Bus Shite

[High Jetter]

Not the best res pic, but taken at Wolverhampton Bus Station, date unknown.

[busmansholiday]

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

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

 

On 21/01/2024 at 14:01, Remspoor said:

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.

No, the ones that came back were from Prince Edward Island, off Newfoundland.

Those RTs are mechanically heavily modified. They had petrol then gas engines, think one might even be battery powered now.

[martc]

So here we have an Icarus 260 in Uzbekistan, Bukhara 1994. Nice.

A LAZ-695N, nice.

[martc]

In contrast with the simple lines of the Eastern vehicles, let's move south and west ...

Pegaso gin palaces 'excursion' coaches -

 

[busmansholiday]

2 hours ago, martc said:

In contrast with the simple lines of the Eastern vehicles, let's move south and west ...

Pegaso gin palaces 'excursion' coaches -

 

The top one isn't a Pegaso. It has an AEC style badge on the front and appears to be Portuguese registered. I'd therefore guess it's a UTIC chassis as UTIC assembled AEC chassis's in Portugal under licence.and used a modified AEC badge. Bodywork is possibly Caetano or Ayates 

 

EDIT, web pic says Ayats bodied Pegaso, ha, ha. Look closely at the destination display and the manufacturers badge is either side of it. Whilst it's not that clear, I'd say that says "Salvador" to the left of the display and "Caetano" to the right.

[Asimo]

I wish I hadn’t watched this just before bedtime, nightmare!

 

[LightBulbFun]

I didn't know AEC made bendy buses!

(ever since I followed @Inspector Morose's Facebook page, most of my "Suggested for you" posts from facebook have been about vintage buses, its great ) 

[martc]

On 23/01/2024 at 21:23, busmansholiday said:

The top one isn't a Pegaso. It has an AEC style badge on the front and appears to be Portuguese registered. I'd therefore guess it's a UTIC chassis as UTIC assembled AEC chassis's in Portugal under licence.and used a modified AEC badge. Bodywork is possibly Caetano or Ayates 

 

EDIT, web pic says Ayats bodied Pegaso, ha, ha. Look closely at the destination display and the manufacturers badge is either side of it. Whilst it's not that clear, I'd say that says "Salvador" to the left of the display and "Caetano" to the right.

Yeah, it does look like an AEC badge, I was trusting in the internets description and didn't look as carefully as you. But your detective work has led me to Ayats, who started bus building in 1905 and are still with us... they do alsorts - coaches, double deck coaches, double deck coaches with a roll back roof, night coaches with beds, public service double deckers oh and land trains.

And mobile restaurants, like the one I posted about earlier when we were discussing panoramic roofs, are made by Ayats.

https://ayats.es/en/home

 

[Joey spud]

I have a soft spot for these old M+D Atlanteans and Fleetlines as they transported me to and from secondary school in the early eighties. This one was withdrawn from service in 1981 and moved onto an independent in Ramsgate and photographed here in '98.

Fast forward twenty-five years and she is now sleeping in an overgrown yard south of Tonbridge with a fellow M+D Fleetline.

It seems such a shame that these once preserved and cherished buses have now been left to sink into the ground and get taken over by nature. 

[Metal Guru]

3 hours ago, Joey spud said:

I have a soft spot for these old M+D Atlanteans and Fleetlines as they transported me to and from secondary school in the early eighties. This one was withdrawn from service in 1981 and moved onto an independent in Ramsgate and photographed here in '98.

Fast forward twenty-five years and she is now sleeping in an overgrown yard south of Tonbridge with a fellow M+D Fleetline.

It seems such a shame that these once preserved and cherished buses have now been left to sink into the ground and get taken over by nature. 

I remember going to school on M&D Atlanteans in the 70s. They were quite old then I think. 

[SunnySouth]

6 hours ago, Joey spud said:

I have a soft spot for these old M+D Atlanteans and Fleetlines as they transported me to and from secondary school in the early eighties. This one was withdrawn from service in 1981 and moved onto an independent in Ramsgate and photographed here in '98.

Fast forward twenty-five years and she is now sleeping in an overgrown yard south of Tonbridge with a fellow M+D Fleetline.

It seems such a shame that these once preserved and cherished buses have now been left to sink into the ground and get taken over by nature. 

Sadly not uncommon. They’re likely too far gone by now, I would think. Might yield some useful spares though. 

[martc]

More Soviet wonders...

A PAZ-652B in Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo Oblast, 1965.

A LiAZ-677E.

'All aboard'  a ZIL-158 in Izyum near Kharkov.

[Inspector Morose]

A bit of modern bus shite. A toddle off to Lichfield bus station (I go to all the best places) meant I could finally capture these things before they get sold off. Midland Classic have six Scania K230UBs with Irizar bus bodies. They also had six K250UBs with the same bodies (but have sold on three), meaning they had, at one time, all but two of the total production of that chassis/body combination.

Now, in coach form, is Scania/Irizar surprisingly pleasant and fairly common but why not the bus? Well, they were a heavyweight in the times when most operators were buying lightweight stuff. The deciding factor was the floorline at the back. See that masking on the side windows near the rear? Yeah, the seats really do go up at the back like that (to clear the longditudinal engine) meaning the headroom in this rather high set body was minimal. Oh yes, the view forward frm the rear seats (if you don't get vertigo on the way there) is of the back of the front destination box.  Really, they nedd to be experienced to be beieved. 

Not great then. Well the first six that Midland Classic bought were unique because of their short length. Think Dennis Dart sized, with only 24 seats but a full heavyweight bus. They were originally Heathrow airport buses and had large luggage racks at the front so they were taken out to increase the seating a bit but still, I dread to think how much fuel these things put away in a shift.

[Zelandeth]

Intriguing little things though, I bet they don't hang around, probably ride orders of magnitude better than whatever will replace them too.

[cms206]

Went out a wander yesterday and got a nosy in here - Stockwell Garage had the largest single span concrete structure in Europe when it was built in the 1950s.

[Yoss]

23 minutes ago, cms206 said:

Went out a wander yesterday and got a nosy in here - Stockwell Garage had the largest single span concrete structure in Europe when it was built in the 1950s.

I never tire of seeing pictures of Stockwell garage. Imagine how futuristic it must have looked in 1952.

[SunnySouth]

1 hour ago, Inspector Morose said:

A bit of modern bus shite. A toddle off to Lichfield bus station (I go to all the best places) meant I could finally capture these things before they get sold off. Midland Classic have six Scania K230UBs with Irizar bus bodies. They also had six K250UBs with the same bodies (but have sold on three), meaning they had, at one time, all but two of the total production of that chassis/body combination.

Now, in coach form, is Scania/Irizar surprisingly pleasant and fairly common but why not the bus? Well, they were a heavyweight in the times when most operators were buying lightweight stuff. The deciding factor was the floorline at the back. See that masking on the side windows near the rear? Yeah, the seats really do go up at the back like that (to clear the longditudinal engine) meaning the headroom in this rather high set body was minimal. Oh yes, the view forward frm the rear seats (if you don't get vertigo on the way there) is of the back of the front destination box.  Really, they nedd to be experienced to be beieved. 

Not great then. Well the first six that Midland Classic bought were unique because of their short length. Think Dennis Dart sized, with only 24 seats but a full heavyweight bus. They were originally Heathrow airport buses and had large luggage racks at the front so they were taken out to increase the seating a bit but still, I dread to think how much fuel these things put away in a shift.

But they do go “FAST” !!

[martc]

London smog, 1952.

[artdjones]

18 minutes ago, martc said:

London smog, 1952.

It might be the aftermath of one. In a real smog you wouldn't see anything more than a few feet away. Sometimes they were bad enough to be unable to see your hand at the end of your arm.

[SunnySouth]

On 30/01/2024 at 16:47, artdjones said:

It might be the aftermath of one. In a real smog you wouldn't see anything more than a few feet away. Sometimes they were bad enough to be unable to see your hand at the end of your arm.

What was the normal LT response when it was really bad, everyone pull over and wait for it to lift?

[artdjones]

4 minutes ago, SunnySouth said:

What the normal LT response when it was really bad, everyone pull over and wait for it to lift?

I think the conductors walked in front with a torch, but that would only be for getting back to base.

It was like this, but sometimes worse.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Red Ken's lot did a piece:
https://cleanair.london/app/uploads/CAL-217-Great-Smog-by-GLA-20021.pdf

[LightBulbFun]

somewhere on the internet is a picture of a Routemaster being scrapped by Aldenham themselves

and because it was done by themselves rather then just it being ripped apart with a mechanical grab, it was meticulously dismantled until every panel inner, outer, and every part was removed and all that was left was the bare monocoque frame of the Routemaster

it was actually quite beautiful  in a sad poetic way,  it looked like someone had made a Routemaster out of wire if that makes sense but I have never been able to find the photo again I wonder if anyone knows the photo?

IIRC it was/is on flicker but dont hold me to it

[Inspector Morose]

Dunno about RMs but have a couple of RTs instead.

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Inspector Morose said:

Dunno about RMs but have a couple of RTs instead.

did a bit more digging, and I think it was RM510 which was especially prepped in the manner it was for an Aldenham open day

found a couple photos of it, but not the specific one I saw of it which showed broadside in a diagonal bay...

[Mr Pastry]

This one? 

 

[LightBulbFun]

20 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

This one? 

 

aye, but from a better angle and a less noisy background so you could see the bus/frame itself quite well,, it in a bay and the photo was taken from some distance away and from a little bit of hight

and I dont recall it even having the the lower panels but perhaps im mistaken there

 

I just thought it was really interesting to see the frame of an RM, and really shows how they where very much the meccano set of buses, *everything* could be unbolted and removed

[Mr Pastry]

1 minute ago, LightBulbFun said:

and I dont recall it even having the the lower panels but perhaps im mistaken there

Dont know, but aren't the inner panels part of the structure?

[LightBulbFun]

Just now, Mr Pastry said:

Dont know, but aren't the inner panels part of the structure?

thats what made the photo so fascinating to me, is in even the most dilapidated RM or such in a scrap yard would still have its inner panels etc

but this RM in Aldenham was *just* a bare frame 

 

thats why I wanna find the photo again  I wish I had saved it, its description was sadly fairly basic

something along the lines of "Routemaster being dismantled at Aldenham"

[SunnySouth]

22 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

did a bit more digging, and I think it was RM510 which was especially prepped in the manner it was for an Aldenham open day

found a couple photos of it, but not the specific one I saw of it which showed broadside in a diagonal bay...

Any idea why it was being scrapped in the first place; crash victim?