Bus Shite

39,459 · October 26, 2020

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

17,344 · October 26, 2020

On 24/10/2020 at 16:04, 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.

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Not one, but 8.

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

17,344 · October 26, 2020

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

October 27, 2020

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.

7,268 · October 28, 2020

mcw ailsa?

October 28, 2020

On 27/10/2020 at 22:51, 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.

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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.

17,344 · October 28, 2020

On 28/10/2020 at 00:43, Noel Tidybeard said:

mcw ailsa?

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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).

17,344 · October 28, 2020

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.

9,034 · October 28, 2020

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

17,344 · October 28, 2020

On 28/10/2020 at 21:03, RoadworkUK said:

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

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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.

4,753 · October 29, 2020

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

2,667 · October 29, 2020

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.

3,394 · October 29, 2020

On 28/10/2020 at 23:41, 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.

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

9,201 · October 29, 2020

I do like a Futura, lovely things to drive. Not quite as good as a B10M though. The Magiq was a big step forward, I loved driving the two that Dartline had.

I’d like to attach photos of them but for some reason the forum software seems to be struggling with Flickr links.

27,680 · October 29, 2020

On 29/10/2020 at 08:35, 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.

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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.

17,344 · October 30, 2020

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.

9,193 · October 30, 2020

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

17,344 · November 2, 2020

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

Not a fan of these.

44,103 · November 2, 2020

On 30/10/2020 at 20:19, 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.

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Which squeaked most?

9,193 · November 3, 2020

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

44,103 · November 3, 2020

On 03/11/2020 at 07:42, busmansholiday said:

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

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Seamless public transport experience.

3,394 · November 5, 2020

Today's chariot

9,193 · November 5, 2020

Any noticeable differences since GoAhead took over ?

12,820 · November 8, 2020

Dear bus fans. I am currently digitising four short films, found on a South Yorkshire Transport VHS tape by @sierraman. The first of these - the last tram from Meadowhead to Sheffield Lane Top in 1960 is on YouTube now:

and it's about trams, but two of the films contain buses (and have not been in the public domain before, apparently). Hope you like them!

39,459 · November 9, 2020

Excellent. These were originally done on Cine then discovered sometime in the 80’s in a filing cabinet at Greenland Road depot and put on to at the time state of the art video tape. Great to see them on YouTube to be enjoyed by future generations

39,459 · November 9, 2020

I love on that film how cheerful he is that he’s getting made redundant.

9,193 · November 14, 2020

Unemployment numbers about to increase...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-54937076

11,912 · November 16, 2020

Hmm, time for another delve into the rather tedious world of bus shite.

Tonight's example is a one off that sort of isn't a one off but it is.

This is the one time RTO1R of Derby City Transport. It is a Ailsa B55 with an Alexander body. So far so relatively common for the time? Well this was designated a B55-20, the lowheight version of the Ailsa, the others having the designation B55-10. So what changed? Well very little actually. The chassis was pretty standard and the rear axle was already a drop centre type so in reality there was very little difference at all. Now the body, well, that was a bit different. Inside there was a hump in the floor, under some of the seats, to accommodate the centrally mounted gearbox and the emergency exit for the lower deck was moved from the side to the rear wall, losing a seat in the process. Lower deck windows were shallower but basically that was about it.

So a normal Ailsa just built a bit lower then? Well, yes but it did have its own chassis code and no doubt there were some other slight differences between this and its taller brethren but for all intent and purpose this was just a normal Ailsa.
It was ordered by the venerable Blue Bus of Derby but due to its rather bespoke nature, it took so long to be built that by the time this was delivered, Blue bus had been bought by Derby CT and their garage and remarkable fleet of geriatric Daimlers (including the first Fleetline built, the first and second production Fleetline and other gems) had burnt to the ground. Derby took over the order and it was eventually delivered as its No.71 and settled in to whistling around the mean streets of Derby.

Due to the, rather compromised layout, especially downstairs RTO was the only B55-20 built and with the advent of a straight rear axle on the Mk2 and 3 versions of the chassis, the lowheight Ailsa became a one off. In the early 1990's I tracked it down to Eagre Coaches of Gainsborough where it was being used as a school bus. After ending up in Scotland, it eventually entered preservation and was restored (twice) it now being painted into Black Prince livery - an operator known for its Ailsa fleet yet never actually running this one.