Bus Shite

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[Inspector Morose]

4 hours ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

The first National repowered at Chase with a leopard spec 0680. Went well and, as an encore, they did the same to two short, ex-LT Nationals before topping it all of with another ex-LT National repowered with a vertical leyland 420 engine and Alison auto gearbox that formerly resided in a dustcart.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

[High Jetter]

Mumble mumble parts bin mumble. Bin cart!

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, The Old Bloke Next Door said:

AEC. Respect.

[martc]

A LAZ-697Р 'Tourist', East Kazakhstan region, Kazakh SSR, 1991.

[martc]

Van based -

Grim.

[martc]

The less than successful Optare Alero a purpose built coach aimed directly at the van based horrors above. Unfortunately the poor quality of the build and general unreliability spoilt the admirable aim of this poject.

I'm not sure any have survived.

[martc]

Any idea what this is?

[martc]

Glasgow.

[Inspector Morose]

seamless accident repair.

[Zelandeth]

46 minutes ago, martc said:

The less than successful Optare Alero a purpose built coach aimed directly at the van based horrors above. Unfortunately the poor quality of the build and general unreliability spoilt the admirable aim of this poject.

I'm not sure any have survived.

Not to mention the most overcomplicated propshaft routing ever devised by human kind.

We had a pair of the bloody things on the community transport roster.  They spent more time off the road than on.

Which is a real shame as they actually weren't bad from a passenger perspective when they were working.  Sadly that wasn't very often!  From the passenger's point of view they were streets ahead of the van based offerings and had the advantage of a ramp rather than loft for wheelchair access.  Sadly they were just so unreliable.  Wasn't any one thing either - *everything* was flaky, and service backup from Optare was non existent.

At least a year or two back there was one I used to see around here that had been converted to a motor home...no idea if it's still on the road though.

Edit: Found the photo of it.

Turns out it was five years ago I took that!

[83C]

2 hours ago, martc said:

Optare

poor quality

general unreliability

Words and phrases that follow each other as sure as night follows day.

[cms206]

1 hour ago, 83C said:

Words and phrases that follow each other as sure as night follows day.

We've just bought a pair of Versas from Tanat Valley.

These are considered an upgrade as one is replacing our Wright Streetlite...

[artdjones]

[catsinthewelder]

5 hours ago, martc said:

I'm not sure any have survived.

There's an Alero in Rough and Bumpys old yard at the bottom of my village,  they went bust about 4 years ago and I don't think it had moved for a while then.

[Noel Tidybeard]

5 hours ago, Inspector Morose said:

 

seamless accident repair.

better looking than alot of others of the type

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, cms206 said:

We've just bought a pair of Versas from Tanat Valley.

These are considered an upgrade as one is replacing our Wright Streetlite...

Being so far back from the windscreen in these just felt really odd to me.

Here's a couple of them - some which were brand new bought in by Stagecoach Bluebird for the then new 727 Jet service to the airport.  Liveries are a very subjective thing but I thought this looked really smart.

Lot of work went into getting that service out together.  Was a lot of satisfaction seeing how well used it became, even if my role was pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

[83C]

2 hours ago, cms206 said:

We've just bought a pair of Versas from Tanat Valley.

These are considered an upgrade as one is replacing our Wright Streetlite...

I was glad I worked there when they had decent motors:

Though these were weird:

 

[lesapandre]

London Fire Brigade command unit. Not sure what bus it's based on.

[quicksilver]

4 hours ago, lesapandre said:

London Fire Brigade command unit. Not sure what bus it's based on.

Optare Solo converted by W.H. Bence. There are nine of them.

[quicksilver]

16 hours ago, martc said:

The less than successful Optare Alero a purpose built coach aimed directly at the van based horrors above. Unfortunately the poor quality of the build and general unreliability spoilt the admirable aim of this poject.

I'm not sure any have survived.

I spotted this one on the road a couple of months ago. It suffered the usual fate of becoming a party bus and then a camper and I doubt there are any left still working bus services.

 

[mk2_craig]

16 hours ago, martc said:

Any idea what this is?

I think that’s one of the Guernsey Albions cut down to act as a tow wagon. Is it still around somewhere?

[lesapandre]

1 hour ago, mk2_craig said:

I think that’s one of the Guernsey Albions cut down to act as a tow wagon. Is it still around somewhere?

That is just fantastic. I do hope it survives.

[wesacosa]