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Felly Magic

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I've been looking through my archives. So instead of just posting random buses, these all have a theme. A long lost art at that. I don't know if every reasonable sized bus company had a signwriter but Southampton did. I guess in the pre digital era it was easier to paint a one off advert (if you were any good at it) than set up a print run of one. 

Peter Cooper still have a dealership at the same address. 

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Love the simplicity of this one

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These two were done for the company themselves. Firstly the open top tour bus. 

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This actually ran regular tours of Southampton though I never saw it well loaded and can't imagine why the Sports Centre car park was deemed of interest but I saw it here a few times. 

Then there were the two wheelchair buses. 

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133 and 134 were both converted and ran regular routes before the day's of accessible buses. 133 is now preserved in standard livery. It no longer has the wheelchair lift but has retained the smooth floor. 

 

I love this one. This was the mid 80s but the advert seems to be straight out of the 50s. What could possibly be better than a cheese and bacon shop! 

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Two for the price of one here. The Regent has hand painted adverts proclaiming it to be the last rear platform bus in Southampton.

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Which it was in 1981. But six years later the Routemasters arrived but the Regent was put back in service still with these now incorrect adverts. I think it still has them now. Here's a better shot. 

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More to follow... 

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Well I can't top that but here's a few more anyway. 

Two local restaurants that are long since gone. 

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The Fig Leaf and the Bouzy Rouge. The latter was underground just off the Bargate. The whole area was flattened a few years ago and whatever plans they had to replace it then collapsed and is now just a wasteland. Hey ho. 

Another one of the Regent with Atlantean 210 advertising Solent Insurance. 

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When I first started driving I got my insurance from them. This was long before any Internet and even doing it over the phone was a novelty. This was when you went to their office in London Road and did it in person. This advert survived a repaint in to the new colours. 

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They literally just painted round it. 

Now I don't think this was signwritten, that Hitachi looks too neat but unlike today when they would wrap the whole bus they will have painted the bus black then just applied the lettering. 

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But 235 opposite does have a signwritten back end advert. For when you couldn't afford an all over advert. 

No doubting this one is hand painted. IMG_20211108_092549.thumb.jpg.b9a6f551132b3839e7e7900a73b8845c.jpg

 

Nothing beats a painted monkey to sell double glazing. 

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And this was freshly painted before going off to its new owner. Portswood garage had its own bodyshop too and would do any conversion you wanted. 

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1 hour ago, busmansholiday said:

Sent my licence off to Swansea today along with the renewal form. Ticked the box marked don't want to renew my PSV entitlement, it's 44 years since they first let me loose on the public highway in a bus (a Met Cam bodied Regent V side loader).

I've recently had to renew mine, it only took about 2 weeks to come back which surprised me given the backlog at DVLA

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Last lot for now. 

This Guy Arab had an Atlantean painted on the side. 

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Southampton still had two Arabs on the books way in to privatisation. Both are still preserved. The above one was repainted to mark 40 years since Southampton won the FA Cup. This was the bus used for a tour of the town after they won and they've never won anything since so they still go on about it. 

 

Driver training Atlantean. 

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Some really badly painted Fiats here. I'd want a refund if I was Mister Seward 

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This bus is also lost. This is the Sports Centre car park where I took the previous pic of the open topper. This bus should have turned left at the previous mini roundabout. 

This looks like a proper dreary day. 

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At the time I lived five minutes to the left of this photo. Now I live five minutes to the right. 

 

And lastly, this was a real local celebrity.

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It carried this advert for many many years, another that survived a repaint in to the newer colours. Both bus and market have long since gone now. 

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4 hours ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Wow! A Dennis Loline. I hope I've got this right; I believe the Loline was a licence-built Bristol Lodekka available to private operators. 👍😎

Yes it was and this particular one was an early Loline iii that was originally one of two sold to China Motor Bus. The first actually made it but this one was cancelled before delivery to the docks so was converted by Stachans to UK spec and used as a demonstrator before eventually being sold to Warners. It lasted until the early 80s and was sold for preservation but nothing is known of it after about ‘84.

The Loline is a fascinating tale of a product that operators actually wanted but due to the management of Dennis at the time, couldn’t buy in sufficient orders and with a reasonable delivery. Tales of operators having to wait over 15 months for their chassis to be built because the owners of Dennis basically couldn’t be arsed to sanction their build as they didn’t believe bus production was worth their while. An all round odd situation indeed.

The original Loline 1 was indeed a licence copy of the Lodekka but this one, more specifically the forward entrance version, actually came before the Bristol version. It was developed by Dennis in collaboration with R. Edgley Cox of Walsall Corporation fame who wanted a bus with a front platform so that drivers could take over the supervision of boarding/alighting leaving the conductor to concentrate on fare collection.  The resultant Loline ii (after a few tweaks) became a steady seller and would have sold more if Dennis had actually been a bit more serious in building them within a reasonable timescale.

Bristol Took the Loline ii as a starting point for their new development of the Lodekka and worked in collaboration with  Dennis’ engineers to come up with the Loline iii/FLF Lodekka. The rear axle on this Dennis was a bought in Bristol item as it was cheaper to buy in than bespoke build . The front cowl on the Loline iii was also more Bristol like , making the whole bus very similar to the Bristol product visually and under the skin. Therefore the Loline iii could be said to be a clone of a clone of a clone of a Lodekka FD!

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2 hours ago, sierraman said:

This reminds me of tenants association trips to the seaside, cheap pop and Chomps. 

 

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Wow! Checked Vehicle Enquiry and it shows up as Dennis. Wonder what model?  Always amazed me how big the lamps on the Paramount were! If I recall correctly, the even had the Scarborough Castle logo in them too... 🤓

 

Edit. They did. Here's a set for a bargain* £250...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plaxton-Paramount-35-Coach-Bus-Rear-Lens-Complete-Set-6-/284529183461?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338268676&toolid=10044&customid=CjwKCAiA7dKMBhBCEiwAO_crFJ9u4E5BdXcJ0-vQOUEGkAhBpjyBahqKfNqaRlkS-Bqg8Mv5xSTeLhoCs9sQAvD_BwE

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2 minutes ago, sierraman said:

It’s a 1985 Dennis Dorchester with a Plaxton Paramount body, no idea on the engine, maybe a Cummins L10, not sure. 

Oh, that's extremely rare! I've a Buses Magazine which features the Dorchester. From memory, Perkins, Gardner or Cummins engines were mentioned. 

Only Dennis Coaches I travelled on were Javelins; Paramount 2 and Duple 320 bodies. 

Thankyou very much for the picture and information! 👍 👍 👍 😎 😎 😎 

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SYPTE were big on Dennis at the time with a large fleet of Dominators, some Gardner powered, some with RollsRoyce so their choice of a Dorchester for their coach fleet isn’t that surprising. They were so well in with Dennis at the time they managed to convince them to bespoke build a trolleybus chassis (that everyone calls a Dominator but having spent a considerable time under the thing, it really isn’t).

Coachline seemed to gather the waifs and strays of the coach world, alongside the Dorchesters, they also obtained the motor show “Ebdons” Olympian that Ebdons decided they didn’t want from Leyland after all. After dragging it off the hard shoulder too many times (and it catching fire at least  gave up on that one. 

Dennis were going through their mix and match  “we’ll build you anything you want using bits from our spares department” phase at the time. Not only were they doing small runs of (actually rather good) coaches for a few operators, they bespoke built some midibuses for Greater Manchester and SYPTE, the afore mentioned trolleybus and two types of rear engined single deck chassis - one with the gearbox ahead of the rear axle and one with the box close coupled to the engine behind the axle.

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Ah the Dennis Dominator. Maidstone and District had some interesting examples. One of my earliest memories is of what was called "The bean bus". 

No, I don't know either, but this was an unusual thing amongst the Bristol VR and occasional Leyland National on the local route. 

XBF700S was it's registration number and 5300 was it's fleet number. 

It has been said that this bus was a Prototype or something. 

Other oddities that appeared were the Rolls-Royce powered Mk1 Metrobus and the odd DP Leyland Leopard with Willowbrook bodywork. 

I'm sorry I don't have pictures of my own... 

https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=72856

Edited by Leyland Worldmaster
Wrong registration and link... And wrong fleet number also.
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XBF was ordered by the NBC for comparative trials for the next generation of double deck purchases. It was placed with PMT to run alongside another experimental purchase, a Foden NC on their routes. Maidstone also had evaluation vehicles of its own, an Ailsa-Volvo with similar Alexander body to the Dennis and a Rolls Royce engined Metrobus. After the trials ended, the Dominator was sent to Maidstone (hence why it was red in the second pic - that one was actually taken not long after it was transferred). The Foden wasn’t so lucky as it withdrawn at roughly the same time as the transfer of the Dominator, after the umpteenth transfer  gear failure, and languished at the rear of PMTs Hanley depot until finally sold for scrap by First in the ‘90s (there’s a whole tale to tell about that but I won’t this close to bed time).

The upper photo of it was after it sustained fairly major front end damage after an accident. instead of just buying replacement Fiberglass panels from Alexander, Maidstone thought it could do it cheaper by employing its bodymen to craft a complete new front end out of aluminium and having a bespoke grille made especially for it.

Surprisingly, it didn’t end up cheaper and took many months to finish.

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On 11/17/2021 at 2:38 PM, sierraman said:

It was new to SYPTE under Coachline which was some half baked coach hire/chartered route business thought up in the 80’s. It’s currently in the South Yorkshire Transport museum. 

There were 3 IIRC, and were ordered by Leicester City Transport. As the Coachline brand was being expanded the PTE did a deal with Leicester for them to get the Dorchesters and Leicester to get three of their next order of Dominators. They left a gap in the series where these should have been, fortunately as both Mainline and Leicester came under First ownership eventually and the three Leicester Dominators eventually got sent to Sheffield any took up their original intended numbers until renumbered into the new system. The single line (rather than twin destination display) made them obvious at a distance.

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So, back to B&W pictures from the start of the 70's and we might as well continue with Sheffield.

We'll continue where we left off (at fleetnumber 369) and there was a big gap then to the batch of 26 Weymann bodied Regent Vs that started at 435.  Here's 439 heading down Pinstone Street towards The Moor with the Town Hall behind it.

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To improve the shoppers lot, the Council decided to ban buses from here last year. Nice long walk with your shopping to find a bus stop now, and you wonder why city centre shops are closing and out of town shopping centers like Meadowhell are so popular. Cracking lots of chod (now also banned) abound.

After the Regents came a batch of 16 Roe bodied PD3/1s, here's 466 at the Far Lane, Dykes Hall Road Junction.  Note the period correct landlords car in the Beehive Pub (now a Tesco) car park behind it.

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Those 1959 PD3s were followed (number  wise) by 20 Weymann PD2/30s delivered in 1957. Here's 492 ( on an enthusiasts tour) outside the now demolished Greenland Road garage at Darnall.

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More PD2/30s were delivered in 1958 but with Roe bodies. A pair of Park Royal bodied Swifts surround 515 in the old Central Bus Station (CBS) park.

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In 1959 Sheffield bough 5 rear entrance AEC Bridgemasters for use mainly on the Dinnington routes which obviously had a low bridge on route and a further front entrance one followed in 1961.

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Photographed in CBS is 520 (above) on that service, whilst this shite shot of 525 being overtaken by one of the all Leyland PD2/1s delivered in 1947 is taken opposite the (Midland) railway station.  A brand new Sheaf Valley baths in front of 525 (now demolished), only the Park Hill flats above 542 give the game away.

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Back soon.

 

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23 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

XBF was ordered by the NBC for comparative trials for the next generation of double deck purchases. It was placed with PMT to run alongside another experimental purchase, a Foden NC on their routes. Maidstone also had evaluation vehicles of its own, an Ailsa-Volvo with similar Alexander body to the Dennis and a Rolls Royce engined Metrobus. After the trials ended, the Dominator was sent to Maidstone (hence why it was red in the second pic - that one was actually taken not long after it was transferred). The Foden wasn’t so lucky as it withdrawn at roughly the same time as the transfer of the Dominator, after the umpteenth transfer  gear failure, and languished at the rear of PMTs Hanley depot until finally sold for scrap by First in the ‘90s (there’s a whole tale to tell about that but I won’t this close to bed time).

The upper photo of it was after it sustained fairly major front end damage after an accident. instead of just buying replacement Fiberglass panels from Alexander, Maidstone thought it could do it cheaper by employing its bodymen to craft a complete new front end out of aluminium and having a bespoke grille made especially for it.

Surprisingly, it didn’t end up cheaper and took many months to finish.

I remember travelling on it and it was extremely cramped; especially downstairs at the back which was the family's preferred place. 

I felt it was lower in height than the usual Bristol VR buses on that route. It had a most unpleasant sound to it which I was told by the driver a Voith Gearbox. 

The Mk1 MCW Metrobuses also had this transmission except one which sounded different. Maxwell Gearbox? 🤔 

Incidentally, my favourite buses were the Bristol VR and Leyland Fleetlines- Ex London and ex Southdown... Childhood memories. I did get to drive a couple of buses I travelled on; a Bristol VR and a Bristol-built Leyland Olympian Coach... 😎

😎

 

Edited by Leyland Worldmaster
Shite writing and extra memories...
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1 hour ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

...Incidentally, my favourite buses were the Bristol VR and Leyland Fleetlines- Ex London and ex Southdown... Childhood memories. I did get to drive a couple of buses I travelled on; a Bristol VR and a Bristol-built Leyland Olympian Coach... 😎

😎

 

I still need to even see a VR in person, much less drive one! 

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