Bus Shite

[MiniMinorMk3]

Newcastle Libraries doing their bit of recycling

[doug]

Don't think this one survived.

Sent from my SM-A127F using Tapatalk

[MiniMinorMk3]

Pilot episode for the Double Deckers?

[martc]

Looks a bit 'Dad's Army"'but it is actually boy scouts heading off on a trip.

[MiniMinorMk3]

  On 22/11/2022 at 06:48, martc said:

Looks a bit 'Dad's Army"'but it is actually boy scouts heading off on a trip.

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Nice to see all the kids wearing sensible Clark's, and not Pike or Addihash.

[martc]

Gas powered single deckers in Transylvania, Romania mid 1980's -

[cms206]

Been away for a while again.

Still driving buses, but also now done this... standby* for a manky old Plaxton Ford suitably branded for Beige Package Holidays, under the ARSE (Autoshite Recreation Services & Excursions) banner.

[Zelandeth]

Not sure whose it was, but saw a Plaxton Paramount off in the distance earlier today, looked like dark red over cream livery though I was a good ways off and stuck in traffic stacked at the Stoney Stratford/A5 roundabout.  It had vanished in direction unknown by the time I got through the lights.

Surely must be in preservation, can't imagine anyone still running a Paramount in mainline service.  

Made me realise again exactly how much I miss getting to spend time around these vehicles.  Though I always saw the Paramount as "modern tat" originally!   Supreme III/IV or Duple Dominant II being what were "proper" coaches in my mind.  Still reckon the Dominant II is one of the best looking coaches ever made.  Especially when they still had all the factory brightwork in place.

I really need to find someone around here involved in that side of things and see if I can get my hand in again.  I'm acutely aware that it's going on nine years since I last drove a bus/coach and I really miss it!

[Back_For_More]

Amberley Museum has a few nicely restored and some ongoing.. 

Staff restroom - converted after the war 

and bus corner 

a project next door

[Back_For_More]

More from Amberley 

[busmansholiday]

  On 22/11/2022 at 23:59, Zelandeth said:

Surely must be in preservation, can't imagine anyone still running a Paramount in mainline service.  

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Not impossible as a local operator is still running a K reg ex Stagecoach B10M / Alexander PS on school services 

[MiniMinorMk3]

1939

1953 Newcastle Coronation bus

[busmansholiday]

  On 22/11/2022 at 19:49, martc said:

Gas powered single deckers in Transylvania, Romania mid 1980's -

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Travelled on some Romanian buses in that area back in 1991. Even at two years old (by the chassis plate details) windows had wooden wedges in them to stop them falling out. I can only imagine how wonderful* gas powered ones were.

[DVee8]

Another photo popped up on FB of one of my FiL's bus/coach 

[martc]

East Street, Barking, 1978

[quicksilver]

I posted this recovery truck in the truck shite thread but the bus it's towing is just as interesting.

Behind the cherished reg hides the first production Plaxton President, the genesis of the low-floor double-decker. It first appeared in London as a DAF demonstrator in 1998 carrying S201 JUA plates but doesn't seem to have been licensed as such and only ran on trade plates. That reg was then issued to the first Alexander ALX400-bodied example and this one finally entered service in late 1999 with Arriva as their DLP1 (V601 LGC). 

It was open-topped for the London sightseeing tour in 2006, then sold ten years later to Bathroom Takeaway, who used it as a hospitality vehicle for shows. They donated it to Buses4Homeless, who intended to convert it into a 'health and wellbeing bus' to be operational on a site in London by the summer of 2019, but don't seem to have done anything with it. No idea where it had come from or was going.

[martc]

42nd Street toward 5th Avenue (New York Public Library on the right), circa 1951. I know the Yankee capitalists aren't keen on public transport, but they made some cracking looking vehicles.

[Yoss]

Just seen this news which has come as a bit of a shock if not a complete surprise. 

So finally Solent Blue Line have won. The takeover is complete. And it only took 35 years. 

It was Blue Line starting up that prompted Southampton CityBus, then still in council ownership (or was the brief management buyout phase?) to buy Routemasters which is how I ended up owning one so it's quite a big moment in my life. 

So Blue Line were seen as the enemy until CityBus got rid of the RMs at which point they became the good guys (yes I am that fickle). In time CityBus were bought by First Group and Blue Line, or their Southern Vectis owners, by Go Ahead and at some point renamed Blue Star. But for the last 20 years the blue buses have looked by far and away the more professional outfit than the red ones. 

We currently have a choice of both from here in to town but I always use Blue Star given the choice because they use a fleet of smart Enviro 400s with nice blue velour seats so I can sit upstairs. First use a motley collection of Steetlites with nasty grey pleather (it is so obviously not leather). Except about six months ago four of the Wright Streetdecks as pictured above arrived. But only four. I thought more might arrive but they never did. I bet they regret painting those four now. 

It seems odd to think of Southampton as a blue city but I won't shed a tear at the loss of First Group. They sold Southamptons last bus garage to Sainsburys and moved to an industrial estate instead. 

[MiniMinorMk3]

Plymouth 1950s

[martc]

Christmas lights on Northumberland Street, NuT, December 1965.

[SunnySouth]

  On 30/11/2022 at 13:06, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Plymouth 1950s

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Still going strong!

[808 Estate]

  On 29/11/2022 at 21:37, Yoss said:

Just seen this news which has come as a bit of a shock if not a complete surprise. 

So finally Solent Blue Line have won. The takeover is complete. And it only took 35 years. 

It was Blue Line starting up that prompted Southampton CityBus, then still in council ownership (or was the brief management buyout phase?) to buy Routemasters which is how I ended up owning one so it's quite a big moment in my life. 

So Blue Line were seen as the enemy until CityBus got rid of the RMs at which point they became the good guys (yes I am that fickle). In time CityBus were bought by First Group and Blue Line, or their Southern Vectis owners, by Go Ahead and at some point renamed Blue Star. But for the last 20 years the blue buses have looked by far and away the more professional outfit than the red ones. 

We currently have a choice of both from here in to town but I always use Blue Star given the choice because they use a fleet of smart Enviro 400s with nice blue velour seats so I can sit upstairs. First use a motley collection of Steetlites with nasty grey pleather (it is so obviously not leather). Except about six months ago four of the Wright Streetdecks as pictured above arrived. But only four. I thought more might arrive but they never did. I bet they regret painting those four now. 

It seems odd to think of Southampton as a blue city but I won't shed a tear at the loss of First Group. They sold Southamptons last bus garage to Sainsburys and moved to an industrial estate instead. 

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Could be an interesting time ahead for bus services.
It all went downhill after Hants & Dorset and Southampton Corporation busses disappeared along with the Civic Centre bus station and Shirley garage

[Yoss]

  On 04/12/2022 at 15:24, 808 Estate said:

Could be an interesting time ahead for bus services.
It all went downhill after Hants & Dorset and Southampton Corporation busses disappeared along with the Civic Centre bus station and Shirley garage

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I've posted these before but seeing as you mentioned it... 

Civic Centre Bus Station a few days after it closed. 

 

And a couple of weeks later. 

They didn't hang around with this one. Rumour has it Stagecoach got more for selling the bus station and Grosvenor Square garage than they paid for the whole of Hampshire Bus. I don't know if that was just a rumour but either way it is asset stripping at its finest*. 

They then sold Hampshire Bus's Southampton operations to Solent Blue Line (who were in fact Southern Vectis) but with nowhere to run them from. Only Stagecoach could manage that. Ever since then the buses come from Eastleigh every morning. It's only five miles away but imagine the combined mileage of ten miles a day for every bus for the last 35 years. 

 

As for Shirley Garage, that did hang around a while. I think it closed in 1981 but this was taken in 1987 just after it had been torn down. 

We once managed to get through a hole in the fence and in to the garage. I don't know why I didn't have my camera because I used to take it everywhere but the main thing I remember was a kind of signing on desk that had a hand written list of staff names under a sheet of glass. I really wish I'd taken pictures of that. 

The above picture was taken on a tour of Southampton but as you can see it wasn't a tour for normal people. I just include the next two pics from the same tour because I like them. 

A big boat. 

 

And King George V Dry Dock for a real sense of scale. 

 

[MiniMinorMk3]

DAF Domburg with slide out engines.

[busmansholiday]

  On 30/11/2022 at 13:06, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Plymouth 1950s

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Nope, wasn't converted to open top until the 1960's.

 

Edit : looking at the livery it's in, I'd say that picture is from the early 70's.

[martc]

[MiniMinorMk3]

1932 Lancia Autoalveare

[108]

  On 07/12/2022 at 13:10, MiniMinorMk3 said:

1932 Lancia Autoalveare

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Speechless! 🤣
 

Apart from:

That’s fantastic. 

[108]

  On 07/12/2022 at 13:10, MiniMinorMk3 said:

1932 Lancia Autoalveare

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I see 3 levels of windows. Would that make this a triple decker? 
 

[Inspector Morose]

1931 Gilford single deck bus powered by a Junkers opposed piston engine and front wheel drive.

Amazingly, nobody wanted to buy one so the double deck version (yup, the built two of the things) was converted into a front wheel drive trolleybus making it the only one of its kind ever to run in the UK (at Wolverhampton). Unsurprisngly, it wasn't a success.