brammy777 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 but back to topic.One of the stagecoach Olympians i was in yesterday stalled whilst moving, and wouldnt start up for a good few minutes, then when it did, went into reverse?!? And nearly hit a beemer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Split_Pin Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 They also ran one of these, which was even worse. Is it a Leopard? They were run up until about 2005That's an Alexander Y Type. It's probably on a Leyland Leopard chassis, most of them were.It is indeed a Leopard, new to Alexander (Northern) Ltd. Highland latterly used Y-type Leopards cascaded from various regions of the old Scottish Bus Group empire. Some others were from Fife and some were from Midland. I have to say these are my favourite single-deck bus, but the ones I really like are the crash-gearbox models from Central SMT. I would imagine that driving one of these would be both physical and tiring though - a truly shite experience. On the subject of Alexander buses, I pass the factory at Falkirk regularly and have seen the buses awaiting completion in the yards go from a few to none at all. I do hope they survive. And talking of Nationals, I have a book on them from the early 80's and it reports one fitted with a vertically mounted 680 motor! How that was possible and why, I'll never know. My favourite bus ever is this though: 'Glasgow-style' Alexander Leyland Altanteans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brammy777 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 alexander and dennis somehow became the same sort of company a couple of years ago, and have since bought plaxton as well. In fact, the companies doing quite well for itself it would seem, with mahhhoooosive orders for the new envirodart. Stagecoach have long been a supporter of Alexander in whatever form they take, so play quite a vital role in the survival of the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pillock Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 £500 for a car, another, say, £750 to insure for a year, possible MOT and/or road tax,To keep you relatively sober-minded, I'd be very surprised if a 17-year-old can get insured on ANYTHING, from a Reliant Kitten upwards, for less than £1000. An average car, say a Mk3 Fez, will be closer to double that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brammy777 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 I know,i said £750 because the post i was responding to (by scooters) was mentioning insurance in my mums name, but in the back of my mind i am hoping my mum will relent to the insurance thing, ill just have to prove it to her obviously. Metro was the cheapest on her insurance, £510 a year:)my ex got a KA insured for £428 a year when she passed last year. :shock:But for me, a metro would be hilariously expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brammy777 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 Iain is this an 'Edinburgh style' Atlantean? The upstairs with just seat frames looks.....creepy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 9, 2009 Share Posted July 9, 2009 Yes thats an Edinburgh bus, short window behind the front wheel is where there would have been the exit door. I used to travel on these X-reg motors all the time when living in university accommodation in 1997-99, seems that most of the surviving examples were allocated to routes going past my door. These were brand new in 97 and they are already just about all gone, which makes me feel like a right old bastard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammy Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Sorry, but you're all wrong on this The worst bus in the world ever ( and the one I had to ride on to get to school) was THIS... It was noisy, had no suspension and when it was warm, the plastic seats used to smell, making me throw up .National II, phoar! Best looking bus IMHO.Nope - THIS is a National 2! (and I drove it...)It's weird, the Nationals both used the same body with styling differences to the front & rear but they were like two completely different buses both with their own unique character! The National MkI was tinny, rattly, with a very musical engine note, plainer to look at from the front but with a lovely 'clac clac' fan at the rear, the MkII was loud, gruff, angry sounding, but with a more substantial look & feel to it & with a proper shapely corporate Leyland 'face' at the front which the gormless flat fronted MkI didn't have.Both of them you could hear coming a mile off & you knew exactly whether it was a MkI or MkII coming! I feel more nostalgic for & miss seeing (and hearing) the MkIs around more though.I had a Mk1 National which was semi preserved, I say semi preserved because it never did much more than clutter various farmyards from Northamptonshire to Cambridgeshire and then Bedfordshire. It was a hideously complex beast with lots of National specific parts and tools required to keep it going. It used unique pressed panels which were difficult to custom make, avdelock rivits which required an expensive compressed air gun to fix on. The engine in the Mk1 was Leyland's fixed head 0.510 turbo diesel. It rattled like a bag of spoons and under heavy accelleration they would wash oil out of the cylinders creating the unique clouds of clag and oil from the exhaust when pulling away. The lack of oil caused the engines to wear out very quickly.The National was an intensively designed vehicle and had a lot of testing before entering service but also had some bizarre arrangements like heaters that blew down from the roof which meant the windows never steamed up, but your feet and lower body would be freezing because heat rises! The early examples between L and P reg were roly poly vehicles because they had no anti roll bars, chuck them into a roundabout and you'd be thrown sideways, you'd also get massive understeer because the box, engine, heater (in the roof pod) and batteries were all in the back of the bus. The later buses had batteries under the drivers seat and roll bars to help them corner better. The National 2 addressed many of the engine problems by using the Leyland 0.680 engine which was an 11 litre n/a engine and tested in service for years in Leopards and Atlanteans. The radiator was shifted to the front to improve cooling (hence the bigger front panels) I had this Mk1 for spares, but it shows the clag under full throttle to good effect I ended up cutting this up with a cutting torch and giant angle grinder. They are still my favourite bus though, depsite what many say they are full of character. The Mk1 a simple rattling character and the Mk2 a deafing snarl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSparrow Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I had this Mk1 for spares, but it shows the clag under full throttle to good effect I ended up cutting this up with a cutting torch and giant angle grinder. That is a brilliant picture!Reminds me of the buses round here when I were a lad.Ta! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 ^^^ I knew mk1 Nashnulls had a reputation for smoky exhausts, but bloody hell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammy Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 It was £500 back in 2002 including tyres which was a giveaway price at the time. Most of the bits went to keeping other examples on the road but the smoke was terrible.We drove it from Cobham to Royston in Herts around the M25 and it was clagging most of the way. I was support driver in my mk1 Mondeo at the time and it was pebbledashed with oil when we got back which took ages to fully scrub off. The white one pulled well though, good for 55mph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammy Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 alexander and dennis somehow became the same sort of company a couple of years ago, and have since bought plaxton as well. In fact, the companies doing quite well for itself it would seem, with mahhhoooosive orders for the new envirodart. Stagecoach have long been a supporter of Alexander in whatever form they take, so play quite a vital role in the survival of the company.Dennis, Alexander and Plaxton were acquired by the Mayflower group in the late 1990's and formed into a faceless bus builder called "Transbus" which was to rival the world. All it did in turn was alienate its loyal customers by stopping various body / chassis combinations and forcing customers to buy off the peg integrals which they didn't want to do. (They hadn't learnt from the Leyland National being forced on the government owned NBC by the government owned British Leyland when customers wanted Bristol RE's & VRs, Atlanteans and Daimlers). Mayflower went bung and took Transbus with them in spectacular style in May 2004 just at the time where they had been delivering a batch of buses to our Stagecoach depot. 2 arrived but were immediately seized by the administrators and could not be used for several months, others were half finished and waited around in the factory to be finished. Out of the ashes Brian Souter who owns Stagecoach and some others acquired the Dennis chassis and Alexander body plants and formed Alexander Dennis Ltd. Plaxton were acquired by their management and went their own way until very recently when they were reacquired by Alexander Dennis Ltd who are now offering a wider product range again.Whilst Alexanders were always a solid base, Dennis has had a lucky story as a minor player in the bus and dustcart markets in the UK. They were acquired along with Duple Coachwork by Hestair who like Mayflower got it totally wrong and went bust. Dennis broke out on its own again in 1989 and immediately set to work on designing an idea Bedford had in the late 1970's of building a compact automatic service bus. Dennis launched the Dart in 1989/90 and immediately had a huge commercial hit on their hands with over 15,000 being built in various guises and it sold in a commercial free market where it trounced rivals and carved out a niche in replacing van based minibuses in service around the UK. Compare that to the National which had a run of around 9,000 buses, most of which were forced on National Bus companies who had no choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSparrow Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I was quite taken with these when I went to Hungary Ikarus 280Still loads of them in use all over the old eastern bloc area. Make your very own! Loads more like this here:http://imhd.zoznam.sk/ba/index.php?w=3825242e29ef392b2321362f28293234333936ea&lang=en Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Dennis launched the Dart in 1989/90 and immediately had a huge commercial hit on their hands with over 15,000 being built in various guises and it sold in a commercial free market where it trounced rivals and carved out a niche in replacing van based minibuses in service around the UK.AUTOSHITE CORPORATE HOSPITALITY UNIT/MOBILE BROTHEL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Ross Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I'm almost certain I used to travel on that smoky Mk1, when I was at school in Slough. I used to catch the 376 from Bracknell, and it originated further West, went past Windsor Safari Park, and terminated at Brunel Bus Station in Slough. Was it ever painted red? One morning in the fog we got a smashed windscreen from the truck in front, and I scooped up a handful of glass from the floor to prove why I was late. It worked, as one of the teachers was waiting at the school gates opposite the Bus Station as it arrived, he could therefore prove my story and I got off without a detention. Another time, the driver rammed a BR HA van at the Brunel roundabout, pushing it about 30 feet into the traffic. The van driver got out all disgruntled like and came on board the bus, threatening the driver. What a hoot that was! The other one I got if I missed the 376 was the 310 to Slough via Maidenhead. Later still I used to get the train to Windsor and Eton Central, and the 191, 192, or 199 to Sunninghill, where we moved to. (Well we moved to Sunningdale, but it was a quick walk past DeBeers to get home) The 191 and 192 were normally Bristol Vr or Atlanteans, and the 199 was a single decker Bristol normally, which on one memorable occasion in the snow, did a 180 slide coming out of a junction, and just went back to the depot, the driver happily announcing that school was cancelled for us, refunds were available, and they would contact the schools to tell them! That's customer service!Reminiscence over. Back to thread! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brammy777 Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 ah brunel bus station Memories of Slough came back there, always used to get the Beeline buses into the town centre. Regarding Nationals, I really dont ever remember seeing any, bar one i saw in 2005 on rail replacement service, and it did look and sound pretty ropey.Impressive bus knowledge hammy, i was waiting for someone to fill in the (rather large) gaps in what i had said haha I found a picture of the Arriva Olympian, which is still running i think.surely one of the oldest buses in service with a big company? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammy Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I'm almost certain I used to travel on that smoky Mk1, when I was at school in Slough. I used to catch the 376 from Bracknell, and it originated further West, went past Windsor Safari Park, and terminated at Brunel Bus Station in Slough. Was it ever painted red? One morning in the fog we got a smashed windscreen from the truck in front, and I scooped up a handful of glass from the floor to prove why I was late. It worked, as one of the teachers was waiting at the school gates opposite the Bus Station as it arrived, he could therefore prove my story and I got off without a detention. Another time, the driver rammed a BR HA van at the Brunel roundabout, pushing it about 30 feet into the traffic. The van driver got out all disgruntled like and came on board the bus, threatening the driver. What a hoot that was! The other one I got if I missed the 376 was the 310 to Slough via Maidenhead. Later still I used to get the train to Windsor and Eton Central, and the 191, 192, or 199 to Sunninghill, where we moved to. (Well we moved to Sunningdale, but it was a quick walk past DeBeers to get home) The 191 and 192 were normally Bristol Vr or Atlanteans, and the 199 was a single decker Bristol normally, which on one memorable occasion in the snow, did a 180 slide coming out of a junction, and just went back to the depot, the driver happily announcing that school was cancelled for us, refunds were available, and they would contact the schools to tell them! That's customer service!Reminiscence over. Back to thread!Yes, when it was new it was part of Alder Valley Travel under the National Bus Company. It may not have been this exact example but Alder Valley had a large run of Nationals registered KPA 3**P. At privitisation Alder Valley was broken up into 2 parts (north and south) and mine eventually ended up with Alder Valley South and then Stagecoach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammy Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Buses.I don't use them very often, but I'm considering buying one to take on a trip across Europe. An old double decker. I keep seeing them on ebay and thinking "Oooh, that might just do the job" and then realising I don't have a licence to drive one.Hmm. This is gonna get expensive.According to the DVLA you can drive a PSV which is more than 30 years old and not used in service. You can carry up to 8 passengers on a full 'B' licence. Buses under 30 years old or carrying more than 8 passengers require a D or D1 licence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Ross Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I'm going back to 1979/80ish for these memories, Nationals were EVERYWHERE! I also used to use a local company called "WhiteBus" and all their stuff was white with a yellow stripe. Looked like a fried egg butty.....It used to go through Windsor Great Park private roads, down all the tiny lanes. It was half the price of AV bus tickets though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brammy777 Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 Whilst looking for pictures of nationals, i found this. Whats the story here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRegieRitmo Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I had this Mk1 for spares, but it shows the clag under full throttle to good effect I ended up cutting this up with a cutting torch and giant angle grinder. I'm a Firefox user but this picture wasn't visible, so I wondered what the excitement was about! It was only when I went to view this site with Internet Explorer that I was able to witness this glorious picture! It would have been very sad to miss out on this!Any other Firefox users out there? Anyone know why Firefox doesn't show all pictures on every website? I thought it was just affecting Facebook but this picture proves it can affect any site. So gawd knows how much I've been missing out on as a Firefox user! Just can't understand it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milford Cubicle Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 The pic works for me on Firefox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRegieRitmo Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Is there some setting that needs changing or updating or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milford Cubicle Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Maybe it's because it's hosted on facebook, were you trying to view it at work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSparrow Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I have firefox and have never had any such troubles!I find it much more stable than ie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRegieRitmo Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Maybe it's because it's hosted on facebook, were you trying to view it at work?No, right here at home where I should be able to see everything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRegieRitmo Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 It's ok I've just sorted it & now I can view everything on all sites! Thank the lord Strangely, on going through the settings there were 3 exceptions of sites which image hosts were blocked from loading with. I removed all 3 instances & whadda ya know, I can see all the pictures which had been missing. It was weird, for instance in a Facebook album of 60 images, roughly a quarter of them would not show up, it was so frustrating, but not any more! Just puzzled as to how those exceptions got into the settings. The perils of using a shared laptop?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brammy777 Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 firefox has always worked better for me, processes on IE slow it down horribly. Oh remember when this thread took the direction of me driving?I now have 5 lessons bookedCost £55 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Whilst looking for pictures of nationals, i found this. Whats the story here?Ha, I think they were trying to drum up sales by doing one-off demos showcasing other potential uses for the bodyshell. I mean, as if anybody would ever want a rear-engined ambulance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volksy Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Erm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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