busmansholiday Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 2 hours ago, Inspector Morose said: I remember the Tynesider when it was brand new and appeared at a bus rally in Harrogate in 1972? (I'm getting old). Caused quite a stir. Actually got to have a go at driving it in later years. Very odd, semi auto box and Atlantean steering wheel but no power steering. Somewhere I've a picture of that and the Wearsider, the RMF that Northern converted to a similar layout side by side. HarmonicCheeseburger and Inspector Morose 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightBulbFun Posted October 15, 2020 Share Posted October 15, 2020 28 minutes ago, busmansholiday said: I remember the Tynesider when it was brand new and appeared at a bus rally in Harrogate in 1972? (I'm getting old). Caused quite a stir. Actually got to have a go at driving it in later years. Very odd, semi auto box and Atlantean steering wheel but no power steering. Somewhere I've a picture of that and the Wearsider, the RMF that Northern converted to a similar layout side by side. pretty sure that picture is on Autoshite somewhere because I remember coming across it it and going What the actual Fuck, I thought the Wearsider was a Fugly bus and then bam I find the Tynesider I knew of the Wearsider but had no clue about the Tynesider LOL here we go LOL On 16/07/2018 at 20:04, Inspector Morose said: Oh and, well, just because.... On 16/07/2018 at 20:09, LightBulbFun said: I knew of the Wearsider but what is the un-godly awful contraption next to it?! we need a puke emoticon on here I think!... (pleased to report we do now have a vomit emoticon 🤮 LOL) martc and willswitchengage 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sierraman Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 Why did the B15 London Leyland Titans have black and white plates? This would be the early mid 80’s? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightBulbFun Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 23 minutes ago, sierraman said: Why did the B15 London Leyland Titans have black and white plates? This would be the early mid 80’s? funny you should ask that as the same question came up just a few posts prior back in 2018 on the page I quoted above with the Tynesider and Wearsider (for those curious if you ever want to jump back to where a quoted post is from, most quotes have a little arrow on the top right of them which if you click on it will take you back to the original post etc) On 16/07/2018 at 19:32, Yoss said: And I'll leave you with this. It always struck me as odd that LT could use black number plates until the mid 80s. These rear ones have translucent numerals with a light behind but in damp conditions the outer perspex panel would steam up making them unreadable. The front ones weren't even real number plates, just a bit of ally painted black with white transfers on. Many of them kept these plates when sold on (see the Emsworth Titan above) even though these smaller companies would never have been allowed to buy a bus new with these plates. On 16/07/2018 at 19:50, Inspector Morose said: One of the weird anomalies of the PSV world was that white on black number plates were permitted until the last style change, I believe. Although perfectly legal across the country, only London (and Edinburgh, I believe) perpetuated with this style. The black painted aluminium plates had the numbers painted on, using a stencil set before the ubiquitous vinyl lettering took over. I looked into this when we bought a shit tonne of ex London short nationals for operation way back when. A good few came with black front plates but yellow rears and I wondered if that was legal out of London - it was! I am curious on the transparent number plates, was it just a bit of plastic with transparent lettering or was it a bit of destination blind material made in the form of a number plate? (and if so could you have a roll of them, James bond style? ) I am curious as to why London Transport did continue with white on black plates and what was the last vehicle of theirs to feature such plates was (and I am also curious why in general PSV vehicles where exempt from the change to reflective plates in 73), granted funnily enough while on most post 1973 vehicles I find white on black number plates to look naff, I dont find/feel the same on London Transport vehicles I think because LT as above used Actual white painted/transfer letters on a black background, rather then pressed silver on black plates most "white on black" plates are, which do look naff when on anything newer then 1973 (and on anything LT which would have had proper white on black plates originally) and I think its also because Im just much more used to white on black rather then Silver on black plates, having been into Routemasters etc from a very young age Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bag'O'Spanners Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 All of this Leyland National stuff is making me feel a bit giddy. Give me a single door Mk1 with a original smokey, 510 engine, the flat tailpipe and some London Country/Green Line blue moquette coach seats... Not to forget luggage racks, being driven like it was stolen with no lift between the gears..... Might need to have a 'moment' now. LightBulbFun and HarmonicCheeseburger 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willswitchengage Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 On 10/15/2020 at 6:52 PM, Inspector Morose said: Metroliners. Mmm I think Ensigns have a couple of them in their storage facility - the majority of them were bought by them and converted to open top due to them being able to seat huge numbers upstairs. I think there might be one closed top left but I haven't heard of it in a while so even that one might have gone now. @cms206 over to you? I've been on it... in 2007 when it had Megabus branding. The £1 (plus 50p booking fee) fares really did exist and I traveled from London to Leeds for the price of a Mars Duo. I did somr research as I was well into bi at the time - it was ex- a local Yorkshire operator and has been re-engined with a Scania lump. This might have been it, I remember it had a cryptic dateless numberplate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clayts450 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 50 minutes ago, Bag'O'Spanners said: All of this Leyland National stuff is making me feel a bit giddy. Give me a single door Mk1 with a original smokey, 510 engine, the flat tailpipe and some London Country/Green Line blue moquette coach seats... Not to forget luggage racks, being driven like it was stolen with no lift between the gears..... Might need to have a 'moment' now. There were a fair few of these 'no lift gear change' drivers out of St Albans depot - always driven like the clappers, and a great way to go to school/work. My home route was the S2/S3 to New Greens Estate - when I first started school it was MBS/SM (AEC Merlins/Swifts), then we used to get mainly Nationals, but occasionally during the National overhaul season, we'd get weird and wonderful fill-ins like RPs (AEC Reliance), even the odd LR (Olympian) which was truly weird - a double decker on a city route, such opulence. Bag'O'Spanners 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bag'O'Spanners Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 2 minutes ago, clayts450 said: There were a fair few of these 'no lift gear change' drivers out of St Albans depot - always driven like the clappers, and a great way to go to school/work. My home route was the S2/S3 to New Greens Estate - when I first started school it was MBS/SM (AEC Merlins/Swifts), then we used to get mainly Nationals, but occasionally during the National overhaul season, we'd get weird and wonderful fill-ins like RPs (AEC Reliance), even the odd LR (Olympian) which was truly weird - a double decker on a city route, such opulence. I used to live in the Harlow area. The buses around there, Ware, Hatfield and St. Albans garages used to seem to do the rounds back when. Was getting very spotty when in the school holidays, my Dad would treat me to a Golden Rover week bus ticket. The obvious challenge was to hit as diverse routes and types as possible. Including the aforementioned, plus the odd sexy Duple or Plaxton bodied Green line. Those were the days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clayts450 Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 There was the Golden Rover ticket where you got to go on proper Green Line coaches, then there was the Green Rover which was bus only. I did used to go to Harlow occasionally, as it was on the end of the 724 route, which passed through St Albans. I did get to visit every LCBS garage before it all got divided up, and I spotted the entire LCBS fleet. Pretty sure the last one on my list required me to go to Swanley depot, which was a sod to get to, but the elusive National I needed for the full house was there, job done. I recall smugness being the order of the day. Sad twat.... Bag'O'Spanners 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanciamatt Posted October 16, 2020 Share Posted October 16, 2020 5 hours ago, Bag'O'Spanners said: All of this Leyland National stuff is making me feel a bit giddy. Give me a single door Mk1 with a original smokey, 510 engine, the flat tailpipe and some London Country/Green Line blue moquette coach seats... Not to forget luggage racks, being driven like it was stolen with no lift between the gears..... Might need to have a 'moment' now. Same here , been from Barnsley we had them with Yorkshire traction ,then Barnsley and district . Love the 510 engine . All barnsley and district still had them fitted . Most drivers drove them without pausing for changes Bag'O'Spanners 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoss Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 17 hours ago, clayts450 said: There was the Golden Rover ticket where you got to go on proper Green Line coaches, then there was the Green Rover which was bus only. I did used to go to Harlow occasionally, as it was on the end of the 724 route, which passed through St Albans. I did get to visit every LCBS garage before it all got divided up, and I spotted the entire LCBS fleet. Pretty sure the last one on my list required me to go to Swanley depot, which was a sod to get to, but the elusive National I needed for the full house was there, job done. I recall smugness being the order of the day. Sad twat.... Funny you should mention Swanley. Mrs Yoss hails from there. She was at uni here in Southampton when we met but went home in the breaks. Then once she finished uni she stayed here but we would visit the in-laws quite regularly. We came off the M25 and past Swanley garage every time. It was a nice looking small LCBS garage originally with Crittal windowed office up front and the main garage was a big curved roof tin shed that would look at home on an airfield. That was all knocked down and replaced with a more standard tin shed a few years back. The in-laws have now moved to North Norfolk so I can't see any reason to ever go back but I found this picture only yesterday whilst rummaging for something else. These are round the back of Swanley garage circa 2001 - 2003. There was an RMF next to these but I thought the Titans would be more popular on here. And I mentioned the last day of LHs at Salisbury a few posts back. Here they are. There were only two of them, one W&D livery and one Damory. LightBulbFun and lisbon_road 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busmansholiday Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 20 hours ago, willswitchengage said: I did somr research as I was well into bi at the time - it was ex- a local Yorkshire operator and has been re-engined with a Scania lump. This might have been it, I remember it had a cryptic dateless numberplate. That's one of a pair of rare 4000GT Metrolines built to 4 meter height for European use (normal ones were like 14'6"). It was re-engined with a bfo Scania by YTC after they acquired it from Central Coacways to go with the one they already had. That was I believe E906TOJ whilst Trackies own was E99AAK. Stagecoach bought Trackie out and transferred it to Magic us duties. LightBulbFun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martc Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 On 10/16/2020 at 2:33 PM, LightBulbFun said: (and I am also curious why in general PSV vehicles where exempt from the change to reflective plates in 73) I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't just plain incompetence at the Ministry - they probably just forgot to include PSV's in the legislation. Around the same time they also forgot to include motorbike side-car passengers in the compulsory helmet regs (you still don't have to wear a helmet in a sidecar - you'd have thought they would have sorted that one out by now). And in a different area they abolished capital punishment for all crimes except treason, a conscious decision. And you could also be hanged for setting fire to Her Majesty's Dockyards, an unconscious decision because they forgot about that particular punishment at the time of the repeal. Incidently, they tidied this up a few years ago and you cannot be hanged for either treason or royal arson any more. I wonder if these two were in charge? (a joke for our younger viewers) hennabm and LightBulbFun 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard_FM Posted October 17, 2020 Share Posted October 17, 2020 London Transport used non-reflective plates for quite a way into the 1970s, especially on their DMS class of Daimler Fleetlines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoss Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 Oh it was much longer than that. Almost all the Metros and Titans had them. Up to about C prefix reg I think. What's that, 1985 or so. I remember the Olympians at Norwood that replaced my bus had reflective plates. That was March 87. They were one of the first. LightBulbFun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted October 19, 2020 Share Posted October 19, 2020 My chariot for the afternoon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 I wish I had a picture of it, but all this talk of Metroliners has me thinking of one of the buses we were occasionally treated to after school. My particular route contract in the 90s was served by Partridge Coaches of Hadleigh, whose school fleet consisted a motley selection of ex-London DMSs (KJD58P, THM630M etc) and a solitary Atlantean that was bought for parts, but (HHB48N) considered too good to break. Also, though, they had a Plaxton Paramount 4000 built on Neoplan 122 underframes, complete with Gardner 6LYT (330hp). At that point, one of the school routes was served by Chartercoach, who ran Merc 0.303s and FAP Sanos 315s, and the Paramount sounded better than any of them. Strange thing was, on a journey home in the Daimlers, the upper deck would be full of bloodshed and riot. But in the Paramount, everybody just sat down and chilled. It was like a library in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspector Morose Posted October 20, 2020 Share Posted October 20, 2020 Partrdge - bloody hell, there’s a name from my history books. Bought a Fleetline from them many moons ago. On going down again for something or other , we spotted the original window hoppers in the the undergrowth (they were different on this batch with a little knob to open it instead of a full length handle. “£30 a unit” was the reply from the old man. At that point he didn’t have anything else they they would fit - the last survivor was in the rear yard slowly decomposing into the undergrowth (there’s a tale about that one and I’ll tell it one day). He knew we wanted them and even though they were off the bus we just bought (at a inflated price as “it’s got a ticket” so it’s valuable even though it’s utterly fucked) we had to pay his price otherwise he was happy for them to be slung in the skip. The other tale was the old man sold a friend the unique Foden NC he bought from the WMPTE auctions. Witnin a few weeks it inevitably failed with transfer gear collapse. Would he help out or knock a bit of cash off? Would he fuck and sold him another bus at a profit. The Foden then stood out the front of the other operators yard for over 15 years without moving another inch before being saved for preservation. RoadworkUK 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadworkUK Posted October 21, 2020 Share Posted October 21, 2020 22 hours ago, Inspector Morose said: Partrdge - bloody hell, there’s a name from my history books. On a tangentially related note, (and I've a feeling that I've covered this before upthread) the stalwart of Route 15 to Tendring High School, DMS reg KJD58P, had an interesting career after its Partridge days. It went on to the Big Bus company, where it was scalped for sightseeing service, and it's in this form that it was the prototype for an EFE recreation in 1:76 scale. Of course I had to buy one, to join the Hedingham VR and Supreme Neoplan Cityliner in my scale 'school buses of the mid 90s' collection. KJD58P was eventually exported to the USA, where I believe it gave its life as a source of spare parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juular Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 On 10/15/2020 at 12:58 PM, cms206 said: An assorted selection to finish today, as I'm on a backshift and I really need to get ready for work... all West of Scotland, up to about 1990. A few do not appear all they seem. Ooft, having grown up in Glasgow this is pretty much my childhood in a single post. Brilliant. I seem to recall a single decker atlantean going around for a while with the original green interior. I may have made that up. It was an odd looking wee thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N Dentressangle Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 I quite like the odd coach, but buses aren't really my bag. Despite that, this guy's photostream can waste literally hours... https://www.flickr.com/photos/22455491@N02/with/7031349535/ I have a feeling that his knowledge of AEC buses could be encyclopaedic Vantman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somewhatfoolish Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 On 10/14/2020 at 7:39 PM, Inspector Morose said: What the hell are these? With the overhangs and wheelbase the handling must have been 'interesting'. LightBulbFun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyersey1234 Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 1 hour ago, somewhatfoolish said: What the hell are these? With the overhangs and wheelbase the handling must have been 'interesting'. I believe its a Dennis Domino, basically a predecessor to the successful Dart midibus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busmansholiday Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 On 10/20/2020 at 10:48 PM, RoadworkUK said: Also, though, they had a Plaxton Paramount 4000 built on Neoplan 122 underframes, complete with Gardner 6LYT (330hp). We had a batch of those at Sheffield. On one occassion a driver forgot to press the ferry lift button at Dover before getting on the ferry. Oooppps, no sump!! He didn't actually notice until it went bang. The harbour master wasn't too pleased either as there was several gallons of oil on the ramps and dock side. We dragged it back and took the engine out and sent it to Gardner to rebuild. They refused to touch it due to the damage so we rebuilt it ourselves. Went bang next time out. RoadworkUK 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busmansholiday Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 On 10/15/2020 at 7:04 PM, Inspector Morose said: Ah yes, Stevensons. Constant winners of the "we'll run anything" competition in the midlands. They bought a number of ex South Yorkshire Metrobuses. We were down in their yard photoing them and one out of use one in the back corner didn't have any reg or id. Fortunatly we knew that the PTE put fleetnumbers upstairs so identifying it wasn't difficult. Except we'd photographed that bus earlier..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspector Morose Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Aye, it happens. The ‘mix and match’ approach to bus identities has always been a thing with operators of identical vehicles. Even the big boys have been caught out once in a while with a bus ‘pretending’ to be another. Can’t say that it might have happened at my certain pet green independent of many years ago. Nevr on the two Seddons, nor the Bedfords, no, nothing to see here, carry on... busmansholiday 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busmansholiday Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Aldham Coaches had one of this batch, 806 IIRC, which was my regular drive at weekends, and Tom Jowit had a few as well. hennabm and Inspector Morose 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busmansholiday Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 On 10/15/2020 at 2:05 PM, catsinthewelder said: The background shite is amazing too, brown Hyundai Steller taxi 😎 With the other recovery rigs being converted from buses the shorter one has me confused. It looks too heavy duty to have been built as a bus. Is it a Scammel with bodywork from a bus? Ex MoD AEC Matador, a common choice as the "heavy" recovery part of many a major bus company. Many rebuilt them using whstever body parts the had avaiable. Coprolalia, somewhatfoolish, Bag'O'Spanners and 4 others 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspector Morose Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Cheap war surplus Matadors were bought by just about every operator, it seemed. After a while the simple timber bodies rotted away and were rebuilt using the ingenuity of the bodyshop to fit various bus bits from the stores onto the chassis to create bespoke recovery vehicles, many of which survived safely tucked away and infrequently used (hopefully) until contract recovery swept them all away. cobblers, busmansholiday, somewhatfoolish and 9 others 11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspector Morose Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Oh yes, I had to have a crack at a Matador so I bought this. ex-Chesterfield Transport and fitted with a Leyland 0680 engine and Atlantean brake components (air side). Bought for the princely sum of £600 for a specific recovery job then sold on to a chap who repaired and maintained buses and coaches used for humanitarian missions around the world. Yoss, Vantman, catsinthewelder and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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