Questionable - what sort of watches are they wearing? 
cav551:
Pre 1988 do not require speed limiters and if less than 12metres in length 70 mph max.Post 1988 less than 12 metres require speed limiter set to 62 mph but legal limit 70.
Greater than 12 metres legal limit 60 mph, however likely to find that speed limiter is set to 62 mph.
It is much more difficult to tell the age of a coach than it first seems.
I find it strange that the older the coach, the faster it’s allowed to travel with regard to speed limiters. I used to drive a 1983 Volvo B10M that was “limited” to 70 mph - or so the window sticker said, whereas a new coach with better specced brakes/ABS/safety equipment in general is only allowed 62 mph (100km/h)■■? Bizarre - the older the vehicle, the faster it can legally travel. Also most school-related transport is carried out using older, faster vehicles with lower spec. - and they’re carrying round the most precious of cargoes - children■■?
Race Trucker:
Questionable - what sort of watches are they wearing?
They’re not, they’re gonna nick 'em when they get here !
Olog Hai:
If that was Tiger then yes, many of them were capable of that with a tailwind…Not the only Leyland PSV product that would comfortably exceed 70 either. Where I was for a while they had some Tigers as buses with full autos which were good for 75mph. Olympian double-deckers with ■■■■■■■ L10s in them could do similar.
Gawd i remember passing a brand new expressliner b10m on lancaster bank driven by my depot driving instructor!
i was in an Olympian decker. full chat. full of school kids.
the flak i got was unbelievable. as he had the 1st one on our fleet.
and was full of all the headsheds who couldn’t believe i had passed them!
the old decker would sit at 70 no probs.
used to beat most of our b10’s up dunmail raise as well !
Those old B10Ms were fair motors though, I passed one in my car on the A14 last week and he mustn’t have been far off 70, not bad for a G-reg… 
The firm round here had four of the first Expressliners to go on the road, one of the blokes who used to work for the coach arm (Paramount) reckoned they never stopped. It was go, go, go round the clock.
With Wayne’s mention of Scanias I can also remember the very early low-floor single-deckers they had which were Scanias. About 10t empty and with an 11-litre turbo in them and automatic gearbox, they would go some but were often freezing in winter. They’d climb pretty much whatever hill you pointed them at in top gear.
Olog Hai:
With Wayne’s mention of Scanias I can also remember the very early low-floor single-deckers they had which were Scanias. About 10t empty and with an 11-litre turbo in them and automatic gearbox, they would go some but were often freezing in winter. They’d climb pretty much whatever hill you pointed them at in top gear.
And the brakes where horrendous, all ours where anyway plus they would rattle your teeth out, we used ticket rolls to jam the windows and cab doors 
Drift:
Olog Hai:
With Wayne’s mention of Scanias I can also remember the very early low-floor single-deckers they had which were Scanias. About 10t empty and with an 11-litre turbo in them and automatic gearbox, they would go some but were often freezing in winter. They’d climb pretty much whatever hill you pointed them at in top gear.And the brakes where horrendous, all ours where anyway plus they would rattle your teeth out, we used ticket rolls to jam the windows and cab doors
We did that on EVERY bus.
Was worse if you did a mini-bus duty and got a Merc 410D or if you were lucky, a Beaver 2 
I don’t remember our Scania brakes being bad if I’m honest, but we had 1 good seat which moved around the busses based on MOT due dates, the rest had no padding in, rips in, and if you took a corner a little too quick you’d slide off them with a screw tearing a hole in your pants and your ■■■■ cheak 
The B10M’s were a mighty machine but had a habit of over-heating in summer and not starting in winter, the B10B’s were much better but were really tail happy in the wet
We inherited a load of B10’s when Arriva took over Merseybus, and they where quick.
I remember back on the 80’s we had the merc 608D minis and went through a spate of gear sticks falling off as you changed gear
But we loved them old mini buses, they used to fight for them
Your right about most tickets being used to stop rattles on all buses, once they got to one or two years old it was like the bodies had been loosened up
I remember learning to drive buses in an old Tiger. It had the tiny dumpy gear stick that had a start position, hold, drive and reverse. I remember topping 70 on the motorway and a horrible burning oil smell inside when going that speed. I remember having to ease off at 70 lol!
Also some of the old B10M’s (the kind with a couple steps and the engine midway) some of them weren’t just fast they were bloody rapid. some of them used to pull away so fast standing passengers sometimes nearly fell on their arse haha.
what a ■■■■ job it was but I must admit there were a good few laughs except for the time a ticket roll rolled under the brake pedal! Had to ease on the hand brake to stop the bus and skilfully recovered the roll without a single passenger noticing what had just happened 
think those merc 608d’s had 2 faults.
the bleeding saloon heater smoking like buggar,
and gear leaver snapping off!
think my record was 3 in one day! if you were lucky you could kick it into gear and limp to depot!
miss the old vanhool b10s. did many a mile as a 21yr old in them,
Drift:
We inherited a load of B10’s when Arriva took over Merseybus, and they where quick.
I remember back on the 80’s we had the merc 608D minis and went through a spate of gear sticks falling off as you changed gear
But we loved them old mini buses, they used to fight for themYour right about most tickets being used to stop rattles on all buses, once they got to one or two years old it was like the bodies had been loosened up
They might have been 608D’s, not 410D’s actually.
They were 32 seat IIRC and the gears were kinda backwards, 1st being bottom left? noisy rattly things.
Worse still, we had some automatic versions of them too, literally walking pace up any hill with a gradient of more than 1 in 20 
I had the clip on the throttle brake a few times, leaving me stranded, once blocking a major junction, in the automatic, tried using the tickover screw to get it to clear the junction but the road camber was too much for it in either forward or reverse
Yeah, some of them b10’s were amazing, I drove a B12M coach for a while, and it was really nice but didn’t seem to pull like the B10’s even though it was a bigger engine.
The B10B’s though, they were just better, pulled better but were absolutely brutal in the wet, and also the tail swing had a habit of wiping out cars, bus stops, bus shelters, street furniture, railings etc and that was before you put your foot down and did a power-slide out of the local council estate 