Bus Shite

[martc]

18 hours ago, Yoss said:

Thanks, I did recognise that one but I couldn't be bothered to caption every photo, sorry! First thing I thought with this picture was I wonder how much longer that Renault van lasted.

It was last taxed in 2000 so I'm guessing it lasted quite a few years after the photo was taken. A surprise to all.

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, cms206 said:

There was also RML900, bought by Clydeside in the 1980s and rebuilt for further service; if memory serves it lasted til about 1993 with Clydeside, repaintee in the standard RM scheme shown here by it's less lengthy sisters.

They also ran an RMA in coach livery.

RML 900 was deemed beyond economic repair by LT and sold to Clydeside for spares but of course no RM is unrepairable if you want to. So whilst it re entered service mechanically standard the interior was refurbished to Clydesides own design. 

It was very dark, carpeted up the sides and over the ceiling with small fluorescent lights. 

Downstairs 

Upstairs 

And branded the Clydemaster. RM 2083 was also treated but that ended its days as a spares donor at Bournemouth. 

 

Now I have previously documented somewhere on these pages RML 903s trip to Scotland on August Bank Holiday weekend 1987 where we were hosted by Clydeside and 903 was put in service from Thornliebank depot. 

So when Clydeside finished RML 900 they repaid the favour and brought it back to London to put it in service from Finchley. 

Finchley Garage. 

In the morning it was put out on the 13 right in to the heart of London. 

Here it comes down Oxford Street. 

 

Tally Ho corner, Finchley, just round the corner from the garage. 

In the afternoon it was put out on the 26, a more suburban North London route from Barnet to Brent Cross (which bears no resemblance to the current 26).

[Yoss]

12 minutes ago, martc said:

It was last taxed in 2000 so I'm guessing it lasted quite a few years after the photo was taken. A surprise to all.

That's not bad for one of those is it? 

[Inspector Morose]

Only just noticed, that isn't a DMS but one of the South Yorkshire "DMS-a-likes". Lower driving position, standard spec chassis etc.

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Inspector Morose said:

Only just noticed, that isn't a DMS but one of the South Yorkshire "DMS-a-likes". Lower driving position, standard spec chassis etc.

I knew nothing of the driving position, I was just going by the different blind boxes

[martc]

A 1969 Duple-bodied Bedford VAL70 on Feltham High Street, 1979.

And, as a time passes on, we have a Chinese built Yutong in the same spot, 2024.

[martc]

1990.

[martc]

The Bridge Bus Station, Boulogne, 1992. The grey roofed coaches are Saviem SC 10s and the 2 white roofed ones are Chausson APU 53s. 

[martc]

It's 1935 and many, slightly shifty looking, bus conductors are receiving on-board training at Chiswick Training School.

[Yoss]

Back to the 90s, episode 4 (I think).

As alluded to in my previous posts Colin did a deal to loan two of his buses to Routemaster Bournemouth, although in the end only one was used. 

This is the day RM 1959 and 2156 arrived in Bournemouth. 

The Tundra green Marina 1.8TC coupe belonged to a friend. We were spoiled in those days weren't we? 

RM 1959 was soon painted green and out in service but one Sunday Colin borrowed his own bus to do a little tour of Dorset. 

 

The first stop was the green phone box at Okeford Fitzpaine. So that we could have a green RM next to a green phone box. Two things things that are famous for being red but in green. This wasn't a chance meeting, Colin knew it was there and wanted to visit. 

Followed by a refreshment stop at the Piddle Inn in Piddletrenthide. 

The blinds for this trip were made by myself. They are hand painted and look perfectly acceptable from a distance. It's quite a lengthy process. I would draw round and cut out all the required letters on paper then using a black marker I would draw round them all which would give me a neat outline to then fill the rest in with black and white Humbrol paints.

This was an old Tottenham garage blind which had plenty of places in North London I was never likely to need and was quite happy to overlay with my new destinations. You couldn't use them at night as  the previous destination would show through but we didn't go out in the dark often. These were the days you could pick blinds up for a couple of quid at bus rallies. 

This was deliberate too. Can't remember the exact spot but it was near Shaftesbury. A Routemaster is 14' 6" and its not even close. I know it's an arched bridge but you'd have to be on the grass verge to reach 12' 9".

 

And on to Shaftesbury and District's yard in Cann Common. Colin on the right talking to Roger Brown, owner of S&D, probably about how wise it might be to attempt Zig Zag Hill in an RM. 

Rogers yard was less than a mile from the foot of Zig Zag Hill and he had never taken one up there, he'd always go the long way round if need be but Colin decided that as I had made the blind it would be rude not to try. 

A couple of pics I've just pinched of google. 

We made it. The road itself was not the problem, the problem was the traffic coming down the hill was not expecting a double decker bus to be coming the other way. We had a very close call with a 2CV who didn't seem to have much in the way of brakes. 

 

Roger is also very well known in Routemaster circles. He has bought several accident damaged RMs and rebuilt them, used them for a bit and sold them on before buying the next one. A few RFs and RTs have have gone the same way too. 

These next few are not all from the same visit but spread over a few years. 

RMA 37. This got used quite regularly in lieu of more normal coaches. I remember doing a trip from Shaftesbury to Yeovil one Saturday night to take some pensioners to bingo. 

 

RF 504 and a bicycle. There's probably a joke in there about which one is faster. 

Behind the RF is RMA 29. This was bought from a Barnsley scrapyard for a specific reason. London Coaches had recently extended a batch of open top RMs from their sightseeing fleet by adding an extra bay from scrap  buses. 

Roger decided to do the same to an RMA. But if that doesn't sound difficult enough he decided to do it exactly where you see it there. In an open yard with just him and a mate doing the work. 

Here's a later picture. It looks like a scrap bus doesn't it? He added the extra  lower deck bay to the front half and upper deck to the back half. The two halves are almost but not quite lined up. 

Only with an RM can you do this sort of thing. Actually you probably can do it with some other buses but not in an open yard with just two people. 

I can't currently find any of my own pictures of the finished bus so I've pinched a couple off the Internet. 

Roger christened it RME1. 

Note the centre staircase. The original staircase was removed when it was converted in to a driver trainer. This staircase came from a Volvo Ailsa. 

 

 

[High Jetter]

I don't comprehend much of this, but am so pleased it's happening. Old buses rule!

[LightBulbFun]

oh thats awesome! I had read about RME1 before hand, but I had never seen it in such detail until now  it makes me wonder just how far can you stretch a Routemaster before it starts to get a bit bendy in the middle LOL (it also reminds in one of the RMOOA magazines from back in the day theres a quite well done April fools photoshop of a 3-axle Routemaster) 

also on the opposite end of the scale, there was a feature also in one of the RMOOA of I think it was an operations in canada, that had taken the A frame and B frame of a Routemaster, and bolted the 2 directly toegether, creating an "RMB" or Routemaster Buggy! and they said they where fitting an AV690 engine to make it go even faster!

I have to admit I have always found the central staircase a bit odd looking, but I am curious are there any interior shots? I always wanted to see someone extend a regular Routemaster like RME or the ERMs but just a regular RM, ie one thats not open top or forward entrance like an RMA, just your standard looking early 1960's RM but looong, and then fitted with a large engine and high speed diff, like some sort of high capacity motorway shuttle-bus, where if someones annoying you, you can just chuck them off the platform at 70Mph, to that end I did see that they did put the roof back on one of the ERM's fairly recently, but I swear you can see the joins at either end and they used hopper windows for the top deck, so it just does not look quite right sadly

[Dick Cheeseburger]

This flashed up on Spaceface yesterday. Someone suggested it was a 20s or 30s bus? 

[Inspector Morose]

4 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

This flashed up on Spaceface yesterday. Someone suggested it was a 20s or 30s bus? 

Probably a Leyland Titan TD1 with “Piano front” body. Very late 20s or early 30s.

[quicksilver]

How about this for a long-distance service?

It was in Oxford and nowhere near the Edinburgh-Glasgow service it's branded for. The Megabus M84 is Portsmouth to Glasgow; it left Portsmouth at 09:40 this morning but hasn't reached Glasgow yet and is somewhere in the borders at the moment. It's due in at about 1am after over 15 hours on the road and 450-odd miles! Are there any longer services than this marathon in the UK?

[Yoss]

I hadn't seen one of these in weeks. Ex Go North East Volvo something or other. 

We got 13 of these about 18 months ago when First Bus pulled out of Southampton and Bluestar scoured the rest of Go Ahead looking for anything going spare to take up the extra routes. They were supposed to be a stop gap before new buses arrived. 

Since then we've had 16 brand new Enviro 400s and a dozen or so ex London General DOEs which are slowly being repainted blue so they are obviously keepers. So I thought the Volvos had gone. The last one I saw a few weeks ago was on a school bus. They must be short of buses again, which would also explain this Salisbury liveried Enviro 400 too. 

I like these X7 liveried buses for the fact they have Salisbury Reds fleet names while being quite obviously blue. 

 

Edit: can anyone explain to me why dot matrix blinds never come out properly on potatocams. 

[Zelandeth]

40 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I hadn't seen one of these in weeks. Ex Go North East Volvo something or other. 

We got 13 of these about 18 months ago when First Bus pulled out of Southampton and Bluestar scoured the rest of Go Ahead looking for anything going spare to take up the extra routes. They were supposed to be a stop gap before new buses arrived. 

Since then we've had 16 brand new Enviro 400s and a dozen or so ex London General DOEs which are slowly being repainted blue so they are obviously keepers. So I thought the Volvos had gone. The last one I saw a few weeks ago was on a school bus. They must be short of buses again, which would also explain this Salisbury liveried Enviro 400 too. 

I like these X7 liveried buses for the fact they have Salisbury Reds fleet names while being quite obviously blue. 

 

Edit: can anyone explain to me why dot matrix blinds never come out properly on potatocams. 

In a word: Multiplexing.

To reduce the amount of power needed to drive the display, only part of it is ever actually lit at a time.  However it's scanned through fast enough that persistence of vision means it looks complete.  However that's why you can see it flicker if you move your eyes past them quickly.  If your camera exposure is short enough that you don't capture a complete scan of the display, you'll have bits missing in the resulting photo.

Same effect makes taking photos of laptops with plasma displays an absolute nightmare.

[Yoss]

Talking of Dorset (I was a few days ago) this happened around the same time, 1993ish. 

Dorset used to be a hotbed of small local operators. One was Blandford Bus. We drove to Bere Regis where we picked this up in to Blandford where this was taken. 

At which point we were treated to this sight in the high street. 

 

I don't even know what this is but I assume it belonged to Damory Coaches judging by the colour. They may or may not have been part of Wilts & Dorset by this point. 

And just around the corner in the main car park Victory Coaches had a Bedford OB out. 

Along with something else that would be considered a classic coach now. 

Victory Tours were a small company based in the delightfully named village of Sixpenny Handley though they have long since gone. Sixpenny Handley is on the B3081, one of my favourite roads, that also contains Zig Zag Hill as mentioned in my previous post. It also has these superb signposts with a great abbreviation of the village name that must confuse anybody born after decimilisation. 

The reason for all this activity was because it was a Thursday - market day. All these rural bus routes only ran one or two days a week so all these local operators would serve their local villages and drop them off at various market towns on market day. On Tuesday and Saturday all the buses ran to Salisbury, on Thursday they went to Blandford and other days they would go to Dorchester or Shaftesbury. And it would probably only be one bus in each direction. 

In the afternoon this Bristol RE was doing the return run to Mappowder. What you've never heard of Mappowder? It's just past Melcombe Bingham and Bingham's Melcombe. I kid you not. 

The lady walking away was the driver. 

Now the problem here was that there was no return service. It dropped people back to the villages after they'd been to market, there was no call for an afternoon service back in to town. So we asked the nice driver if it would be possible to come back on the garage run. We could, she said, but she was doing a school bus first. But we were welcome to come along on the school bus. Can you imagine that happening now? More about school buses at a later date by the way. 

So this is the busy terminus at Mappowder. 

I can't remember where the school was but this was just approaching it. We got off for photos whilst she turned the bus around. 

 

And this lovely shot is outside the school. It's only the yellow zig zags (that I think she shouldn't have technically parked on but hey ho) that give a clue in this totally rural scene. 

We just sat at the back and kept out of the way. 

Back to Blandford. 

Now there were no Blandford Buses back to Bere Regis where we'd left the car so we had to use Wilts & Dorset who supplied yet another 20ish year old Bristol to finish the day. 

You don't get days out like that anymore. 

[Inspector Morose]

12 hours ago, Yoss said:

 

I don't even know what this is but I assume it belonged to Damory Coaches judging by the colour.

 

Quite a rare Duple Viceroy express bodied Bedford. Duple had a bit of a problem when the bus grant meant that you could get a coach with money off if you used it for stage carriage for a percentage of its life. Bus type doors were part of the specification (along with a separated drivers compartment and the ability for one person operation). The Plaxton elite was fairly straightforward to modify with the wider express doors but the raked back Viceroy from duple was a more difficult proposition.

They got around this little design issue by flattening the front profile so that a two leaf folding bus type door could be squeezed into the space in front of the front wheel. The resulting Viceroy express was (i think) only ever put on Bedfords underfloor engined models; they were reasonably popular with smaller, rural operators. Of course, it wasn’t long before the much squarer Dominant was to come out that could easily incorporate an express version that satisfied bus grant and the compromise bodge job Viceroy express could disappear into the history books. I think that there are a couple still in existence but I haven't seen one around for years, it’s quite possible that this mega rare variant has now become extinct.

Next day Edit: The above was off the top of my head, late at night so I dug around a bit more. The Viceroy Express seemed to be a quick and dirty design (1972-3 seasons) to cater for the bus grant market temporarily before the Dominant based express was ready to be launched in the next year or two, hence the rather lashed up appearance (it was only ever intended for it to be a stop gap). Looking at it, it seems to achieve the flatter front, the screens from the early model Commander was used along with the flatter front profile. 97 Bedford YLQs were built along with 47 Ford R192s.

[83C]

4 hours ago, Yoss said:

And just around the corner in the main car park Victory Coaches had a Bedford OB out. 

A distant relative used to own JAB 661 in the late 1980s, trading as Marches Tours. 

[Yoss]

 

6 hours ago, 83C said:

A distant relative used to own JAB 661 in the late 1980s, trading as Marches Tours. 

The OB is still taxed which is good news. I assumed it would be the only bus in the above pictures that was but it turns out that the Blandford Bus RE is too which is even better news. The W&D VR is sorned but that doesn't mean it will ever see the road again, it could be rotting in a field somewhere. 

[Inspector Morose]

W&D had a ‘do’ to celebrate the end of the series 2 VRs in service (to which of course I went) and I managed to acquire a good few bits and spares off them for my West Midlands one which I had not long bought. One useful bit was a fully overhauled rear axle in bits. When WMT bought Metrowest, NOB was kicked out from work and unfortunately, the back axle kit was carted away for scrap without my knowledge. Of course, I played merry hell at the time but for compensation they agreed for me to use one of their Foden wreckers and crew for a few days while we shifted NOB and various other buses to our new base in Bewdley.

[Yoss]

Solent Blue Line started with a fleet of entirely second hand VRs, mostly from Southern Vectis who were funding the whole thing. Then a few different things started turning up but one oddity was this. 

Ex Exeter PD2, 86 GFJ. Originally just supposed to be a driver trainer but it did end up in service a few times. 

 

I love this picture, with a proper Mini and a Jensen Interceptor. Taken sometime in 1988, these three vehicles would suggest it was considerably older (apart from the somewhat jarring livery on the PD2). Harraps are still there today. 

 

A quick google suggests 86 GFJ went back in to preservation. This was taken in 2011.

[kirton]

A good 60 years ao I went on a cycling YHA tour with school friends and we passed through Bere Regis; the collection of PSV (in service) ancients in the bus depot yard has stuck in my memory ever since, no detail just the wonderment of the varied museum pieces.  Just possible I have a photo that might turn up in the decluttering we are supposed to be undertaking before the undertaker collects us.

[cms206]

Life continues in the post-Stagecoach era and last night's shift was the first revenue earning trip this year for our 2013 Wright Streetlite DF.

It was new to Docherty, Auchterarder as S77 JDS

[LightBulbFun]

Stupid question maybe! but to all the bus/truck drivers there, do you ever notice different tyres? in that obviously in the car world here on Autoshite, theres all the talk about Chinese Death rings, decent budgets and @sierraman spec Michelins (am I doing that right? LOL) 

so I have always wondered the same apply to bus/truck tyres? I mean I would like to hope that there would be a higher minimum standard for bus/truck tyres, so that no matter the tyre a bus full of children does not understeer itself into a ditch at 12Mph, but I do have to wonder? do drivers notice the difference in different brands/quality of tyre on their vehicle?

[cms206]

29 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

Stupid question maybe! but to all the bus/truck drivers there, do you ever notice different tyres? in that obviously in the car world here on Autoshite, theres all the talk about Chinese Death rings, decent budgets and @sierraman spec Michelins (am I doing that right? LOL) 

so I have always wondered the same apply to bus/truck tyres? I mean I would like to hope that there would be a higher minimum standard for bus/truck tyres, so that no matter the tyre a bus full of children does not understeer itself into a ditch at 12Mph, but I do have to wonder? do drivers notice the difference in different brands/quality of tyre on their vehicle?

The absolute worst tyres I ever experienced on big kit were steer pattern 'Triangle' 275/70R22.5s on a Volvo B10M/Alexander PS. Fine in the dry but absolutely fucking hopeless in the wet and they wore really unevenly no matter what they were on

We had issues with 295/80R22.5s from I *think* Hankook which went mis-shapen really quickly and caused really bad vibrations  through the bus.

Truth be told, for years the old boy I worked for bought GT Radials for the steer and Bandag tipper spec remoulds for the drive axle and we had no issues.

[Yoss]

I've been out doing modern buses today. I noticed last week that one of the Enviro 400 City's that usually ply Bluestar route 18 had been turned out in Unilink livery and looked rather striking so I thought I'd go and get a photo. A quick google said two buses had been treated, 1251 and 1252. My OCD wonders why they chose these. The normal Unilink Enviros are numbered 1201 to 1232 and this batch of City's are 1233 to 1252 so why not pick the first two not the last two as they follow on directly? 

Anyway, Unilink buses come in four different livery variations with different coloured shards in the pattern at the back of the bus which are repeated in little flashes at the front. They come in coral red, peachy orange, pale turquoise and my favorite luminous bile green. There are eight of each. 

Two variants here. 

So 1251 was given red highlights and 1252 bile green so that was the one I was going for. I found it on the bus tracker and headed off to the University.  Here it comes. Note the different front end treatment over the standard buses. 

It was on the U1 which goes to the National Oceanography Centre in the docks. Its part of the University but I've never been there before so I thought I'd do a return trip. 

The fact that these two buses have moved over to Unilink might explain why I've started seeing these ex Go North East Volvos about again. 

 

And I've no idea what this livery is about. 

As I said the terminus is inside the docks which is quite neat as you have to go through a security gate to get there, it's not somewhere you can go by car. 

 

By sheer coincidence 1251 was on the bus in front so I got pictures of the two together which I was more pleased about than I really should be. 

 

So I came back on 1251 and by another sheer coincidence (it must be my lucky day) we followed 1250 still in the original Bluestar livery. 

 

I'm not sure how much difference this is making to climate change but every little helps I guess. 

 

Or this for that matter. The only presence First have in the city these days is the X4/X5 to Gosport or Portsmouth. 

 

Back at the main University hub. 

 

I don't know if I'm the only one who has noticed the two comedy sweary registrations in the fleet. 

 

And finally got a shot of 1252 with the sun in the right place. 

[LightBulbFun]

11 hours ago, cms206 said:

The absolute worst tyres I ever experienced on big kit were steer pattern 'Triangle' 275/70R22.5s on a Volvo B10M/Alexander PS. Fine in the dry but absolutely fucking hopeless in the wet and they wore really unevenly no matter what they were on

We had issues with 295/80R22.5s from I *think* Hankook which went mis-shapen really quickly and caused really bad vibrations  through the bus.

Truth be told, for years the old boy I worked for bought GT Radials for the steer and Bandag tipper spec remoulds for the drive axle and we had no issues.

funnily enough it was someone on here posting a picture of a Triangle branded Lorry tyre that literally was a Chinese trye in the truest sense, as in all the text on the side was in Chinese etc and it got me wondering about all this, and then seeing RML2760 again on its highlighted Michelin X tyres which is normally a type I associate with 2CV's and the such like 

On 26/08/2024 at 21:53, LightBulbFun said:

 

(interesting to see it had highlighted "Michelin X" tyres back then, as I recall it having the same in the early 2000's)

so are tyres on buses (and trucks?) inherently different depending on if they are going on a drive axle or a steering axle then?  obviously on a regular car, I know that unless you have something fancy with staggered wheels or such, you buy the same tyres for the front and rear, so I never gave it much thought on the big stuff but you mentioning "steer pattern" got me wondering now  

I do vaguely recall seeing a post about someone fitting tyres to an RML and someone commenting about the type of tyre it was and that it might not be right for where it was going on, but im a bit fuzzy on the details of that

[Eyersey1234]

@LightBulbFun as far as I'm aware exactly the same tyres go on the front and back of buses. A lot of operators lease the tyres though and don't buy them