Bus Shite

[martc]

Mercedes-Benz Type O 6600 H, 1951.

[martc]

This Guy Arab 2, one of two preserved from a fleet of 30, served with the EMT in Madrid from 1947 to 1964.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

1972 new to the National Bus Company.

[DVee8]

The Jolly bus, ran from South Hylton to Sunderland station from 1923 to 1995.

[Inspector Morose]

2 minutes ago, DVee8 said:

The Jolly bus, ran from South Hylton to Sunderland station from 1923 to 1995.

Aaaaand that Bedford still exists! Apparently one of the 'features' of Jolly Bus was that the rear seats were slatted wood. Why? fuck knows but there you go.

[SilverMachine]

1 hour ago, Inspector Morose said:

Aaaaand that Bedford still exists! Apparently one of the 'features' of Jolly Bus was that the rear seats were slatted wood. Why? fuck knows but there you go.

which bedford ? theres two! or three possibly with the bus!

 

[Inspector Morose]

1 hour ago, SilverMachine said:

which bedford ? theres two! or three possibly with the bus!

 

You don’t regularly read my posts, do you? (Yes, it’s the Bedford in the middle)

[SilverMachine]

5 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

You don’t regularly read my posts, do you? (Yes, it’s the Bedford in the middle)

apologies the first 'car' i ever drove was a bedford ha van when i was probably 11 ish.. so spotted that bedford first, then the astra van, that has some odd stuff going on down the side and over the rear wheel, then squinted and saw the griffin badge on the bus!

[Inspector Morose]

2 minutes ago, SilverMachine said:

apologies the first 'car' i ever drove was a bedford ha van when i was probably 11 ish.. so spotted that bedford first, then the astra van, that has some odd stuff going on down the side and over the rear wheel, then squinted and saw the griffin badge on the bus!

Apologies definitely not needed! It’s just my feeble derogatory humour as the majority of my posts on here seem to revolve around the many seated. I’d assume thats why the photo was taken, Bedford HA, Bedford Astravan and Bedford Y-somethingorother bus.

[SilverMachine]

15 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

Apologies definitely not needed! It’s just my feeble derogatory humour as the majority of my posts on here seem to revolve around the many seated. I’d assume thats why the photo was taken, Bedford HA, Bedford Astravan and Bedford Y-somethingorother bus.

im not particularly that well up on busses, although i did contact the local bus museum last week offering my spanner rotating services. round here its fairly train preservation and the busses seem to get overlooked... but as my great grandfather had a small fleet im trying to get familiar with some of them! i also have a bit of a soft spot for the leyland national, which for many years took me to school! but other local bus operators were using much older stuff, that id like to find out more about also! i do know of a leyland national not terribly far away that i know has been parked in the same place since before the millenium, and is covered in moss now!

[Inspector Morose]

You got me on Leyland National. I may* have a bit of knowledge of them.

Good on you on offering spanner wielding to the preservation group, quite a lot of the time perfect looking stuff is never seen because there’s nobody around with the ability to solve mechanical maladies. Older stuff is fun to work on and straightforward to troubleshoot and there’s that warm feeling you’re u get when something that hasn’t turned a wheel in decades springs into life and trundles around the yard for the first time.

Now is a good time to learn about the ins and outs of older stuff too. Many owners and preservation groups are getting older, some are dying off and the knowledge they have about keeping that stuff alive is rapidly going away. If nothing else, learn about it now while you can and you’ll always be in demand!

[SilverMachine]

34 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

You got me on Leyland National. I may* have a bit of knowledge of them.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/54°44'33.4"N+1°48'59.5"W/@54.742603,-1.8211294,448m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m13!1m8!3m7!1s0x487c2b5d35bbc953:0xd57d3e6978fea311!2sTow+Law,+Bishop+Auckland!3b1!8m2!3d54.74285!4d-1.811502!16zL20vMDR5dndz!3m3!8m2!3d54.7426!4d-1.816516?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDIyNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

possibly make out the long dark shape, with bump at one end.

streetview

behind the gate, squint a bit, you can see the roofline and rear raised roof bit!

as i said, its been there pre millenium, same yard but is more to the right in 2009 and more difficult to spot! 

[jon.k]

I just went on this, which seemed to have a huge amount of torque for blasting up steep mountain roads and a lot of grip too. Are they heavy duty buses compared to the ones we get in the uk? Assuming that the sign on the windscreen means that it has done 1000000 km’s, it felt like new inside.

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, jon.k said:

I just went on this, which seemed to have a huge amount of torque for blasting up steep mountain roads and a lot of grip too. Are they heavy duty buses compared to the ones we get in the uk? Assuming that the sign on the windscreen means that it has done 1000000 km’s, it felt like new inside.

Where is it?

[jon.k]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

Where is it?

Sorry, Switzerland.

[Yoss]

35 minutes ago, jon.k said:

Sorry, Switzerland.

Cheers, yes that would be a bit hilly wouldn't it. It is possible they'd have bigger engines for hilly areas but I don't know enough about Mercedes Citaros. 

It was certainly an option in the old days, I know Halifax had 11.3 litre lumps instead of the normal 9.6 litre in their old AEC Regents but modern buses already have a lot more poke so it might not be necessary. I had a Citaro last year from Sinaia Town centre up to the cable car in Romania. Uphill all the way and it just flew up. 

[jon.k]

16 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Cheers, yes that would be a bit hilly wouldn't it. It is possible they'd have bigger engines for hilly areas but I don't know enough about Mercedes Citaros. 

It was certainly an option in the old days, I know Halifax had 11.3 litre lumps instead of the normal 9.6 litre in their old AEC Regents but modern buses already have a lot more poke so it might not be necessary. I had a Citaro last year from Sinaia Town centre up to the cable car in Romania. Uphill all the way and it just flew up. 

Exactly, this was going to a cable car station and it was pulling up there like a beast.

[Metal Guru]

On 18/02/2025 at 10:52, SilverMachine said:

well the chap from dover transport museum has been in touch! at least one of the coaches still survives, sort of - its a commer commando, but is now a mobile butchers shop! if anyone has any pictures of this i would be very appreciative! i dont know if its still in the dover area so could be anywhere, but im sure any bus peoples will know it as a bus if they see it out and about! there were also bedford ob's with thurgood bodies, and also aec regals, but my great grandfather died in 1958 and was ran by his son for a short while (this could have been a few years) before selling the company so assuming all the vehicles were probably 1930 > <1955 but again this is a guess!

 

I had to Google “Norman motorcycles”. I had an image of William the Conquerer on a Harley, thinking “no wonder they won!”

[Stroller133]

On 18/02/2025 at 11:11, Eyersey1234 said:

Two of our new National Express coaches at Caetano's yard yesterday when we collected them

In Ibstock/Heather, Leicestershire? 

[Eyersey1234]

4 hours ago, Stroller133 said:

In Ibstock/Heather, Leicestershire? 

Yes it was

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[eifion]

On 11/02/2025 at 08:23, lesapandre said:

London Taxis and Routemasters regularly turn up in France and for sale - usually promoting something.

This is more unusual - an early 1970's Daimler it says - in original livery - so I thought I would post it.

€15,000. LeBonCoin.

Bordeaux area.

If this is TCD374J I have a bad photograph somewhere of it in AutoTrader livery at a car show in the mid 1990's. Some of its compatriots (373, 375, 376, 378 and 381) spent time at Crosville in Rhyl and were converted to open-toppers. I spent three summers being a conductor on them and (I think) driving one or two occasionally after I got my licence.

[artdjones]

Cardiff Corporation Guy Arab V. It's at the terminus of the no.9 service around the time the trolley buses were replaced. The sign on the pole says Trolleybuses Only. This is on the turning loop where the trolleys went behind the last few houses on Whitchurch Rd. to turn them back down to the city centre.

[eifion]

Two photographs from 1992. Ex-Southdown TCD374J at a car show at Arley Hall.

Its sister TCD 381J (HDG911) operating as a Happy Dragon for Crosville Wales in Llandudno at around the same time. These were not well-liked by the staff and we used to always hope that we'd end up with one of the converted Bristol VRs for at least half the shift.

[artdjones]

23 minutes ago, eifion said:

Two photographs from 1992. Ex-Southdown TCD374J at a car show at Arley Hall.

Its sister TCD 381J (HDG911) operating as a Happy Dragon for Crosville Wales in Llandudno at around the same time. These were not well-liked by the staff and we used to always hope that we'd end up with one of the converted Bristol VRs for at least half the shift.

I've always thought Atlantans and Fleetlines looked much more together with the filling in panels above the engine cover.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, artdjones said:

I've always thought Atlantans and Fleetlines looked WRONG with the filling in panels above the engine cover.

Sorry, I prefer the originals, each to their opinion tho.

[Eyersey1234]

5 hours ago, eifion said:

Two photographs from 1992. Ex-Southdown TCD374J at a car show at Arley Hall.

Its sister TCD 381J (HDG911) operating as a Happy Dragon for Crosville Wales in Llandudno at around the same time. These were not well-liked by the staff and we used to always hope that we'd end up with one of the converted Bristol VRs for at least half the shift.

What body/chassis were these? I'm struggling to identify them

[Inspector Morose]

5 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

What body/chassis were these? I'm struggling to identify them

Northern Counties bodied Fleetlines.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[martc]

On 01/03/2025 at 13:44, jon.k said:

I just went on this, which seemed to have a huge amount of torque for blasting up steep mountain roads and a lot of grip too. Are they heavy duty buses compared to the ones we get in the uk? Assuming that the sign on the windscreen means that it has done 1000000 km’s, it felt like new inside.

These are very popular in Austrian and Italian alpine resorts as well, there's a bendy version which can make for interesting riding when traversing hair pin bends. A quick look around the internet suggests that there isn't a specific 'alpine' version but you can have a choice of engines, I suspect that the ones used in the hills have the largest, most powerful one available, for current models that'll be a 290kW unit.

I've also travelled on similarly styled MAN and IVECO buses but these are not as common.