Throwback Thursday (197)
It is 1998 and D 635 is going on tour. Dublin Bus started the open-tour in 1988. The original tour fleet was made up of Leyland Atlanteans which were approaching the end of their service life. This pattern has continued to this day. The Atlanteans were later joined by Vanhools like D635 here and then these started to be replaced by Olympians from around 2000 on. Next came the ALX 400s in the form of the AV and AX classes and most recently the Enviro 400 EVs. Currently in 2019 the Dublin Bus tour fleet is entirely composed of low-floor, accessible buses.
The tour has always been a commercial operation by Dublin Bus and in 2017 it rebranded the city tour as DoDublin, with an all-over green livery. When it started in 1988 it was the only hop-on, hop-off tour in Dublin, but in 2019 there is stiff competition from The Big Bus Company and City Sightseeing, along with a number of niche tours.
D 635 had a varied career. It was delivered new to Dublin in 1975 and operated out of Clontarf and Summerhill garages. Around 1998 it joined the tour fleet. Normally that would be the end of a bus's career but by 2002 it had been converted for tree-lopper duties. In this role it toured the network, cutting down branches that could cause damage to buses. It finally retired from Dublin Bus in 2003, and passed into private hands.
St. Stephen's Green 15/10/1998
Throwback Thursday (197)
It is 1998 and D 635 is going on tour. Dublin Bus started the open-tour in 1988. The original tour fleet was made up of Leyland Atlanteans which were approaching the end of their service life. This pattern has continued to this day. The Atlanteans were later joined by Vanhools like D635 here and then these started to be replaced by Olympians from around 2000 on. Next came the ALX 400s in the form of the AV and AX classes and most recently the Enviro 400 EVs. Currently in 2019 the Dublin Bus tour fleet is entirely composed of low-floor, accessible buses.
The tour has always been a commercial operation by Dublin Bus and in 2017 it rebranded the city tour as DoDublin, with an all-over green livery. When it started in 1988 it was the only hop-on, hop-off tour in Dublin, but in 2019 there is stiff competition from The Big Bus Company and City Sightseeing, along with a number of niche tours.
D 635 had a varied career. It was delivered new to Dublin in 1975 and operated out of Clontarf and Summerhill garages. Around 1998 it joined the tour fleet. Normally that would be the end of a bus's career but by 2002 it had been converted for tree-lopper duties. In this role it toured the network, cutting down branches that could cause damage to buses. It finally retired from Dublin Bus in 2003, and passed into private hands.
St. Stephen's Green 15/10/1998