Bus Shite

[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.

[Inspector Morose]

3 hours ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

BON531C was identical to that but got burnt out and after serving for a while as a mechanical trainer got rebodied with the last WMPTE standard Fleetline body from MCW. Looked weird from the back as the chassis (and engine cover) was 8ft wide but the body was 8ft 2 1/2inches.

[cms206]

5 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

BON531C was identical to that but got burnt out and after serving for a while as a mechanical trainer got rebodied with the last WMPTE standard Fleetline body from MCW. Looked weird from the back as the chassis (and engine cover) was 8ft wide but the body was 8ft 2 1/2inches.

I literally did not know that existed - fourteen years old at rebody?! Did it have a long life thereafter?

[SilverMachine]

9 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

BON531C was identical to that but got burnt out and after serving for a while as a mechanical trainer got rebodied with the last WMPTE standard Fleetline body from MCW. Looked weird from the back as the chassis (and engine cover) was 8ft wide but the body was 8ft 2 1/2inches.

single deck atlantean /fleetline going the opposite way? never seen one before!

 

[cms206]

2 minutes ago, SilverMachine said:

single deck atlantean /fleetline going the opposite way? never seen one before!

 

Daimler Fleetline, looks to be 3451 which would make it BON 451C which I think was Birmingham's first single deck Fleetline.

[Inspector Morose]

Just now, cms206 said:

I literally did not know that existed - fourteen years old at rebody?! Did it have a long life thereafter?

Not at all. Even though the body was only three years old, it was scrapped round '82. Even though the body was new, the chassis was as new, WMPTE still classed it the same as the rest of the batch and was withdrawn at the same time as the early Fleetline chassis would be non standard as far as spare parts were concerned.

The reason for the rebody was that MCW were scrapping the tooling for the WMPTE standard body so it was he last chance for this 'as new' chassis could be bodied at a reasonable cost, the chassis being too good to just be scrapped after it's mechanical training use was over.

[Inspector Morose]

1 minute ago, cms206 said:

Daimler Fleetline, looks to be 3451 which would make it BON 451C which I think was Birmingham's first single deck Fleetline.

It was the first single deck Fleetline ever, the Birmingham ones, being the first, were simply modified double deck chassis.

 

In WMPTE days, there were enquiries made to Willowbrook for them to put a top deck on the original Marshal single deck body but thankfully, common sense prevailed.

[quicksilver]

2 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

It was the first single deck Fleetline ever, the Birmingham ones, being the first, were simply modified double deck chassis.

 

In WMPTE days, there were enquiries made to Willowbrook for them to put a top deck on the original Marshal single deck body but thankfully, common sense prevailed.

I always thought those Fleetlines looked like cut-down double-deckers even though they weren't, but didn't know there was ever an idea to double-deck them.  Ironically that would have been the opposite of what happened to 6956 later on when WMT found itself with the problem of having too many double-deckers and needing more single-deckers.

[Inspector Morose]

1 minute ago, quicksilver said:

I always thought those Fleetlines looked like cut-down double-deckers even though they weren't, but didn't know there was ever an idea to double-deck them.  Ironically that would have been the opposite of what happened to 6956 later on when WMT found itself with the problem of having too many double-deckers and needing more single-deckers.

The irony with 6956 was that the top deck frame was in pretty good order when they hoiked it into the skip. The lower deck was horrendously rotten and required much rebuilding before finishing off as a single deck.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[Inspector Morose]

[Inspector Morose]

 

 

[Inspector Morose]

 

The infamous Walsall No.1, a specially built 25 foot long Fleetline with a forward (not front) entrance/exit door and 64 seats. 

[Inspector Morose]

BMMO built D10. An underfloor engined double decker, with independent front suspension, disc brakes and integral construction. Built in 1960, ahead of its time? Yeah, I think so.
 

 

 

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

2 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

 

The infamous Walsall No.1, a specially built 25 foot long Fleetline with a forward (not front) entrance/exit door and 64 seats. 

Looks like its at what was Bloxwich Bus Station (since demolished) on the Bloxwich to Wolverhampton route.

Also been repainted in WM livery, possibly pictured towards the end of its service life, as the garage management decided it uneconomic to convert to one man operation.

The registration number would be worth a considerable amount today, a link to more info.

https://www.clickasnap.com/image/6951231/unique-bus-walsall-corporation-no

[Inspector Morose]

It also has had its engine shrouds removed too - a WMPTE mod done to all of the Walsall Fleetlines to make engine cover removal easier. It could never be converted to front doorway as, not only was the chassis built with no front overhang at all, the driving position was moved further towards the centre. It really was a one off.

1UDH was earmarked for preservation but got caught up in a bit of internal politics. Withdrawn quietly, it was quickly stripped of its engine and sent to Perry Barr for overturn recovery practice before those wanting it saved got to know it was off. The oldest surviving Fleetline, 245DOC was also used for overturn training not long after a request was made to purchase it for preservation too. Sister 246DOC survived in a scrapyard and still had most of the features missing on its older sibling after it was converted for driver training. Combining the two would have seen one of the first Fleetlines built saved for future generations. IIRC 346 was lost not long after that debacle in a scrapyard fire.

Although other bodybuilders occasionally used engine shrouds on request from operators, the feature was regularly found on earlier Northern Counties bodied Fleetlines, as seen on the Southdown Fleetline a few posts back.

[willswitchengage]

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.

The first gen Citaro came with two engine options - the 6.5ish litre from the Atego and an impressive 12 litre from the Axor, both horizontally mounted in a rear corner. Understandably, hilly customers got the bigger lump.

[willswitchengage]

Busses in America! This is just one but I've been on a few recently.

This is a New Flyer '40 foot' in the wealthy city of Fairfax, VA. It was reasonably busy, the busses in Washington were all reasonably well used. I've used them in Nashville however in the past, where only Fentanyl users seemed to be the other passengers.

How are busses different over there? As you can see, they all have bike racks, and they're used frequently and are very easy to do so - it's actually a decent innovation.

Mechanically - they seem to have high-specced engines (they fly around) and air service brakes, I presume Euro-busses don't as they don't hiss while braking. Exhausts are vertical for some reason. AC systems are enormous.

Inside they're a bit more spartan with chrome everywhere and wipe-down seats - not a place of luxury. Tickets are bought on board and it's all quite easy and local metrocards (they're not quite at a universal contactless payment yet) are used. Windows are heavily tinted as it's generally a very sunny country.

Not a bad way of getting around if you ever need to use one over there.

[New POD]

4 minutes ago, willswitchengage said:

Busses in America! This is just one but I've been on a few recently.

This is a New Flyer '40 foot' in the wealthy city of Fairfax, VA. It was reasonably busy, the busses in Washington were all reasonably well used. I've used them in Nashville however in the past, where only Fentanyl users seemed to be the other passengers.

How are busses different over there? As you can see, they all have bike racks, and they're used frequently and are very easy to do so - it's actually a decent innovation.

Mechanically - they seem to have high-specced engines (they fly around) and air service brakes, I presume Euro-busses don't as they don't hiss while braking. Exhausts are vertical for some reason. AC systems are enormous.

Inside they're a bit more spartan with chrome everywhere and wipe-down seats - not a place of luxury. Tickets are bought on board and it's all quite easy and local metrocards (they're not quite at a universal contactless payment yet) are used. Windows are heavily tinted as it's generally a very sunny country.

Not a bad way of getting around if you ever need to use one over there.

I know very little about buses, but I do know we sell a Leyland DaF XB running chassis with engine to a bus maker. Which definately is mechanically an XB. So will have air brakes. My guess is that we try our best to silence any hiss because noise levels are important in Europe. 

[willswitchengage]

45 minutes ago, New POD said:

Leyland DaF XB running chassis with engine to a bus maker. Which definately is mechanically an XB

That's a truck chassis.

I guess European busses simply have much quieter air systems - those in the US are a lot more overt.

[New POD]

8 hours ago, willswitchengage said:

That's a truck chassis.

I guess European busses simply have much quieter air systems - those in the US are a lot more overt.

I know we've had problems because of driveline noise in the past.  Which is not acceptable to the passengers of a bus. 

[SunnySouth]

4 hours ago, New POD said:

I know we've had problems because of driveline noise in the past.  Which is not acceptable to the passengers of a bus. 

Presumably non-low floor (i.e. step entrance) vehicles are still available in the US, then? Unless it’s for school bus or some sort of coach work?

[martc]

Gateshead.

[martc]

Rye Hill, Newcastle, 1968.

[martc]

An SNCV outside Kortrijk station, Belgium. Phun phact, they had Leyland engines.

[martc]

Northumberland Street, NuT.

[Yoss]

24 minutes ago, martc said:

Rye Hill, Newcastle, 1968.

Does that Regent have air con? It only seems to have two small opening windows upstairs at the front. Even in Newcastle there would be a couple of days a year where that would not be sufficient. 

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[The Old Bloke Next Door]