Being a newbie to your forums I hope this is acceptable, if I get a slapped wrist I will accept it gracefully.
On my way home from a short break in Turin at Easter (by car) I decided to go over the Alps rather than under them. Imagine my surprise when we stopped at a watering hole at the top to find a red London double deck bus. The driver was on his way to Croatia but was prohibited from using the tunnels. I struck up a conversation with the driver and I mentioned it was rather a long way to go with an old bus, he said that was how he earns his living. He told me he`d sold buses to Finland and Russia and he always delivered them himself if possible, the farthest one of his buses went was to Israel. Trips to Italy and Spain were normal trips. There seems to be a big market for the old British Bus overseas. I think he came from Wales but I wondered if anyone else had seen him on their travels?
I often encountered old. red, London buses on my travels over the years. I am sure we have a TruckNet member who has undertaken these type of journeys as a driver. There are also a couple of companies who do trips using double deckers, mostly crewed by Aussies and Kiwis.
Coffeeholic:
There are also a couple of companies who do trips using double deckers, mostly crewed by Aussies and Kiwis.
I’m sure I remember those too.
If (big if) memory serves, didn’t people call these “magic bus,”
I remember that the drivers were usually skilled fitters, as I often saw them with “mechanical difficulties.” I don’t remember ever seeing a breakdown company in attendance. When I asked, one driver told me they were on their way to Athens.
Weren’t these buses double-deckers and cream in colour, with an orange stripe?
you are dead right neil. i drove for top deck for 2 seasons. first season i had a aaaaarrrggghhh as you correctly described. 2nd season i had the person who is now my wife. cant say fairer than that eh.
klunk/■■■■■■■■
Here we are Tobyjug the company Coffeeholic is talking about overland to Katmando is this the cheapest way from Aussie to the uk or used to be
Hi klunk
That’s sorted me out then. (Nice piccy by the way.)
I wasn’t far off with the colour scheme though… and I THINK “magic bus” was a nickname- go on then, put me out of my misery.
It was always good crack when the top deck busses stoped at the Londra Camp in Istanbul just imagine the aaaarrrrrrrrggggggs as coffee puts it plus afew beer swilling aussie birds being thrown in to a place with 200 middle east types here a couple of the nicer ones the next morning that are marooned there while the bus is repaired.
Back to crossing the Alps theres some smashing scenery on these passes i have been over the most of them but now there are weight limits on most of them the ones i can remember are Mont Genevra,Simplon pass,Mont cenis, Mont Bernado pass .
The mont Cenis
a bloke in kent asked us to get an old routemaster to croatia about 10 years ago, he’d sold it to seagram to advertise captain morgan rum out there - he told me how much some bod (same bloke?) wanted to drive it out there and i nearly fell off me chair
so i undercut them by £200, popped it on a boat from tilbury to pireaus and another from piraeus to rijeka and pocketed a very tidy sum indeed
vasco wrote- I still use the Simplon on a regular basis mainly because it doesn´t have a weighbridge at the border.
wrong. when you exit the border at vallorbe just after the bp garage before the island look left up the lane. a weighbridge . as i found out one saturday morning having declared a light permit with 24 ton in the back .
also in sion just after the village where the army base is they use the weighbridge there alot and at gondo on the italy/swiss side there is a split weighbridge where you have to drop the trailer then weigh unit+trailer seperate. though i must admit ive seen this in use 2 times in 23 years. alan r knows all about the weighbridge at sion .
r slicker:
vasco wrote- I still use the Simplon on a regular basis mainly because it doesn´t have a weighbridge at the border.
wrong. when you exit the border at vallorbe just after the bp garage before the island look left up the lane. a weighbridge . as i found out one saturday morning having declared a light permit with 24 ton in the back .
also in sion just after the village where the army base is they use the weighbridge there alot and at gondo on the italy/swiss side there is a split weighbridge where you have to drop the trailer then weigh unit+trailer seperate. though i must admit ive seen this in use 2 times in 23 years. alan r knows all about the weighbridge at sion .
Getting to the border at Vallorbe about 15 minutes before it closes helps as well
, a Bristol Lodekker if I’m not mistaken. 
