Bus Shite

[martc]

Percy Street, NuT.

[busmansholiday]

On 10/11/2024 at 15:41, martc said:

A brace of TATA's in Sri Lanka.

They are both owned by "privateers" (and boy is it fun* to travel on their buses), the state, SLTB, TATA is the red one behind.

[busmansholiday]

36 minutes ago, martc said:

A 2007 DesignLine ECOSmart II Hybrid-Electric coach was tested by the JFK and Michael J Quill Depots in Noo Yoik.

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?..

[busmansholiday]

On 10/11/2024 at 23:36, Inspector Morose said:

Meh, anyone whose played with a Bristol overdrive box in something older than a n RE holds a higher regard in my book.

sonata in serveral moements with unaccompanied gearbox.

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...  ???

[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.

 

[83C]

On 16/11/2024 at 14:24, SunnySouth said:

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

That’s one of my former steeds. We had three at Swanbrook, UJI 1761/2/3. They were sent off for facelifting around 2004 as they were mainly employed on the 53 Gloucester - Cheltenham - Oxford service. 1761 was the weakest of the bunch, reliable but probably only about 90% of the ‘go’ that 2 & 3 had. 1763 was the best all round but didn’t last long after the facelift, it suffered an internal fire at the Swanbrook yard near Staverton about a year after being facelifted. Looked absolutely fine outside but get within 10 foot and the smell of smoke was obvious, and then the 100% smoke tint on the inside of the windows gave away what had occurred. 

[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).