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Felly Magic

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A decent bus for both shifts today, Bloxwich High Street waiting time this morning.

 

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Blakenall Church terminus this afternoon.

 

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Still some in the old livery :) I was in Aldridge today with the Museum's BCT Leyland PD2 2222 and was able to get a shot of WMT ALX 400 4603 in that livery and also a unique shot of 2222 and ALX 400 4601 in the Walsall Heritage Livery together. Unfortunately my camera and computer are no longer talking to each other, but until I can get them to do so again the latter event can be seen on the AMRTM  Facebook page and the PD2 at our Spring Running Event tomorrow.

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I'm fairly sure I saw this LHD AEC Regal (or something similar) on the M25 the other week.

 

It had some sort of homemade rear door and was signwritten for some sort of Portugese thing.

 

Any ideas?

 

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Ex Carries, Lisbon, AEC Regent III with Weymann body. There's a single deck (that's the Regal) as well, this lives in a yard near me.

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Right-ho, I did say, over on the tram thread, that I'd post up the pictures I took of the buses at the museum of public transport in Brussels over here. So better late than never, here they are in no real particular order. Memory isn't what it used to be so there may be some blanks in my knowledge and Google isn't that much help on some!

 

Let's start with this. The Chassis (buggered if I can remember who's) was delivered in 1939 at the outbreak of the second world war and were hidden away until around 1950 when they were bodied and put into service. Quite rudimentary in design, these lasted until 1965 after a short reprieve as motorbus replacements to the time expired trolleybuses.

 

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Auto-Miesse was a Belgian manufacturer of buses and lorries, having been formed by the merging of Miesse and Bollinckx in 1929 (this piece of information is only here because Bollinckx - fnar fnar). This was, somewhat naturally, a popular make for buses in Brussels, a good number being preserved here in the museum. This Jonckheere bodied example is seen in the second shed alongside a Brossel/Mack of early 1950s vintage. The bottom (purloined) photo shows what the Brossel looked like from the front.

 

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This next one is described as a private bus. I think that they were used on things like works services that were privately financed and independent from government control. Again, this is an Auto-Miesse with a Jonckheere body and was front engined with a manual gearbox. Although it was in no way shape or form what you would call a coach or even dual purpose, it's fairly rudimentary layout (for that time in Europe) shows it was never intended to be run in everyday intensive service on the city streets.

 

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A VanHool service bus this time but one with the mechanicals from FIAT. With power steering, a powerful engine coupled to an automatic transmission and air suspension were all things that European city buses enjoyed from the early 1960s (when this bus was plying the streets of Brussels). Here in England drivers still had to suffer the conservative grip of the engineering manager whose iron grip on specification condemned their crews to twelve hours fighting a manual gearbox and vacuum brakes and, no doubt, very little in the way of power from the engine. The Routemaster was heralded as a technological tour de force but the reality was that European bus drivers had been enjoying these "luxuries" for years.

 

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A Brossel with VanHool body. This was powered by the venerable Leyland 0680 engine coupled to a Voith two speed transmission, mounted transversely at the rear of the bus. There is some video on YouTube of this (or its sister) manoeuvring around and I must say, it does sound somewhat "fruity"!

 

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A shot of the transmission control on the Brossel. How simple do you want it? Push forward to go forward, pull back to go back. Nice and easy.

 

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Lastly, a cramped shot of what was used to transport the wheelchair bound before the birth and dramatic rise of the low floor, accessible service buses that we are used to today. There were two of these Peugeot J7s which plied the streets of Brussels and gave an on demand type of service to all that needed it. You'll notice in the background is a taxi (yes they preserve those here too). It's a Chevy fleetmaster fitted with a Perkins diesel engine and apparently was quite popular for taxi use in Brussels. You cant have a better photo of it, I'm afraid as I seem to have not taken one!

 

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So that's it for tonight. I will repeat myself and say that if you find yourself in Brussels and you have the time, take a service tram to one of the two dedicated stops and go and visit the museum. You'll not be disappointed.

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Highlight of the Running Day at the Museum today was a ride on an Ailsa Volvo (ex WMPTE 4738) . 55mph on the new two-lane road betweenChasewater Heath station and Brownhills with the 'whistle' on full song is probably the most fun that you can have with your trousers on :)

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Highlight of the Running Day at the Museum today was a ride on an Ailsa Volvo (ex WMPTE 4738) . 55mph on the new two-lane road betweenChasewater Heath station and Brownhills with the 'whistle' on full song is probably the most fun that you can have with your trousers on :)

 

My mate Keith's motor, he was letting someone else do the driving, for me, the Ailsa has to be the best bus from the 70s, everything else just seemed a bit limp, especially the Bristol Very Rubbish(terrible), I love seeing veg gnash their teeth when I rightly point out how utterly half arsed that bus was. I, like the wobbler have driven a prserved es Pennine of Skipton motor, BTL485X, a late ish supreme IV Leopards with a Power Plus in, and it goes like a stabbed rat, stopping however, you need to throw an anchor out the back as it has no retarder, that is now VOR with cooling issues, i.e the rad does a good job as a colander, and the owner is busy having fun with their LT55/Optare. As far as preserved vehicle collections go, heirs is very varied, a basket case Duple Bedford SB/Vega petrol, Fordson Thames/Duple Yeoman, Freight Rover Sherpa Carlyle, Iveco Daily/Robin Hood 2 City Pacers, the Leopard, and a new to WYPTE Land Rover service van, plus an AEC Regent V Orion 30 footer front entrance, talk about varied. Jo & Simon who own that fleet are both bonkers, and if you ever meet Simon, you will not be able to understand a word, as he has Morleyturbowobblegob syndeome, which seems to be common. His dad is just as bad 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Properly back on the school bus run this week. My transport is a 1996 Optare Excel, Haven't counted the seats or checked what powers it yet.

All I know is that the previous driver left it filthy inside. That is being sorted ! They also have a couple of Isuzus which are trucks with a bus body behind the cab with a hole cut between the two. Also a rear overhang of about 3 metres. Photo from the innerned.

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Have some Greek shite.

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This was built like this for Milan if my friend is correct.

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My guess is that this Tema Safari was modified with a chain saw.

Given that there's not that much to see in Corfu town, it has a ridiculous number of open toppers. There's two of those Mercs, three other Iveco singles and a good number of East Lancs bodied Tridents (ex Madrid or Barcelona, at least 4) as well as at least that in East Lancs bodied B7Ls ex Copenhagen or Arrival Denmark.

 

And to end my holiday, this.

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We were on the back Setra when that Kia (in the ditch on the right) decided not to take the bend. Big bang when he smacked into the door by the driver. We transferred to the front Setra. Just made flight home.

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This may be a daft question but this must be the place to ask it.. Does anyone know what happened to the Colchester Borough Transport Atlanteans? I remember them going out of service around 1997 or so but can't remember the registrations, some of them were WVX-S. God knows what put that in my head earlier. 

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21 hours ago, Amishtat said:

This may be a daft question but this must be the place to ask it.. Does anyone know what happened to the Colchester Borough Transport Atlanteans? I remember them going out of service around 1997 or so but can't remember the registrations, some of them were WVX-S. God knows what put that in my head earlier. 

I think the Barnsley scrap men won that argument.

Stick Colchester Borough Transport into Google, there's lots of pics on Flicker 

I'm sure there's one preserved, or was. It's not an area, other than driving through every Saturday in the Nasty Express summer timetable in the early 80's I know.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Pure kwality, enthusiast wise, not driver. Manual box (crash 1st to 2nd), little or no power steering. Independent I drove for had an N reg ex SBG one and a similar age ex West Riding one that was semi auto and steered with ease. One you were fucked after a shift on, one you were totally and utterly bollocked.

 

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ohh love me an RT :) shame someones lopped the roof off, although (luckily?) you dont see many open top RTs

its generally RMs that got the chop (I suspect its because most RTs had already been withdrawn/scrapped/preserved privately, before the whole open top tours thing became a thing in the 80s)

heres a good page on the RT Bus :) http://www.countrybus.org/RT/RT.htm

 

(im curious what do people here think of the RT? I know a lot of people hate the Routemaster here LOL)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just want National Express to fuck off from Dundee now.

Surely there's no other company in the UK who'd dare to charge £2.25 for anything over 3 stops on a 16 year old bus they can't even be fucked painting, complete with collapsed suspension, james bond smoke screens and axels sounding like they want to make a break for freedom.

On 4/27/2019 at 8:44 PM, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

A decent bus for both shifts today, Bloxwich High Street waiting time this morning.

 

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Blakenall Church terminus this afternoon.

 

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They'll look great running around in Dundee in about 12 years time alongside all the other NX cast offs.

 

16 hours ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

A recent addition at Walsall, 

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Had to double take there, i thought this was a Dundee depot pic of Nx's current "Xplore Dundee" fleet,

The only thing that gave it away was the lack of a green "Xplore" sticker on the Trident.

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6 minutes ago, Mrcento said:

I just want National Express to fuck off from Dundee now.

Surely there's no other company in the UK who'd dare to charge £2.25 for anything over 3 stops on a 16 year old bus they can't even be fucked painting, complete with collapsed suspension, james bond smoke screens and axels sounding like they want to make a break for freedom.

First!

They have just sold Bolton depot to Rotala.

 

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Christ that’s like out of the frying pan into the fire isn’t it?

 

Glad First are gradually getting themselves into the fucking sea though. Their quality of service when I lived in Leicester was diabolical but it looks like they’ve completely screwed up their Manchester business, hope someone else makes a better fist of it when they sell up or close down. 

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22 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Also spotted on my travels last week was this little ex Midland Red Stagecoach MB. Used for transporting pea picers and stored inside, it is now surplus and could be for sale. Again I avoided asking how much.....

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Sure that's done a spell in Aberdeen...swear I recognise the reg...

Knowing Stagecoach, it probably wouldn't be much.

When the first wave of DDA forced vehicle disposals came around in Aberdeen, which saw a lot of K-R reg Volvo B10M based Alexander PS's get the chop the then MD of Bluebird (who owns several preserved buses - and was instrumental I believe in getting a PS restored there and preserved) had a chat with me, as I was noting I'd be sad to see them go and was disappointed to have never had a shot at driving one - still haven't!

He said at the time that if I came to him with £650 in hand that he'd make absolutely bloody sure that I got a good one.

The only reason I didn't literally walk down to the bank then return to his office and throw it at him was that I knew even the oldest on their books would be too modern for me to drive without a full cat D license.  At that price storage issues be damned... I'd have found somewhere for it!

 

Those little Merc breadvans are like cockroaches though... they'll still be rattling around long after Doomsday!  I'd love to have a shot of one without inches of play in the rear suspension and downright terrifying clutch judder...

 

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21 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

had a chat with me, as I was noting I'd be sad to see them go and was disappointed to have never had a shot at driving one - still haven't!

He said at the time that if I came to him with £650 in hand that he'd make absolutely bloody sure that I got a good one.

The only reason I didn't literally walk down to the bank then return to his office and throw it at him was that I knew even the oldest on their books would be too modern for me to drive without a full cat D license.  At that price storage issues be damned... I'd have found somewhere for it!

this makes me smile, because its like my Invacar situation right down to not (yet) having a proper licence to drive it :mrgreen:

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