Bus Shite

[TimothyClaypole]

Over in Slovakia the driver's are partitioned off from the punters so are just driving.

 

No fares to take or some idiot asking for change from £20.

[oman5]

where I live I am a regular bus passenger, I refuse point black to pay for parking in the town. combine this with the fuel cost and the bus route is right past my front door, its cheaper and easier. it amuses me that on the 6 mile, stopping to pick up every few hundred yards bus ride, I am the only one who actually has to pay money to the driver. curse being employed!

Buses are mostly 12-14 year old half size Dennis single deck things, they really struggle on the welsh valley hills

[oman5]

Merthyr Tydfil has a vintage bus show every september, its gotten very popular now and has a good turnout of bus shite. They have free rides around town so its worth a look. heres some spots..

Bristol RE

Bristol MW, harrington cavlier (I think)

volvo ailsa

Interior of Plaxton body AEC reliance

AEC regent decker..this was immaculate inside and out

Leyland Leopard with an o.680. sounds gorgeous

 

I dsperately want a ride on a mk1 Leyland national but nobody is running one

[Split_Pin]

Like the Cardiff Bristol VR. Other than an open top one, I didnt know there were any left.

[oman5]

Like the Cardiff Bristol VR. Other than an open top one, I didnt know there were any left.

 

Is it a VR? I thought it was an ailsa? still I'm not not an expert but can't remember Cardiff corp running Bristols. they ran volvo ailsas well into shitedom, only getting rid of them into the 2000s

[cms206]

Like the Cardiff Bristol VR. Other than an open top one, I didnt know there were any left.

 

Is it a VR? I thought it was an ailsa? still I'm not not an expert but can't remember Cardiff corp running Bristols. they ran volvo ailsas well into shitedom, only getting rid of them into the 2000s

 

 

Aye, it's a Bristol VR. Cardiff bought a rake of them new, all fully auto too - some with ultra-rare Maxwell gearboxes.

[oman5]

ok thanks for that. it was the large black grill on the front that threw me, the national welsh VRTs (and the wilts and dorset ones) had a much smaller mesh grill on the front

[cms206]

ok thanks for that. it was the large black grill on the front that threw me, the national welsh VRTs (and the wilts and dorset ones) had a much smaller mesh grill on the front

 

 

Yeah, it was a feature of the Alexander body (the company who built most bodies on Ailsas) - Bristol VRs, early Dennis Dominators, early MCW Metrobuses, Ailsas, Volvo Citybuses, Leyland Victory 2s, Guy Victorys and Dennis Jubliants among others all carried the same grille.

[quicksilver]

I think it was only Cardiff and Northampton who had VRs with Alexander bodies but Northampton's had two doors. Cardiff also had some similar Alexander-bodied Ailsas bought secondhand from Fife Scottish.

 

Oh, and the Harrington coach is a Grenadier rather than a Cavalier. Good guess though as they're basically very similar.

[cms206]

I think it was only Cardiff and Northampton who had VRs with Alexander bodies but Northampton's had two doors. Cardiff also had some similar Alexander-bodied Ailsas bought secondhand from Fife Scottish.

 

 

And Tayside, who bought long wheelbase VRT/LL3s new with Alexander bodies and two doors. Quite imposing things; myself and a colleague went to look at one with a view to possibly preservation, but it had been wired with mains gas, water and electricity so sadly the deal didn't go ahead...

[quicksilver]

Whoops, forgot the LWB Tayside ones. IIRC they didn't last very long there, are there any left now?

Have a Northampton version:

Payneful memories by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

[cms206]

IIRC The Taybus Preservation Group have one, possibly ex Cedar Coaches, and the one we looked at is possibly still attached to a pub in the Midlands.

[quicksilver]

The Cedar one was OSR204R. Funny you should mention Cedar as they have a decent fleet now but for years were the kings of bus shite in my neck of the woods. They had some weird old rammel, including what seemed like every type of double-decker made in the 70s/80s. Some highlights were Atlanteans and Fleetlines galore, Leyland Lions and Swifts, Dennis Falcons (both of which caught fire...), a Bristol LH, Dennis Lancet, Seddon Pennine, Wright Contour etc etc.

 

Here's a few of their fleet:

Turkish BMC thing with tiny wheels

Turkish delight by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

Greenline Berkhof Tiger

Mount Everest by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

Leyland Lion

Pride of Lions by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

Geordie Atlantean

Exiled Geordie by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

 

HK Dennis Condor

Cedar Condor by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

where I live I am a regular bus passenger, I refuse point black to pay for parking in the town.

 

I am not familiar with any Welsh towns, but in England (apart from the smoke, of course) you can usually park for free just outside of the city centre and walk the last 15 minutes or so. You may, however, need to spend a couple of evenings researching parking restrictions, residential streets etc.

 

 

 

it amuses me that on the 6 mile, stopping to pick up every few hundred yards bus ride, I am the only one who actually has to pay money to the driver.

 

Could be that the more regular passengers just buy an annual pass.

[Split_Pin]

 

This one is an ex Western Scottish example. Very rare in the UK and the only other Scottish operator to buy them was Eastern Scottish.

[oman5]

where I live I am a regular bus passenger, I refuse point black to pay for parking in the town.

 

I am not familiar with any Welsh towns, but in England (apart from the smoke, of course) you can usually park for free just outside of the city centre and walk the last 15 minutes or so. You may, however, need to spend a couple of evenings researching parking restrictions, residential streets etc.

Nope. no parking anywhere in town without pay and display. anyway, I drive all week for my job, its great to let someone else have a go!

 

 

 

it amuses me that on the 6 mile, stopping to pick up every few hundred yards bus ride, I am the only one who actually has to pay money to the driver.

 

Could be that the more regular passengers just buy an annual pass.

 

no, its just that I work funny shifts which means I ride the bus in the daytime when most people apart from pensioners are in work (free bus passes)

[Cavcraft]

[oman5]

bloody hell, a foden bus...hens teeth, that one. does it have the two stroke?

[Cavcraft]

Sadly I haven't a clue, it was at a steam/vintage type fair last year.

[Sam Glover]

Fabulous bus horror. I'm moved to further sully this thread with my own shit bus: a 1971 Duple Viceroy-bodied Bedford VAL70. It's both woefully underpowered and dangerously lacking in structural integrity. This example has the added benefit of being in really bad condition. Quite a lot of the mildew is structural, and the remnants of the rear window can still be seen glistening on the hard shoulder of the A14.

 

Sam

 

 

 

[Pete-M]

Now THAT is impressive. Top Shiteing!

 

Kinda spectacularly cool, too. I take it there's a lot of bodging to do before it sees an MOT then?

[morris_ital_lover]

Jesus wept, that's the most impressive shiteing I've seen for ages!

[dollywobbler]

I love that Sam. Can you get it fixed up in time for an Autoshite summer holiday?

[quicksilver]

OH. MY. GOD. I think you've just won this thread with that baby, it takes shabby chic to a whole new level. I've always loved those VALs and Viceroys are very rare now as Duple bodies of that era seemed to be made of balsa wood panelled in cardboard.

 

It had a sister too, which apparently now has even less structural integrity.

Non-PCV Bedford VAL70 VDX115K at Manby Showground, June 1994 by Scatmancraig1974, on Flickr

[Cavcraft]

Fabulous bus horror. I'm moved to further sully this thread with my own shit bus: a 1971 Duple Viceroy-bodied Bedford VAL70. It's both woefully underpowered and dangerously lacking in structural integrity. This example has the added benefit of being in really bad condition. Quite a lot of the mildew is structural, and the remnants of the rear window can still be seen glistening on the hard shoulder of the A14.

 

Sam

 

 

 

 

Dear God, that's quite simply fantastic. I hope you're planning to do it up?

[Lord Sterling]

THAT is spectacular Sam, seriously.

 

Is that you in the avatar? Looks like a mug shot of a non-paying passenger

[HMC]

Sams bus is simply epic! Hopefully if it returns to the road it can be cosmetically kept in the same perfect 'patinated' state

[oman5]

Even in that condition that VAL is a thing of Beauty! hope you get it done. Does it have the 466 Bedford lump? i was thinking the 500 turbo engine would go straight in if you wanted to risk it!

[RoadworkUK]

A confession Re. Bedford VAL.

 

As you may know, while everbody else my age was playing football and smoking stolen fags in the alley behind the Co-Op, I used to draw cars. This was about ten years before I went to Uni to draw pictures properly, but I digress. When I first started secondary school my exposure to buses became much more pronounced. It wasn't long before I started to phase out drawing cars and started drawing coaches instead.

 

And then came a trip to RAF St Mawgan for the airshow. The planes should have been enough, what with the final flight of a Mosquito on the UK airshow scene, but lurking in the shadows was a Viceroy on a VAL. I knew about VALs, I'd seen The Italian Job like everybody else, but I'd never seen a Duple Viceroy in the flesh before and to say it made an impression was a wholesale understatement.

 

I knew it was twenty years old, but it seemed to have come from some Gerry Anderson parallel future. It looked impossibly rakish, powerful, even sporty with those cowled headlamps. And all that glass. Such a contrast from the Plaxton Viewmasters and Duple Lasers I rode in every day. But most of all it the wheelplan that impressed me. Those smaller wheels helped the proportions and made the whole plot look vast and imposing. Pretty soon crazy rooflines capped everything I drew.

 

I grew out of it after a while and went back to drawing cars, but, just before university temptation got the better of me and I got the pens out again.

 

 

VAL (of obscene length) for the 21st Century. By me, circa 10 years ago.

 

Fantastic work Mr Glover. Salutations.

[pompei]

FAB drawing, to continue the Gerry Anderson theme. You already answered my question, was that the coach used in The Italian Job?