Bus Shite

[busmansholiday]

46 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

Thinking of hydraulic braked buses that are not thought of having hydraulic brakes (yup, king of the niche subject, me), how about these three?

This is GCN3N, one of a triple of Ailsas bought by Tyne and Wear PTE very early on in the models production (GCN 1-3N). What made these of note was the fitting of Lockheed power hydraulic braking from new instead of the standard air system. Quite why these three, why Tyne and Wear, or why no others were ever made is something that is a mite perplexing. 

Were they experimental for a future option for London? Did TWPTE fancy paying with their own fluid braked buses? Whatever the reason, they didn’t last long and were sold off, spreading around the country, the different braking systems rapidly replaced with standard air brakes.

GCN2N was briefly preserved but unfortunately was sold on to become a crew dining bus for film work. It did get saved once again but the task to rebuild seemed too great for anyone to take on and it was scrapped a few years ago. Sad really, as they were the only three ever built. 

Didn't they enter service at about the same time as a "vehicle shortage" (that old euphemism) that resulted in T&W buying a load of ex Leeds Roe bodied Regent V back loaders that they simply painted a single yellow panel on each side and stuck the T&W symbol in.

I remember going up there for a long weekend with a load of mates at that time that involved bus spotting, drinking and shagg.....

[Eyersey1234]

On 5/25/2023 at 8:16 AM, busmansholiday said:

A wet paper bag is structurally stronger than anything East Lancs put together.

One of Sheffield's East Lancs bodied VRs was involved in an accident with the roof support in Herries Road depot that resulted in the whole of the bodywork being distorted. They had to remove the whole lot down to the chassis before rebuilding it.

😯😯

[cms206]

Got papped in Blackpool yesterday... two bus job and traffic gave my bus to another driver because I had "more experience" so had to drive the newer bus.

[MiniMinorMk3]

Everyones favourite bus route

[666jjp]

been on that route a few times when I was younger Stratford to Walthamstow.

[Bear]

Is this a bus?

[busmansholiday]

14 minutes ago, RichardK said:

Is this a bus?

No, it's a fucking pile of shite that should have been scrapped 35 years ago.

It's actually a Pacer, a Leyland National bus body on a freight chassis. Designed to be cheap (boy were they) and save branch lines (which they did). 

The most evil fucking thing ever invented, yes they were my local trains for over 20 years,if you've never traveled on one think yourself lucky.

[Inspector Morose]

Just now, busmansholiday said:

No, it's a fucking pile of shite that should have been scrapped 35 years ago.

It's actually a Pacer, a Leyland National bus body on a freight chassis. Designed to be cheap (boy were they) and save branch lines (which they did). 

The most evil fucking thing ever invented, yes they were my local trains for over 20 years,if you've never traveled on one think yourself lucky.

I’m staying out of this one…

[Yoss]

30 minutes ago, RichardK said:

Is this a bus?

@busmansholiday, I thought of you as soon as I read this and wondered how long it would be before you responded.

9 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

No, it's a fucking pile of shite that should have been scrapped 35 years ago.

It's actually a Pacer, a Leyland National bus body on a freight chassis. Designed to be cheap (boy were they) and save branch lines (which they did). 

The most evil fucking thing ever invented, yes they were my local trains for over 20 years,if you've never traveled on one think yourself lucky.

I was not disappointed.

[Remspoor]

This is interesting. The presenter is articulate. Just find the little turtle a bit annoying. Still he has to have something when you travel alone.

 

[CreepingJesus]

Fascinating. Just the sort of daft challenge I'd try. Wonder if there's some signal with the turtle, as he mentions getting a bus held at Crawley cos he was carrying it. Appropriate symbol for slow travel though.

[CreepingJesus]

Meanwhile, if you try the 150-ish miles from Glasgow to Aberdeen and are unwise enough to tangle with Stagecoach East Scotland, this happens...

(I was impressed he lasted 29 mins in Glenrothes bus station without something completely random and bizarre happening. Must've been the bam squad's day off.)

[Dyslexic Viking]

Something a little unusual has come up for sale here. 1959 Ford Thames Trader used as a base for a Norwegian built bus. According to the seller, it has been in a film in 2008 and supposedly NRK (Norwegian BBC) has used it in Africa?

https://www.finn.no/b2b/bus/ad.html?finnkode=77832493

[quicksilver]

Went to the Wythall Transport Museum yesterday for their annual Bank Holiday do. Loads of resident buses plus some visitors, of which this was my favourite.

It's a Seddon Pennine IV with a big Perkins V8 in the front making awesome noises. Allegedly Seddon offered an air-cooled Deutz engine as an alternative but none were ever built. Fortunate really as the racket such a thing would make is unimaginable and it would have bankrupted any operator foolish enough to buy it with compensation claims from passengers it had deafened.

[martc]

The Howard Hotel and the new Polytechnic building near Sheffields Midland Station, 1969.  Which is all very well, but what is the rather modern looking (for the time) coach?

And as an added bonus, the flat bed lorry has the looks of either a BMC or Commer, what do you think?

[martc]

That's the back end of an Ikarus (what else?) 66. There's an 8.2 litre 6 cylinder Csepel diesel engine in there.

And the front.

[AndyW201]

22 minutes ago, martc said:

The Howard Hotel and the new Polytechnic building near Sheffields Midland Station, 1969.  Which is all very well, but what is the rather modern looking (for the time) coach?

And as an added bonus, the flat bed lorry has the looks of either a BMC or Commer, what do you think?

Coach is a Weymann Fanfare, research shows Sheffield ones used Leopard chassis.

[martc]

3 minutes ago, AndyW201 said:

Coach is a Weymann Fanfare, research shows Sheffield ones used Leopard chassis.

What a lovely looking thing, thanks...

Some chat here -

https://www.old-bus-photos.co.uk/wp-content/themes/Old-Bus-Photos/galleries/weymann_fanfare/weymann_fanfare.php

[AndyW201]

1 hour ago, martc said:

What a lovely looking thing, thanks...

Some chat here -

https://www.old-bus-photos.co.uk/wp-content/themes/Old-Bus-Photos/galleries/weymann_fanfare/weymann_fanfare.php

It is pretty, isn't it? Looks well ahead of its time for something launched in 1954.

Oxford diecast do a nice 1/76 model version too,

 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, AndyW201 said:

Coach is a Weymann Fanfare, research shows Sheffield ones used Leopard chassis.

Good spot. Ahead of it's time.

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 29/05/2023 at 20:36, Inspector Morose said:

I’m staying out of this one…

chicken!

[busmansholiday]

19 hours ago, martc said:

The Howard Hotel and the new Polytechnic building near Sheffields Midland Station, 1969.  Which is all very well, but what is the rather modern looking (for the time) coach?

And as an added bonus, the flat bed lorry has the looks of either a BMC or Commer, what do you think?

Actually the first batch were officially designated by Leyland as PSUC Specials, basically a Tiger Cub chassis that they put the 0.600 engine rather than the usual 0.400 engine. Leyland fitted the bigger engine to cope better with the hills around Sheffield before offering them to the open market as the Leopard chassis. The rest, as they say is history. If you look back on this thread I've previously posted a few pics of these and the different batches that were purchased and their history.

 

Commer lorry.

 

Same view today.

 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, busmansholiday said:

Actually the first batch were officially designated by Leyland as PSUC Specials, basically a Tiger Cub chassis that they put the 0.600 engine rather than the usual 0.400 engine. Leyland fitted the bigger engine to cope better with the hills around Sheffield before offering them to the open market as the Leopard chassis. The rest, as they say is history. If you look back on this thread I've previously posted a few pics of these and the different batches that were purchased and their history.

 

Commer lorry.

 

Same view today.

 

 

Commer lorry wearing an invisibility cloak?

[martc]

On 5/31/2023 at 7:49 PM, martc said:

And as an added bonus, the flat bed lorry has the looks of either a BMC or Commer, what do you think?

 

17 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Commer lorry wearing an invisibility cloak?

Is it rude to quote myself? M'learned colleague busmansholiday was referring to my original question/guess...

[High Jetter]

Ah, sorry, missed that. Thanks for enlightening me.

[Inspector Morose]

On 29/05/2023 at 20:36, Inspector Morose said:

I’m staying out of this one…

Okay, okay. I did write a bit about the class 140, the daddy of the pacer. Its an odd and rather convoluted tale so bear with..

https://mundaneonline992633965.wordpress.com/2021/09/

Thats where I put all of my writings on things public and transport, if you’re interested in a deeper peruse. It’s not well organised, one day I’ll sort it out so that it’s a bit better to navigate around. One day.

[martc]

Drivers pose beside their motor buses at Cricklewood Garage, London, 1900. Anyone recognise the models, the one front right looks intriguing.

And here it is in 1937. This picture was accompanied with some details - 'NS-type bus, NS1319, stands midground right. Another NS-, and three STL-type buses, all seen in three-quarter rear nearside view, are visible in the background, with members of the garage staff at work in and around them'.

[MiniMinorMk3]

Is this a Büssing 6000T behind the 936 Porsches?

 

[busmansholiday]

On 02/06/2023 at 17:16, Inspector Morose said:

Okay, okay. I did write a bit about the class 140, the daddy of the pacer. Its an odd and rather convoluted tale so bear with..

https://mundaneonline992633965.wordpress.com/2021/09/

Thats where I put all of my writings on things public and transport, if you’re interested in a deeper peruse. It’s not well organised, one day I’ll sort it out so that it’s a bit better to navigate around. One day.

Some good stuff in your blogs, but the shitheap called the Willowbrook Spacecar was the 007 rather than 008. Trust me, I drove the AEC, Leopard and Bedford versions with that body in my NBC days and quite how they managed to make a decent handling chassis (OK I never rated Bedford's power steering and shit manual box) and totally make them shite was beyond anybody. They were affectionately known as "Tonkas" at our depot.

[Inspector Morose]

21 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Some good stuff in your blogs, but the shitheap called the Willowbrook Spacecar was the 007 rather than 008. Trust me, I drove the AEC, Leopard and Bedford versions with that body in my NBC days and quite how they managed to make a decent handling chassis (OK I never rated Bedford's power steering and shit manual box) and totally make them shite was beyond anybody. They were affectionately known as "Tonkas" at our depot.

Ooh, I’ll have to disagree with you there. According to the folk that built them

001 was the smiley front bus/dual purpose body seen on many lightweights and Daimler Roadliners in Canada.

002 was the square looking expressway coach

003 was the NBC abomination that was built down to a price and looked it, partially contributing to Willowbrooks demise.

008 was the Spacecar that looked cool but was so lightly built, it didn’t really have the strength to keep itself in one piece for long.

004-007 were export models built on various chassis.

After Willowbrook closed, it was started up again, usually rebodying used chassis with cheap looking and feeling bodies. After deregulation in 1986, they had a resurgence, rebodying many Leopard coach chassis into buses to make a cheap workhorse. In true Willowbrook tradition, the bodies were not exactly the best wearing of things.

 

As a side tale, we had a Leopard rebodied by them with their Warrior body (OKG158M). But it went further than that. We ran a good number of Bristol REs at the time and we talked with Willowbrook about having them rebodied. Now, our competition, WM Travel were having delivered a good number of Lynxes and so we asked if the Warrior could be restyled to look a bit more like them and the floor line lowered a bit. The redesign happened and our Leopard was the first of the redesigned Warriors with square windows and body built directly onto the chassis without body bearers. 
 

All well and good and we regularly went up to them to see progress. Then delivery. On the same day as the Leopard was delivered, VOSA had come in for their regular ‘pop in for a cup of tea’ inspections. As the Leopard had been fully refreshed by Willowbrook (along with a fresh MoT) we showed them it. It gained nine prohibitions without ever leaving the yard since delivery.

Over the next few months, problem after problem arose, ranging from water ingress from the wheel arch boxes, screens constantly cracking due to lack of support and horrendous internal reflections at night. We lost faith in them and cancelled our second Leopard rebody (ex-HHA196L, fitted with a two speed rear axle) and walked away from any further discussions about rebodying REs.

We started buying Leyland Nationals to completely replace the fleet soon after (egged on by our ‘friendly’ VOSA inspectors) and sold OKG on to Sussex Bus who had a number of other rebodied Leopards. I last came across it at Bournemouth, inside Mallard Road depot (it was a while ago) and did have thought about buying it back for old times sake. Then I remembered what an utter heap it was…