Bus Shite

[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…

[busmansholiday]

Interesting that as everybody of my era referred to them as 007s.

[quicksilver]

This apparently is a Willowbrook 007:

LHD only and entirely different from the Spacecar. Most were exported on Mercedes underframes but National Travel bought a small batch on AEC Reliances for continental services.

[martc]

Tourist buses behind a 'Intourist' hotel, Moscow, USSR, 1976. The lucky running dogs of capitalism esteemed visitors from the west will get a ride in an Ikarus, the less lucky will have to put up with a LAZ 695. But they will all end up on a tour of the No 67 Red Star Fish Canning and Machine Tool Combine.

[martc]

Briggate, Leeds, 1955.

[cms206]

Just been out a supervised drive in this...

[DVee8]

Another of my FiL's old busses.

[Dyslexic Viking]

Hammerfest Norway

[cms206]

After three and a half years at Marbill, I am on the move again; I didn't want to particularly but circumstances dictate otherwise. I will miss the place incredibly.

I start a week on Monday with Stagecoach in a backroad town called London.

Shitting. It.

[High Jetter]

Commiserations

[83C]

10 minutes ago, cms206 said:

After three and a half years at Marbill, I am on the move again; I didn't want to particularly but circumstances dictate otherwise. I will miss the place incredibly.

I start a week on Monday with Stagecoach in a backroad town called London.

Shitting. It.

Good luck. 

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, cms206 said:

After three and a half years at Marbill, I am on the move again; I didn't want to particularly but circumstances dictate otherwise. I will miss the place incredibly.

I start a week on Monday with Stagecoach in a backroad town called London.

Shitting. It.

Bloody hell thats quite the change! having learnt to drive here in Central London, it gave me a new found respect for Bus and Lorry drivers who do battle here! its bad enough in a car! 

 

am I allowed to ask which Routes/part of London you will be covering? being in the east end of London I pretty much grew up entirely on stagecoach Routes (Bar the 38 and 73 Arriva RMLs) 

so I have always got a soft spot for Stagecoach buses, (even tho as I have come to learn from this forum, the company aint exactly always the best!)

but if your over here now I have to wonder if we will run into each-other! hopefully not literally! LOL

 

I mean if you are on a Local route, Id be more then happy to board your bus and bore you to death with a one sided conversation about lightbulbs, I imagine that might help take your mind off all the suicidal pedestrians and road users around you  

[cms206]

It's split working but likely either Barking or West Ham? Won't know until I'm allocated.

It's a £22k a year increase in wages so planning to stick it out for a while 😂

[big_al_granvia]

are they paying for digs???

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, cms206 said:

It's a £22k a year increase in wages

Yup. That will do it. Good luck, the pay is probably for a reason, hope I'm wrong.

[Joey spud]

My local operator was Maidstone and District and so anything M+D posted on the internet often catches my eye.

The top three images were of vehicles based in the Medway towns and the Atlantean was at Hawkhurst and doubled up for tree lopping duties.

The Altantean looking a bit worse for wear is still local and stored at ASD coaches in Strood.

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, cms206 said:

It's split working but likely either Barking or West Ham? Won't know until I'm allocated.

It's a £22k a year increase in wages so planning to stick it out for a while 😂

Oooh West ham was one of my old stomping grounds before my life went to shit  

used to ride many* a heritage Routemaster back to West Ham, and before that, Bow, both garages treated me well which I really appreciate to this day, as I imagine an over-exited 8 year old in a hi-vis vest  running around the place was not something they normally had to deal with! 

has me wondering what Paul and Mandy are up to these days! Big Paul the Conductor and Mandy the Driver where my favourite crew, I used to phone up West Ham to check if they where on duty for that particular day before deciding if I could badger mum into a day on the Buses  (I do remember the phone Operator always seemed a bit grumpy for some reason LOL)

ahh some good memories right there  

*although sadly I never did mange RML2760 back to the garage, which I am still disappointed about! it used to be quite a fast run back at times and I really wanted to experiance that in RML2760, but never was able to catch her with the right crew at the right time etc

 

[cms206]

6 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Yup. That will do it. Good luck, the pay is probably for a reason, hope I'm wrong.

I've a few mates from up here doing it just now and without exception they're loving it, though I daresay the wage increase helps with that too.

[New POD]

10 hours ago, cms206 said:

It's split working but likely either Barking or West Ham? Won't know until I'm allocated.

It's a £22k a year increase in wages so planning to stick it out for a while 😂

Which after tax and national insurance is what per week? 

If on basic 20% tax approx £300

If on 40% tax approx £200

Will you have any increase in costs ? 

 

Had a mate (Rip) used to pilot a train on the London Underground.  Travelled weekly from miseryside, for 20 years. 

[cms206]

It's a split working arrangement; minimum 39 hours at my home base (Cumbernauld in this case) and 50 hours in London, both over five days. Scotland rate is £12.59/hr rising to £13.13/hr, London is £17.45/hr at present.

The rota is a ten week rotation; 3 weeks London, 3 weeks Cumbernauld, 3 weeks London, 1 week holiday. Stagecoach pay travel (by train, plus a shift travelling each way), accomodation (Travelodge apparantly) and £262 per week expenses on the weeks you are away from home. This is before overtime which is paid at an enhanced rate again.

In terms of my costs, my commute is up from an average of 37 miles per day to a maximum of 52 miles per day, but this is more than balanced out by the actual commuting itself only being three weeks in ten rather than ten in ten - 2600 miles every ten weeks just now compared to around 1100 every ten weeks going forward.

Hopefully things work out and the gig keeps going for a while yet.

[83C]

1 hour ago, cms206 said:

It's a split working arrangement; minimum 39 hours at my home base (Cumbernauld in this case) and 50 hours in London, both over five days. Scotland rate is £12.59/hr rising to £13.13/hr, London is £17.45/hr at present.

The rota is a ten week rotation; 3 weeks London, 3 weeks Cumbernauld, 3 weeks London, 1 week holiday. Stagecoach pay travel (by train, plus a shift travelling each way), accomodation (Travelodge apparantly) and £262 per week expenses on the weeks you are away from home. This is before overtime which is paid at an enhanced rate again.

In terms of my costs, my commute is up from an average of 37 miles per day to a maximum of 52 miles per day, but this is more than balanced out by the actual commuting itself only being three weeks in ten rather than ten in ten - 2600 miles every ten weeks just now compared to around 1100 every ten weeks going forward.

Hopefully things work out and the gig keeps going for a while yet.

Fack, are Stagecoach really that desperate for drivers to pay people to do stuff like that?? Is it local stuff or long distance work?

[cms206]

15 minutes ago, 83C said:

Fack, are Stagecoach really that desperate for drivers to pay people to do stuff like that?? Is it local stuff or long distance work?

All domestic work, no EU; Cumbernauld is predominantly an EU depot so only three domestic routes up here, and all red bus in London. No megabus, no Citylink, no National. £47k a year it works out before overtime.

Similar gigs on across the company, Kilmarnock, Dumfries and Stranraer depots also taking part.

[big_al_granvia]

But stagecoach are struggling for drivers in Ayrshire, sounds like a good gig, Travelodge is dossable

[cms206]

2 minutes ago, big_al_granvia said:

But stagecoach are struggling for drivers in Ayrshire, sounds like a good gig, Travelodge is dossable

Not struggling enough; nine days to even get a response from Killie then lost my application. Cumbernauld were next day to arrange an interview, and even that was on a holiday Monday.

[martc]

Ready for some Lancia bus action?

This is the pic that kicked it off - it's the Hotel Duna Intercontinental, Budapest District V., Hungarian People's Republic, 1969, a tram, a Wartburg and a visiting, Italian registered Lancia coach; I think it's an Esagamma and possibly bodied by Pegasso (yes that Pegasso, see below).

Looking for this revealed these...

The Omicron L, 1930-36.

The Esatau, 1951 - mid 60's. They had a V10 engine and each year the styling was 'up-dated', the one above is from 1951, here's a few more...

1953

1956

1962

And they made double deckers as well -

The DDS from 1964.

The Esatau was replaced by the Esagamma

This one has an urban body, the one below has a body made in Spain by Pegasso, this looks similar, but a bit younger, to my original pic from Hungary -

And finally, an Inter-City Lancia coach from 1969. Stylish.

 

[Inspector Morose]

One of these appeared a few years back at Sandtoft. I managed a drive of it for a shift, quite nice machine considering its age.

[MiniMinorMk3]

How about some Alfa Romeo action?

Alfa 85 (1934-39) – 6-cyl, 11.6 litre, 110 hp

Alfa 350 / 500 (1935-45) – 6-cyl, 6.1 litre, 75 hp

Alfa 800 (1940-47) – 6-cyl, 8.2 litre, 108 hp

Alfa 430 / 450 (1942-59) – 4-cyl, 5.8 litre, 80/90 hp

Alfa 140A (1948-57) – 6-cyl, 12.5 litre, 140 hp

Alfa 900 / 950 (1947-58) – 6-cyl, 9.5 litre, 130 hp

Alfa 902 (1950-58) – 6-cyl, 9.5 litre, 130 hp

Alfa Mille (1959-64) – 6-cyl, 11 litre, 165 hp

[gm]

just a nice photo of a national

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 09/06/2023 at 20:28, cms206 said:

It's split working but likely either Barking or West Ham? Won't know until I'm allocated.

It's a £22k a year increase in wages so planning to stick it out for a while 😂

one hell of a commute though!

[Yoss]

51 minutes ago, gm said:

just a nice photo of a national

That's way off route! Yes I know it's a publicity shot, I was just being pedantic. The 285 still serves Hatton Cross though (Kingston to Heathrow) so they got that bit right.