Buses, coaches, & lorries

Paul John:
Looking at the Wrights Travel coaches, is ORR a Duple bodied Leopard? NAU, fitted with a B10M would be a flyer, and my choice to take up the road. Looks as if its fitted with a Plaxton body? Over to you Ray!

Yes, Paul John, It looks like a Plaxton Panorama Elite. Ray.

The Arriva bus with Wrights bodywork is possibly a Volvo, difficult to tell nowadays.
It has just left King Street, Wigan, from the right, and is about to enter King Street West,
on the left, to travel the last 400 yards to the new bus station. Route number 360 is
the journey from Warrington to Wigan.

Ray Smyth.

Some years ago (31 years ago, to be precise) I - a fairly newly-arrived backpacking Pommie in Oz on a short “working holiday” visa - got a job with a removals mob in Mascot (a southern suburb of Sydney, not a suitcase throw from Kingsford-Smith airport aka Sydney International). I regularly took either the 309 or the 310 service from Central Stn on a UTA (later STA) on one of these:

youtube.com/watch?v=ecobfR98Pco

Being a Pom, the noise it made was instantly familiar (an 0.600 Leyland) even if its coachwork looked… odd.

Footnote: at the time (1988) I had no reason to suspect that Sydney’s UTA (Urban Transit Authority, later STA, succeeded by Sydney Buses) had been one of Leyland (Truck & Bus) biggest overseas clients, having ordered north of 700 Leopard bus chassis. That Sydney UTA was, at the time, phasing in M-B O305s on almost every route is testament to Leyland’s obstinacy in offering only the O.500 engined National to its hitherto reliable export markets.

An ex Ribble Leyland Lion being taken to an apprentice school for re-build on
a Lancashire Fire Service Ford Cargo step frame artic, and a De-Icing machine
of British Airways, one of 7 from Manchester Airport, on a BRS Leyland DAF artic.
These operations were part of the varied work that the engineering department
of Ribble Motor Services carried out in the 1980s. Pictures by Ron Hopkins.

Ray Smyth.

ParkRoyal2100:

Paul John:
Looking at the Wrights Travel coaches, is ORR a Duple bodied Leopard? !

Computer says “no”, it’s a Bedford YNT :frowning:[/quote.
Hi ParkRoyal, would that be a 466 or 500. It probably would of been to early on a W reg for the later 8.3l turbo,or the Perkins Phaser engines. The Bedfords were slow compared to the Leyland 680, Fords turbo and defenitely the Volvo.
Thanks for the info.

Paul

The BBMS takes me back a bit. I recall their garage was at the bottom of Club St when independant.
The old Bamber Bridge and Walton le Dale people always gave their trade to BBMS. “Let t’Ribble buz pass and we’ll get wir own buz”. Was quite a struggle climbing up London road hill sometimes.

The picture of the old coach station in Preston also awoke the brain. Used to catch buses regularly from the old bus station and on a Wednesday morning caught a White Lady through to Blackburn. What was the reason for the White Lady bus? I never found out.

Thanks for the memories.

Walton man:
The BBMS takes me back a bit. I recall their garage was at the bottom of Club St when independant.
The old Bamber Bridge and Walton le Dale people always gave their trade to BBMS. “Let t’Ribble buz pass and we’ll get wir own buz”. Was quite a struggle climbing up London road hill sometimes.

The picture of the old coach station in Preston also awoke the brain. Used to catch buses regularly from the old bus station and on a Wednesday morning caught a White Lady through to Blackburn. What was the reason for the White Lady bus? I never found out.

Thanks for the memories.

Hi Walton Man, The Ribble “White Lady” buses were a double deck coach, fitted with coach type seats,
and luggage space, and were mainly used on “Express” journeys, for example, Manchester to Blackpool,
Liverpool to Skipton etc. The early “White Lady” coaches were 2 batches of PD Leylands, and the
later ones were Leyland Atlantean. The Standerwick double deck coaches also on Leyland Atlantean
chassis were known officially as “Gay Hostess”, as well as coach seats and luggage space, they had a
small kitchen servery, and a hostess who served the passengers with hot snacks and drinks.
These vehicles were mainly used on the Lancashire to London journeys. I don’t think that they would
be called a “Gay Hostess” today. :wink: :wink: Regards, Ray Smyth.

Ribble “White Lady”

Ribble “White Lady” Atlantean.
Click on picture for full image.

White Lady 2.jpg

Standerwick “Gay Hostess” Leyland Atlantean.

Gay Hostess 2.jpg

I don’t very often go by bus these days but last week, to save my daughter collecting me from Fareham railways station, I caught the bus to Gosport.
This single decker of 2016 vintage was horrendously noisy, not only from the engine/hydraulic gearbox but the clunking etc of the chassis.
How do bus builders get away with it? Surely better sound insulation from the rear mounted drivetrain would be possible?
I reckon my 1980 F12 was quieter by far!
The gearbox was the producer of most of the noise!

ParkRoyal2100:
Some years ago (31 years ago, to be precise) I - a fairly newly-arrived backpacking Pommie in Oz on a short “working holiday” visa - got a job with a removals mob in Mascot (a southern suburb of Sydney, not a suitcase throw from Kingsford-Smith airport aka Sydney International). I regularly took either the 309 or the 310 service from Central Stn on a UTA (later STA) on one of these:

youtube.com/watch?v=ecobfR98Pco

Being a Pom, the noise it made was instantly familiar (an 0.600 Leyland) even if its coachwork looked… odd.

Footnote: at the time (1988) I had no reason to suspect that Sydney’s UTA (Urban Transit Authority, later STA, succeeded by Sydney Buses) had been one of Leyland (Truck & Bus) biggest overseas clients, having ordered north of 700 Leopard bus chassis. That Sydney UTA was, at the time, phasing in M-B O305s on almost every route is testament to Leyland’s obstinacy in offering only the O.500 engined National to its hitherto reliable export markets.

Obstinacy was not confined to the Brits. On a flight home via Riyadh in about 1982, I sat next to an American guy who worked for the newly formed Riyadh bus company (I’m sure it wasn’t called that, but that’s what it was.) he said that they needed several hundred new buses to provide services in the rapidly expanding city.

He said that a Dutch company (I think it was Van Hool, but I could be wrong, it’s a long time ago) shipped out several single deckers and gave them to the company to trial for a month. Leyland had shipped one single decker (I wasn’t really into buses, but I’m sure it was one of those that they built in Workington, whose name I can’t remember.) they parked it in Riyadh near the hotel where the representatives were staying and invited the bus company people to come and look at it. I put my head in my hands and said ‘oh no!’

‘Ah, that’s not the worst. What the Americans did was send the bus company brochures for the yellow school buses that you see all over the States, and asked how many we wanted to order.’

Not only did the Dutch company win the Riyadh order, but we soon started seeing their buses in Dammam.

I may be slightly wrong on detail, it is nearly 40 years ago, but careless marketing led to Britain losing a lot of business in traditional markets.

John.

gazzer:
I don’t very often go by bus these days but last week, to save my daughter collecting me from Fareham railways station, I caught the bus to Gosport.
This single decker of 2016 vintage was horrendously noisy, not only from the engine/hydraulic gearbox but the clunking etc of the chassis.
How do bus builders get away with it? Surely better sound insulation from the rear mounted drivetrain would be possible?
I reckon my 1980 F12 was quieter by far!
The gearbox was the producer of most of the noise!

I. too, am a rare customer of local bus services, but usually find myself hopping on one of Arriva’s puddle=jumpers when I’m feeling a bit lazy. Although the things are reasonably new (compared to the 20-year old Bristols that served in my youth) they are so noisy and uncomfortable that you’d be forgiven for presuming that they are pre war. Rear suspension is non-existent, the gearbox and/or the final drive shreaks like a banshee and the drivers, to a man, sorry, PERSON, are apparently trained not to even acknowledge the passengers, let alone speak to them.
Come back, oily, your country needs you! :wink:

Thank you Ray.

Am I off target or was there a White Lady with the door set between the axles as in central entry.

Long time ago and a lot of water under the bridge since.

Cheers, Peter

gazzer:
I don’t very often go by bus these days but last week, to save my daughter collecting me from Fareham railways station, I caught the bus to Gosport.
This single decker of 2016 vintage was horrendously noisy, not only from the engine/hydraulic gearbox but the clunking etc of the chassis.
How do bus builders get away with it? Surely better sound insulation from the rear mounted drivetrain would be possible?
I reckon my 1980 F12 was quieter by far!
The gearbox was the producer of most of the noise!

They’re cheap and nasty rubbish nowadays. When it was privatised, the profiteers had the last years of the last well-engineered vehicles. Now they just buy short-life machinery, because their backers will not fund long-term plans. Grrr…

Peter, Perhaps you are thinking of the Bristol VRL coaches from 1970 until 1975.
Regards, Ray.

Ray Smyth:

Paul John:
Looking at the Wrights Travel coaches, is ORR a Duple bodied Leopard? NAU, fitted with a B10M would be a flyer, and my choice to take up the road. Looks as if its fitted with a Plaxton body? Over to you Ray!

Yes, Paul John, It looks like a Plaxton Panorama Elite. Ray.

Hi Ray. Thanks for your reply. You certainly know your buses and coaches. Tremendous!

Paul

Paul John:
Hi ParkRoyal, would that be a 466 or 500. It probably would of been to early on a W reg for the later 8.3l turbo,or the Perkins Phaser engines. The Bedfords were slow compared to the Leyland 680, Fords turbo and defenitely the Volvo.
Thanks for the info.

Paul

More than likely the turbo 500 Paul.

John West:
Obstinacy was not confined to the Brits.

Quite so, though I can’t speak reliably about others.

John West:
…Leyland had shipped one single decker (I wasn’t really into buses, but I’m sure it was one of those that they built in Workington, whose name I can’t remember.) .

Probably the Leyland National. Given it only came with the Headless Wonder (the 0.500 series) that wouldn’t have gone over with their prospective clients very well.

ParkRoyal2100:

John West:
Obstinacy was not confined to the Brits.

Quite so, though I can’t speak reliably about others.

John West:
…Leyland had shipped one single decker (I wasn’t really into buses, but I’m sure it was one of those that they built in Workington, whose name I can’t remember.) .

Probably the Leyland National. Given it only came with the Headless Wonder (the 0.500 series) that wouldn’t have gone over with their prospective clients very well.

Leyland National, that’s the one. Why did companies insist on only offering what they wanted to sell instead of listening to what the customer wanted. Another example of this was in Nigeria, where I was told they loved the Morris Marina (honest!) but as in all African and Middle Eastern countries, they spent their lives pressing the horn, so the horn on the stalk wasn’t robust enough, they wanted to be able to lean on a boss on the steering wheel. Allegedly BL wouldn’t change it.

John.