The wheels on the bus go round and round...

[Inspector Morose]

Well, I'm back off tour in Ireland and managed to upload the pics to web as promised. Anyone bothered to have a shufty they're over here:

 

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/105829738 ... directlink

 

No real shite content (apart from the Auto Union) just a record of the job with added Metrobus content.

 

Cheers all

[dollywobbler]

Oooh, ex-Timesaver? Mate of mine was at the last Metrobus day at Acocks Green today.

[Justin Case]

Great photos Metrobi, make me want to go to Ireland even if I couldn't travel by Metrobus

 

[anorak mode] That number plate looks very familiar. Was it allocated to Walsall Garage, it looks very much like one of the Illuminations shuttle buses I used to see every evening while indulging in autumnal dog-walking? [/anorak mode]

[Inspector Morose]

Yes, a good time was had if a little tiring to say the least. If I can get them sorted, I'll post up some more of the tours I've done with the other buses in the fleet.

 

Yes 2926, as it was in West Midlands Travel days, was the last but one timesaver in the running fleet, allocated to Walsall, it was only withdrawn after hitting a tree and ripping the top, nearside window pillar out. It was bought in that condition and repaired before rebuilding into the condition seen in the phots. Luckily the branding is only vinyl so will be coming off in the next few days, ready for the next job. Oh and I've got to repair the rear end. It landed on it when getting off the ferry yesterday and made a bit of a mess of the rear offside quarter, all done at the hectic speed of 1mph (according to phone app anyway)

[Torsten2001]

I'm jealous, I'd love to drive that bus around Ireland, so long as you don't have to join in the daft dancing.

I pity the poor bastard that had to drive the Fiat though, that'd be grim!

[Inspector Morose]

Yup, it was a punto evo. V grim.

[Inspector Morose]

A few more tours.

http://picasaweb.google.com/10582973868 ... directlink

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/10582973868 ... directlink

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/10582973868 ... directlink

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/10582973868 ... directlink

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/10582973868 ... directlink

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/10582973868 ... directlink

[dollywobbler]

Blimey. BOK 86V would be one of the earliest Metrobuses on the brum fleet bar the prototypes then! Love the assymetrical windscreens on the early ones.

[Angrydicky]

From 2002-4ish I went to school on the MCW Metrobus LOA 337X nearly every day, they (Supreme Coach and Bus Hire - now defunct!) had a fleet of MCW's with consecutive registrations, although our route always seemed to get 337X. One of the other routes nearly always had ANA 163Y - that one always stank of fags as there were some right chavs on that route who used to smoke at the back of the bus and no one did anything about it.

 

Another bus I remember was a Leyland (Olympian?) OFS***W which still had the words "Rennies of Dunfermline" on the engine cover. I remember thinking what brave soul drove that old bus down from Scotland...

[CreepingJesus]

Looks like fun! Is that one Scania-engined? I remember the first MCW's like that which Glasgow Corporation got were. They were light-years ahead of the Atlanteans/Fleetlines you got in Glasgow then, moreso the Bristol Lodekkas which were still doing the rounds in Paisley then!

 

Another bus I remember was a Leyland (Olympian?) OFS***W which still had the words "Rennies of Dunfermline" on the engine cover. I remember thinking what brave soul drove that old bus down from Scotland...

Christ on a bike! My kids go to school on those. They're notorious sheds, bought from Stagecoach or Edinburgh, when they're only fit for landfill. They paint them white with dulux exterior gloss, and thrash the very last out of them. I should get a pic of their wrecker, it's proper truckshite...

[Inspector Morose]

Stll Gardener 180 engine, no metrobus was ever re engined with a scania unit if you discount the metroliner coach re engined by Yorkshire fraction. Bus companies used to be a whole world of shite but they're becoming few and far between now, savour them while you can, step entrance buses are to be outlawed after 2017.

[Lord Sterling]

Bloody 'ell! Last time I used a bus regularly they still had them running in a dark Blue/Grim White livery alongside the new West Mids Red Busses. They were very noisy, even upstairs! Not seen one for ages:

 

 

Found out they even do models of them! I'll certaily be on the lookout for one of these...

[Richard]

Another bus I remember was a Leyland (Olympian?) OFS***W which still had the words "Rennies of Dunfermline" on the engine cover. I remember thinking what brave soul drove that old bus down from Scotland...

Christ on a bike! My kids go to school on those. They're notorious sheds, bought from Stagecoach or Edinburgh, when they're only fit for landfill. They paint them white with dulux exterior gloss, and thrash the very last out of them. I should get a pic of their wrecker, it's proper truckshite...

 

They buy old buses FROM Stagecoach

 

The Scottish Vintage Bus Museum is quite near Dunfermline. On special occasions they run some of the exhibits on a shuttle service to Dunfermline, it's always amusing when they pass Rennies' yard and you get a glimpse of some really old buses.

 

Didn't Fife Council introduce a 20 year limit for school buses some time ago?

[dollywobbler]

That model's not very accurate. No WMT Metrobus had doors like that! They were always two doors, not split into four.

 

The assymetrical ones were great as the two panels were hinged and went forward, creating a huge bang if the driver opened the doors while still braking.

 

They were exceedingly sluggish though. Still remember when the Scanias came to the fleet in about 1991 which were like rockets by comparison!

[Inspector Morose]

Yup, those early doors caused one hell of a lot of trouble! They were so bad that, over a short space of time, they loosened the front end structure so badly that many had to be rebuilt within a few years.

 

That and the fact that MCW omitted any form of rust protection on Mk1s to keep costs down so within a relatively short space of time galloping structural rot was munching its way around the bus leading to another very expensive rebuild. I've seen examples of five year old mk1s where even the structure that effectively keeps the upper deck floor from joining the lower deck had rotted to a point where it had to be ripped out and replaced - not an easy task and one that could only be undertaken by large workshops.

 

Rear ends that were as weak as, well, you know what meant that many operators had to rebuild the rear end structure to eliminate the design floors and of course deal with the rot in this area along with rear wheelarch boxes that had a want to go in differing directions to the rest of the bus.

 

All in all they were a pain in the arse structurally but mechanically would go on forever economically with the combination of Gardener engine, Voith gearbox and Kirkstall axles. That's why operators such as WMT stood by them for so long.

[CreepingJesus]

Another bus I remember was a Leyland (Olympian?) OFS***W which still had the words "Rennies of Dunfermline" on the engine cover. I remember thinking what brave soul drove that old bus down from Scotland...

Christ on a bike! My kids go to school on those. They're notorious sheds, bought from Stagecoach or Edinburgh, when they're only fit for landfill. They paint them white with dulux exterior gloss, and thrash the very last out of them. I should get a pic of their wrecker, it's proper truckshite...

 

They buy old buses FROM Stagecoach

 

The Scottish Vintage Bus Museum is quite near Dunfermline. On special occasions they run some of the exhibits on a shuttle service to Dunfermline, it's always amusing when they pass Rennies' yard and you get a glimpse of some really old buses.

 

Didn't Fife Council introduce a 20 year limit for school buses some time ago?

 

They've just bought the last batch of the J-plate Leylands from Stagecoach, which have been replaced over the last few years by the Transbus-Cummins motors.

I keep meaning to go to the bus museum, I'm not too far from it. Actually the proximity of Rennie's yard to the tip at Wellwood is probly more significant!

There may be a 20-year limit, but they just stick Irish plates on them, and pretend they're not pensionable.

[hammy]

You were thinking of the MCW Metropolitan, this was a combination of Scania BRD111H chassis and MCW bodywork and they were trialled in the 1970's in many cities across the UK where the bus operators were not part of the NBC. Even the NBC had a couple on trial in Maidstone.

 

They were rapid, they had a turbo'd Scania with 190bhp and fully auto gearboxes compared to a chugging semi-auto Gardner engine in a VR. However they drank fuel, cost a fortune and suffered from appalling body corrosion (alloy body on steel chassis) and within 2-3 years they were being withdrawn and some even going straight for scrap.

 

 

The surviving examples lasted with independants including Rennies who had quite a collection of them. A local operator near me in Biggleswade also had a collection of 5-6 different examples

 

 

Most ended up getting junked, whilst a few have entered preservation.

 

Even rarer was the single deck MCW Metro-Scanias like these two in Stevenage

[Tayne]

,.

[Guest]

Pogweasel, are these buses anything to do with you?

 

 

Loads of them seem to have "POG" numberplates, plus the kind of colour scheme you'd associate with lousy budget groceries.

 

Grim selection of routes too!

[dollywobbler]

POG's were Brummie buses, originally cream and blue, then silver and blue before ending up looking as horrendous as that when they moved to new homes! I've got a model of POG 507Y somewhere...