Bus Shite

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 2/11/2021 at 8:36 AM, busmansholiday said:

 

Cracking chod not to mention the buses.

 

The then new Leyland appears a lot in this video. I've just spoken to a colleague who remembers them in service. 

They struggled with the Tropical weather so overheating was a regular occurrence... 👍 👍 👍 😎 😎 😎 

[Austat]

Just came across my uncle's stash of late 1970's to late 80's bus pornography on his Flickr account, and instantly thought this stuff would be right at home here:

That's him driving over a particularly humpy bridge in rural Essex in 1982, his passengers stood in the cold to shed some weight for better ground clearance.

Here are a few other pics, a lot more on his Flickr account for those interested:

 

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, cms206 said:

Some recent drives - been pimped out a bit recently.

These three are also not all they seem... @quicksilverknows the answer, but @LightBulbFunmay find interest in his chosen specialist field of tax classes.

Ooh thats weird, they dont show up on the DVLA 1st party tool, at all and the 14 platers show as having Void VRM's on my special 3rd party tools while the 69 plater does not show up at all

and the only extra info provided on 14 platers is the VIN number, everything else is strangely blank

 

iv only really seen this a handful of times for example with this AC Acedes Mk11 Model 57, which shows up in the same way on 3rd party tools, but this one does at least show up on the 1st party DVLA checker!

and this Stanley Argson UPA224 is another similar one (but again still shows up fine on the 1st party DVLA checker)

the only one I know of that acts in the exact same way as those buses is GPA627J is one that does exactly the same as the buses (shows up as Void on 3rd party tools with no info bar a chassis number and does not show up on the DVLA 1st party tool)

that one is an AC Model 64 but not a known survivor/one I have a picture of

never been able to quite figure out whats gone on... (although im pretty sure LPD806D and UPA224 are vehicles archived off the main DVLA computer and then brought back onto it with a V62 so I suspect that might have something to do with how they show up strangely)

 

[busmansholiday]

11 hours ago, cms206 said:

Some recent drives - been pimped out a bit recently.

These three are also not all they seem... @quicksilverknows the answer, but @LightBulbFunmay find interest in his chosen specialist field of tax classes.

Military?

Have a bet they are internal transport at Faslane.

Been on a few military bases with squadies and there's usually some plain white buses / coaches you don't recognise.

[RoadworkUK]

With "Base bus" on the destination display, they're either exactly that or providing high-decibel, low-frequency transport for a dyslexic rave...

[cms206]

1 hour ago, busmansholiday said:

Military?

Have a bet they are internal transport at Faslane.

Been on a few military bases with squadies and there's usually some plain white buses / coaches you don't recognise.

Bob on.

The 69-plate was apparantly delivered as YX69 NOU to Ryder (I think, if The Internet is to be believed), the others were delivered to the MOD.

Unusual for the white fleet - only five were delivered to the Ministry as far as I'm aware, these are chassis 14095/6. There are some Plaxton Cheetahs and Cheetah XLs, but the vast majority are Volvo Panthers.

 

Bizarrely the British Army do have an Army green Irizar i6 on army plates which seems a bit odd for them when the white fleet is predominantly Plaxton.

[busmansholiday]

5 minutes ago, cms206 said:

Bizarrely the British Army do have an Army green Irizar i6 on army plates which seems a bit odd for them when the white fleet is predominantly Plaxton

I understand it's the communications vehicle in the nuclear convoy that moves the warheads to / from Faslane (I've seen it a couple of times, and there's a blue one as well).

[cms206]

13 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

I understand it's the communications vehicle in the nuclear convoy that moves the warheads to / from Faslane (I've seen it a couple of times, and there's a blue one as well).

Not seen the blue one but the green one did take me by surprise. No picture due to the... err... sensitive area it was parked in.

[quicksilver]

16 hours ago, busmansholiday said:

I understand it's the communications vehicle in the nuclear convoy that moves the warheads to / from Faslane (I've seen it a couple of times, and there's a blue one as well).

I've seen pics of the green Irizar, all blacked out with a load of comms equipment on the roof. Looks very odd seeing a luxury coach in olive drab with military plates. While on the subject of the nuclear convoys, has anyone else noticed all the Mercedes trucks are missing the three-pointed star? Apparently it's because Merc were happy to get the contract but didn't want to be associated with nuclear warfare.

[RoadworkUK]

Had to investigate that Irizar and I must say that livery is quite fetching. When first mentioned I thought we were talking about something of Schools Contract vintage, but it seems not.

[cms206]

1 hour ago, RoadworkUK said:

Had to investigate that Irizar and I must say that livery is quite fetching. When first mentioned I thought we were talking about something of Schools Contract vintage, but it seems not.

The one I saw was on silver & black plates I'm sure; I assume there are a few.

[martc]

Haymarket Bus Station, NuT, 1990.

[martc]

Rotherham Library & Arts Centre, built in the early 1970s, now demolished (could also go in the Architectureshite thread).

[willswitchengage]

5 hours ago, RoadworkUK said:

Had to investigate that Irizar and I must say that livery is quite fetching. When first mentioned I thought we were talking about something of Schools Contract vintage, but it seems not.

The military numberplate and what I assume are CCTV and comms equipment on the roof are clues.

Plenty of open source information about what I understand this is associated with. I also live just down the road from where they travel to and from.

https://www.nukewatch.org.uk/convoys/how-to-spot-a-convoy/

[busmansholiday]

[Eyersey1234]

A few recent garage shots of East Yorkshire's buses.  797, 96 and 388/91

[quicksilver]

This made an appearance today, ex London Transport RF280 and now part of a local private collection. Probably on a shakedown run after enforced inactivity last year.

That was a good spot but was eclipsed just seconds later when this beast came trundling the other way. It's a Leyland Cub with a Wadham Stringer body, never especially common and surely extremely rare now.

 

[busmansholiday]

19 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

never especially common and surely extremely rare now.

Fortunately, they are wank to drive and the two we had were deliberately fired, much to the delight of all the drivers.

[High Jetter]

That RF looks superb!

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Check this out! Full on Leyland Tiger (B43) Body-off Restoration! 

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3930388757055259&id=538227292938106&set=a.568829439877891&source=48&refid=13&__tn__=%2B>

😎😎😎

[willswitchengage]

Proof that targeted advertising is all-knowing, Facebook sending me new bus adverts.

I really liked the Omnicity, especially the nicer-sounding original 6-cyl version. Looked like a pleasant place to be a driver and the fisher price interior must have appealed to operators. It felt very 'continental' i.e. bare bones as opposed to the British way of trying to make everything feel premium. The slightly rounded shape look neat too, not just a boring old box. Go abroad though and you'll be hard pressed still to find anything that isn't MAN or Merc.

[Inspector Morose]

Don't forget that they stopped making the Omnicity in 2012 so most in Europe will have been withdrawn or are about to be.

I like 'em but apparently some operators didn't get on with them at all. My favorites?

The idea of these honking great things tooling around Herefordshire fills me with glee - thinking about it, I must go and phot them before they go as well.
The above shot also shows the weakness of the frame with the 'Scania sag' present and correct at the rear.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

*Bus spotter alert*

The bus in the picture above is actually an Omnilink. They're quite different mechanically; from memory they use a larger engine and the driveline is longitudal and not transverse like the Omnicity. 

The bodywork is also taller to clear the vertical engine. This can be seen by the taller windscreen and taller windows. 

I know the two generations of Omnicity very well. The first 12m bus I drove was a then new Metrobus example that I took to North Weald back in 2004.

I was surprised at the amount of rattles and squeaks and the relatively poor primary ride. 

The second generation (with the 5 pot lump) was slightly better but both had a pronounced sag within months of service. I observed broken and loose structural fixings around the window frames presumably caused by all the flexing and vibration... 

The Mercedes Citaro mobile bbq bus felt much better to drive when not self-immolating. More solid; smoother and refined. 

Incidentally, Metrobus Crawley had some unique short Omnicity variants delivered about eleven years ago. 

Funny little things! Well worth preserving as I'm sure you'll not see any others! 👍 👍 👍 😎 😎 😎 

 

Pictures soon. Busy day and running late! 🤦‍♂️ 

[Inspector Morose]

Meh, Omni - whatever. In 2004 I was still putting odd engines in Nationals. Newer stuff never really tickled my radar.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

3 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

Meh, Omni - whatever. In 2004 I was still putting odd engines in Nationals. Newer stuff never really tickled my radar.

Chase Bus Services? I made sure I travelled on a few Nationals back in 2004 when visiting friends in the area. 

Glad I did! 

TBF I had to learn a bit about the Omnicity and others as I was an Instructor and regularly type trained staff on these... 👍 👍 👍 

[Inspector Morose]

Yeah, at the height, we’d managed to lick just about every shortcoming of the things so we turned to making them better. Well different anyway.

Running with and without turbos, running one with a supercharger from a Commer TS3 (sounded like a good idea but really wasn’t), different fuel pumps including our own creations based upon bits and pieces from other engines, different horizontal engines (the wonderful 0680 conversions), vertical engine, you name it, we had a play at it.

One that didn’t see the road as such was an Allison behind a normally aspirated 0500. Bloody brilliant on pick up but it couldn’t rev enough to engage top. We couldn’t get the uprated springs for the pump or that would have hit the road in service too. Instead we put the box behind a vertical 420 and ran that. I think that one still exists somewhere along with the second of the short 0680 conversions..

[Inspector Morose]

Thinking of engine conversions, I think this one beats them all.

Thats a Daimler Roadliner. Originally fitted with either a Cummins V6 or Perkins V8 engine and semi automatic gearbox. This one was later fitted with a TS3 engine and manual six speed gearbox. Apparently it wasn’t quick but was okay for what it needed to do (schools mainly).

[chaseracer]

Exhaust on the nearside...? 😉

[willswitchengage]

9 hours ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

The bus in the picture above is actually an Omnilink. They're quite different mechanically; from memory they use a larger engine and the driveline is longitudal and not transverse like the Omnicity. 

Correct. Anorak alert - the Omnilink effectively replaced the 'L' series which has the flatish mounted 11 litre mobile death metal concert. The old 'N' series had a transverse engine which was a bit pointless in the UK, where operators seem perfectly happy with a high floor at the back and no intermediate doors. I spent much of my youth on these, which for some reason still has a Scania engine access door.

I have been to many Eastern European countries over the past decade and even then they seem overwhelmingly reliant on old German stuff, and a few commie bi which are always interesting to see.

British Scanias also seem to have air horns as standard, much better than the pathetic beeps of rival bi.

[LightBulbFun]

5 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

Thinking of engine conversions, I think this one beats them all.

Thats a Daimler Roadliner. Originally fitted with either a Cummins V6 or Perkins V8 engine and semi automatic gearbox. This one was later fitted with a TS3 engine and manual six speed gearbox. Apparently it wasn’t quick but was okay for what it needed to do (schools mainly).

hah thats awesome!

(when you mentioned fitting nationals with different engines I had this amusing mental image of a National fitted with a commer knocker TS3 LOL)