one hit last year. They are run by Blue Star to University of Southampton specifications. I like the new livery and couldn't help noticing that there were different coloured 'shards' on different buses.

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Turns out there's four different colours, yellow, orange, coral red and bluey green in equal numbers. It was worth the trip for this knowledge alone as it had been bugging me. I always seem to see the orange and coral ones on our local route and wondered if they were route specific, but no, they're random.

 

Anyway we walked round to the Blue Star side (it's all the same company, part of Go Ahead, but they seem to keep the two fleets separate at the depot) but to do we have to walk past Hants and Dorset trim who had these outside awaiting work.

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Which coincidentally are also Go Ahead South buses.

 

Blue Star now have a fleet of these on the 18 route.

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Which are numbered consecutively from the end of the Unilink fleet which is a bit odd. I know they're all ADL Enviro 400 thingies but the bodies are quite different.

 

Then there's this.

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Winchester to Southampton in style it says on the side.

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Yep, they're not wrong. And the seats are so comfy, I've been on these a few times. As well as having tables, the seats are as comfy as they look. This is better than most trains.

 

Its good to see a company investing in new quality double deckers. He said all new buses will be double deck. The Unilink buses have to be renewed every five years (and they've just won the contract for another ten years) and the last Unilink fleet have just been repainted blue and are now on my local route.

 

From starting as Solent Blue Line in 1987 with second hand VR's they are now definitely southamptons premier operator.

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The Park Royal bodied AN68 is definitely ex Southdown, I remember travelling on them when they were on the Portsmouth to Brighton express service.

 

The bodies on those Alexander ones are the City? Version, basically a Borismaster design for the plebs outside the smoke. Nottingham have a load.

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I think they call it the E400 Metro or something. It also looks like the old 'panoramic' upstairs front window has been shelved for what something resembling a postbox - maybe they had problems with the funny glass shape and it being too big.

 

I don't know what it is about them but the Cummins engines in new 400s and 200s sounds terrible after only a year or so of use, and the start-stop system they use is painful.

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I think some of those are running around London, and have the name "Son of Routemaster" or some such Bollocks...

 

(man I could rant one hell of a rant about the whole BorisBus stuff LOL)

The 'nemesis' are the original Wright new Routemaster buses; they're the ones with no hopper windows, broken AC, faulty hybrid systems, a daft 'nostalgic' rear door configuration that doesn't work and a price tag to match. I don't think they're in production anymore and nowadays the mainstay are those E400s above (just another restyle of the old model) and a conventional Wright design which shares some of the new RM architecture which unfortunately includes its tint windows. Nevertheless unless you don't believe in all this hybrid stuff London's buses are generally now back to normal iterative design as opposed to the stupid Boris bus gimmicks and the unpopular bendy bus experiment.

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