Bus Shite

[cms206]

18 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Off back to the smoke ??

Down for three weeks for Wimbledon and some odds and sods either side, thats the plan anyway!

[High Jetter]

2 minutes ago, cms206 said:

Down for three weeks for Wimbledon and some odds and sods either side, thats the plan anyway!

Oh, you know the tips will be good!

[artdjones]

On 16/06/2025 at 11:37, High Jetter said:

Watching an episode of Father Brown (don't judge me) recently, I was surprised to see this:

I've seen it in the metal and probably travelled on it when at school. I knew it was being preserved, but didn't know it was being hired out. An AEC Regal 11, AI suggests it's owned by Troopers Lodge Motor Services, but it doesn't show up on their website. Any of you knowledgeable bus people know any more about it?

1950 AEC Regal lll, with East Lancs body, originally owned by Eastbourne Corporation. 

[High Jetter]

10 minutes ago, artdjones said:

1950 AEC Regal lll, with East Lancs body, originally owned by Eastbourne Corporation. 

Sorry, Regal 111. Forgot to mention about Eastbourne (as I'm sure most of you know, Eastbourne had the first minicipal bus service in the world, 1903). We moved to Eastbourne in 1970, when I was 9 and  would have seen it in service and likely been on it.

[artdjones]

13 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Sorry, Regal 111. Forgot to mention about Eastbourne (as I'm sure most of you know, Eastbourne had the first minicipal bus service in the world, 1903). We moved to Eastbourne in 1970, when I was 9 and  would have seen it in service and likely been on it.

They lasted into the 70s, which is very late for a front engined single decker. Over the next 3-4 years from 1950 underfloor engined buses almost completely took over the municipal single deck market, and as they allowed omo, the front engined single deck buses generally disappeared by the early 60s. A few operators removed the single deck bodies, replaced the chassis side members with the ones from the double deck equivalent model, then put a double deck body on, and got a longer life from them.

[SunnySouth]

19 hours ago, busmansholiday said:

Lots of old shite currently but get there soon as Torquay depot is supposed to be going all electric with in the next year.

Last new deckers were the 67 plate ones for the 12. Last new single decks were the 56 plate Darts, 34866 was still earning it's keep a couple of weeks ago.

Oh, how very tedious 

[Joey spud]

I spied this old girl in serious need of a wash after coming out of storage at Chatham historic dockyard the other day.

[lisbon_road]

1 hour ago, Joey spud said:

I spied this old girl in serious need of a wash after coming out of storage at Chatham historic dockyard the other day.

I'd wondered where that was. Looks like it has been kept dry, that's the main thing.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Joey spud said:

I spied this old girl in serious need of a wash after coming out of storage at Chatham historic dockyard the other day.

I remember going to school on such a bus, maybe even that one.

[artdjones]

17 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

I remember going to school on such a bus, maybe even that one.

It's quite an early Atlantean, 1960. Here it is at 20 years old.

[High Jetter]

I think one of those in Southdown flavour was the first bus I was on that had passenger doors!

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, artdjones said:

It's quite an early Atlantean, 1960. Here it is at 20 years old.

is that a GB sticker on the back?! has that been drive abroad?! can you imagine an Atlantean on the Autobahn! LOL im imagining an 150Mph Audi Bouncing off the rear bustle with the driver of the Atleanten up front non the wiser  

[Metal Guru]

5 hours ago, artdjones said:

It's quite an early Atlantean, 1960. Here it is at 20 years old.

I’d left school by then, M&D seemed to have mostly Atlanteans at the time.

[shampooefficient]

11 hours ago, Joey spud said:

I spied this old girl in serious need of a wash after coming out of storage at Chatham historic dockyard the other day.

On the one hand I'd bloody love to snowfoam that and clean it up. On the other hand my boredom threshold is barely enough to wash a Lupo before I see something shiny and walk off...

[Inspector Morose]

12 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

is that a GB sticker on the back?! has that been drive abroad?! can you imagine an Atlantean on the Autobahn! LOL im imagining an 150Mph Audi Bouncing off the rear bustle with the driver of the Atleanten up front non the wiser  

One day, I'll fill you in on the tale of when a gang of us took a trolleybus and a fleetline to Czechoslovakia for an event being held there by an ex-pat who took over his Warrington RE.

Our adventure didn't end well (at about 2 in the morning when the trolleybus hit a bridge).

[High Jetter]

Looking forward to that.

[Metal Guru]

14 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

is that a GB sticker on the back?! has that been drive abroad?! can you imagine an Atlantean on the Autobahn! LOL im imagining an 150Mph Audi Bouncing off the rear bustle with the driver of the Atleanten up front non the wiser  

It was used in the little known sequel to Cliff’s Summer Holiday starring David Jason and Lorraine Chase. It wasn’t very good and so went straight to video. However at the time , only 5 people in the UK had VCRs ( and two of them were Betamax - it was only released on VHS), so that’s why it’s not well known.

Hope that’s helpful, although anyone could have looked that up.

[martc]

NuT

[martc]

Salford

[martc]

Talking of Atlanteans, here's one in Tehran on the 'Shahr Park to the Square' route apparently. The overlaid rectangles are examples of typical tickets issued at the time.

[martc]

 Old Market Square, City Centre, Nottingham, 1998.

[martc]

[martc]

My favourite Ikarus, the 55, showing off it's engine.

[martc]

Berlin, 1967.

[Yoss]

5 hours ago, martc said:

My favourite Ikarus, the 55, showing off it's engine.

There's room for a couple more seats in there. I'd sit there. 

[Yoss]

One of Bluestars Enviro 400s has just ended up in the river Itchen. 

It was a school bus. Why is it when you hear about a bus crash it is always a school bus? Fifteen injured, two seriously but not life threatening, according to the local paper, which sounds like quite a lucky escape all things considered. 

[SunnySouth]

31 minutes ago, Yoss said:

One of Bluestars Enviro 400s has just ended up in the river Itchen. 

It was a school bus. Why is it when you hear about a bus crash it is always a school bus? Fifteen injured, two seriously but not life threatening, according to the local paper, which sounds like quite a lucky escape all things considered. 

“You can’t park there Sir” etc…

On a serious note, ouch. Various news reports quote the driver as saying at the scene that the throttle jammed open and the brakes were not working - no doubt the cause will be confirmed in the fulness of time, but probably won’t become public knowledge unless a prosecution happens for some reason.

This was one of a handful of ex Travel West Midlands E400s in the fleet, it’ll be interesting to see if the others are out to play as normal tomorrow and over the weekend.

Driver and several passengers in hospital, best wishes to them all.

[Yoss]

40 minutes ago, SunnySouth said:

“You can’t park there Sir” etc…

On a serious note, ouch. Various news reports quote the driver as saying at the scene that the throttle jammed open and the brakes were not working - no doubt the cause will be confirmed in the fulness of time, but probably won’t become public knowledge unless a prosecution happens for some reason.

This was one of a handful of ex Travel West Midlands E400s in the fleet, it’ll be interesting to see if the others are out to play as normal tomorrow and over the weekend.

Driver and several passengers in hospital, best wishes to them all.

I found a video on The Echo website of a rear facing dashcam. He overtakes a slow moving car and that's the last you see as it disappears in to the bushes. But it does look like it's going some which would suggest jammed throttle more than brake failure. Either way I'm going to say again it was a lucky escape. If he hadn't gone in there he would heading over the railway bridge in to Eastleigh 

The no entry sign is where it happened. Had it carried on over the bridge it would have reached that sort of T junction.

And I don't think it would have got round either of those bends upright if it was going at that speed. Or it could have just gone straight on. Or worse it could have happened in the city centre or Shirley High Street.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

One of Bluestars Enviro 400s has just ended up in the river Itchen. 

Waterbus.

[Remspoor]

The videos of the bus crash look frightening.