Bus Shite

[Rover414]

7 hours ago, busmansholiday said:

Not be getting any more Streetshites as Wright went tits up begining of the month.

Wright have been saved by Jo Bamford's Bamford Bus Company so assume once they get back on track it will be fairly business as usual.

[somewhatfoolish]

2 hours ago, Rover414 said:

Wright have been saved by Jo Bamford's Bamford Bus Company so assume once they get back on track it will be fairly business as usual.

Given business as usual involved giving most of the profits to the church of latter-day morons I hope not.

No pic as I didn't have my phone, but yesterday I saw a Worst doubledecker in a faux SPT orange colour scheme; is this a one-off or are there going to be more? I felt quite nostalgic seeing it having spent my youth watching orange Atlanteans belching clag in Glasgow traffic, it looked a lot nicer than the peelywhally pastel shades rubbish Worst have at the moment.

 

Edit; here it is!

[busmansholiday]

All the big bus companies have buses painted in 'heritage' liveries, depends on what they can use as an excuse.

[busmansholiday]

3 hours ago, Rover414 said:

Wright have been saved by Jo Bamford's Bamford Bus Company so assume once they get back on track it will be fairly business as usual.

Must have sorted out the 'lease' costs for the plant as that was the stumbling block as they (one of the Wrights who owned it) allegedly wanted a million a year.

So the BBC now have a bus company to accurately report on...

 

[Rover414]

I believe the factory has been sold to them along with Wrightbus itself.

Anyway, on top of the Solo and Olympian I have another bus has joined our little stable more recently. Probably a bit modern but it is getting on for near 15 years old now, though the insurance company were in two minds as to weather they were going to insure it or not on my classic bus policy.

 

[busmansholiday]

Cannot say moderns do that much for me, but I suppose that a 15 year old bus in my yoouuuth, when I really started being interested in them was built in the mid 50's.

Saying that, somewhere, I used to have a Grey Green tie from the early 80's as a mate of mine worked for them. Never dared wear it for work, although the British Coachways one he swooped for an official NBC badge so he could get into the staff canteen at Victoria I did. One punter noticed it and laughed, management didn't notice.

 

[Zelandeth]

Still haven't driven a bloody Dart, in any form...that and a B10 based PS are two gaping holes in my bus driving experience. 
 

I know the Darts are bloody hopeless, but that doesn't stop me wanting a go of one.  Doesn't mean I won't like it either.  I know the old Bedford Y series coaches were utter trash compared to the Volvos, AECs etc of the time...but I still fell in love with the way my mate's YNT drove the moment I drove it the first time...

 

[cms206]

Me in June 2011 on what I expect was a Saturday board as I never normally had Darts - I was a 3 pedal pilot so normally always had my trusty Wadham Stringer 709D.

Note the spotless cab, uniformed driver and correctly set destination for the journey back to Paisley.

[Pillock]

Went to the Nottingham Heritage Vehicles open day a few weeks back. Not a massive thing, but free to wander in and we were visiting friends not far away anyway. If you were in the market for models you'd have been quids in, everything was a tenner. Their depot is the old Trent Buses shed in Hucknall.

Anyway, there were the normal Nottingham Standard stuff (feel free to chime in with the names and bodies of stuff, I'll not guess as I'll only look stupid)

I certainly remember catching these as a nipper from the bottom of Bells Lane in Cinderhill, near my grandparents. I think the 91 went into the city? Distinctly remember those funny shaped indicators, but then also having a game of spot the difference when I realised they also ran these...

... which would have been a lot newer than the top picture (I'm talking maybe the mid 1980s). I guess this is the Nottingham Standard Bus in action?

 

Further into the shed there's some work in progress, like this - the bumpf explains they found a lot of corrosion and damage in the roof so have lopped it off.

This also had some history, I've forgotten most of it but I'm sure it said it was a Nottingham City Coaches vehicle - subtly different as it had coach seating and was in the "Harrods" livery, and then went to a company called "Moving People" hence the stickers. It's currently registered as VIL3382 if anyone wants to look it up.

Next up was this, erm, bus. It's a C reg which makes it ancient but just goes to show how little design moved on from this to the X reg further up.

Crusty.

On the wall was a little A4 page on each of their buses, some of them stored elsewhere.  Both myself and Mrs_Pillock were disheartened to hear that many of the vehicles we used to catch in regular service (such as for me, a Trent Leyland Olympian and for her, a Nottingham City B10M) are now classed as Heritage Vehicles.

There was also a write-up for this

which was apparently a donation that was too rotten to use. I remember those being brand new to service! They're going to refit the cab and use it as a similator.

 

As you'd expect, they were also running some shuttles. I didn't realise a lot of their bodywork was done though Paul S Winson and they also have one or two preserved buses with that livery on.

[Zelandeth]

That last one's an oddball...Racking my brain.

Unicar?

[quicksilver]

It's a Unicar GT80 on a Bedford YMT. If memory serves me correctly it was Paul Winson's first coach and ended up in Malta, from where he brought it back and restored it a few years ago.

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, cms206 said:

Me in June 2011 on what I expect was a Saturday board as I never normally had Darts - I was a 3 pedal pilot so normally always had my trusty Wadham Stringer 709D.

Note the spotless cab, uniformed driver and correctly set destination for the journey back to Paisley.

Wadham Stringer...

Not a name you hear of too often.

Two regulars I used to see in Aberdeen.

 

[busmansholiday]

Ah, Nottingham, did a bit of my PSV driver training there back in the late 70's on an ex Portsmouth PD2.  Always liked their different attitude to bus design, single entry door so no sneaking on and avoiding paying, destinations designed so passengers could see them and a decent colour scheme.

[cms206]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Wadham Stringer...

Not a name you hear of too often.

Two regulars I used to see in Aberdeen.

 

Mine was a wee one - a late model Wessex 2. Did 77mph flat out too, allegedly*.

[Zelandeth]

Odd seeing those without Plaxton bodywork!

Let me guess...drove lovely with the exception of violent clutch judder?  Never been in a 709 that doesn't do that.

The sound of that engine though is one of those things indelibly imprinted on my memory and will always immediately bring a major pang of nostalgia.

So...does the Wessex leak less than a Beaver?

The one which was the first leg of my hour and a half school bus journey was on an M plate Beaver 2 which drove well, but leaked like a bloody sieve (replaced when the contract went to another company with a H plate Transit with the noisiest diff I have ever encountered - but went like a bloody rocket, saw 85 on the clock one day when we were running late - on Scottish single lane roads - our driver was slightly mad).  The second part of the trip was on an utterly clapped out R plate Bedford Y series Duple Dominant II which had long since lost nearly all of its brightwork.  STA380R may have been clapped out, but she was responsible for my interest blooming in this sort of vehicle.

[clayts450]

2 hours ago, busmansholiday said:

Ah, Nottingham, did a bit of my PSV driver training there back in the late 70's on an ex Portsmouth PD2.  Always liked their different attitude to bus design, single entry door so no sneaking on and avoiding paying, destinations designed so passengers could see them and a decent colour scheme.

Not any more, sadly - all the routes are colour coded now with livery to match - https://www.nctx.co.uk/ourfleet

[Eyersey1234]

One of East Yorkshire's new ADL Enviro400MMCs on Anlaby Road forecourt the other day. 

[cms206]

10 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Odd seeing those without Plaxton bodywork!

Let me guess...drove lovely with the exception of violent clutch judder?  Never been in a 709 that doesn't do that.

The sound of that engine though is one of those things indelibly imprinted on my memory and will always immediately bring a major pang of nostalgia.

So...does the Wessex leak less than a Beaver?

We had nine Mercs; three Beavers (M354 SDC, N491 FDT and P939 YSB), two Wadham Stringer Wessex 2s (N221 MUS and N779 OGA), two Beaver 2 Vario automatics (SF03 YXP/R), one Marshall C16 (N810 PDS) on an 811D and a Mellor Duet (P478 TGA) on an 811D.

M354 SDC or N810 PDS were my second choice if N221 MUS was off the road, though 810 had no right hand steering lock and a clutch that took two legs to operate - heaviest Merc I've ever driven! 221 was never refurbished by us though it did eventually end up with 354's engine after it gave up but was always quite dry, if a bit foosty inside.

The other Wessex, 779, was a horrible bastard to drive despite having had loads spent on it. It continually cracked windscreens until it was worked out that the destination glass was letting in water and had rotted out the steel windscreen surround to the point it was only held in with the fibreglass.

Never liked the Mellor one, nothing particularly wrong with it as such but I just didn't like driving it. Beaver 491 was a Beaver 2 prototype of sorts, air sprung and fitted with a full Beaver 2 interior. It was my one "not driving that" card, hated every single inch of it. Naturally one of the two times I did actually drive it I got papped in it... Beaver 939 rattled like a bastard.

The Varios were much of a muchness; YXR had the louder gearbox and better retarder so it was generally my preferred one.

The only one of ours with a clutch judder was 354, the rest pulled away quite happily in second. Oddly when 354's engine went into 221 (and subsequently into N205 UHH at another operator!) it never had the judder; we put it down to 354 having a really low idle.

491 papped with me at the helm as promised...

[Eyersey1234]

We had a few small Mercs when I started, off the top of my head there was R455 PRH, T458 JRH, YX51 MUO/P plus a P reg one that was ex Frodingham Coaches, they were good little buses. Most of the other R and T reg ones had been replaced by Plaxton Primos in 2006, they were utter rubbish, so much vibration, the coach style doors were a stupid design and the mirrors were in just the right place to hit street furniture.

[dtulip8]

All these Merc's are reminding me of the old 51 reg Vario's that Fleet Buzz used to operate. Remember riding them a few a times, bloody loud and uncomfortable but quite charming at the same time. On a seperate note, living up here in Leicester, all I can hear in my flat are the bloody 06 reg Wright Gemini's with their continual cooling fans. Like having a bastard hoover parked outside the window every 10 mins!

[Eyersey1234]

East Yorkshire's 644, a Willowbrook bodied AEC Regent V. Note the unusual shape roof, specially built to go through the Beverley Bar. 

[Eyersey1234]

For the benefit of shiters who are not familiar with the town of Beverley, the Beverley Bar is the last surviving medieval gateway into the town. Until the 1970s when new roads were built the buses used to go through the bar, hence the specially shaped roofs.

[busmansholiday]

1 minute ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Until the 1970s when new roads were built the buses used to go through the bar, hence the specially shaped roofs.

With a couple of inches spare on each side of the mirror.

In the proper colours as well. The National Bus Company has a lot to answer for in terms of destroying local identities, liveries and choices in the name of the government..........

[Eyersey1234]

29 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

With a couple of inches spare on each side of the mirror.

In the proper colours as well. The National Bus Company has a lot to answer for in terms of destroying local identities, liveries and choices in the name of the government..........

It's a shame EY didn't return to the original colours (or a version of) after privatisation in a way but suppose it was easier to keep the Poppy Red. I'm still not sure about the new livery, they look nice when freshly applied but I can see it being hard to match after an accident. 

[Eyersey1234]

6 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

East Yorkshire's 644, a Willowbrook bodied AEC Regent V. Note the unusual shape roof, specially built to go through the Beverley Bar. 

This is the Beverley Bar. 

[martc]

And put the two together...

[DialATune]

Not much margin for error, driver!

[Eyersey1234]

9 hours ago, DialATune said:

Not much margin for error, driver!

Apparently a trick the clippies used to do was drop their ticket machine to make a bang just as the bus was going under the bar. 

[Snipes]

Those Mercedes mini-buses reminded me of a very small company that operated out of Ashton under Lyne, east of Manchester. They ran very small buses and were unusual because they still went around the houses, at a time when they were cutting those kind of routes. This would have been through the mid to late 1990s. Can't recall what they were called. Red, something?

I was also reminded of the older Little Gems, but it seems they were Dodge(Ivecos?)

[cms206]

2 hours ago, Snipes said:

Those Mercedes mini-buses reminded me of a very small company that operated out of Ashton under Lyne, east of Manchester. They ran very small buses and were usual because they still went around the houses, at a time when they were cutting those kind of routes. This would have been through the mid to late 1990s. Can't recall what they were called. Red, something?

I was also reminded of the older Little Gems, but it seems they were Dodge(Ivecos?)

Little Gems were either Northern Counties Dodges as shown, MCW Metroriders or Iveco Dailys; they used all three. I think the Ivecos were all bodied by Robin Hood to their 'City Nippy' design.