For those interested in old buses (and coaches)

[PhilJ W]

Not a beaver in sight, sorry...!

 

FB LOndon scrapper.jpg

 

The one on the left is almost certainly an AEC (Mammoth?), it looks as if its a tanker. On the far right is a Guy (Vixen?) with a van body. The one in the centre is an RTL but you all know that.

[Gwiwer]

The photo with the two Policemen sweeping the snow is the main gates of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster Square, not The Strand.

Indeed it is. And amid all those snowy pictures there is not one unfrozen STL

[Wolseley]

Looks like a Tasman or Kimberley in the LH background of that last shot.

 

 

Yes it is.  And (with apologies in advance for posting this in a thread about buses) for those who don't know what a Tasman or a Kimberley are, they were 6 cylinder Antipodean Austins, using a modified Austin 1800 body.  Here's a photo I took of a Kimberley at a car show a few years ago:

 

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[Enterprisingwestern]

More likely the box van might have been!

 

Pedant!

I'm not aware you could have a 6 or 8 legged Leyland Beaver, but as you could see the front of the AEC and not the box van, that's why I picked it!

Anyways, I likes AEC's!

 

Mike.

[runs as required]

sorry to remain OT with that Tasman/Kimberley

Though now a modified 4 light 3 box saloon body, that still looks to be transverse engine land-crab configuration.

 

IIRC in the death throws of BMC/BL they sold a 3 litre in the UK which was in-line engine & rear wheel drive in a modded landcrab body 

 

dh

[Enterprisingwestern]

sorry to remain OT with that Tasman/Kimberley

Though now a modified 4 light 3 box saloon body, that still looks to be transverse engine land-crab configuration.

 

IIRC in the death throws of BMC/BL they sold a 3 litre in the UK which was in-line engine & rear wheel drive in a modded landcrab body 

 

dh

 

The 3 litre land lobster only lasted a couple of years, 69/71 I think. Not a popular car, but enough space for a ballroom dance inside. A b@gger to park and an "interesting" car to drive when the wet suspension got a bit wooly.

 

Mike.

[Wolseley]

sorry to remain OT with that Tasman/Kimberley

Though now a modified 4 light 3 box saloon body, that still looks to be transverse engine land-crab configuration.

 

 

It had a six cylinder E Series, mounted transversely.  The cars had 1800 underpinnings, although the wheelbase was 3 inches longer and the car itself was 6 inches longer.  The Kimberley had twin rectangular headlamps, twin carburettors and a higher trim level, including carpets and reclining bucket front seats.  The Tasman had two round headlamps, a single carburettor, rubber mats and a bench front seat.

 

The styling was mostly the work of Roy Haynes, during his brief period with BMC/Leyland.

 

I seem to recall reading in Thoroughbred and Classic Cars (probably in the late 1970s) that it was proposed to also build it in England in Vanden Plas guise, but this never eventuated.

Edited March 14, 2018 by Wolseley

[Wolseley]

And, after that, here's another bus - a Leyland Atlantean at Eddy Avenue outside Sydney Terminal station (not sure whenI took it but it was probably around 1975)

 

[Coppercap]

When I wer but a lad I can remember Manchester Corporation trolley buses were guided by small Fordson vans in the 'pea supers'. The vans had light bulbs all round the back (must have been packed with batteries) to keep the trolley buses under the wires.

(Never seen a picture of these vans -but would love to see one)

 

In some parts of London, they had 'fairy lights' strung up alongside the wires to illuminate where the wires went, and used during thick fog. 

[Dave47549]

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Edited October 1, 2021 by Dave47549
Removed pointless guff

[MinZaPint]

Well how about a really old coach,

 

 

found this while looking for my Dad's old watch, that's him wearing the big white cap stood at the back near the middle, no idea of the date but he was born in 1895 and looks fairly young (you're right I was an afterthought!) Any one have any idea of the make of vehicle?

[Orion]

Well how about a really old coach,

 

HPL on works outing.jpg

 

found this while looking for my Dad's old watch, that's him wearing the big white cap stood at the back near the middle, no idea of the date but he was born in 1895 and looks fairly young (you're right I was an afterthought!) Any one have any idea of the make of vehicle?

The wheel hubs suggest a Thorneycroft

 

e.g. 

[37114]

I just had a couple of nights camped in this with my family:

 

 

It is an amazing experience and the conversion featured on a George Clarke TV program. It sleeps 6 (you need to be friendly!) and has a wood burner, camp fire, wood heated hot tub and (for those not worried about their modesty) an outdoor heated shower. It is located in Sussex in a reasonably secluded wood ideally located for access to the Bluebell Railway and Lavender line.

 

The bus is an ex WMPTE MCW Metrobus 2464 (NOA464X) and is still driveable although it hasn't moved for a couple of years.

[Dave47549]

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Edited October 1, 2021 by Dave47549
Removed pointless guff

[37114]

That spent 19 of almost 20 years of its WMPTE/WMT life allocated to garages in Coventry, so is perfectly used to slumming it

There is plenty of reminders to it's past in it still!

[leopardml2341]

There is plenty of reminders to it's past in it still!

Beer cans, fag ends and numerous other unmentionable items if it's ex Coventry.....

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/59615439@N03/7991004096

Edited April 16, 2018 by leopardml2341

[Welly]

My old boarding school had one of those coaches in a different livery during the early 1980s, 

 

My school mate recently googled the registration plate of the school's old bus and found someone had put a picture of it online! Here it is:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tarquinius_superbus/7004093068

 

My 11 year old self did not appreciate the beauty of that vehicle at the time!

[RANGERS]

My school mate recently googled the registration plate of the school's old bus and found someone had put a picture of it online! Here it is:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tarquinius_superbus/7004093068

 

My 11 year old self did not appreciate the beauty of that vehicle at the time!

They were the staple fare of most independent coach operators, not to mention a fair number of the big boys, but nobody who ever drove a Bedford SB considered it a thing of beauty, regardless of how stylish the body of choice was.

[Welly]

They were the staple fare of most independent coach operators, not to mention a fair number of the big boys, but nobody who ever drove a Bedford SB considered it a thing of beauty, regardless of how stylish the body of choice was.

It was a slow coach, the acceleration was sluggish. The school's bus driver hated the thing so he was delighted when the bus got written off! It was said to have reached 80mph on the dual carriageway before being crashed into the central reservation - normal top speed was 40!

[Gwiwer]

Indeed. In youth we thought it amusing to reconsider what various type designations might stand for other than the official versions.

 

The SB was a Slow Bu**er;

The OB was an Old B*st*rd;

The VAS was Vile And Slow

 

This also extended to Bristol vehicles where:

VR was Vile Rattler

LH was Loud Horrible

LHS was Loud Horrible Slow (they only came in manual)

FLF was Full Load Frightenet

and the FS was just ... errrr ..... best left to the imagination

[E3109]

Can i just give a hat tip to my friends over at the Wigan Transport Trust.

Should be of interest to Apollo and Owd Bob I suspect!

 

https://wigantransporttrust.wordpress.com/

[ColinK]

Here is a one minute trailer I've made. Eventually I'll get round to adding the rest of the video.

 

https://vimeo.com/270492591

[coachmann]

I decided to park & ride to hospital yesterday and ride a double deck bus for the first time since the late 1970's. Interestingly (to me), the seats were small, bloody uncomfortable, and the body sounded like it was racking itself apart. The last buses I rode on and drove were AEC Regent V's, Leyland PD2's and PD3's and they had pretty solid bodies with no window rattle or creaking joints. Today I rode on the top deck and that was worse for noise. Talk about a tin box!

 

Obviously it is better than trying to find somewhere to park at the hospital car park, which is why I dropped back onto public transport. But I have watched these sleek looking deckers pass me every day on the Rhyl-Llandudno service without realizing how noisy and uncomfortable they actually were. The noisiest and most uncomfortable teeth-grinding half-cabs I rode on the the wartime bodies Bristols and Guy Arabs, but these modern giganteans have barely brought us an inch from those days apart from in the road speed department.

[Gwiwer]

 

 

The noisiest and most uncomfortable teeth-grinding half-cabs I rode on the the wartime bodies Bristols and Guy Arabs

I think the experience depended upon both marque and crew.  My experience of Provincial Arabs (and the very occasional Bristol) across the flat lands of Gosport & Fareham territory will have been different to anyone in United country where K and L-types struggled up interminable gradients in often indifferent weather.  My Provincial experience also includes the rather more recent but fundamentally unpleasant experience of their Arab-replacement Seddon Pennines and the disappointment at discovering a sextet of Bristol RELLs which had supplanted the final Deutz-engined rebuilds on the Gosport main road.  On the other hand that same operator did provide me with my one and only ride on that rare beast the ACE Cougar.  On a very wet day, and purely by chance, it pulled up in West Street, Fareham (where Provincial were never allowed to use the Hants & Dorset bus station though co-operative neighbour Southdown was) and took me to Gosport Ferry.  I recall being impressed at the un-steamy windows in such conditions, the smooth ride and overall refinement of the vehicle but not the seats which I recall were side-facing in the front half of the vehicle.  I saw it once more but that was the only trip I ever managed.

[coachmann]

A few Crosvilles....

 

A pair of dreaded Noddy's. Good sense of humor required when changing gear....

 

Ever a smart looking saloon....

 

Assorted Bristol L Types were still on the Abergele-Rhyl service when we came to live in Wales in 1965....

 

The long version.....

 

And one with original type of destination box....

 

These worked the Cymru Coastliner in the mid ot late 1960's......Very smart too.....

 

One of the 'shorties' passing Slaters. This garage had its adverts in almost every Crosville bus at one time and Abergele became known as slater town when the family bought out every garage in town. They all closed and now Slaters had gone too....

 

The waste ground that was once Slaters with the Arriva 'Tesco' bus stop clearly in view....