For those interested in old buses (and coaches)

[phil_sutters]

What a poor advert for an art and design college! Routemasters don't seem to be 'old buses' but this one was built in 1959. Both LT and St. Martins have excellent design credentials, so why on earth did they paste an ill-fitting boring bit of wall paper on this bus - especially one that had been dressed up in a commemorative livery.

 

Here are some interesting shots - these SYT buses were brought in when the new franchising system was causing shortages - I can't remember the details, but I am sure someone will have chapter and verse! I hope that the advertisers didn't have to pay whilst their adverts were somewhat out of their target zone! May be these aren't that old, but as we are interested in buses, I thought those of you in South Yorks might like to see where your buses disappeared to.

 

Edited May 13, 2017 by phil_sutters

[leopardml2341]

 

In the late 70's, it was more usual for SYPTE to be hiring in vehicles after DoT investigations.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_sweeney/sets/72157653312338192/

[phil_sutters]

 

In the late 70's, it was more usual for SYPTE to be hiring in vehicles after DoT investigations.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_sweeney/sets/72157653312338192/

Flickr seems to be playing up as I find it often does.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

In the late 70's, it was more usual for SYPTE to be hiring in vehicles after DoT investigations.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_sweeney/sets/72157653312338192/

 

Not as much fun as the early seventies when we hired Edinburgh buses amongst others.

Regrettably my STD bus slides aren't scanned, but there will be pics out there somewhere.

 

Mike.

[leopardml2341]

Not as much fun as the early seventies when we hired Edinburgh buses amongst others.

Regrettably my STD bus slides aren't scanned, but there will be pics out there somewhere.

 

Mike.

I remember both occasions well, but very few if any were used in Rotherham; IIRC it was the Sheffield depots with which the traffic commissioner was most unhappy.

[HitchinLoco]

Few of the London busses!

[PhilJ W]

In a similar style to JD, a bus I once had an interest in, at it's birthplace.

 

1-img200.jpg

 

From the days when Doncaster had proper buses.

 

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6-img189.jpg

 

5-img190.jpg

 

4-img191.jpg

 

3-img194.jpg

 

2-img195.jpg

 

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Mike.

 

 

Mike,

 

Don't know if you knew already, but Doncaster pics 1-3 and possibly 5 are buses which carried refurbished trolleybus bodies. The thicker front upper deck first pillar betrays this.

 

Rgds

Also the overhang of the upper deck above the windscreen.

[luckymucklebackit]

A chance for me to give this pic another outing:

 

15171021_1683296071685189_5886189712575067639_n.jpg

 

Restored single handedly by yours truly (2001-2005).

 

Used to get that bus to my work, service 42, Airdrie to Ayr!!  (I only went as far as Mossend).  Remarkably, for a service that was fairly long distance it kept very good time.

 

Here is one I took a picture of in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago

 

 

Jim

[Enterprisingwestern]

I remember both occasions well, but very few if any were used in Rotherham; IIRC it was the Sheffield depots with which the traffic commissioner was most unhappy.

 

Part of the issue was the fact Sheffield was running perfectly seviceable AEC Regent III's from the 1950's!

 

Mike.

[Prometheus]

In the mid-70s, for a year post Uni, I worked as a bus driver whilst waiting for the vacancy which would lead to my career arise. Taff Ely, then lately Pontypridd Urban District Council transport, were foolish enough to offer me a job as a conductor. Two weeks later they said 'want to learn to drive lovely boy?'. Such utter folly....

 

I did a lot of damage but had a year of unbridled fun driving ancient crash-gearboxed Guys and, by comparison, almost space-age Regent Vs and the then new Nationals.

 

This is No 82: a Roe-bodied '59 Guy Arab lV. Photographed at the tram sheds by some soul a few years before I raced it. I learned to drive in this fine, tolerant beast. It had one of the slowest gear changes imaginable.

 

 

Tony

Edited May 14, 2017 by Prometheus

[ColinK]

I learnt to drive on a Guy Arab, great fun. Part of the test involved changing down 4, 3, 2, 1 while going downhill without crashing the gears too much. Never drove one in service though. Later we got some Leyland Nationals, awful buses.

[Joseph_Pestell]

A chance for me to give this pic another outing:

 

15171021_1683296071685189_5886189712575067639_n.jpg

 

Restored single handedly by yours truly (2001-2005).

Glad that you have posted that photo to this thread. One of my favourite bus types.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Can't we have coaches too... ?

Of course we can. As a (part) northerner, coaches are buses (but you have to pronounce it properly - rhymes with puss not with cuss).

 

I will edit title thread.

Edited May 15, 2017 by Joseph_Pestell

[Legend]

Few of my collection over the years.

Wow is that a Lowestoft Corporation bus I see there? Fond memories of mid to late 60s when I was a wee boy on holiday . Great Yarmouth blue and white buses and Lowestoft Brown and Cream. They were a bit of a revelation to a wee boy who thought all buses were red coming from deep in Western SMT country.

 

Also remember seeing Midland Bluebird Blue and Cream usually at Ayr races on excursion. Loved that shade of blue , although I don't remember the Bristol style of bodywork it was usually an Alexander's Y type.

Edited May 15, 2017 by Legend

[Gwiwer]

Of course we can. As a (part) northerner, coaches are buses.

They certainly were where the Alexander Y-type was concerned. The Bristol RE gains an honourable mention for the many dual-purpose seated examples with bus-shell bodies. Southdown had a unique and stylish batch of Northen Counties bodied Leopards intended as coaches which could be used as buses as opposed to the other way around. They even had a small "destination" blind on the front panel at door height which had just two options - plain green when used as a coach (which blended into the livery) or white-on-black Pay As You Enter for bus work. These beasts were as tall as a lowheight 'decker with a fearsome four steep entry steps making them unpopular with the elderly Sussex population where ever they were used.

 

During my time at WesternNational and for many years beforehand "anything goes" was the rule. Front line coaches were used as buses every day, often with a handheld Setright ticket machine in use because no mounting bracket was provided. Elderly coaches were used as school buses but turned up on some surprisingly quiet and rural infill turns. The 12, a route we acquired with the Grenville business, took the back road between Camborne and Penzance through Townshend. A 49-seat Leopard / Duple was a regular performer offering damp, musty seats to the 2 or 3 passengerd who were the typical loading.

[Gwiwer]

And then there were the chohorts of "grant door" coach-body buses which went largely to NBC operators with purchase assisted by the New Bus Grant. Southdown and Western National both took full advantage with the result that wholly unsuitble four-step coaches appeared daily on bus routes. I well remember the driver of a grant-door Bristol LH struggling with the shopping trolleys and prams offered between Constantine Bay and Padstow. The market-day trip had been worked by step-free FLF until the week before.

[PhilJ W]

My dad took his PSV test on a pre-war Bristol K fitted with a 5-cylinder Gardner.

[HitchinLoco]

Wow is that a Lowestoft Corporation bus I see there? Fond memories of mid to late 60s when I was a wee boy on holiday . Great Yarmouth blue and white buses and Lowestoft Brown and Cream. They were a bit of a revelation to a wee boy who thought all buses were red coming from deep in Western SMT country.

 

Also remember seeing Midland Bluebird Blue and Cream usually at Ayr races on excursion. Loved that shade of blue , although I don't remember the Bristol style of bodywork it was usually an Alexander's Y type.

Not sure if you mean the Blue and White one next to the LT Busses, but that is Delaine of Bourne Lincolnshire. Still have a few preserved in there fleet. If it is from the other collection that could be as it was a museum in Norfolk. Hope it helps.

[Prometheus]

I learnt to drive on a Guy Arab, great fun. Part of the test involved changing down 4, 3, 2, 1 while going downhill without crashing the gears too much. Never drove one in service though. Later we got some Leyland Nationals, awful buses.

 

I took my test in Caerphilly in a Regent V Colin, and so benefitted from a synchromesh 'box. My emergency stop was downhill on a wet road: struck me as very unfair given the high probability of locking a wheel or two. Nothing untoward happened though. We had a fair few Guys when I drove there, all had completely different gearbox timings: one, No63, was notoriously fast - so quick in fact that you barely had time to dip the clutch for a second time. A difficult bus to master but fine once you had acquired the knack.

 

Tony

[laurenceb]

A few from Stevensons 90th anniversary running day in September-

Leopard/AlexanderDaimler SRG Fleetline/Willowbrook Burton CorperationTiger/PlaxtonLeyland National ex WMT & StevensonsThe Leopard & Tiger are ringers not ex Stevos

 

[DerekEm8]

We are quite fortunate  in the North West having two annual events- Heaton Park (Manchester) and Fleetwood as well as the Manchester Bus Museum.

 

This is one from Heaton Park September 2005

 

 

Is this one old enough ?

[Legend]

Not sure if you mean the Blue and White one next to the LT Busses, but that is Delaine of Bourne Lincolnshire. Still have a few preserved in there fleet. If it is from the other collection that could be as it was a museum in Norfolk. Hope it helps.

No it was the brown and cream one. Still that's a nice bus too!

[Judge Dread]

There has been a mention of when Doncaster had "proper buses", well they had trolleybuses as well but........here's a trolleybus they almost had but never did.

Taken at the Sandtoft museum. 

One for NHN. Photo taken on the same day and place as previous

Edited May 15, 2017 by Judge Dread

[Co-tr-Paul]

Here is one of many from my Flickr photostream. Classic 1970s Wessex of Bristol with whom i grew up with before doing 15 years with Bristol O.C. Cityline,along with Durbin,Badgerline,Streamline work too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bedford VAM Duple Viceroy mk1 MHU925F

Edited May 15, 2017 by Co-tr-Paul

[chrisf]

Here are a couple I took somewhere in Oxfordshire on a photo charter in June 2008. 

 

Chris