Bus Shite

[Eddie Honda]

Spotted this Alexander Volvo B6? lurking out in Ballinalack, Co Westmeath. 

 

IMG_20170920_121044 by E Honda, on Flickr

 

ridgway by dublintruckandbusphotos, on Flickr

 

'1D' traffic - Ridgway 96-D-64508 by Jonathan McDonnell, on Flickr

[quicksilver]

That's an Olympian, imported from the UK by the look of it. The white one behind it in the last photo is the native Dublin style of Alexander-bodied Olympian.

[Grundig]

A local coach driver back in my earlier days--

12109792_10153020222882127_7898124298526218645_o.jpg

 

The Drivers PSV badge KK = South Eastern Traffic Area

[Eddie Honda]

imported from the UK by the look of it.

The highish registration serial number for the year/county would concur with that thought.

[CreepingJesus]

Maybe it's the shade of red on the lower third suggesting to me, but...could the Dublin Olympian be ex Lothian?

[Eddie Honda]

Maybe it's the shade of red on the lower third suggesting to me, but...could the Dublin Olympian be ex Lothian?

Actually the answer is in another picture:

 

P1010485 by Cathal O'Brien, on Flickr

 

"This Volvo Olympian/Alexander RL was formerly of First Berkshire."

 

 

[rml2345]

Looks like one of the Volvo Olympians new to Strathclyde Buses that were dispersed to the four winds by First over the years.

[cms206]

Spotted this Alexander Volvo B6? lurking out in Ballinalack, Co Westmeath.

 

IMG_20170920_121044 by E Honda, on Flickr

 

ridgway by dublintruckandbusphotos, on Flickr

 

'1D' traffic - Ridgway 96-D-64508 by Jonathan McDonnell, on Flickr

It's one of the P-TGD batch of Volvo Olympians new to First Glasgow, likely to be the only survivor of about 60 of the type.

 

More interestingly for me... whats the Merc? Looks like a London MA which really is an interesting find.

 

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[Eddie Honda]

Sorry it was pishing doon and I couldnae be arse getting out my cab. I'm not sure when I'm next out that way as I'm shunting round the yard tomorrow and Mon/Tue/Wed on local nights.

 

I think the registration is 89-D-52121 - it does look a bit like a MA.

 

All sorts of shite ends up here if you have a scout around. 

[busmansholiday]

Known in this neck of the woods as a Bathgate bin lorry.  

 

I have a (loose) connection with a preserved example, it's awful, not even shite, just shit. Horrific driving position, dreadful brakes and an automatic.  Not BLs finest hour.

 

 

Known in this neck of the woods as a Bathgate bin lorry.  

 

I have a (loose) connection with a preserved example, it's awful, not even shite, just shit. Horrific driving position, dreadful brakes and an automatic.  Not BLs finest hour.

 

Having been brought up on AEC's, nothing BL made was particularly good, but the Cub really was a complete and utter pile of shite, even the manual box ones..

 

A firm I worked for bought a couple of these in the mid 80's but to ensure they were even more shite than usual they had them bodied by that well known coachbuilder, Smith, of Leicester.  Smith were better known for building welfare buses and mobile libraries, and our two handled like they had a library full of books on the roof.  They skipped all over the road when you dared put the breaks on, but the piece de resistance was the boot.  Instead of a normal rear boot, these had the whole of the rear ended hinged at roof level.  Great for loading shelves of library books, or wheel chairs, bollocks all use for normal operations. Even better was the fact that unless you remembered to tie a piece of rope around the internal handle, when you let go the rear went so high you couldn't reach it. You had to climb inside and swing off the rear window rail, Tarzan like,  to get the back to come down again.

 

In a previously unrecorded act of bravery  vandalism, somebody broke into the yard one winter night and decided to set up camp in one of the Cubs.  To keep warm (according to the report the rozzers allegedly gave the boss) they decided to light a fire on this particular cub, which unfortunately got out of hand.  By the time anybody else on the industrial estate saw the flames and rang the fire brigade, the flames had sadly spread to the other cub.  Fortunately, that very night, all the coaches that were in the yard had been parked at the opposite end, away from the Cubs, so whilst both were saldy destroyed, only one other vehicle, which just happened to be the oldest vehicle we had, suffered some minor heat damage.  It's wasn't enough to stop me taking it to Hartlepool the next morning.

 

As drivers, we were obviously saddened by the loss, and decided that if the Police could identify the culprits we'd cheefully by their beer for the following week.

 

 

 

[catsinthewelder]

 

 

 Instead of a normal rear boot, these had the whole of the rear ended hinged at roof level.  Great for loading shelves of library books, or wheel chairs, bollocks all use for normal operations. Even better was the fact that unless you remembered to tie a piece of rope around the internal handle, when you let go the rear went so high you couldn't reach it. You had to climb inside and swing off the rear window rail, Tarzan like,  to get the back to come down again

 

 

Now I've got the image of Andy CMS hurling himself through the air at an oversized hatchback screaming a uniquely Scottish AArrrooooowwwwafuckingooooooooo.

 

 

 

 The white one behind it in the last photo is the native Dublin style of Alexander-bodied Olympian.

 

Thanks for that,  I saw one of these in Ely earlier this week and wondered what it was.

[Felly Magic]

The Optare Crud had concrete weights fitted to the rear of the chassis to try and make them more stable. Hateful things they are

[Asimo]

That - or another very similar in that series of registrations - used to be a caff on the A49 above Leominster.

 

 

This one? (as of yesterday)

[catsinthewelder]

I've been meaning to take a picture of that Atlantian for ages,  it's got a huge rubber bumper on the front so ex-Birmingham?

[quicksilver]

I've been meaning to take a picture of that Atlantian for ages,  it's got a huge rubber bumper on the front so ex-Birmingham?

Ex Nottingham. One of the batch with fairly standard Roe bodies rather than Nottingham's own unique design, but they did have the big bumpers that were a peculiar Nottingham feature.

[busmansholiday]

I never bothered taking a picture of the rear of these bags of shite, as it was embarrassing enough impersonating Tarzan in front of the punters without getting the camera out (no mobile phones or digital cameras in those days) . I think I've a shot of one of the two somewhere and a couple after that fatefull night...

[meshking]

Attention bus lickers, would you like to

 

1) impress* your friends with your encyclopedic knowledge of pre 1987 London buses?

2) drool at the black and white photos of some of the finest buses to grace greater Londons streets?

3) marvel at the sheer number of buses a person from the past has ticked off in a small booklet?

 

Then I have just the thing for you... Available for the cost of postage donated to this websites running costs.

 

 

Sent from my SGP621 using Tapatalk

[atlantean]

Attention bus lickers, would you like to

 

1) impress* your friends with your encyclopedic knowledge of pre 1987 London buses?

2) drool at the black and white photos of some of the finest buses to grace greater Londons streets?

3) marvel at the sheer number of buses a person from the past has ticked off in a small booklet?

 

Then I have just the thing for you... Available for the cost of postage donated to this websites running costs.

 

 

Sent from my SGP621 using Tapatalk

  Is it sad that most of my friends would actually be impressed with this?

[Vantman]

East Kent Road Car Co---- Bedford VAS1/Marshall B29F

[busmansholiday]

So am I !!

That's one of the ex GM Mk I Metrobuses on the front. Speaking of which, M1055 is still very much alive and well (well, was two weeks ago) in Bulgaria

[Six-cylinder]

I drove though Ayesbury this afternoon at the end of school home time and spotted 4 school double deckers returning empty. 1989, 1991, 2x 1999 is this a typical age for school buses?

[cms206]

I drove though Ayesbury this afternoon at the end of school home time and spotted 4 school double deckers returning empty. 1989, 1991, 2x 1999 is this a typical age for school buses?

Really depends on the council area Chris; five of my fleet om schools still have flying plugholes, the eldest dating from 1984. On the other side of Scotland, Fife Council have a very strict age limit and the vehicles must be DDA compliant.

 

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[chaseracer]

Good to see the A49 Atlantean back on bacon duty - it disappeared for a while.

[lisbon_road]

What's a Flying Plughole?

 

With regard to Schoolbuses, I think it also depends if the school bus route is registered as a proper bus service.  Some are, so people could actually get on and pay a fare to go somewhere; generally no-one does, but it means that they need to be DDA compliant.  That happened with the Lydney service of Chepstow Classic bus which stopped being Bristol VR/Leyland Olympian when the DDA legislation for 'deckers came in.

[Inspector Morose]

[Six-cylinder]

When I went to school we had coaches from our village to High Wycombe, most of the time we got old Bedfords looking something like this.  I know one of them was 1960 and I guess that was about 1972 so just 12 years old!

[Vantman]

[Six-cylinder]

The Leyland Olympian K575 RRH I spotted a few months ago disappeared and as it was out of MOT I feared for its life.

 

It turned up again today parked where it was so I checked and it has been MOTed 27 Oct 2017, well I think that is great news!

 

It was done in Daventry with one advisory "Nearside rear air dryer unit starting to pass oil", what is an air dryer unit?

[Guest Hooli]

An air dryer unit dries air...

 

It's part of the brakes etc that use compressed air as you don't want damp air going into the tanks & rotting them along with all the pipe work.

[Six-cylinder]

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A bonus Visa is hiding in the background!