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New Year, new destination, and it wasn't far on the train to Huddersfield to photo what they were operating at the beginning of the 1970's.

Let's start with the 1959 East Lancs bodied Reliance that was delivered new to Huddersfield Joint Omnibus Committee (similar system to Sheffield).

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These Seddon RUs with Pennine bodywork were pretty new then. Quite a few operators bought them because they were cheap. Guess the outcome.

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Huddersfield were still operating exposed radiator AEC Regent Vs then. This is 1958 Roe bodied  187,

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whilst 243 is a 1955 East Lancs bodied example with lowbridge body. For our younger readers, lowbridge bodies were designed for that, low bridges and the upper deck was reduced height by the fact of putting the gangway on the offside in a trough. This meant that all four seats were offset to the nearside and if you sat on the offside downstairs you invariably banged your head on the trough when getting up. Oh happy days of sliding across those four seats on school services (Sheffield had some as well).

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More modern were these Roe bodied PD3s with the ST Helens fibreglass fronts. A couple of years later this was loaned to Sheffield during a vehicle 'crisis'.

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Clearly not on that day out (as I'm obviously in my dads Cortina by the wing mirror in the picture), but at a similar time, is Roe bodied Daimler CVG6 number 455.

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Embarrassing photo time. On South Today tonight they had a story about an old Southampton Regent, 344, that has been found in Italy being used as a mobile* home. To illustrate the point and pad the article out a bit they showed some old footage from the last day of Southampton Routemasters from which I include this screen grab. 

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That's me in the middle with the short lived facial hair. On the left is my friend Barry (no idea who the guy on the right is) who was joint owner of RM 2037 with me and another friend. I remember seeing this on South Today at the time, actually 33 years ago this coming Friday, but I hadn't seen it since. 

The seeds of the purchase were put in place a few hours after this picture was taken. At this point we were completely oblivious of what was about to happen.  When the last RM returned to the garage at about 8pm that night, 14th Jan 1989, instead of going home, about a half hour walk, we joined a preserved RM that had come down for the day and went with it back to its storage at Tilbury docks. It was over a meal at Fleet Services en route that me and Barry were convinced that RM ownership was a genuine possibility and not just a fantasy as we thought. Bearing in mind we were 20 years old and didn't have driving licences. I didn't even have a bank account, used to get a proper pay packet every Friday lunchtime! 

We knew Ernie who was older and wiser than us was interested in buying one so we spoke to him the next day, a Sunday, to say we'd be willing to split it three ways but only if it was RM 2037. So Ernie contacted CityBus the next day and the wheels were put in motion. And the rest is quite literally history. 

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Combination buses with freight and passenger transport that were common here and that I have previously written a bit about here are starting to become rare. But today came one of the newer ones for sale this is a 2004 Volvo 9700 which has been in the north of Norway with 1 owner and has done 920,000 km and has 20 seats and almost 11 ton payload.

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https://www.finn.no/b2b/bus/ad.html?finnkode=238063431

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Without having watched the video, I assume they will be the buses off the Heritage 15 route that was withdrawn a few months ago. The route was temporarily* withdrawn nearer the start of the pandemic but it was made permanent more recently. 

You wouldn't want one of these, trust me. They are ghastly things, vaguely Routemaster shaped but once you get close up you realise they are anything but. Get inside and it gets worse. They neither look, sound or move like an RM. Actually some of them might have had some original fittings returned but there is no escaping that running gear. 

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1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

To be honest I find this guy a little irritating. However, he did some news that there are some RMs for sale at West Ham.

I cannot find anything on line about the auction. In my dream world I would have one .

 

interesting I have not watched the video

but I did notice a few weeks ago that a few had recently gained MOTs so I wonder if thats anything to do with their pending sale?

its sad seeing the lined up blindless like that, I spent many many hours riding on the H15 Routemasters as a kid :) 

the People and crew at Bow and later West ham where awesome

11 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Without having watched the video, I assume they will be the buses off the Heritage 15 route that was withdrawn a few months ago. The route was temporarily* withdrawn nearer the start of the pandemic but it was made permanent more recently. 

You wouldn't want one of these, trust me. They are ghastly things, vaguely Routemaster shaped but once you get close up you realise they are anything but. Get inside and it gets worse. They neither look, sound or move like an RM. Actually some of them might have had some original fittings returned but there is no escaping that running gear. 

Oh I still want one for nostalgia reasons, but I agree what they did to them was horrible and I never agreed with calling them "refurbished RMs" because it was anything but!

when RML2760 was on the route that was a proper treat, I still regret never being able to being able to find her with my preferred crews and riding it back to the garage :) 

 

being the Sad bastard I am and before I gained all my social anxiety issues LOL I would actually call Bow and later West Ham to check that my preferred crews where on duty before heading out for 6+ hours of Routemaster riding :) 

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3 hours ago, Yoss said:

Without having watched the video, I assume they will be the buses off the Heritage 15 route that was withdrawn a few months ago. The route was temporarily* withdrawn nearer the start of the pandemic but it was made permanent more recently. 

You wouldn't want one of these, trust me. They are ghastly things, vaguely Routemaster shaped but once you get close up you realise they are anything but. Get inside and it gets worse. They neither look, sound or move like an RM. Actually some of them might have had some original fittings returned but there is no escaping that running gear. 

I would think the engine and gearbox would have been changed.  I understand why this was done.  The video does mention that some have been returned to the original marquette and lights inside. The rear lights are a LED reincarnation of the originals. At least they have been some  maintenance and fit for the road. Better than being cannibalised a number of years ago.

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3 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

 I spent many many hours riding on the H15 Routemasters as a kid

You youngster.

I was a boy and my father use to drive 15s from the old WH garage and we ( as family)used to ride the whole route up front on the upper deck to see the Christmas lights.

It was the first route my father drove when he started working for LT. This was in the around 1968ish.

 

I would also like an RT in my dream world. However, this looks horrendous.

 

 

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On 1/12/2022 at 9:55 PM, Remspoor said:

I would think the engine and gearbox would have been changed.  I understand why this was done.  The video does mention that some have been returned to the original marquette and lights inside. The rear lights are a LED reincarnation of the originals. At least they have been some  maintenance and fit for the road. Better than being cannibalised a number of years ago.

Yes the engine and gearbox are totally different which is the problem. A small capacity, high revving engine mated to a conventional automatic gearbox. But not a very good one. The gear changes were always very harsh which played havoc with the half shafts. RMs had never had a problem with half shafts even with the 11 litre engine towing a trailer at motorway speeds on the RMA. 

All the original engines and even the 1990s refurbs with the Cummins/Iveco/Scania lumps had a fluid flywheel between the engine and gearbox. The gear change was lovely and smooth and was part of the Routemasters character. But the later refurbs, Dartmasters as they were known, like I said, had these high revving (compared to the original engines which were limited to 1800 rpm) Cummins things with an auto box mated directly to them. It changed the whole feel of the bus, and broke the halfshafts in the process. 

Avoid. 

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On 1/12/2022 at 6:41 PM, LightBulbFun said:

 

when RML2760 was on the route that was a proper treat, I still regret never being able to being able to find her with my preferred crews and riding it back to the garage :) 

 

being the Sad bastard I am and before I gained all my social anxiety issues LOL I would actually call Bow and later West Ham to check that my preferred crews where on duty before heading out for 6+ hours of Routemaster riding :) 

That doesn't sound a million miles from my own youth. We knew all the crews on the Southampton RMs. There were ten buses rostered each day from 05.40 until 19.44 so there wasn't quite an early and late shift, there were a few spread overs. The crews were dedicated to the Routemasters, for instance the RM drivers never drove one man buses ( they were paid less) and drivers and conductors always worked in the same pairs unless one was off.

Obviously some crews were nicer than others so we had our favourites. In fact I had an absolute favourite. A young clippy called Jane, only a couple of years older than me and always cheerful and also an Iron Maiden fan so I was always on the look out for her. 

I managed to get hold of a crew duty sheet and also worked out the bus duties and managed to overlay them on on to one A4 sheet which I laminated. This way once I'd seen a bus or crew I knew where they would be for the rest of the day. Does this sound like stalking? I still have it upstairs somewhere but can't currently find it. I did find this though. A tick chart showing how many trips I made on each bus. 

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The apparent randomness of the fleet numbers is actually in CityBus fleet number order. 401 was the original Southampton City Transport Regent V that was returned to service for a while. The RMs were then numbered from 402 upwards with RM 1793 being 402.  My bus, RM 2037, was 404. It is no coincidence that I had more trips on that than any other, using my special chart, if I saw it go the other way I always knew where to find it later on. 

There was a strange social life going on on our Routemasters. All the crews were quite young so some of the conductors attracted a band of teenage girls. So there were these bus groupies and us bus cranks all hanging round on the buses together for different reasons. It even made the local paper. The two groups were quite incompatible but we still got on OK and shared information. The more I write the more it sounds like stalking!

It was a fun time. The whole Southampton Routemaster episode only lasted 20 months but it had a lasting effect on me. I only sold the bus  couple of years ago. 

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3 minutes ago, Yoss said:

the RM drivers never drove one man buses ( they were paid less)

Sorry, which way round was this?I'd have though one-man drivers were paid more, for doing 2 jobs?

Never been as much of an enthusiast about buses, though I did get a bit interested as someone I knew had a full history of the Eastbourne bus company (1st municipal service in England), and I loved the old Southdown buses I went to school on.

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32 minutes ago, Eyersey1234 said:

How old is the Futura 2?

It's a 14-plate - SF14 CZT I think- bought new and still on it's original paint. Sister CZS was identical but left the fleet a good while ago.

It was our first Futura 2, followed by SF65 CZU (and my MAN Beulas SF65 CZV), then SF66 NPA. Since then the majority of vehicles have been second hand, including another four Futura 2s - AD62 AAA (ex SN62 DCE, originally a demo), DAZ 1527 (ex SS63 AAA), WJ17 EYR and WJ17 EYS.

 

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4 hours ago, cms206 said:

It's a 14-plate - SF14 CZT I think- bought new and still on it's original paint. Sister CZS was identical but left the fleet a good while ago.

It was our first Futura 2, followed by SF65 CZU (and my MAN Beulas SF65 CZV), then SF66 NPA. Since then the majority of vehicles have been second hand, including another four Futura 2s - AD62 AAA (ex SN62 DCE, originally a demo), DAZ 1527 (ex SS63 AAA), WJ17 EYR and WJ17 EYS.

 

Looks really smart 

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Here are a few more old buses from Norway

 

This is a 1936 Mercedes diesel here photographed by lake Mjøsa. On April 11, 1940, the bus transported Norwegian soldiers during the invasion of Norway, on the way back the bridges had been blown up so they had to take a chance and drive on the ice on Lake Mjøsa and it went through the ice and ended up at the bottom 400 meters deep where it still lies. Was only the driver on board the bus and he survived.

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Lesja Norway late 1940s

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Norwegian built Bedford OB

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On 1/19/2022 at 3:24 PM, AnnoyingPentium said:

Passed a white Marbill Bova of some sort nr. Howwood on the train, must be an older one by the looks of it. 

Up that way it's likely to have been 75 seaters WA10 ENF, WA10 ENH or KC10 ABC; the other white ones are NXZ 9123 (WA60 DNO) which is still a 55 seater eeking out it's days in Dumbarton and JE10 LJE which is normally down at Loudoun Academy.

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2 minutes ago, cms206 said:

Up that way it's likely to have been 75 seaters WA10 ENF, WA10 ENH or KC10 ABC; the other white ones are NXZ 9123 (WA60 DNO) which is still a 55 seater eeking out it's days in Dumbarton and JE10 LJE which is normally down at Loudoun Academy.

Couldn't catch the reg, but good to know. :)

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At Marbill drivers are responsible for fuelling, washing and cleaning their bus.

My current daily 2016 MAN 19.360 is fitted with a 10.5-litre MAN D2066 engine rated at 360bhp mated to a 6-speed ZF auto 'box. Bodywork is by Beulas to their Cygnus design and seats 53, with a centre sunken toilet. ULW is 13650kgs.

I kept meaning to do a fuel economy comparison between this and my previous daily, a 2008 57-seater Plaxton Panther-bodied Volvo B12B with a 420bhp 12-litre engine (with the wastegate siezed closed) mated to a 12-speed i-Shift automated manual weighing in just under 13 tonnes.

 

A typical combined cycle on both buses, several months apart, on two days similar duties - some fast running plus more or less stage carriage running on Faslane staff runs and school duties.

 

Volvo: 317 miles, 176.9 litres - 8.14mpg

MAN: 365 miles, 226.2 litres - 7.36mpg

 

My absolute level best on the Volvo was 9.14mpg (on a Kyle of Lochalsh & return) but I've not managed a decent distance run in the MAN to compare that.

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