Bus Shite

[busmansholiday]

Here's another converted Olympian that I came across in a pub car park in Scarborough recently. Ex London but with a fair bit of North Yorks history as well.

 

When I spoke with the owners they didn't realise it was a 'red bus' as they put it originally.

[Felly Magic]

Ex Lodge's of Essex too, still in their livery under the vinyl graphics

[busmansholiday]

My sister came across this in Lowestoft recently. I've tried persuading Mrs BMH that it would be far more fun than the Ducato motorhome we have but she doesn't believe me for some reason.

[Six-cylinder]

I have been to see a friend in Milton Keynes today and on his estate there is a Leyland Olympian parked. I asked my friend and he said some people in the next street were converting it into a camper, but had not worked on it for 2-3 months. It seems it was red and white when it arrived and that have painted it black since it was there. Looking at it on google and it started as a Lothian Bus.

 

Looking it up (K876 CSF), it is taxed but no MOT details, does this mean it is still tested as a PSV? Can you look up PSV tests?

[tooSavvy]

 

I have been to see a friend in Milton Keynes today and on his estate there is a Leyland Olympian parked. I asked my friend

 

 

OK.... I will admit you had me going - just up to 'next street'.. lol

 

Estate... Corr, Missta

 

 

TS

[wuvvum]

Just found this whilst doing a Google image search - Citroën Belphégor bus.  Looks, um, interesting.

 

[Inspector Morose]

You know, I love it when those who have little interest in buses post things up in this thread. It shows that there are people who think "I think this is dull and tedious but I know someone might me interested in this". This is what I like about this forum.

[Felly Magic]

I spotted that Lodekka camper in August in Norwich near the bus depot

[Yoss]

Ok, been going through my archives again.

 

August bank holiday weekend 1987. The staff at Finchley Garage organised a four day trip from London to Scotland with their showbus RML 903. I know some of you will be groaning at Routemaster content but stick with me there's plenty of non RM action.

 

Day 1 - Finchley to Penrith.

 

We arrived very very early, I mean like 5am. Wandered round to the garage and found this.

903 had been freshly painted and had special adverts made up for Finchley Garage. It was also the first time we'd seen the yellow and red London Buses roundel (they'd just been plain white until then). It's worth saying that all London bus garages were NOT the same. Some took great pride in their buses and some didn't. Finchley were one of the best up there with Mortlake and Upton Park. It's a tragedy that all three no longer exist.

 

Anyway actual departure was at 7am from Tally Ho Corner (fabulous name for a bus terminus)

 

First stop was Stevensons of Uttoxeter. This is quite a long way from Finchley at 42mph and what most of us realised was we should have used the loo before we left. A lesson I've not forgotten to this day.

 

This is Stevensons yard.

The National was a taste of things to come!

 

Then we moved on to Manchester and tea had been arranged at Hyde Garage canteen (It was a spectacularly well arranged trip). We were given free reign to wander round the depot, cant see that happening now.

 

Here's some pictures inside and outside the depot. Someone else here will know more about these than I do, feel free to chip in. Lots of GM Standards but I'm not sure if they're Atlanteans or Fleetlines or both.

This dates it! Iveco Turbo Daily. These sprung up everywhere and then disappeared again just as quickly.

 

First nights stop, Penrith Station Hotel.

More to follow later.

[Inspector Morose]

Some gems there. The blue and cream bus behind the Stevensons Titan is an ex WMPTE ex LT DMS type Fleetline. Some garages took the non standard DMSs as a challenge to WMPTEise them and so got fitted with WMPTE standard indicators, windows and seating. That one was one of two (I think) that got a complete WMPTE destination panel and blinds. Unfortunately it didn't quite fit as only three track number blinds could be fitted instead of the usual four.

 

As delivered from Ensign.

 

As "customised".

[Guest Hooli]

We had one of those Iveco Daily heaps when I was at Stagecoach in Worthing. It was a pile of shite, heaters jammed on full & the only manual bus in the depot so the new 'uns got to avoid it as they trained on autos. It used to rattle about the no16 so slow you'd drop an entire run on each shift.

[Yoss]

Some gems there. The blue and cream bus behind the Stevensons Titan is an ex WMPTE ex LT DMS type Fleetline. Some garages took the non standard DMSs as a challenge to WMPTEise them and so got fitted with WMPTE standard indicators, windows and seating. That one was one of two (I think) that got a complete WMPTE destination panel and blinds. Unfortunately it didn't quite fit as only three track number blinds could be fitted instead of the usual four.

As delivered from Ensign.

image.jpeg

As "customised".

image.jpeg

See, that's why I like this place. We are mainly a car forum but still people come up with stuff like this. I could see it was ex WM but wouldn't have known it was ex LT as well.

[Zelandeth]

Every time I run past this thread I find myself realising how much I miss getting to spend time around these vehicles...Really need to get my backside in order and wander over to the bus museum in Oxford sometime.

[Yoss]

Day 2. Penrith to Glasgow.

 

That doesn't sound too far does it? But this was one action packed day. First of all the border at Gretna.

Where this turned up.

Note also that we had special blinds made up for every leg of the journey. Did I mention it was a very well organised trip?

 

Saw this sign and had to stop for a photo.

Well it would be rude not to. I think this was the old A74 before it became the M74. Looking at the pictures it did look like quite a dangerous place to stop and wander about.

 

I think this is Motherwell garage.

I'm not saying this from memory, I found this.

 

Then onto Whitburn bus museum.

I should have taken more pictures there but I didn't.

 

Then onto Glasgow. Lots of these about.

Alexander bodied Leopards. The national bus of Scotland.

 

This is Thornliebank garage.

From here RML 903 was put into service on Clydesides route 10/11. At the same time Clydeside gave us RM 447 to follow with. Some of these pictures were taken from the platform of 447. There were about fifteen of us on the platform and stairs!

 

And one more for today. Saab Routemaster.

This is RM 17 which still exists. Wouldn't it be good to return it to this livery. Make a change from all the red and would really stand out at a rally.

 

Day 3 tomorrow.

 

Oh actually one more thing. If we look at this again.

Halfway down the second page it says L613 and a * tells me that was a Clydeside Leopard which did prick my memory. They gave us this to go and get some chips! With a Clydeside driver of course because he knew where the best chippy was. What more could you want.

[dollywobbler]

I bloody loved those DMS Fleetlines when I was a kid. The doors opened to the middle as I recall, which was just the bets thing ever. Apart from slammy Mk1 Metrobus doors perhaps.

 

The DMSs weren't around for long though.

[HairySteve]

RML903...

 

Lives on as the Metroline/Westbus wedding/funeral/bar mitzvah private hire Routemaster. Usually parked up at Holloway garage, provides a nice place for a couple of hours sleep on a spreadover.

[CreepingJesus]

The Glasgow pics look like only the other week to me...!

[Inspector Morose]

I bloody loved those DMS Fleetlines when I was a kid. The doors opened to the middle as I recall, which was just the bets thing ever. Apart from slammy Mk1 Metrobus doors perhaps.

The DMSs weren't around for long though.

About five years if I recall correctly. Bought in a part ex deal with Ensign to replace the native jumbo 33ft Fleetlines as they had major structural issues and were running out of certification (no MoT in those days but a certification for a fixed number of years based on condition and the ministry mans whim) all were gone by late 85/early 86.

[RoadworkUK]

 

I used to enjoy this very DMS every day before and after school, circa '91 to '92.

 

Years later, I charted its history, and it seems to have gone to America, after a spell with the Big Bus sightseeing company in London. Astonishing, really, as I thought it was on its last legs in the early '90s.

 

Full write-up: bit.ly/2im8tgZ

[busmansholiday]

Back in July 1978, a group of about 12 of us that were associated with the preservation of ex Sheffield 874, an Alexander bodied Regent V took it for a weeks touring holiday in Scotland, bit Cliff Richard style but without the singing and low bridge!.  It was a bit of a bus mans holiday for me as I'd only returned to Sheffield the month before having been working at Rosyth dockyard in Fife the previous 6 months. We'd actually taken her to London (traditional picture on Westminster Bridge, but with a Metro Scania Decker passing her) as well as to Portsmouth the previous month for a long weekend and bus rally.

Built to cope with Sheffield's notorious hills, she had (and still has) a top speed of 37MPH.  That extra 5MPH of RML903 would have taken just a little bit of the boredom out of the slow progress we made on both trips. 

[Yoss]

^ We need pictures of this ^

[busmansholiday]

I will see what I can find. They'll be slides so need to dig the scanner out as well.

That'll be another reason for not sorting out the oil leak on the wife's C3.

[Yoss]

Day 3. Glasgow to Newcastle.

 

Day 3 was fairly quiet. We stopped off for the obligatory tourist shot in Princes Street, Edinburgh.

Then popped into a bus rally in Dunbar but none of the pics were that interesting so I've skipped that.

 

This is a nice scenic shot somewhere on the north east coast though I've no idea where.

 

 

Day 4. Newcastle to London.

 

Some men watch a bus starting up.

The chap in the middle is Ernie. I met him on this trip and 18 months later I bought RM 2037 with him and my other friend Barry. The guy on the right is Graham, co owner of RM 2116 who convinced us on the night of the last Routemasters in Southampton that buying an RM was feasible and not a completely stupid thing to do. Me and Barry were 19 at the time and the most expensive thing I'd ever bought was probably my camera (Canon T70 if anyone's interested). We couldn't even drive a car.

 

Ernie sadly died a couple of years ago and we took the bus, by then owned wholly by me (there's another story there, but another time) to his funeral full of all his friends. Interesting fact - the gates of Mortlake crematorium are about 4 inches wider than an RM.

 

Anyway back to the trip. The above picture was actually Newcastle university halls of residence that were empty because August.

 

Then we went for some more tourist shots

The lorry driver coming up the inside could have ruined this but realised what was going on (there were about 20 people stood around me with cameras) and held back.

 

Obviously no mobile phones back then, we just stopped the bus on the other side of the bridge and said give us five minutes. This was the other side.

I included this shot mainly for the Fiesta van! We all like old vans here don't we.

 

And this Olympian must have been nearly new at the time.

 

This is at some random services on the A1.

We used to see these Newcastle Clipper Metroliners in London all the time. It was only on seeing this picture that I realised you don't anymore. I dont know who they were, I assume they were part of some bigger bus group but i dont know who. Someone else will.

 

A quick trip to Sandtoft trolleybus museum was not entirely unexpected.

 

But the highlight of the day was stopping off at RAF Dishforth. This was a masterstroke and whoever thought of it deserves a round of applause. Star exhibit was this Bristol K.

Which my notes tell me

Was registered JHT 122 though there's no sign of the reg in the photos. And what is that lorry between the two buses. The Bristol was apparently a mobile canteen.

 

But then they they started driving the buses up an down the runway!

This was taken from the Bristol with both buses moving. And they were letting anybody drive, not just bus drivers.

 

One more random services on the way home.

And that was it.

[Grundig]

Anybody remember the Coach Europe dream?

 

 

[busmansholiday]

Have to say I don't. I do remember British Coachways (I've a tie somewhere) who briefly competed with National Express. This was a few operators who joined together, if I remember correctly this included Grey Green, Tratherns, Wallace Arnold amongst others.

I also seem to remember that as part of this Wallies Trollies put in an application for a Leeds, Sheffield London express service. It was rejected by the traffic commissioners when they did some simple maths on the timings. The Sheffield London bit worked out to have an average speed of 70 mph, doable in the late 70's in s Reliance, but hardly legally.

[AndyW201]

I believe Armstrong Galley was a coach firm that was taken over by the Tyne & Wear PTE. Presumably the name lived on with the formation of the Busways group sometime in the mid 80s. Busways were later taken over by Stagecoach.

I well remember the former Busways Atlanteans plodding on in service around Middlesbrough and Stockton in Stagecoach colours.

 

[tooSavvy]

^^^ a Geordie, me, sitting in traffic [as you do!] spent a fair part of my life behind T&W Atlanteans.

Sickyellow+Cream...

SCN xxS seems burned in somewhere. There are deffo some (1+ poss?) still in SickyellCreem for preserved.

 

 

TS

[tooSavvy]

WonKeepeeja....

 

Armstrong Galley[edit]

On 24 August 1973, Tyne & Wear PTE acquired two associated Newcastle-based businesses, R Armstrong (Bus Proprietor) Ltd. and Galley’s Coaches Ltd., and immediately the "Armstrong Galley" name was adopted for the PTE's coaching and private hire division. Initially retaining the original PTE yellow and cream colours (of Newcastle Corporation),^[22] a new colour scheme of mid-blue with yellow, orange and red stripes was adopted around 1980.^[23] Armstrong Galley introduced a flagship service to London in the early 1980s, competing with National Express, and branded "Non-Stop Clipper".^[24][25] and used the striking 3 axle double deck coach, the MCW Metroliner. The Armstrong Galley operations continued unchanged with the creation of Busways in October 1986, but in the early 1990s it expanded into low-cost bus operation (using other divisions' cast-offs),^[26] culminating in an "Armstrong Galley Buses" operation being set up. These vehicles used a livery of mid-blue and white^[27] After the Stagecoach takeover, the Armstrong Galley operations were closed down, with buses being transferred to Blue Bus Services.

 

TS

[cms206]

Oh actually one more thing. If we look at this again.

20171115_194601.jpg

Halfway down the second page it says L613 and a * tells me that was a Clydeside Leopard which did prick my memory. They gave us this to go and get some chips! With a Clydeside driver of course because he knew where the best chippy was. What more could you want.

L613 would have been M613 by this time as Clydeside didn't use chassis designations and an L would denote Largs depot... unless it was still red & cream and they hadn't bothered. 613 had been a Thornliebank bus from new (hence the M depot code... aye!) when it had been delivered to Western SMT as their ML2613. It passed to Ulsterbus as their 1885 in 1988.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[quicksilver]

WonKeepeeja....

 

Armstrong Galley[edit]

On 24 August 1973, Tyne & Wear PTE acquired two associated Newcastle-based businesses, R Armstrong (Bus Proprietor) Ltd. and Galley’s Coaches Ltd., and immediately the "Armstrong Galley" name was adopted for the PTE's coaching and private hire division. Initially retaining the original PTE yellow and cream colours (of Newcastle Corporation),^[22] a new colour scheme of mid-blue with yellow, orange and red stripes was adopted around 1980.^[23] Armstrong Galley introduced a flagship service to London in the early 1980s, competing with National Express, and branded "Non-Stop Clipper".^[24][25] and used the striking 3 axle double deck coach, the MCW Metroliner. The Armstrong Galley operations continued unchanged with the creation of Busways in October 1986, but in the early 1990s it expanded into low-cost bus operation (using other divisions' cast-offs),^[26] culminating in an "Armstrong Galley Buses" operation being set up. These vehicles used a livery of mid-blue and white^[27] After the Stagecoach takeover, the Armstrong Galley operations were closed down, with buses being transferred to Blue Bus Services.

 

TS

I have a mug somewhere with an Armstrong Galley Metroliner on that I found in a charity shop. The blue livery was actually a Scania demonstrator colour scheme adopted by TWPTE after they bought an ex-demonstrator and liked the colours. One of my local firms, Marshalls of Leighton Buzzard, did exactly the same so the AG livery always seemed familiar to me. Marshalls did have a second-hand Metroliner in the late 1990s but sadly never put the stripes on it, otherwise it would have looked like an AG coach.

 

Marshalls SJI 8102 by Adam Floyd, on Flickr