Bus Shite

[Christine]

Has this brochure book got value  ? Some random pics ...

 

 

 

 

 

[Christine]

1951  Park Royal  Export brochure  is what it is ..my word the power of google !  Its all online here 

http://www.brindale.co.uk/ach/prv_site/site_index/prv_site_frames.htm?http://www.brindale.co.uk/ach/prv_site/prv_export_brochure.htm

 

[Inspector Morose]

That looks very much like the sister to UMP227, the first AEC Regal IV and demonstrator. This chassis was the second built and was identical to UMP, albeit left hand drive. Around the time of that book, UMP had been slightly rebuilt, losing the swept wheel arches.

Happily UMP still exists and has been restored back to its original appearance (it had gained. A semi-automatic box when used as a hack by AEC after its demonstration duties had ended).

[Yoss]

11 hours ago, Christine said:

Has this brochure book got value  ? Some random pics ...

 

 

 

 

 

That must have some value but I have no idea what. But definitely don't throw that away. Its a bit early for my era being an ex Routemaster owner but they were built at Park Royal from 1954 so definitely from the same family. 

If nobody else wants it I will start a discussion with you about it. 

[Christine]

You can rehome it to a good place?   its yours then ... i dont want to see it on  ebay in future tho .There's more...

..  l haven't had time to go through properly , i was binning a lot all day ..i did  put some full size blueprints of bus and lorry shite to one side ....I thought someone would want them .. unfortunately  folded not rolled ! 

[Yoss]

I certainly wouldn't put it on ebay if only because I can't be arsed with that sort of thing any more. I buy stuff off it but never sell! 

On a more serious note it looks like a nice thing to have so I would probably keep it. I still know a few people in Routemaster circles who might appreciate it but I don't see them that often

I once found this lot in a skip on my delivery. Best thing I've ever found in a skip. No use to me at all but they look nice so I kept them. 

Mrs Yoss thinks I'm a hoarder. 

[Christine]

I have a new cusion.. luckily it was in an airtight bag ,so its not musty smelling like everything else

[Inspector Morose]

There was a fantastic book from the late 70s that gave a year by year photographic record of Park Royals output, all using factory photos. It's tremendous (there's also an Alexander one). If you can find one, it's a fascinating resource. 

If there's no takers fof it, it can have a home in my archive - how do you think I've got to know all this shit? My library of rare and unusual books, records, photos and other ephemera is probably up to about three bookcases worth (disregarding all the stuff lost during the 'purge' of about 12 years ago).

[Snipes]

5 minutes ago, Inspector Morose said:

(disregarding all the stuff lost during the 'purge' of about 12 years ago).

I'll always remember my Mum pushing my Dad to downsize his considerable bus and train paraphernalia collection by selling it on eBay, only for him to discover a whole new resource from which to source new purchases lol.

 

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Inspector Morose said:

There was a fantastic book from the late 70s that gave a year by year photographic record of Park Royals output, all using factory photos. It's tremendous (there's also an Alexander one). If you can find one, it's a fascinating resource. 

If there's no takers fof it, it can have a home in my archive - how do you think I've got to know all this shit? My library of rare and unusual books, records, photos and other ephemera is probably up to about three bookcases worth (disregarding all the stuff lost during the 'purge' of about 12 years ago).

I'd be happy for you to take it. It sounds like a good home for it. 

[RoadworkUK]

Whatever you do, don't bin any bus / coach / bodywork brochures if you find them! Fabulous things to leaf through.

This is one of my favourite online resources / rabbitholes: https://www.wikibus.org/library/brochures

[Christine]

Monocoach 

[danthecapriman]

Never seen these before,

Presumably some sort of exhibition vehicle? 
Looks pretty good in that colour scheme though. I wonder if they were sold and reused or scrapped.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

5 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Never seen these before,

Presumably some sort of exhibition vehicle? 
Looks pretty good in that colour scheme though. I wonder if they were sold and reused or scrapped.

I wonder if it was converted from one of the old Midland Bank Nationals?

Also, I wonder what happened to the Scottish Prison Service Nationals- pictures of these appeared in Doug Jack's The Leyland Bus Mk2.

[Yoss]

6 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Never seen these before,

Presumably some sort of exhibition vehicle? 
Looks pretty good in that colour scheme though. I wonder if they were sold and reused or scrapped.

Well that's obviously taken at a bus rally so it must have survived at least for a while, although of course being a National there is no guarantee as the rust takes hold in the frame. 

[lisbon_road]

2 hours ago, Yoss said:

Well that's obviously taken at a bus rally so it must have survived at least for a while, although of course being a National there is no guarantee as the rust takes hold in the frame. 

Tax due 2002 but still on DVLA register.  It might be somewhere.  

[danthecapriman]

Just found another photo of it.

Reading the description on Flickr, it had some serious work and money spent on it including a kitchen, fully furnished office and even its own onboard generator set! 
It seems to have had a very easy life too, sitting in a heated garage until a fast response was needed. I don’t think rust would be an issue with this one! 
Still no idea what happened to it though.

[danthecapriman]

2 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Just found another photo of it.

Reading the description on Flickr, it had some serious work and money spent on it including a kitchen, fully furnished office and even its own onboard generator set! 
It seems to have had a very easy life too, sitting in a heated garage until a fast response was needed. I don’t think rust would be an issue with this one! 
Still no idea what happened to it though.

Here it is in its previous owners livery.

The conversion, apparently, was to a mobile incident response unit.

[SunnySouth]

On 28/06/2025 at 21:25, Yoss said:

I certainly wouldn't put it on ebay if only because I can't be arsed with that sort of thing any more. I buy stuff off it but never sell! 

On a more serious note it looks like a nice thing to have so I would probably keep it. I still know a few people in Routemaster circles who might appreciate it but I don't see them that often

I once found this lot in a skip on my delivery. Best thing I've ever found in a skip. No use to me at all but they look nice so I kept them. 

Mrs Yoss thinks I'm a hoarder. 

Don’t ever throw that lot away! Train stuff will always have a value, worst case donate it to a heritage railway if the need to get rid ever arises!

[lisbon_road]

38 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Just found another photo of it.

Reading the description on Flickr, it had some serious work and money spent on it including a kitchen, fully furnished office and even its own onboard generator set! 
It seems to have had a very easy life too, sitting in a heated garage until a fast response was needed. I don’t think rust would be an issue with this one! 
Still no idea what happened to it though.

Looks like this was originally a Northern General National which then passed to Alder Valley and then to British Gas, who according to a note on the internet, fitted it out but never used it as intended.  Whilst it may well not have gone rusty during its time with BG, a long life in the North East is unlikely to have been kind to it.  Who knows?  

[danthecapriman]

38 minutes ago, lisbon_road said:

Looks like this was originally a Northern General National which then passed to Alder Valley and then to British Gas, who according to a note on the internet, fitted it out but never used it as intended.  Whilst it may well not have gone rusty during its time with BG, a long life in the North East is unlikely to have been kind to it.  Who knows?  

Seems to have been converted around 1988/89 ish, so it’d already had a good decade in use as a bus, so it’d already certainly wouldn’t have been in pristine condition, especially from use in the heathen north! 
The photo of it in a show apparently was its first outing after conversion which was September 89. 
It’s incredibly really they spent so much time and effort on building it for it to just sit unused for most of its life.

Still, it’d be a fantastic thing to find! Imagine if it’s been sat in a barn somewhere ever since. 
Weird that it’s just not showing anything on DVLA since 2002 though. Even if it was exported it’d say that on the system.

[Snipes]

Have they built anything like that more recently?

[danthecapriman]

4 minutes ago, Snipes said:

Have they built anything like that more recently?

I’d be very surprised. 
Usually when companies go private all that sort of thing stops and they just go with ‘off the shelf’ vehicles and equipment. Most of it is on lease deals too so it gets issued out to a driver new, gets run for the lease period then gets returned for a new equivalent. Not many companies keep their own vehicles for long nowadays.

[Yoss]

8 hours ago, SunnySouth said:

Don’t ever throw that lot away! Train stuff will always have a value, worst case donate it to a heritage railway if the need to get rid ever arises!

I never would. I may not have made it clear quite how happy I was when I found them. 

The Leyland books are for the O680 engine. I owned an O600 at the time, which is essentially the same thing, and whilst I never needed any engine work it was nice to be able to see how it all worked. 

The Paxman Ventura was used in a few early BR diesels but more importantly it was the predecessor of the Valenta which went on to power the HSTs so really did have a massive impact on the British railway scene. And the little book on the far right has English Electric stamped on it. My heart jumped when I saw that in the skip. Although it says Air Ministry Contract on it the English Electric 16 csvt went on to power the Class 40s and 50s, the latter of which, in my mind, is the ultimate in railway diesel traction. So no I won't be throwing them away. 

[cms206]

22 hours ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Also, I wonder what happened to the Scottish Prison Service Nationals- pictures of these appeared in Doug Jack's The Leyland Bus Mk2.

The Mk2 - C974 PFS from memory - was converted to a normal bus and I think ended it's days with Happy Als.

The Mk1s - ASC 139/40S - were both still taxed until *very* recently but both actually passed to John Morrow Coaches, Clydebank for spares in 1992.

[cms206]

In other news, London has been a burocratic fuckup so far 😂

Finally got to drive yesterday - electric Enviro 400 'Ee99' for an hour's driving assesment out of Camberwell - before being passed over to Commercial today for induction at 10am... and by 2pm I'd been given my first set of jobs.

Today's first chariot, and my first solo drive for Go Ahead London, was Enviro 200 'SE208' from Stockwell over to River Road in Barking... 

... with 'LT486' returning the opposite way; this swap took over five hours with horrific traffic. I was never type trained for LTs at Stagecoach East London, but apparantly we don't hold much with that at commercial so after type training myself we set off with a pre-cracked screen.

 

Next was Bexleyheath to collect Enviro E400 'E190'; no pics as BX was in full flow with buses returning by the time I got there at 10pm. Duly dropped this at River Road for the final move of the night, new BYD integral 'EBD12' from River Road to Camberwell.

EBD12 was not at River Road.

Waited over an hour for someone to run it back to the garage... they look like a Temu Enviro 400MMC but they really seem well put together, certainly leagues ahead of the ADL bodied BYDs and much, much nicer to drive.

Dropped off at Camberwell for 0050, on an N68 at 0115ish and back to this stay's digs for 0230.

 

Tomorrow I am allegedly on the N15 out of Henley Road, Sunday rail replacement Tunbridge Wells to Battle with a single decker out of New Cross, then five days on Wimbledon; next weekend looks like Central Line replacement out Loughton way, then probably three days of bus moves before I head north on the 16th.

[busmansholiday]

22 hours ago, Snipes said:

Have they built anything like that more recently?

A few fire brigades and BBC Radio stations had East Lancs bodied Darts built to be mobile command centres / studios. 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

1 hour ago, busmansholiday said:

A few fire brigades and BBC Radio stations had East Lancs bodied Darts built to be mobile command centres / studios. 

A mate of mine sent a pic of an Optare Solo type thing operated by LFB for LFB things!

A surprising choice given their legendary* reliability*...

[willswitchengage]

Explain this one... Spanish registered lorry carrying RHD Scania coach chassis out of the UK 🤔

I like the driver's chair

[martc]

Is it on it's way to 

1 hour ago, willswitchengage said:

Explain this one... Spanish registered lorry carrying RHD Scania coach chassis out of the UK 🤔

 

Could it have been imported here for a UK body builder, the order cancelled and then sent on to a Spanish body builder and will be returned back here* once built?

*or some other RHD country