Bus Shite

[SunnySouth]

On 07/01/2024 at 11:32, Joey spud said:

I got sent this image the other day by a vague contact on Facebook so don't know if it happened recently or years ago.

Either way I guess the chat up in the office with the boss after it happened didn't include coffee and biscuits.

How the fuck do you manage to get both sets of o/s wheels down there ffs?!! I’d like to think I’d have left it at just the one

[rattlecan]

I put a few NCB trucks in the other thread, so here are some buses as well

[Six-cylinder]

Which Coach company is this?

Lancaster Road Cressex Industrial Estate, High Wycombe, Bucks. Late sixties early seventies the photo is captioned.

I remember Jeff's Coach's was this Jeff's or another company.

[jon.k]

5 hours ago, rattlecan said:

 

Loving the NCB pictures @rattlecan. I was staying with my parents in South Wales the other week and a man drove past in a series 2 landrover wearing an NCB coat... it was like time travel!

[Inspector Morose]

4 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

Which Coach company is this?

Lancaster Road Cressex Industrial Estate, High Wycombe, Bucks. Late sixties early seventies the photo is captioned.

I remember Jeff's Coach's was this Jeff's or another company.

That was Jeffways & Pilot of HighWycombe. They merged sometime in the '50s I believe and combined onto the site shown in your picture. I think it was bought by the Kirby Group sometime in the '70s (not too sure on that one) which imploded sometime in the 1990's.

The odd thing here is that there is still a Kirby's coaches who have been operating for as long as the other one but they are based in Rayleigh, Essex. This Kirby's is of note in that they imported the first Setra coach into the UK in 1972 (and still own it).

Jeff's was another well-known coach company, more so in recent times (even though they were started in the late 1950s) but they were based in Helmdon, newar Brackley. They collapsed in 2012, bought by Bowens then collapsed again, this time terminally in 2015.

[quicksilver]

5 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

That was Jeffways & Pilot of HighWycombe. They merged sometime in the '50s I believe and combined onto the site shown in your picture. I think it was bought by the Kirby Group sometime in the '70s (not too sure on that one) which imploded sometime in the 1990's.

The odd thing here is that there is still a Kirby's coaches who have been operating for as long as the other one but they are based in Rayleigh, Essex. This Kirby's is of note in that they imported the first Setra coach into the UK in 1972 (and still own it).

Jeff's was another well-known coach company, more so in recent times (even though they were started in the late 1950s) but they were based in Helmdon, newar Brackley. They collapsed in 2012, bought by Bowens then collapsed again, this time terminally in 2015.

<pedant> It was Jeffs, not Jeff's. The founder was a Mr Jeffs, not a bloke called Jeff. </pedant>

Even the company got it wrong though as I remember at least one vehicle with legal lettering reading "Jeff's Coaches Ltd", a company name that never actually existed.

[Six-cylinder]

2 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

That was Jeffways & Pilot of HighWycombe. They merged sometime in the '50s I believe and combined onto the site shown in your picture. I think it was bought by the Kirby Group sometime in the '70s (not too sure on that one) which imploded sometime in the 1990's.

The odd thing here is that there is still a Kirby's coaches who have been operating for as long as the other one but they are based in Rayleigh, Essex. This Kirby's is of note in that they imported the first Setra coach into the UK in 1972 (and still own it).

Jeff's was another well-known coach company, more so in recent times (even though they were started in the late 1950s) but they were based in Helmdon, newar Brackley. They collapsed in 2012, bought by Bowens then collapsed again, this time terminally in 2015.

Yes the names Pilot and Kirby ring bells from my childhood around High Wycombe.

The other company that got our school contracts was Ivins of Prestwood. I remember them having a 1960 Bedford with what they called a Chinese gearbox and a Leyland Leopard we only got to ride on if they were going straight on to another non school job. The Bedford would not start outside the school one day and I watched the driver bleed the diesel by cracking open the nuts on the injectors, then 40+ years later when I ran my JCB out of diesel I remembered and bled my digger successfully.

Good drivers, different times, the owners son asked one evening if the last 4 of us wouldn’t mind going back to the yard with him to drop the coach off and he would take us home in his father’s Jaguar MK1 saloon as he was short of time and needed to go straight off afterwards.

My friend’s son Jack started his driving career for Jeffs at Helmdon, initially restricted distance as he was still quite young.

[quicksilver]

42 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Yes the names Pilot and Kirby ring bells from my childhood around High Wycombe.

The other company that got our school contracts was Ivins of Prestwood. I remember them having a 1960 Bedford with what they called a Chinese gearbox and a Leyland Leopard we only got to ride on if they were going straight on to another non school job. The Bedford would non start outside the school one day and I watched the driver bleed the diesel by cracking open the nuts on the injectors, then 40+ years later when I ran my JCB out of diesel I remembered and bled my digger successfully.

Good drivers, different times, the owners son asked one evening if the last 4 of us wouldn’t mind going back to the yard with him to drop the coach off and he would take us home in his father’s Jaguar MK1 saloon as he was short of time and needed to go straight off afterwards.

My friend’s son Jack started his driving career for Jeffs at Helmdon, initially restricted distance as he was still quite young.

Blimey, there's a blast from the past. You must have downloaded that a long time ago (before we met) as it's from my old site on fotopic, who went bust in 2011. It was one of the first photos I took with my first digital camera in October 2003 (over 20 years ago!), parked in the old coach park at Milton Keynes shopping centre where the hideous hotel is now.

[Six-cylinder]

18 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

Blimey, there's a blast from the past. You must have downloaded that a long time ago (before we met) as it's from my old site on fotopic, who went bust in 2011. It was one of the first photos I took with my first digital camera in October 2003 (over 20 years ago!), parked in the old coach park at Milton Keynes shopping centre where the hideous hotel is now.

I have it marked up as the bus Jack did his traning on.

This one is marked up as Jack's first bus.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Ayr, 1974/75 - Western SMT town service Heathfield > Glencairn > Heathfield
Somebody popped this up on FaceAche and the Saab in front of the Cortina was thought to belong to my uncle - until I pointed out his was a saloon,

[EyesWeldedShut]

Bit more Western SMT - couple of years later, double deckers gone - these instead - Lovely*Leyland Leopards

[MiniMinorMk3]

On 08/01/2024 at 17:01, martc said:

A couple more photos of one of the 1955 Citroën U55 Cityrama sightseeing buses as discussed previously.

Bit of history here

Vintage Photos of Citroën U55 Cityrama Currus, the World’s Finest Bus Ever Built ~ Vintage Everyday

[rattlecan]

They reminded me of the ‘cinema’ type things.

I think the government used them as sort of public information things

seem to remember some guy restored one (the one in the pic here) at huge expense 

[Mr Pastry]

30 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Bit of history here

See also the 1964 film The Last Steps/Les Pas Perdus,  which has a scene shot on the top deck of a Cityrama.  And other interesting old French stuff.

[martc]

The Likin bus plant which produced LiAZ busses. These are model 677's, being made in 1975. Looks a pretty grim place. The final product -

[Remspoor]

Got suggested a video the other day of Unitrans RTs. A bus service which runs around  a campus of University of California, Davis. All driven by the  students.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitrans

[SunnySouth]

On 14/01/2024 at 16:42, Remspoor said:

Got suggested a video the other day of Unitrans RTs. A bus service which runs around  a campus of University of California, Davis. All driven by the  students.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitrans

Did they re-import all these back to the UK a fair few years back now?

[Yoss]

Some Skoda trolleybuses in Brno.

This is the turning circle at the end of route 36 which, I think is the northern most point for any tram or trolleybus in the city.

as you can see, it is all fields from here.

The last part of the route to get here is through a communist era housing estate. Lots of flats, but very well kept looking ones.

[martc]

NuT and Gateshead in the olden days...

[cms206]

On 11/01/2024 at 21:32, EyesWeldedShut said:

Bit more Western SMT - couple of years later, double deckers gone - these instead - Lovely*Leyland Leopards

Lovelier still - that's not a Leopard, it's a Seddon Pennine VII, one of many that Western took alongside Leopards between 1976 and 1980.

[martc]

A Soviet LAZ 697M in Hungary; which is strange as they had their own, very successful Icarus concern, there's the booty of an Icarus 55 in the background. The Soviet interloper could be a result of some inter bloc trading - 1 coach = 1,000,000 bottles of Bulls Blood or tins of goulash.

[martc]

[martc]

A ZIS 16 in Vladimir, 1946, quite British looking.

[Joey spud]

Triple decker anyone ? 😁

[martc]

Waterloo station, February 1911.

[martc]

A Renault TN4 HP 'Autobus'.

[Remspoor]

On 19/01/2024 at 02:26, SunnySouth said:

Did they re-import all these back to the UK a fair few years back now?

I do not know. I am under the impression that these were heavily modified with US motors and auto gearboxes, plus exterior lights and interiors have been changed. They may not be worth much if they were returned to Blighty.

[Remspoor]

Eindhoven buses.

The bus station which is next to the Eindhoven Centraal train station.

Inside a Citea SLFA-181 bus. On the way into the city centre rode in the front section. on the way out of the centre rode in what is called the trailer. There is a huge difference in ride. The bus is far better.

 

[martc]

[DVee8]

Another that belonged to my FiL