Bus Shite

[somewhatfoolish]

 

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'.

[Eyersey1234]

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

[busmansholiday]

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.

[busmansholiday]

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.....

[Inspector Morose]

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]

Aldham Coaches had one of this batch, 806 IIRC, which was my regular drive at weekends, and Tom Jowit had a few as well.

 

[busmansholiday]

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.

[Inspector Morose]

 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.

[Inspector Morose]

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.

[sierraman]

Sheffield Mainline had a load of cut down Leyland PD2 to use as recovery. Think they’re all on preservation now. 

[cms206]

On 10/24/2020 at 5:04 PM, juular said:

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.

Not one, but 8.

I think I have photos at least of SA1-7.

[cms206]

Back in the saddle today after a week off. Tonight's chariot is this VDL Futura 2, in 12.9 metre, 365ish bhp flavour.

[Ford Prefect]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leyland-aec-routmaster-London-bus/174493897605?hash=item28a0a59385:g:GQEAAOSwBylflhM8

Routemaster (spelt Routmaster in advert) RM1643  reg no 643DYE for sale at £35.9k in Wigan. Only 5498 miles.

No pictures of interior, but side look like set up for vending maybe.

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

 

mcw ailsa?

[Ford Prefect]

17 hours ago, Ford Prefect said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leyland-aec-routmaster-London-bus/174493897605?hash=item28a0a59385:g:GQEAAOSwBylflhM8

Routemaster (spelt Routmaster in advert) RM1643  reg no 643DYE for sale at £35.9k in Wigan. Only 5498 miles.

No pictures of interior, but side looks like set up for vending maybe.

 

Or if you want pictures of the interior and a price of £32,500 +vat try here:

http://usedcoachsales.co.uk/Vehicles/View/4289

And if you look under the Vehicles tab on their site there's some interesting stuff (to me anyway) for sale e.g. Routemaster, RT, Atlantean, Titan, Olympian...

Aplologies if you already know about this site.

 

[cms206]

17 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

 

mcw ailsa?

MCW Metrobus with Alexander D-type bodywork; Midland's first three Metrobuses (UMS 751T, BLS 671/2V) were so treated as their MRM1-3, plus Central's Dennis Dominator D1 (EGB 77T).

[cms206]

Scheduled two backshifts a week for the foreseeable so I'm getting punted about a bit.

Tonight's chariot is another VDL, this time a Futura Classic. New as WA60 DZO to Barnes, Swindon.

[RoadworkUK]

I reckon for a design that (aesthetically) dates back to 1982, the Futura has dated spectacularly well.

[cms206]

2 hours ago, RoadworkUK said:

I reckon for a design that (aesthetically) dates back to 1982, the Futura has dated spectacularly well.

This is our last "coach" one - we've still a good number on fleet but most are 70 to 77 seaters now. This is earmarked for the treatment shortly. Sadly they also still rot as well as the early ones did, some of ours need regular patching up.

I'm not generally a huge fan of the Futura 'Classic', or even our Futura Clubs. The VDL Futura 2 is a far superior drive, but I still prefer my Volvos.

[rml2345]

I recall a conversation we had some years back about the Futura Classic feeling quite old fashioned to drive.

[Volksy]

I know these are probably crap, but I'd really like one!

http://usedcoachsales.co.uk/Vehicles/View/5487

There were a few knocking around in Leeds Metro's school bus fleet years back, but they never seemed to get much use. I always saw them parked up at the depot when passing on the train.

 

[Eyersey1234]

10 hours ago, cms206 said:

This is our last "coach" one - we've still a good number on fleet but most are 70 to 77 seaters now. This is earmarked for the treatment shortly. Sadly they also still rot as well as the early ones did, some of ours need regular patching up.

I'm not generally a huge fan of the Futura 'Classic', or even our Futura Clubs. The VDL Futura 2 is a far superior drive, but I still prefer my Volvos.

Never driven a Futura so can't comment on them but Volvos are good vehicles. 

[Zelandeth]

9 hours ago, Volksy said:

I know these are probably crap, but I'd really like one!

http://usedcoachsales.co.uk/Vehicles/View/5487

There were a few knocking around in Leeds Metro's school bus fleet years back, but they never seemed to get much use. I always saw them parked up at the depot when passing on the train.

 

First Aberdeen have a Bluebird AARE (thankfully it's being preserved) on a 51 plate as I recall.  I've been lucky enough to take it out on a few occasions.  Horrible thing to be a passenger on but a cracking bus to drive.  Their one has a 56mph limiter which you hit like a brick wall.  We reckon she'd do about 80 with the limiter out the way given the power on tap and gearing.

Biggest headache (and the reason she spent almost her whole life growing moss in the back of the depot) was that spares availability over here is non existent so everything has to be shipped over from the US.

[cms206]

End of the week; my allocated bus has been away on East Ayrshire contracts all week (they require CCTV) covering for it's sister bus which is off for MOT, so I've mostly been driving this 1994 Volvo B10M this week. Off the weekend and back in for a fifteen hour shift on Monday.

[busmansholiday]

Are Alexander Belfast bodies better / worse than those built in Falkirk. You could tell the Alexander v Plaxton bodied Darts by the squeaks. 

[cms206]

Tonight's chariot... DAF-powered Irizar i6.

Not a fan of these.

[martc]

On 10/30/2020 at 8:19 PM, busmansholiday said:

Are Alexander Belfast bodies better / worse than those built in Falkirk. You could tell the Alexander v Plaxton bodied Darts by the squeaks. 

Which squeaked most?

[busmansholiday]

Alexander, think they got the idea of making them squeak after building those lovely P*c*rs.

[martc]

5 hours ago, busmansholiday said:

Alexander, think they got the idea of making them squeak after building those lovely P*c*rs.

Seamless public transport experience.

[Eyersey1234]

Today's chariot