Shite bus ownership - gen me up

[Micrashed]

 

 

*Edit: more importantly than anything (and as Marty said in another thread) speak to Doc before you do anything. What he doesn't know about buses isn't worth a tap. I'd also be willing to bet he'd know exactly where to find the bus of your dreams, too.

This.

Seriously, this.

He has a farm full of them, but in all likely hood he will try and dissuade you. He has spent £silly bordering on £obscene building his busses up, they are a money pit. He went to Cornwall for the weekend in one a few years back - used £1000 of fuel.

His current bus does about 9MPG. Nine.

[Mr Lobster]

I can't imagine many campsites being too keen on letting a double decker with privacy glass parking up amongst the ranks of the caravan club members tbh. Still, one would make a very nice (if rather large) camper.

 

I quite like the idea of a National, no idea why but it does appeal. Never going to happen if I want to remain a/ financially solvent or b/ married obviously. 

[willswitchengage]

I quite like these, Scania Metropolitii, iirc a distant relation of the Metrobus but with a far more powerful engine.

 

I think the Metrobus design also formed the basis of the Arriva semi-exclusive DAF double deckers, too, with the angle drive between engine and gearbox.

[Inspector Morose]

Yup. Anything Gardner engined does about 9-10 leyland of the 680 variety about high 8s and the wonderful 510 anything down to about 5 if ragged around town. Buses can be viciously expensive to restore and keep. Mine (ex WM 3880 and VR 4413 - now both happily restored) cost me about 10 grand in buying, spares buying, storage and restoration costs and that was doing the work myself. It cleaned me out eventually ( well buying a multitude of cars didn't help) and I had to sell. Don't regret it for one minute though, it's something else though being able to jump in and pop down the pub in your own bus - hell, I even went to a drive through in it once! Caused a bit of a stir.

Don't whatever you do, buy a trolley bus. All the costs and then not being able to drive it out on the road. Just don't ask about that...

[Inspector Morose]

I quite like these, Scania Metropolitii, iirc a distant relation of the Metrobus but with a far more powerful engine.

 

I think the Metrobus design also formed the basis of the Arriva semi-exclusive DAF double deckers, too, with the angle drive between engine and gearbox.

Ah the Metropolitan. Rots quicker than an fiat in a salt bath. And economy? A chap I knew preserved a West Yorkshire one before selling it to an operator up north. He said it could get down to 4 on a bad day (two, yes that's two speed transmission - torque converter and lock up, that's it. He even marked the speedo at the change speed - 22mph.)

 

The Metrobus design was sold off to Optrare and DAF and eventually became the Spectra and as a chassis only in the form of the DAF DB250.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

It would be flipping brilliant to have a bus. I reckon you could chat up any lass in the office if you knew you had 'hey what about i take you for a spin in my 56-seater coach' to fall back on if your other dead cert lines did not get a result. Then when you were driving about you could use the on board PA thing to tell her what lovely eyes she's got. I don't see how it could fail.

[oman5]

out of the old deckers, the gardner is the most economical..they are just not particularly powerful, they won't rev over 1700 rpm so you run out of gears very early. I don't think they were limited to 45, that was just all they could do before they revved out.

Personal choice for me would be the single deck Bristol RE, I can well remember the exhaust bark of the leyland 680 engined ones Badgerline in Bristol used to run. you can also get them with high speed diffs for motorway cruising at 65 mph.

How much are part worn commercial tyres? I would think its a waste of time buying new, they'll perish before you wear the tread out if its a lightly used show vehicle. 

How about veg oil? in an older diesel engine like a gardner or 680 it could be a possibility?

 

here, have some leyland noises.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUuhOvrqqUc

[Inspector Morose]

Gardners can run on veg as long as you warm it up a bit first. Leylands usually come with a dpa fuel pump (Lucas rotary) so sadly aren't so veg friendly. Dennis darts used to use a Bosch pumped cummins b series so in theory should run happily on veg.

 

Bristol RE. Superb machine. Still got my slide hammer made out of a RE rear brake adjuster somewhere in my toolbox.

[Wilko220]

Good call. I would fucking LOVE to cruise around in a Bristol RE just for the hell of it.

 

[Des]

Aren't the bendy busses days numbered, I'd imagine they'll be cheap on account of being ridiculous. When you go to fetch one, while your throwing the A frame and trailler board in the boot, chuck in a disc cutter and you can leave that silly tail section in the congestion zone, on its side and set alight preferably.

[rml2345]

Unfortunately not Des as the trailer is the bit with the engine in it... Shame really as leaving half a flaming bendy bus in the congestion zone is mega appealing.

I think the "Go Ahead" group were valuing their bendiculated monsters at £12k a pop which must be the all time depreciation record as they were Ã‚£200,000 or so when new 10 years ago. 

[Lankytim]

I thought some bent buses has the power pack in the front section, meaning the rear was effectively a trailer.

[willswitchengage]

Some had engines in the front, the Leyland DAB on that top gear episode and some van hool things still in production, but rear engine is more commensurable with low floor access. What Boris didn't say when he got rid of the bend buses was that only a fraction could be sold, and for peanuts at that, as he wasted millions buying unnecessary new replacements.

[cms206]

EvoBus were selling a choice of 05-plate Citaro artics for as little as £12k; Go-Ahead had allegedly written theirs down to as little as £8k.

 

Double deckers are no more restricted than single deckers; if the gearing will allow it they will do 62mph, or 59mph if seatbelts are not fitted.

 

There was a well known case in the late 80s were an Eastern Scottish Leyland Lion - effectively a double deck 245bhp Leyland Tiger - was clocked at nearly 90mph on the A8. The case was thrown out as the judge believed the vehicle physically wasn't capable of that speed.

 

Metrobuses are generally geared for 48mph with 3-speed Voith autos, or about 60mph with a 4-speed. South Yorkshire PTE's Metrobuses and Dennis Dominators were a bit quicker uphill by virtue of having Rolls Royce Eagle engines, the downside being 3mpg on stage carriage work...

[NorthernMonkey]

I remember delivering the Citaros to London back in 2005....they had a pretty good turn of speed away from traffic lights which caught out more than one confused BMW driver....luckily, none of mine caught fire. Well at least not whilst I was driving!

[Micrashed]

Good call. I would fucking LOVE to cruise around in a Bristol RE just for the hell of it.

 

Ribble Steam Railway & Heritage Bus Day 30th Oct 2013 by Micrashed, on Flickr

 

You really do not want to know how much this one cost the owner to get it looking this good. Really.

 

But to start with here is a DD for £5500... On SORN

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/bristol-vr-/291025530214?pt=UK_Minibuses_Buses_Coaches&hash=item43c2792d66

[Micrashed]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEYLAND-OLYMPIAN-DOUBLE-DECK-BUS-CCTV-SEAT-BELTS-/190964311227?pt=UK_Minibuses_Buses_Coaches&hash=item2c765c24bb

Oilypan for £7000,

 

Leyland Titan (needs a bit of work) £5000

.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OLD-BUS-Leyland-Titan-PD3-/261322700387?pt=UK_Minibuses_Buses_Coaches&hash=item3cd80bf663

 

AEC - £3250 - needs a bit of work

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OLD-Bus-AEC-Renown-/261322704677?pt=UK_Minibuses_Buses_Coaches&hash=item3cd80c0725

 

And so on....

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Don't whatever you do, buy a trolley bus. All the costs and then not being able to drive it out on the road. Just don't ask about that...

 

[dollywobbler]

Brilliant.

[willswitchengage]

Their depots look a nightmare. Imagine trying to untangle fifty slinkies at the same time.

 

[Inspector Morose]

Overhead is fun! I did a fair amount of it at the Black Country Museum a good few years ago now (that's why I know now not to buy a trolleybus!). Once you get used to the up in the air bit, you can get quite creative as the wires have to be positioned and tensioned right for every individual corner or straight and there is a thousand and one ways on how to achieve it. There were volumes upon volumes of large dusty books kept in wood panelled rooms that showed the correct methods and practices of overhead erection ( ooh-er missus)

Sorry I could bore you to death on Trolleybus overhead systems and current collection. I'll go away now and sit in a darkened room for a while.

[rml2345]

There's a knack to driving a trolleybus as well apparently. "Beneath The Wires of London" is a book written by someone who drove and conducted on LT's trolleys and it's a fascinating account of what it was like. Bit dear but recommended for anyone who's interested in the ins and outs.

[FredTransit]

I dont know how you get Playbus class/status just I noticed it as a catagory on the back of the 112G exemption last time I used one.

[Micrashed]

I dont know how you get Playbus class/status just I noticed it as a catagory on the back of the 112G exemption last time I used one.

With a fetching paint job perhaps?

[Craig the Princess]

Sorry I could bore you to death on Trolleybus overhead systems and current collection. I'll go away now and sit in a darkened room for a while.

 

That's a thread I'd love to read.

[Six-cylinder]

Now and then the desire to own a bus comes up but if I think it is difficult to store a car and pay the repair bills, then I am sure a bus is much worse.

 

No the way forward is to have a good friend who owns a bus and is generous enough to invite me out on it from time to time.

 

The picture was taken 1^st Jan 2013 at Stony Stratford Classic car gathering. Yes we traveled by bus that day.

 

[AnthonyG]

I noticed some bendy buses turned up in Bristol as park and ride vehicles a year or two ago, don't know who the operator is. They are slightly less ridiculous in this use as they mainly travel the modern through and ring roads and don't have to go round sharp corners.

 

They were a absolute nightmare in the centre of London - they would get stuck in the Piccadilly circus area all the time, blocking most of Lower Regent Street regularly, the newt fancier got a bit carried away with that idea.

[Pillock]

Bendy Buses?

I know where they're at.....

 

[HMC]

Leyland leopard plaxton derwent for me....

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3254/2614525906_79f90bf4d1_z.jpg?zz=1

They were used by GM buses from the Bolton depot untill about 1996 and they were by far the oldest bus chugging about, and as a teenager, my favourite. They were all registered MTE**R and were inherited after some kind of merger. Apparently they were quite a light (and flexible!) body and they could shift, but didnt have the brakes to back this up!

[Lankytim]

What was the big issue with bendys then? I heard they used to self combust, I take it they also don't like tight bends?