Bus Shite

[busmansholiday]

46 minutes ago, martc said:

Another prototype, this time all electric -

The MAN 750 HO-M10 E  13th of Feb 1970. It took two years of development in collaboration with RWE, Bosch and Varta (note the trailer full of batteries).

Oh the fun of the 70's....

[Inspector Morose]

42 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Does an FLF count?

 

Whilst operating it one man, which involved getting out of the cab at a stop, grabbing the ticket machine and cash bag, nipping around to the front door to collect the fares before using the emergency button to let people on or off...  ???

I'm amazed that you could recover from the FLFs 'laid back' driving position to spring in and out of the cab!

[Inspector Morose]

35 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Oh the fun of the 70's....

I shan't tell you about the flywheel-powered National hybrid then?

[busmansholiday]

10 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

I shan't tell you about the flywheel-powered National hybrid then?

Or the one they tried in an Ailsa (B10M)....

[busmansholiday]

13 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

I'm amazed that you could recover from the FLFs 'laid back' driving position to spring in and out of the cab!

I was young (and stupid)...

[brownnova]

On 10/11/2024 at 02:37, cms206 said:

It has been a very, very long time since I brought one of these home for the night... sadly now a 70-seater but still a fine driving manual Mk.IV B10M underneath. May have come the long way home, I won't lie 😂

These were the mainstay of the school bus fleet at my old school up until about 2 years ago!

 Only canned because of accessibility regulations apparently. 

[cms206]

Just now, brownnova said:

These were the mainstay of the school bus fleet at my old school up until about 2 years ago!

 Only canned because of accessibility regulations apparently. 

Gaffer Ian keeps threatening the axe on this one as it's the last big manual on fleet.

Came in today and it's gained a HOB plate. It'll be off for repaint and a digi tacho next ...

[brownnova]

They kept these on the fleet to deal with the narrow Welsh village lanes… 

There was an A reg similar one that survived beyond Covid as a regular. It was the only one which could get round one of the tight bends in the villages. It was pretty much entirely riveted checkerplate on the lower half.
 

Edited to add: This is the exact bus as found on Flickr! Before checkerplate application! 

[brownnova]

Other regulars from the same company from school run years past: 

Sadly my current school doesn’t have school buses, only the public buses which pick up at the school entrance. So it’s all Optare Solos now… 

[cms206]

5 hours ago, brownnova said:

There was an A reg similar one that survived beyond Covid as a regular. It was the only one which could get round one of the tight bends in the villages. It was pretty much entirely riveted checkerplate on the lower half.
 

Edited to add: This is the exact bus as found on Flickr! Before checkerplate application! 

That A-reg was new to Voel as 6499 VC and spent it's entire working life there - the facelift front end really lifts the look of it. Also: those alloys are my absolute favourite of all the alloys.

In an earlier life...

[SunnySouth]

17 hours ago, brownnova said:

Other regulars from the same company from school run years past: 

 

 

That top pic is an Ikarus, which has been modified to make it spectacularly ugly by a firm in Blackpool. Their trademark was the ‘melted Plaxton Paramount’ lower front end as seen here.

They mostly did Paramounts up to make them look slightly newer:

Pic from Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16658324@N08/8655327411

The M RCP Alizee might be a former NatEx weapon, I seem to remember that being a batch which did runs down into Portsmouth back in the day. Might be wrong…

[cms206]

Another bus home for the night is our Dennis Javelin, new to Prospect as PR08 BET.

Got back in this afternoon to find that Y14 HOB has returned from MOT; new as BX06 DLN, it's a fairly unusual first generation Volvo 9700.

[martc]

[martc]

[martc]

This was a Škoda 706, my second favourite coach after the Ikarus 55.

[martc]

A diesel electric hybrid (it could use either motor individually or combined) this coach was manufactured in New York by Versare in 1927. It was used in Montreal were it was known, not unsurprisingly, as the 'Atwater Street Monster'; Atwater Street was the only road in Montreal wide enough to accompany it and it's mahoosive turning circle. Despite its size it carried only 41 passengers. The Monster was actually very reliable and lasted for 7 years until it broke in half in 1934 and was quietly scrapped.

https://transportationhistory.org/2020/05/11/a-unique-type-of-motorbus-begins-operations-in-montreal/

Here's more info on Versare and some of their creations -

http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/v/versare/versare.htm

[martc]

The prototype of the LAZ-698 Karpaty interurban bus, 1961, manufactured at the Lviv plant. 

[martc]

A Coata body on a Deutz chassis, Argentina, 1981.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 15/11/2024 at 17:43, busmansholiday said:

Stagecoach bought a batch of the these for service on the Quaylink service in NuT.

I heard an interesting story about one that wouldn't start and they had to ring NZ about it. They told them to plug it into a telephone socket and tell them the number.

Few minutes later it burst into life, technology eh?..

Fuck driving that; the view to the nearside must have been really clear* with that sweeping glazing pillar!

Also reflections from saloon lighting must have been a slight* problem...

Imagine Gavin off of Autoglass finding and replacing those windscreens! 

Apart from that, it's perfect! 11\10 absolutely would! 🤩

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, martc said:

A Coata body on a Deutz chassis, Argentina, 1981.

More than a hint of early 80s Caetano about that.

Please tell me that used one of Deutz air cooled engines so probably had cabin noise levels similar to Concorde...

[quicksilver]

On 16/11/2024 at 02:35, cms206 said:

That A-reg was new to Voel as 6499 VC and spent it's entire working life there - the facelift front end really lifts the look of it. Also: those alloys are my absolute favourite of all the alloys.

In an earlier life...

In slightly later life (2004), repainted but still with the original front and reg. They certainly got their money's worth out of it and it was clearly still good enough to send on a Blackpool lights trip at 20 years old. On SORN so it's still out there somewhere.

 

[martc]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

More than a hint of early 80s Caetano about that.

Please tell me that used one of Deutz air cooled engines so probably had cabin noise levels similar to Concorde...

Well... here's a picture of the chassis, and here's details of the engine -

Engine: Deutz F8L413F, 
Cycle: 4-stroke Diesel
Location: rear, longitudinal
Displacement (cm3): 12763
No. of cylinders: 8 "V"

and it was......... air cooled!! You can see the fan cowl at the back (front?) of it.

from here  - https://camionargentino.blogspot.com/2012/10/magirus-deutz-280rs13-14-u-14u-2.html

 

[martc]

Another one from South America -

This is an ALASA body on a Mercedes Benz chassis.

[martc]

The Obelisk area of Buenos Aires, the coaches are Mercedes Benz 911s and 1112s.

[Yoss]

Yesterday. 

 

Today. 

Same time, almost same place (one bus stop further back). 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

Yesterday. 

 

Today. 

Same time, almost same place (one bus stop further back). 

Number ni ni ni 19, in that cold weather 😁

[martc]

This was built by Camões Grassi in 1947 on an AEC chassis. AEC's were sold as ACLO's in Latin America and (sometimes) Spain.

This photo is from 1964 this one is being operated by Auto Viação Taruman Ltd it's on  Rio Branco Avenue, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Here's another Camões Grassi creation outside the factory gates -

More info here - https://viacircular.com.br/carrocerias/grassi/

 

[calebaaront]

Yesterday at work we had a bit of snow. This 2019 ADL Enviro200MMC handled relatively well. Was a tad twitchy at times. First time I’d driven a bus in snow 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

On 22/11/2024 at 16:42, martc said:

AEC's were sold as ACLO's in Latin America and (sometimes) Spain.

According to Robin Hannay's AEC Bus book, all export AEC had to be badged ACLO at the behest of AEG.

AEG were concerned about the possibility of confusion between the two marques.

🤓

[Yoss]

A few pictures from the Camden running day last weekend. Apologies for the delay posting them. No excuses. I have been a bit poorly but not poorly enough to not be able to post a few pictures! 

First bus was XF1. I had this on another of these running days last year. Its a really nice bus. 

Obviously I'm biased because it's quite Routemastery inside but it just feels really solid and rattle free and is a nice place to be. 

 

After this it was RTs all the way. Not by design, that's just what kept turning up, which is no bad thing. First was green RT 3491 on the 134 to Muswell Hill. 

 

Standing start with a full load from the the stop halfway up Archway Road hill was fun. It didn't really struggle but first gear was required. 

 

Then I got off to wait for the next one back and stopped for coffee and cake.

In the queue in the boulangerie (and it was a boulangerie, not just a bakery, because Muswell Hill). 

 

Then got RT 1702 back to Camden. 

 

Also whilst there I snapped this. I didn't think they did these anymore. I mean,  I don't really see the point if all normal buses are wheelchair accessible anyway.