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2 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

When I moved to Oxford in 1986 the double deckers were mainly Atlanteans and VRs, with the occasional Olympian on certain routes.  The Atlanteans were mostly either K or P plate, the VRs mainly T and V.  I did get very excited one day though when an open-topped H-plate (1970) VR turned up on the route I took to get to school.

That was unusual to have an open topper on a school run. I lived on the Isle of Wight from 1999 to 2006, Southern Vectis had owned a lot of VRs over the years including 2 early ones new in 1969, sadly one of them was written off in the 80s due to cracks in the chassis 

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Nothing really to add just now, but just a huge thank you to everyone contributing to this thread.  It's both gratifying to see folks enthusiastic over something that most people just see as part of the street furniture and don't give a second thought, and to see a bit of a time capsule.

The knowledge we have here is really astonishing.

I really, really need to get some time behind the wheel of a bus or coach again.  It's nearly eight years now since I drove one.  While it's not something I'd ever see as a living, driving them has been one of the most enjoyable memories I've had.  Huge thanks to First Aberdeen's trainer back when I was in Aberdeen for suggesting I get my provisional licence so we could just take out their trainer bus to try stuff our rather than just trusting computer models.

Favourite bus was the Bluebird AARE.  Horrible as a passenger but a lovely thing to drive, despite the teflon driver's seat.  

Thankfully now preserved.  I was seriously looking into options for storage when it looked like she was heading for the scrap yard.

SDC17446.thumb.jpg.b7d50b2570ec65eed7078155fd301112.jpg

Cracking bus to drive.  Reckon without the 56mph limiter she'd *easily* go off the clock as you hit it like a brick wall.

The Daimler CVG6 was a nice treat, though I did get photo sniped when parking up!

84820017_CRG325C-MeDriving2.thumb.jpg.3f9fbeeecbe96a3c26fa46aa6d9ef534.jpg

I did find it amusing that they were seemingly puzzled that the older the bus the more comfortable I seemed to be!

Getting to run this all the way out to Alford was an unexpected treat.  Just turned up on the doorstep one day and was told it needed delivery to the transport museum.  The exact words were "you probably know this bus better than I do, on ya go."   So we took a slightly long way round and had a good natter on the way.

148700416_URS318X-Aug2013.thumb.jpg.61f887891bfb1a82a129048a01b167d8.jpg

Out of puff at 42mph but drove pretty well, especially once they replaced the shock absorbers...they were seized the first time I drove it!

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9 hours ago, wuvvum said:

That's an odd one!  What caused that?  Was the tracking massively out or something?

We had a Dennis Dart similarly afflicted which was an absolute bastard when you forgot which one you were driving and pulled in too close to the bus in front at a stop...

The excuse given was something to do with the drag links ISTR, basically allowing more steering input one way than the other. On the Merc it was something like 4.5 turns left but 1.75 to the right, it was dreadful.

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On 2/7/2022 at 12:18 AM, Mrcento said:

It's interesting they had theirs full auto. Tayside only even had one earlier version specced with the Voith auto (A Mk2, to test back to back) and the rest of the Mk1's and Mk2's were all SCG semi autos. The Mk3's all reverted to Auto though.

Glasgow's Mk1 Ailsas were all semi auto, but the Mk3s were split; A1-5, 41-61 and 82-133, plus the single deck AS1 were all Voith 3-speed automatic, whilst A6-40, 62-81 were SCG 5-speed automatic - effectively a computer controlled semi auto.

The mixed transmissions threw some buses out of sequence, with KGG 120/121/125/141Y being numbered out of sequence as A81, A65, A61 and A60 instead of A60/61/65/81 in line with the rest of the A41-81 batch which were registered KGG 101-141Y but numbered A41-59/81/65/62-4/61/66-80/60 as KGG125/141Y were fitted with Voith transmissions and KGG 120/1Y were SCG.

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Speaking of Atlanteans, here’s another:

OTO 555M

Which in the 1990s went back to Early Learning Centre Bodies East Lancs to have a couple of minor alterations:

RAU 804M

Chassis stretched and rebodied with EL2000 ‘Sprint’ bodywork. Happily this still survives in preservation. 

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Southampton had structural problems with their Atlanteans too but it was nothing to do with offset windows, it was simply the East Lancs bodies. 

We also had half a dozen converted to the above Sprint single deck bodies but the chassis were still standard length so they looked a little more squat. They had neat 'Atlantean Sprint' logos on the side.

Except one which was painted white with pink elephants on for the airport parking service. It was honestly called Pink Elephant Parking. Occasionally it would escape on to normal services. I had it once with a driver I know and he was getting fed up with the remarks, mostly from old ladies, about the interesting livery. 

I have some pictures of the standard red ones upstairs but I never got the pink elephant one. 

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19 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

I agree, I've no problem with people not liking Invacars, but to stoop to personal insults is wrong. 

Insults seem to be flying around this forum at the moment. A lot use the female anatomy as a form of insult.  Are some members getting intolerant?

Now back to the buses.

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One I'll never forget... this thing used to take me (and 48 others) to school when it wasn't being borrowed by David Urquhart.

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It was also this in a previous life...

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I don't know if Smiths still have it. It's possibly quite bad of me considering I can see their garage from the living room window at my Granny's!

EDIT: Maybe not?

image.thumb.png.b1ce449ea86631321f9f696fceb5e5dc.png

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I remember 2 school buses I had at Cowes High on the Isle of Wight, H840 DDL was a Wright bodied Dennis Javelin that was so low geared the drivers would set off in 2nd or 3rd and was in 6th by 40mph and J142 JDL, a Wadham Stringer bodied Dennis Javelin. They were part of the councils Wightbus school bus fleet, they also had UVG and Caetano bodied Javelins, UVG bodied Dennis Darts along with some Mercedes minibuses. 

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A bit of a shameless plug but I was scanning and improving the last batch and thought putting them all onto a single page on Facebook. I know Facebook not some of your cups of tea but I thought its the place where it’ll get the best audience.

https://www.facebook.com/mundanefoto/

I hope to post up regularly so if you could do a like and follow, I’d be most appreciative.

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Just now, Inspector Morose said:

A bit of a shameless plug but I was scanning and improving the last batch and thought putting them all onto a single page on Facebook. I know Facebook not some of your cups of tea but I thought its the place where it’ll get the best audience.

https://www.facebook.com/mundanefoto/

I hope to post up regularly so if you could do a like and follow, I’d be most appreciative.

Followed with great interest. Might as well use my Facebook for something! :)

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Some really fascinating stuff over the last few pages. It's such a shame that things are so much more standardised now and individualism and odd rebuilds like those no longer happen.

And in the model world, Strathclyde SA6 ended up working for Quicksilver. Believe it or not, Sunrise Models actually made a kit of these weird buses (and quickly sold them all) and also have AS1 in their future plans so that could also end up as a might-have-been member of the Quicksilver fleet had it survived the fire.

Strathclyde single-decker

 

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19 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Nothing really to add just now, but just a huge thank you to everyone contributing to this thread.  It's both gratifying to see folks enthusiastic over something that most people just see as part of the street furniture and don't give a second thought, and to see a bit of a time capsule.

The knowledge we have here is really astonishing.

I really, really need to get some time behind the wheel of a bus or coach again.  It's nearly eight years now since I drove one.  While it's not something I'd ever see as a living, driving them has been one of the most enjoyable memories I've had.  Huge thanks to First Aberdeen's trainer back when I was in Aberdeen for suggesting I get my provisional licence so we could just take out their trainer bus to try stuff our rather than just trusting computer models.

Favourite bus was the Bluebird AARE.  Horrible as a passenger but a lovely thing to drive, despite the teflon driver's seat.  

Thankfully now preserved.  I was seriously looking into options for storage when it looked like she was heading for the scrap yard.

SDC17446.thumb.jpg.b7d50b2570ec65eed7078155fd301112.jpg

Cracking bus to drive.  Reckon without the 56mph limiter she'd *easily* go off the clock as you hit it like a brick wall.

The Daimler CVG6 was a nice treat, though I did get photo sniped when parking up!

84820017_CRG325C-MeDriving2.thumb.jpg.3f9fbeeecbe96a3c26fa46aa6d9ef534.jpg

I did find it amusing that they were seemingly puzzled that the older the bus the more comfortable I seemed to be!

Getting to run this all the way out to Alford was an unexpected treat.  Just turned up on the doorstep one day and was told it needed delivery to the transport museum.  The exact words were "you probably know this bus better than I do, on ya go."   So we took a slightly long way round and had a good natter on the way.

148700416_URS318X-Aug2013.thumb.jpg.61f887891bfb1a82a129048a01b167d8.jpg

Out of puff at 42mph but drove pretty well, especially once they replaced the shock absorbers...they were seized the first time I drove it!

I'm sure that Atlantean was with First in Cornwall. It was the first open topper I travelled in. Was years ago now. Before I started driving buses! 👍 👍 👍 😎 😎 😎 

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On 2/9/2022 at 11:29 AM, cms206 said:

Glasgow's Mk1 Ailsas were all semi auto, but the Mk3s were split; A1-5, 41-61 and 82-133, plus the single deck AS1 were all Voith 3-speed automatic

I remember those Voith Ailsas (do any survive?) still rattling round Glasgow in all day service, in what must have been 2003 to 2005. It felt like a step back in time compared to the oldest stuff Lothian were running in Edinburgh, in fact the whole First Glasgow fleet was a right old mishmash of myriad elderly secondhand stuff and newish (but permanently full) single deckers and the odd articulated bus. They seemed to be well behind the curve when it came to adopting low floor double deckers, on the other hand those Ailsas did make a decent racket when on full throttle i.e. always. 

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image.png.e291d9da63c7e5fcd8f8a3aae88f343e.png

Estonia Avenue, Moscow, 1965. The back end of a LAZ 695 and a ZIU 5 trolley bus (trolley coach - is this even a thing?).

Here's a link to some preserved Soviet coaches and trolley buses (and lorries and cars)

https://weirdrussia.com/2015/06/07/vintage-car-show-in-saint-petersburg/

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Whilst @Inspector Moroseas doing his thing many years before I was, in the early 2000s I was a bus spotter, at least until about 2007 when what little interest for me there still was more or less vanished. Any remaining interest I had was beaten out of after joining the industry itself and also through a series of unfortunate incidents involved in my own preserved bus fleet.

 

Anyway. I shall post some from my own lens as opposed to those from the collection I helped from a skip rescue many years ago.

 

Red Lion of Blantyre, although run (on paper at least) by Stevie Curness, had it's roots in Munro of Uddingston with Raymond and Jean Munro both having their hand in at Red Lion. While the government were the largest buyers of the Plaxton Derwent 2 on Leyland Tiger chassis, B16 CTL was a relatively unusual Plaxton Derwent 2-bodied Dennis Javelin built to coach spec, complete with in swing door, one of a pair for the Home Office as H441 XHX.

After Red Lion it passed to Low Fell before returning to Lanarkshire with Stuart Shevill at Carluke.

2022-02-13_05-41-58.jpg

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Marshall of Cambridge were a long established coachbuilder but by the early 1990s were primarily building their own versions of the former Carlyle coachworks designs under the Marshall Specialist Vehicles banner.

Iveco's Eurorider found moderate success as a coach in the UK, normally with Beulas bodywork though Plaxton's Panther was also available for a time. Three, however, were bodied by Marshall as the 'Maxibus'; two of these were finished as non-PSVs for St Johns Ambulance as S76/78 LLT but the first built entered service as a 51-seater with Whitelaw, Stonehouse as S947 NGB.

It remained unique as a type and it was very pleasant to travel on from what I remember. It spent all of it's sixteen year career with Whitelaw, being withdrawn in late 2014.

2022-02-13_06-27-30.jpg

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On 2/10/2022 at 8:41 PM, mk2_craig said:

I remember those Voith Ailsas (do any survive?) still rattling round Glasgow in all day service, in what must have been 2003 to 2005. It felt like a step back in time compared to the oldest stuff Lothian were running in Edinburgh, in fact the whole First Glasgow fleet was a right old mishmash of myriad elderly secondhand stuff and newish (but permanently full) single deckers and the odd articulated bus. They seemed to be well behind the curve when it came to adopting low floor double deckers, on the other hand those Ailsas did make a decent racket when on full throttle i.e. always. 

There will be some in preservation somewhere. There's at least 1 of the ex Tayside Mk3's in preservation (And several Mk1's + 2's with the SCG....i think the one MK2 they had with the Voith is preserved too but i can't remember if it was converted to SCG as it was eventually in service or those preserving put it back to its original spec), currently undergoing restoration as far as i know. This exact one, to be precise. I assume it'll be going back in this livery once it's done. That's sort of what it was know for, being the one that was in the commemorative retro livery.

6155312257_5f8b63ffee_b.thumb.jpg.b3ea505f5e0262abb73ec80d3b8e96f6.jpg

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The ex- West Midlands Fleetline was, for a time, quite a popular second hand purchase for smaller operators. They were simple, rugged, and economical machines. For a good few years I plodded around the country photographing buses that I was familiar with in places which I was not.

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Hi, can I add some exotic coaches here?

They are old generation Chinese buses that have now disappeared without a trace. Before l came to UK I spent nine years to documenting vintage Chinese buses and coaches.

There are lot of articulated buses in China (of course, old generation were all gone), l also can found many articulated buses in mainland Europe but it seems not popular in UK.

1621106420_QQ20220213202647.thumb.jpg.81ffb43de1c633e85a8025013e56e00a.jpg

Huanghai DD6170S01 manufactured in 2002. 140 kW 6.6L diesel 

1926000964_QQ20220213202705.thumb.jpg.3f6dfd253e90591e51c12fafdc50bf89.jpg

Xinxiang XK660, manufactured since 1977, in the old days most Chinese buses were used petrol engine, for this example may only had a 100-126 hp petrol engine. The last generation petrol engine buses were withdrawn in 2012.

69433196_QQ20220213202736.thumb.jpg.88009184d1df88a85d6475702f3cfee8.jpg

Shanghai SK562 trolley bus, manufactured in 1991

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Jinghua BK6141D, an classic design bus in 2000s, some still in manufactured until late 2010s. "-D" means diesel engine.

Another notable feature of old kind buses is that most of these cheap buses have truck frame (some still in manufacturing), so the front door is always behind the front axle which means a conductor is needed.

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Inverclyde was a hotbed of competition in the 1980s, with almost any vehicle that could carry fare paying passengers pressed into service, down to and including Ford Sierras.

Inverclyde Transport were the operator of this 1971 Plaxton-bodied Bedford VAS operating a local service to Leven Road in 1987. It had been new to Docherty, Irvine.

2022-02-14_02-51-33.jpg

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Wilson's won a number of school contracts at St Andrew's Academy in Paisley in the late 1980s, a seventy five mile round trip from their base at Medwyn Garage in Carnwath. In an effort to mitigate the lost mileage, Wilson's registered a local bus service between Paisley Cross, Lochfield, Foxbar and Glenburn for between school times using whatever vehicles had operated in on the contract that day.

MSG 914T was an 11-metre Volvo B58 with Plaxton-bodywork new to Allan, Gorebridge.

2022-02-14_03-01-14.jpg

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A couple of small operators local to me operated a number of Plaxton Supremes and Paramounts over the years. Frances Motors/Ideal of Marker Weighton ran Volvo B58s, Volvo B10Ms, AEC Reliances and Leyland Leopards and Baldrys of Holme on Spalding Moor ran mostly Ford's and Bedfords. By 2011 when they sold out to York Pullman Frances had updated their fleet a bit with mostly Premieres and Excaliburs, however Baldrys were still running Bedfords that were nearly 30 years old. Baldrys were told they had to update their fleet to keep school contracts. 

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Ulsterbus and Citybus were a prolific user of the Bristol RELL, the vast majority fitted with bodywork by Alexander (Belfast) to their X-type design, itself derived from a Potter design.

AXI 2554 was a little of a year old at the time of this September 1987 view; yes, really. Both fleets were known for stockpiling buses, with several REs registered as late the last quarter of 1986, 2554 being registered in August of that year.

After service it was one of around 25 which passed to Lough Swilly in 2005 where it did a further two years service as 86-DL-2727 before returning north of the border to City Sightseeing Belfast. It passed for scrap through Wilson's Auction, Mallusk in 2009.

2022-02-14_03-24-40.jpg

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Whilst looking for all the world like any other Wright bodied single decker, M527 UGS is a very rare Mercedes OH1416. At the time of my photograph it was operating for James King at Kirkcowan in Dumfries & Galloway, it had been new to Universitybus of Hatfield.

The OH1416 was very much a mediumweight more in the vein of the Dennis Lance than the Scania N113 or Volvo B10B. Power came from a 5.9-litre inline-6 Mercedes OM366 turbodiesel rated at around 160bhp - effectively a six-pot version of the 3.9-litre 4-pot OM364 normally found in the Mercedes 811D et all - driving through an Allison 4 speed automatic transmission. 

In total 16 OH1416s were sold in the UK & Eire, fifteen buses and one as a command unit for Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue and all bar two supplied to the Western Education & Library Board in Northern Ireland were long wheelbase 47-seaters. All sixteen carried Wright's 'Urbanranger' bodywork.

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