Froggy55:
Thanks! I always thought that registration numbers were given for the life of a vehicle, wherever it moved to in the UK. Could you please tell me how it is that many buses are re-registered? Complete rebuilding, maybe?
The main reason they use cherished numbers is to disguise the age of the coach. Some hirers, like cruiselines, demand that the coaches are no older than 3/4 years. With the average coach costing new somewhere around £250k you can imagine that not a lot of companies will have a largely brand new fleet to offer the cruise companies, especially not at the rates they are prepared to pay. There are so many different bodies fitted to chassis’s that (unless you were a geek like me) you couldn’t tell the age of the coach by looking at it if is not identifiable by the reg no.
On a separate note there were a large number of ex MOD coaches that were brought back to the UK when the overseas bases closed and sold that were given new reg’s applicable to the year they were sold and not the year the were supplied to the MOD. You therefore had coaches that were manufactured in the early 90’s that, if they had been used by other than the MOD, would have been on K/L plates being given 03/04 plates. The operators who were bound by local authorities to provide school buses of no older than 12 years snapped them up and got a further 10 years out of them. Nobody was any the wiser and in some instances even the operators didn’t know - they thought they were getting a great deal. Baffling but true
Ribble fleet number 1524 is parked in Hilbre Street, outside of the upper section of the Ribble bus station
in the centre of Liverpool. The large building at the rear is part of the Adelphi Hotel on Copperas Hill.
This Leyland PD3 was one of a large number of 72 seaters from the late 1950s which served the company
well into the 1970s. NMP.
oiltreader:
Snapped at Wythall thanks to Andrew Breeden.
Oily
ex BCT Marshall bodied Daimler Fleetline single deck on the right.
Bought to replace single deck Leyland Tigers used on the 27 route
which had a couple of low bridges en route.
Froggy55:
Thanks! I always thought that registration numbers were given for the life of a vehicle, wherever it moved to in the UK. Could you please tell me how it is that many buses are re-registered? Complete rebuilding, maybe?
The main reason they use cherished numbers is to disguise the age of the coach. Some hirers, like cruiselines, demand that the coaches are no older than 3/4 years. With the average coach costing new somewhere around £250k you can imagine that not a lot of companies will have a largely brand new fleet to offer the cruise companies, especially not at the rates they are prepared to pay. There are so many different bodies fitted to chassis’s that (unless you were a geek like me) you couldn’t tell the age of the coach by looking at it if is not identifiable by the reg no.
On a separate note there were a large number of ex MOD coaches that were brought back to the UK when the overseas bases closed and sold that were given new reg’s applicable to the year they were sold and not the year the were supplied to the MOD. You therefore had coaches that were manufactured in the early 90’s that, if they had been used by other than the MOD, would have been on K/L plates being given 03/04 plates. The operators who were bound by local authorities to provide school buses of no older than 12 years snapped them up and got a further 10 years out of them. Nobody was any the wiser and in some instances even the operators didn’t know - they thought they were getting a great deal. Baffling but true
Indeed, but wouldn’t you also ask to see the full registration certificate before paying tens of thousands Pounds for a bus? I would certainly!
Froggy55:
Thanks! I always thought that registration numbers were given for the life of a vehicle, wherever it moved to in the UK. Could you please tell me how it is that many buses are re-registered? Complete rebuilding, maybe?
The main reason they use cherished numbers is to disguise the age of the coach. Some hirers, like cruiselines, demand that the coaches are no older than 3/4 years. With the average coach costing new somewhere around £250k you can imagine that not a lot of companies will have a largely brand new fleet to offer the cruise companies, especially not at the rates they are prepared to pay. There are so many different bodies fitted to chassis’s that (unless you were a geek like me) you couldn’t tell the age of the coach by looking at it if is not identifiable by the reg no.
On a separate note there were a large number of ex MOD coaches that were brought back to the UK when the overseas bases closed and sold that were given new reg’s applicable to the year they were sold and not the year the were supplied to the MOD. You therefore had coaches that were manufactured in the early 90’s that, if they had been used by other than the MOD, would have been on K/L plates being given 03/04 plates. The operators who were bound by local authorities to provide school buses of no older than 12 years snapped them up and got a further 10 years out of them. Nobody was any the wiser and in some instances even the operators didn’t know - they thought they were getting a great deal. Baffling but true
Indeed, but wouldn’t you also ask to see the full registration certificate before paying tens of thousands Pounds for a bus? I would certainly!
In respect of the cherished no’s then the date of original registration would of course be available on the reg document. With the ex MOD stuff I don’t know what would be on the reg doc but at least 3 of my customers had them and didn’t know the true age of the vehicle. I supply parts to the bus industry and they would call me asking for parts for a 2003 Javelin. When they gave me the chassis no I could confirm the original military reg and date into service.
A trolley bus with bodywork by Massey Bros of Pemberton, Wigan, about to be
towed from Wigan to Stockton-On Tees in the North-East, about 150 miles journey.
Froggy55:
Thanks to Ray Smith and Trooper2 for the information concerning the Leyland Atlantean. Armchair sounds a strange name for a bus company!
Cheers
Paul
They were actually a great company to work with. I supplied them with a lot of stuff before they got bought out in 2014.
Geoff, Thank you for the picture of Ribble 900, I cant identify the location,
but it is showing X61 Blackpool on the indicator panel. It is a Ribble depot
that I cant recall during my 2 years with them from early 1968.
I have attached 2 more pictures of 900, one of when it was based at Wigan.
I think 900 may have been based at Aintree in its later days. These 2 pictures
have been seen before on this thread.
Ray Smyth:
Geoff, Thank you for the picture of Ribble 900, I cant identify the location, but it is showing X61 Blackpool
on the indicator panel. It is a Ribble depot that I cant recall during my 2 years with them from early 1968.
.
My photo shows 900 parked outside Ribble’s Selborne Street Depot in Preston. The Depot is still there.
Ray Smyth:
Geoff, Thank you for the picture of Ribble 900, I cant identify the location, but it is showing X61 Blackpool
on the indicator panel. It is a Ribble depot that I cant recall during my 2 years with them from early 1968.
.
My photo shows 900 parked outside Ribble’s Selborne Street Depot in Preston. The Depot is still there.
Thank you for the depot location Geoff, The only locations that I got to in Preston was
Tithebarn Street, and then the new bus station. Cheers, Ray.
