Bus Shite

[MorrisItalSLX]

1 hour ago, Metal Guru said:

I can only recall the Bedford CA with sliding front doors. What else had them?

Ford Transit Mk1/2 & Bedford CF

[High Jetter]

Also Thames trader. Bedford CF. Any UPS van. Prob others

 

[puddlethumper]

Post office Sherpas had em.

[High Jetter]

4 minutes ago, puddlethumper said:

Post office Sherpas had em.

Yup, also campers. Really, any Sherpa. 

[Metal Guru]

3 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Yup, also campers. Really, any Sherpa. 

OK , I remember some of them now. Memory slightly biased because my Dad had a CA. However apart from a few modified examples of campers or ice cream vans that just used the front end up to the windscreen, all CAs had the sliding door, whereas most Transits for example didn’t.

[martc]

When I was in the cubs the pack had a grey Bedford CA minibus with sliding doors. A very knackered CA; it would be driven, full of cubs, with both sliding doors open to keep the engine cool. It would struggle on steep hills. On one occasion they tried reversing it up a hill, full of cubs, but it ran out of puff halfway up and rolled back down. For further steep hills we all had to get out and follow it on foot whilst it struggled up empty.

No cubs, kittens or nuns were harmed.

It looked like this, but our driver was a little older and could reach the pedals.

And on the general topic of sliding doors - I'll stick me neck out and say they were an option on every van* sold in the UK into at least the '70's.

*excluding car derived ones.

[busmansholiday]

11 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

Most modern chassis can’t support themselves without the bodywork these days so would have to be braced up to the hilt for it to be safe to drive from Guilford to Falkirk (or wherever)

I believe they have now ceased Dennis bus chassis production at Guildford and they are assembled fully at Falkirk. Scarborough seems to be the electric bus production centre as well as coaches, the mechanicals for these all coming from abroad. BBC (Bamford Bus Co, ak Wrights) in northen ireland generally build on Volvo chassis but they are shipped in and the indian lot at Sherburn (was Optare) are the only other UK full size bus builders and theirs are all fully integral so no chsssis.

Everything else comes fully built and finished from the rest of the planet, Europe, middle east and China.

[willswitchengage]

Not sure if Convoys got them too but the little pilot was poss the last factory build.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, martc said:

When I was in the cubs the pack had a grey Bedford CA minibus with sliding doors. A very knackered CA; it would be driven, full of cubs, with both sliding doors open to keep the engine cool. It would struggle on steep hills. On one occasion they tried reversing it up a hill, full of cubs, but it ran out of puff halfway up and rolled back down. For further steep hills we all had to get out and follow it on foot whilst it struggled up empty.

No cubs, kittens or nuns were harmed.

It looked like this, but our driver was a little older and could reach the pedals.

And on the general topic of sliding doors - I'll stick me neck out and say they were an option on every van* sold in the UK into at least the '70's.

*excluding car derived ones.

The Scouts I went to had one too. They always had the door open but my Dad would never allow it in his.

They only had 50ish bhp new, but ours coped with a family of 7 , camping gear and dog going from SE England to the North of Scotland. It struggled a bit when we got a caravan too.

[Yoss]

On 5/5/2022 at 11:32 PM, puddlethumper said:

Post office Sherpas had em.

In the days before shared vans, i.e. two people in a Pug Partner, one driver would service about six to eight foot deliveries taking extra bags out to a pre designated bag drop. On one of my old deliveries it was at a dry cleaners. If I got there before my driver he would just push my bags out of the open sliding door on to the pavement without stopping. Used to love driving around with the doors open. 

 

On 5/6/2022 at 8:34 AM, willswitchengage said:

Not sure if Convoys got them too but the little pilot was poss the last factory build.

That's great, we never had any anywhere near that new. My last Sherpa was Y833TDA but that had conventional doors. The last I remember us having were M or N reg. 

[wesacosa]

I found my old Atlantean boot badge buried in my dad's loft for 20 odd years. I used to have it attached to my wardrobe door when I was a kid

[Yoss]

24 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

I found my old Atlantean boot badge buried in my dad's loft for 20 odd years. I used to have it attached to my wardrobe door when I was a kid

That is bloody lovely. 

[artdjones]

A friend of mine used to drive one of these for Initial. He borrowed it once (with permission)  and was driving along with the doors open  with me and another lad standing in the left hand footwell  with the door open. The other guy had his hand resting on the A pillar and missed finger amputation by a millisecond when we had to stop abruptly.

[wesacosa]

55 minutes ago, Yoss said:

That is bloody lovely. 

Cheers. The blue paint was in bad shape when I got it so stupidly I painted it myself with some Humbrol paint I had kicking around from my model kits, and didn't do a great job. obviously I wish I'd left it alone now!

[busmansholiday]

So, back to Portsmouth and the single deckers. We'll start with these 34 seat, two door Weymann bodied Tiger Cubs from 1960 that were coming to the end of their careers.  Who said London invented dual door standee buses. 

Also two door and carrying 42 seat Weymann bodies were two batches of similar looking but mounted on Leyland's Leopard chassis, this is 147 from the second batch from 1963.  Identifying the chod should keep you happy for a few minutes.

After the Leopards, CPPTD moved onto rear engined single deckers and were one of the few operators to buy Leyland's Panther Cub model (400 engine rather than the 600 in the usual Panther). Rather surprisingly, Marshall built the 42 seat two door bodywork.

It was an even bigger surprise when CPPTDs next batch of buses were AEC Swifts, their first non Leylands since trolleybuses IIRC. Here's 178 in the new livery.

They switched back to Leylands with the next order, but again caused many surprised faces when these Pennine bodied Atlanteans arrived. here's 188 (J reg) and 191 (K reg), the Panther cubs were also split over two registration years (E and F).

 

[busmansholiday]

And whilst mentioning CPPTD, hidden in the back of the depots were some splendid things back then.

This Crossley Condor was built 1931 with Short Brothers 48-seat double deck bodywork as No.74 and was converted to breakdown wagon in 1948 It lasted until 1972 and is happily preserved.

Also still with us (just) is this Leyland Titan TD2 RV3412. It was new in 1933 with an English Electric 50-seat double deck body and was one of two converted to Tower Wagons for maintenance of the trolleybus overheads.

BK2986 is a Thornycroft J, built in 1919 for Portsmouth Corporation. It originally had a Wadham O16/18RO seater body but was rebodied in 1926 with an ex London General AEC B 1920 Dodson O16/18RO body. I believe it's at the Milestones museum in Basingstoke.

Also at Milestones is tram 84, which the Corporation had kept from the end of operations in 1936. It was converted from a horse car in 1903 having originally been built in 1880 for use on the North Metropolitan Tramways Co. Ltd in London before being withdrawn and being used as a railgrinder before eventual restoration. Portsmouth (like Glasgow and a couple of other tramways), used the the strange 4ft 7 3/4in gauge tramway .

Now at the East Anglian Transport Museum is trolleybus 313, RV938, a 1951 Burlingham bodied BUT.

[martc]

A swarm of Ikarus 55's around Liberation Road, (Now: Jutasi Road.) Veszprém, Hungarian People's Republic, 1973.

[J W Pepper]

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 5/9/2022 at 12:10 PM, wesacosa said:

I found my old Atlantean boot badge buried in my dad's loft for 20 odd years. I used to have it attached to my wardrobe door when I was a kid

They're lovely, aren't they! Hod on to it too! They're quite expensive to buy these days. 

These are mine; the Atlantean badge is slightly* patinated... 😁

[wesacosa]

very nice. 

not quite sure of the history of mine. I got it in about 1990 from someone who worked for Hull corporation buses. However I don't think Hull had ran any Atlanteans with those badges for a long time. From the time I remember the Hull buses (late 80s) the earliest Atlanteans running around were G reg and they didn't have those badges.  Guess it must have been hanging around for a while before I got it

[martc]

Day trip for the old folks' home. I bet that's one of those coaches with a massive chrome radiator grille that looks like a butterfly (a Bedford?).

[martc]

Muswell Hill 1912 & 2022.

[busmansholiday]

On 5/12/2022 at 1:59 PM, wesacosa said:

very nice. 

not quite sure of the history of mine. I got it in about 1990 from someone who worked for Hull corporation buses. However I don't think Hull had ran any Atlanteans with those badges for a long time. From the time I remember the Hull buses (late 80s) the earliest Atlanteans running around were G reg and they didn't have those badges.  Guess it must have been hanging around for a while before I got it

They all came with badges, some operators chose to have them fitted, others just stuck them in the stores. Hence why I have a Daimler badge.

[wesacosa]

21 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

They all came with badges, some operators chose to have them fitted, others just stuck them in the stores. Hence why I have a Daimler badge.

ah ok. thanks. I did wonder that after I posted.  By the time I got that the Hull Atlanteans would have had at least two resprays due to livery change

[Cookiesouwest]

15 yrs laid up. Got it going and drove it.

 

[Inspector Morose]

8 minutes ago, Cookiesouwest said:

15 yrs laid up. Got it going and drove it.

PUK647R, ex Midland Red North. 

Strangely enough, just watched the vid. Wish they'd have topped up the gearbox instead of reving the bollocks out of it and burning the bands out. Oh yes and why not smash it onto the low-loader by using first gear instead of running it against the flywheel and blowing the seal (I just know they weren't, okay). 

Verdict: 10/10 for youtube lols, 3/10 mechanical sympathy for the bus. (It's a Natinal - of course it'll run and drive)

Meh, ignore me. Just in a grumpy mood at the moment.

[Cookiesouwest]

2 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

PUK647R, ex Midland Red North. 

Strangely enough, just watched the vid. Wish they'd have topped up the gearbox instead of reving the bollocks out of it and burning the bands out. Oh yes and why not smash it onto the low-loader by using first gear instead of running it against the flywheel and blowing the seal (I just know they weren't, okay). 

Verdict: 10/10 for youtube lols, 3/10 mechanical sympathy for the bus. (It's a Natinal - of course it'll run and drive)

Meh, ignore me. Just in a grumpy mood at the moment.

At least it will be saved. Any damage they might have done rescuing it, pales into insignificance given its overall condition. Plus its getting fully restored.

Another one gets to live

 

[High Jetter]

6 hours ago, martc said:

Day trip for the old folks' home. I bet that's one of those coaches with a massive chrome radiator grille that looks like a butterfly (a Bedford?).

Typically, the bus (expert) is late...

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Go on then... who can identify this Routemaster?

 

[Yoss]

ALD 872B, RM 1872.