For those interested in old buses (and coaches)

[Johann Marsbar]

We borrowed this one earlier in 1986 to evaluate potential minibus routes in Town.....

 

 

....and the Atlantean on the left is now preserved !

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Johann Marsbar

[John M Upton]

There were attempts to improve on the Bread Van format with more purpose built designs, these included the three axle Talbot Pullman:

 

The CVE Omni:

 

The corrosion prone MCW Metrorider:  (Later also made by Optare in an update and still corrosion prone form after MCW went bust)

 

The already mentioned Iveco Daily with Robin Hood bodywork:

The later design was well weird though:

 

Stagecoach would later standardise on Alexander bodied Mercedes which were all right:

 

The everything must be low floor revolution means that the only real viable minibus now is the Optare Solo, had a ride on once, utterly dreadful!! 

[alastairq]

Longer Merc minibuses started in Scarborough, followed by a large number of rear end collisions with bus shelters, as the drivers pulled out too sharply...long rear ends! Westborough often the scene of bent shelters and buses.  That was the problem with lines of shelters, and queued buses.

[Gwiwer]

26 minutes ago, alastairq said:

a large number of rear end collisions with bus shelters, as the drivers pulled out too sharply

Our problem wasn't shelters but solid stone buildings.  

 

The 608s were fine.  The 709s were not officially allowed in the far west (largely because we had "new buses" a few years earlier with the 608s) so we hardly ever saw one.  The 811s arrived with protective corner "bumpers" (just an L-shaped piece on the rear corners) which were about 3cm wider than the vehicle itself.  

 

The wheelbase was slightly different to the earlier Bristol SUS and LHS models we had safely squeezed into Mousehole before.  The 811s were nominally slightly smaller than an LHS but had a longer rear overhang.  On a good day you only had an inch either side as you made first a 90-degree left then immediately a 90-degree right turn into then out of that village between cottages.  Misjudge it and your back bumper would clip the wall, leave its mount and go home in the luggage pen    It was maybe three months before all of them had been removed leaving the rear corners of the bodywork exposed to all indiscretions.  

 

I still remember the technique and positioning required.  I was one of a select number who never ever touched a wall there.  I'd do it again tomorrow if asked.  They use small Optare Solos these days which are far easier to get in and out.  

[laurenceb]

3 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

They are in favor over here and have been for some years:

 

There was a company over here called DIVCO that made a very successful line of milk delivery (and other products) trucks, they experiment by offering a minibus that was not built on the truck chassis. Unfortunately, at that time, there really was not the demand for that type of vehicle so not too many were built. A friend has one but it needs far too much work to ever be presentable again.

 

The rear displays Rick is referring to are the old roller blind variety. The electronic version is now commonplace (and Mr &Mrs public still walk to the front, look then ask the driver if the bus is going to somewhere totally unrelated)

[PhilJ W]

The RLH class London buses operating out of Hornchurch on the 248 service didn't have a rear blind, just the normal front one and one over the platform.

[John M Upton]

Potential caption competition:

 

And another...

 

 

[stewartingram]

"Is this bus going to Hook?"

[Johann Marsbar]

Another midibus variant in the late 1980's was the Optare City Pacer....

 

[pH]

On 26/10/2021 at 13:58, laurenceb said:

Mr &Mrs public still walk to the front, look then ask the driver if the bus is going to somewhere totally unrelated

I did once, as a conductor,  totally confuse a passenger who got on and asked “Is this bus going to …?” by saying “I don’t know - what does it say on the front?”.

 

Completely justified question - we were just out of the garage, I had been told “He needs a conductor - get on”, I hadn’t even seen the duty board and expected to be running private.

[alastairq]

Most common question I would be asked [always in Beverley Sow Hill bus station, too...must be something in the water there?], when having HULL on the front blind in huge letters, they would look, even discuss between themselves, before coming to the open door and asking if this bus was ''going to Hull?''

 

I would have been tempted to say 'nope'....Then they would argue that ''it says HULL on the front'.....Erm.....

Temptation was also there to reply, ''it says India on the tyres, I ain't going there either....''

 

But my customer-care training would kick in, and I would respond with pure gibberish.

Customer care training was anathema to old fart bus drivers....the 'lecturers' would struggle to convince us to try different approaches.

 

I mean, being nice n polite to passengers? What was that all about??

 

If I had been sat waiting at a start point, doors open, for a while, with few punters being tempted, if someone arrived at my till, I would look up [suddenly] and ask ''WOT??''

Inevitably they'd chunter when given the price of the fare....as if I could do anything about the price??

Wouldn't mind, but I'd have quoted the cheapest option from the fare chart, anyway.

But, often, that wasn't good enough for some!

 

Sometimes they'd ask if I would mnd putting the heating on, too?

 

It WAS on.....going full blast....I cannot help it if the heating arrangements on a worn out Bristol VRT were a bit on the side of naff? I was a driver, not the bus company owner!

People just expected far too much from the bus driver!!

After all, they got  a safe ride to their destination [guaranteed], within a reasonable time from the expected time of arrival......Could not get any better than that, could they?

Yet, oddly, as a bus driver, one was considered by the public, to be the font of all knowledge,, and the person to turn to in times of distress and emergency. [The end of the world is nigh! Go see the driver, he'll know what to do!]

 

The old fashioned bus driver often acquired an air of competence and confidence which folk noticed, and relied upon.

 

A bit like the old fashioned copper?

 

[Mike_Walker]

It happens to train crew too so you bus guys are not alone.

 

A friend of mine once proved that nobody looks at the destination display by driving around Maidenhead for a whole shift deliberately showing the wrong destination on each journey.  Nobody challenged him, not even the inspectors!

[pH]

52 minutes ago, alastairq said:

The old fashioned bus driver often acquired an air of competence and confidence …

I’m glad you included the “often”, thereby allowing for exceptions! 

[leopardml2341]

Don't forget these:

 

 

A bit 'thirsty' and unreliable IIRC.

Edited October 28, 2021 by leopardml2341

[RANGERS]

On 27/10/2021 at 22:58, pH said:

I did once, as a conductor,  totally confuse a passenger who got on and asked “Is this bus going to …?” by saying “I don’t know - what does it say on the front?”.

 

Completely justified question - we were just out of the garage, I had been told “He needs a conductor - get on”, I hadn’t even seen the duty board and expected to be running private.

A rail anecdote but still related, a pal of mine who was a driver at Cricklewood told a tale of a colleague who received an official reprimand when working the Gospel Oak to Barking service in DMU days.

 

A well to do lady passenger asked him if it was the Barking train, to which his reply of “no madam, it goes toot toot like all the others” wasn’t well received.

[Dunsignalling]

The apocryphal answer to the passenger asking, "how long will the next bus be?", and receiving the response, "thirty-six feet, same as the last one", tended not to go down well, either.

 

[Mike_Walker]

My mother once asked someone in Vancouver where she "could pick up a trolleybus".  The reply was: "Jesus lady, you must be strong..."

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, Mike_Walker said:

My mother once asked someone in Vancouver where she "could pick up a trolleybus".  The reply was: "Jesus lady, you must be strong..."

As a driver I was sometimes asked by people unfamiliar with the process “How do you catch the bus?” 
 

To which my answer was along the lines of “How big is your net?”  
 

On the other hand and remembering the “breadvan revolution” I probably began the process of ending a relationship with my then girlfriend by misinterpreting signs in Leicester. 
 

Major operator Midland Fox (formerly a part of Midland Red) christened their Ford Transit 16-seaters “Fox Cubs” which was at least better than the ubiquitous “hoppa” and used stop plates with the legend “Catch a Fox Cub here”. 
 

Which prompted the young Gwiwer to crouch beneath the plate, arms outstretched, waiting for the cute cartoon fox cub to fall off the sign   
 

Exit eye-candy lap-top bemused and confused

[leopardml2341]

7 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

The apocryphal answer to the passenger asking, "how long will the next bus be?", and receiving the response, "thirty-six feet, same as the last one", tended not to go down well, either.

 

I once gave that response, and as quick as a flash the retort was " and will that one have a monkey driving it an' all?"

 

Serves me right I s'pose

[alastairq]

That's the trouble with the travelling public......no sense of humour!!

[Johann Marsbar]

One that hasn't been seen on the road since the 1960's and is currently undergoing restoration at the Ipswich Transport Museum...

 

 

A 1932 Bedford WLB bus with Waveney 20 seat bodywork, registered WV 1209, and delivered new to Alexander of Devizes in 1932.

It ended up with Foremans of Orford in Suffolk and upon withdrawal underwent an attempted conversion into a mobile tea-bar.  The Museum aqured it in the 1960's and it has been in store ever since, until restoration work started about 3 years ago.

[RANGERS]

Came across a couple of shots from the much vaunted Delaine fleet in South Lincs earlier.

 

YPD128Y was a Leyland Tiger with Duple Dominant IV Express body new to London Country and one of several they owned over a period of about ten years from 1989 to 2000 or so.

 

DTL489D was a Leyland Atlantean PDR1 with Willowbrook body which I think was Delaine's first OMO decker.

[John M Upton]

DTL 489D survives in preservation (can't be many Willowbrook Atlanteans still about, there were not that many to begin with compared with other bodies on the same chassis) but YPD128Y I think was scrapped.

[John M Upton]

I was always a fan of the original design of Plaxton Paramount, this on a Tiger chassis in the old Crawley Bus Station circa 1988.  Where it is standing is roughly the perfume counter of Boots now....

 

And this was the terrible B51 from ECW, also on a Tiger chassis, same location but looking the other way towards the Travel Shop where twelve year old me would often collect a lot of bus timetable leaflets.

I think that is my gran standing in the middle of the road admiring it for no readily apparent reason....

Edited November 9, 2021 by John M Upton

[37114]

13 hours ago, John M Upton said:

DTL 489D survives in preservation (can't be many Willowbrook Atlanteans still about, there were not that many to begin with compared with other bodies on the same chassis) but YPD128Y I think was scrapped.

There is the (in)famous trent one ONN571P. Originally bodied by ECW it was badly damaged in a depot fire days after entering service. The chassis survived and was reboided by Willowbrook:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26024754@N07/35340577815

 

Before and after comparison:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_oxon/27822972119/in/photolist-2ksssAt-q7NqR8-2kpLy4z-2kpFUvx-HGHETe-2mfPSim-CmgZsA-uv6WqP-b4shKM-TZ5bGB-JoC1gR-xr1vHe-KhtDx5-CmgZ9E-bbmRcx-LLmZ8f-bwcBBr-op1toY-YX7HTf-nyrfRe-q3DPCs-o8XN7k-PhpAfD-dqDE7U-oSuzdV-chcrkG-znXizp-CokP9P-nX2r7u-oQfi5A-WeKMxJ-nYcNsJ-YsKTcH-VdPpc3-UcApVP-YDuTnp-CSAp1g-vAJP42-GWrZt3-MgprH7-Fz6XRy-HTHJh4

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by 37114
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