Bus Shite

[quicksilver]

Autonomous bus experiments are clearly going well*. This ugly thing (an Aurrigo Auto-Shuttle made in Coventry) isn't even five years old but is already confined to static display and unlikely to ever run again. Solihull Council became the first authority to own one when they bought it, no doubt at a huge cost, with a grant from the local enterprise fund. I don't think it ever ran on public roads and it has now been donated to the Wythall Transport Museum with its batteries removed.

 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

Autonomous bus experiments are clearly going well*. This ugly thing (an Aurrigo Auto-Shuttle made in Coventry) isn't even five years old but is already confined to static display and unlikely to ever run again. Solihull Council became the first authority to own one when they bought it, no doubt at a huge cost, with a grant from the local enterprise fund. I don't think it ever ran on public roads and it has now been donated to the Wythall Transport Museum with its batteries removed.

 

We should be grateful about it being static, now.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

17 hours ago, quicksilver said:

Autonomous bus experiments are clearly going well*. This ugly thing (an Aurrigo Auto-Shuttle made in Coventry) isn't even five years old but is already confined to static display and unlikely to ever run again. Solihull Council became the first authority to own one when they bought it, no doubt at a huge cost, with a grant from the local enterprise fund. I don't think it ever ran on public roads and it has now been donated to the Wythall Transport Museum with its batteries removed.

 

Rear lights from some sort of Peugeot SUV, innit!

[Jenson Velcro]

Without trawling through all the previous pages I’m not sure if this wedding venue has appeared here before. Autoshite colours as well.

[SunnySouth]

On 28/05/2025 at 21:39, quicksilver said:

Autonomous bus experiments are clearly going well*. This ugly thing (an Aurrigo Auto-Shuttle made in Coventry) isn't even five years old but is already confined to static display and unlikely to ever run again. Solihull Council became the first authority to own one when they bought it, no doubt at a huge cost, with a grant from the local enterprise fund. I don't think it ever ran on public roads and it has now been donated to the Wythall Transport Museum with its batteries removed.

 

Good. They can stick it up their arse (the council, not the museum!).

[SunnySouth]

16 hours ago, Jenson Velcro said:

Without trawling through all the previous pages I’m not sure if this wedding venue has appeared here before. Autoshite colours as well.

I like a Volly, but I can’t say I’ve ever felt compelled to describe one as “Romantic”. Still, looks tidy though!

[SunnySouth]

On 26/05/2025 at 13:40, AndyW201 said:

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Dibbles Bridge coach disaster in North Yorkshire, in which 33 people, including the driver, lost their lives. An event which still causes pain for the people of Thornaby on Tees, a neighbouring town to mine, but is still largely forgotten everywhere else, despite the fact that it was, and remains, Britain's worst road accident in terms of loss of life.

…

 

Thank you, Andy, for a superb post.

I was aware of the awful accident at Dibbles Bridge, but I’d not heard of the Crawleyside disaster. Googling it, I found this article from the Northern Echo, which provides a “good” - if such a thing can be - summary, and is unsuprisingly rather harrowing. 

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/17833871.crawleyside-bus-crash-took-lives-19-people-fifty-years-ago/

One of the victims it would seem was the driver’s 12 year old daughter; just terrible. The driver himself survived. One might have differing views on whether he would have considered himself fortunate or otherwise, I suppose. Poor bloke.

These stories remind us just how utterly lethal a big lump of rolling metal can be if it’s out of control at high speed; we are indeed extremely fortunate to live in times of such comfortable safety as we do, and it’s pretty humbling to be reminded of those who did not have such benefits in their day.

[willswitchengage]

Currently in Las Vegas. Enviro500! This service runs up and down the strip and is actually quite busy - often standing room only. We wanted to use it after walking down to the 'Welcome to' sign in 40 degree heat but buying a ticket seemed too complicated as is annoyingly the case with a lot of American services.

It's very heavily Americanised as you'd expect with a massive AC system, US air brakes, a bike rack, local lights, heavily tinted windows, big bumpers, metal spoked steering wheel, EPA compliant engine etc. I want to say they were actually made over here under licence or something but I'm not sure.

[Volksy]

Interesting it has the 'Tree Deflector' bars fitted. 

Can't imagine there is that many overhanging sycamores in Vegas. 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

19 hours ago, willswitchengage said:

Currently in Las Vegas. Enviro500! This service runs up and down the strip and is actually quite busy - often standing room only. We wanted to use it after walking down to the 'Welcome to' sign in 40 degree heat but buying a ticket seemed too complicated as is annoyingly the case with a lot of American services.

It's very heavily Americanised as you'd expect with a massive AC system, US air brakes, a bike rack, local lights, heavily tinted windows, big bumpers, metal spoked steering wheel, EPA compliant engine etc. I want to say they were actually made over here under licence or something but I'm not sure.

https://www.alexander-dennis.com/alexander-dennis-delivers-first-enviro500-built-by-brm-to-spokane-transit/#:~:text=Alexander Dennis%2C a subsidiary of,traveling between Spokane and Cheney.

HTH, innit! 😎

[martc]

A bit MEH.

[martc]

I believe this is a Daimler, cruising the streets of Eccles.

[martc]

'Rag bone, rag bone'. Somewhere in NuT.

[martc]

An Ikarus 250.09 in Crimea. Note the extra spot light on the roof for negotiating unlit country roads.

[martc]

Back end views of  LAZ-695Bs and LAZ-695Es in the 'Square of the First Five Years', Sverdlovsk, 1967. Note the massive air intakes to cool the rear mounted engines.

[martc]

A Leyland PD2 Orion in Gateshead.

[martc]

Somewhere in a nuclear superpower.

[martc]

An Australian Dyson Landliner articulated six wheel coach, 1945. This is the deluxe version with 30 first-class aeroplane-style seats, a toilet and a hostess serving drinks and snacks. The later standard models had 60 'normal' seats. They were designed to compete with the railways and airlines to transverse the vast distances of Australia.

[martc]

ZIL-130 with APPA-4 trailers. Welcome to Russia. Nice.

[martc]

Again we're in NuT.

[martc]

Salford.

[Snipes]

1 hour ago, martc said:

They were designed to compete with the railways and airlines to transverse the vast distances of Australia.

Did they achieve this at all? I'm guessing not lol.

[Snipes]

1 hour ago, martc said:

ZIL-130 with APPA-4 trailers. Welcome to Russia. Nice.

I was curious where Irkutsk is;

 

[martc]

1 hour ago, Sir Snipes said:

I was curious where Irkutsk is;

Imagine flying all that way in an Aeroflot Yakovlev or Tupolev and being met by a fleet of ZIL transfer buses. You would be proud of the achievements of the Motherland.

[SilverMachine]

On 03/06/2025 at 16:48, martc said:

Again we're in NuT.

not sure about the station hotel picture, but the colour one n the bottom im sure my lass would murder me if i said it was in nut... yes its close just over the bridge but they have shirts that are not mnochrome there....

[Dyslexic Viking]

Skoda 9TR rescue ep1.

 

They/he also have a Skoda 15TR ep1.

 

Buying it.

 

This channel also has a Scania and lots of other bus related stuff.

[Saabnut]

Arrived yesterday at Newby Hall in the Sherpa for Tractor Fest aka meeting mates for a weekend on the p*ss and this was one of the early arrivals. Show does not start until tomorrow....

[Inspector Morose]

10 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Arrived yesterday at Newby Hall in the Sherpa for Tractor Fest aka meeting mates for a weekend on the p*ss and this was one of the early arrivals. Show does not start until tomorrow....

one of a batch of 3 Bournemouth PS2s with Weyman bodywork. All three have been preserved. Originally built as coaches with sliding sunroofs, all three were converted for stage carriage work later in their lives, seating replacedwith ones.less solubrious, sunroofs sealed up and the heavy sliding door converted to power operation using the vehicles vacuum system.

Yup, a vacuum operated sliding door. When you press the close button, there's a deep heavy rumble of the door hurtling towards the front bulkhead closely followed by a gutteral thud as rubber edging meets doorframe with the weight of a young trees worth of wooden framed door behind it. Frightening and fascinating in one movement. 

Oh yes, of the three, I've managed to drive two of them 😁.

[Inspector Morose]

25 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

Oh yes, of the three, I've managed to drive two of them 😁.

An offhand comment but does deserve a bit of an explanation.

You see, ever since I got my licence, a few friends and I took it upon ourselves to search out and drive as many different types of bus or coach as could find. We used to call it 'getting it in the book" although said bood never actually existed and was only a mental record of the weird and the wonderful pieces of omnibological machinery thatwe hard amangaed to cadge a drive of.

Needless to say, over they years I've managed to blag a drive of some incredibly rare and unusual stuff, all for now there reason than to 'get it in the book'. From Lynx to AEC Q, from crash box to Scania CAG (remember that?), AEC, Bristol, Daimler, Mercedes, Leyland, you sort of get the picture. 

Is there anything left to go in the book?  Well yes,there always will be. I haven't managed to drive a Borismaster and I missed out on getting a go in the only Alexander R type bodies IVECO when it was still existent but I believe the east lance bodied MAN is still around. Hmm, maybe I should see if I can track that down for a turn at the wheel. 

[Metal Guru]

On 03/06/2025 at 17:36, Sir Snipes said:

I was curious where Irkutsk is;

 

Turn left at Arsendofnowhere and drive 1000km along a dirt track until you reach 1950s Soviet Union.