View allAll Photos Tagged Excel
Notts & Derby Optare Excel 264 - Y264 DRC lays over in Derby bus station before operating route 11 to Ilkeston Hospital.
Quite a nice Excel is this one, which is ironic seeing as it's, well, an Excel.
Safeguard - X307CBT - Brooklands Spring Gathering 2015.
Safeguard's Optare Excel's 307/8 were laid up at the start of the Coronavirus "lockdown" in March 2020, with younger buses used to maintain a basic service for most of 2020.
307 returned in December after accident damage took another bus out of action, but 308 remained parked up until late August when it was reawakened for an improved timetable which started on the 6th September 2021.
I first spotted it out on the 22nd September, and caught it complete with a happy driver at the favoured spot of the Cathedral roundabout.
(other shots were obtained, but this one beats them although I would like to vary the locations I upload here!)
YJ51JXH has been on my radar for sometime, built as a prototype dual door demonstrator by Optare, it saw limited use before being sold to Wallace driver training school based in Wembley, London. Usually outbased near Isleworth in West London it was finally tracked down in June and very kindly posed after a training session.
First Eastern Counties
Scania N250UD / Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC City
36909 - YN69XZO
Seen on Excel service B in Peterborough Bus Station.
A very generic shot, I know, of these stunning new E400Citys, though it was all I had time for in Peterborough yesterday! A day out to be had some day...
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Tough 4...
Love this underwater camera and it excels in close up underwater work with good light...
It's been a LONG time coming, but bus drawings are back. Well, back as in I got two finished, but I don't know how soon another one will be coming seeing as how busy with other stuff I've been.
With this new Optare Excel drawing, it means I've completed re-draws of the first four vehicle types I traced on Paint.net back in 2018 for the Route 36 picture; the other three being the Scania Omnidekka, Enviro 400 Scania and Enviro 400 City.
The hardest thing about this drawing was finding a picture of an Excel that I had which was good enough to make a decent drawing from. Since they're quite rare machines, I haven't got as many Excel pictures as I have of other vehicles, and most of those have the windows covered in reflections where I can't see the interior. In the end, I found one which was just about good enough and just tried my best with the interior, although given how little of it I could see it isn't as detailed as some of the others I've done.
The Excel is straight up one of my favourite buses, being an extremely nostalgic part of my early childhood, so in time I think I'll be doing a number of liveries on this. Right now, though, here's a plain white version for you to use. It has the additional lip on the front bumper like some Excel 2s had, and can be deleted off if you don't require it. I may (or may not) upload a second version of the plain Excel without the bumper lip and a front wheel trim, which is how NCT's tended to be. This one is more like a TrentBarton spec Excel, although it has NCT green interior bars... because, erm, it just does.
Feel free to download it, slap a livery on and mess about editing it etc to create your dream Optare Excel, if you so wish. Check the album description for the worms and ignitions - I mean terms and conditions.
(tags playing up so I'm putting them in the description here)
Optare Excel Colour Bus Drawing Blank TR673 Digital CG Artwork Paint.net Colouring Paintable Repaint
Inside First West of England Weston-super-Mare Depot we see 47552 SN14FGD photographed in the excel orange livery.
This bus was photographed with permission.
Taken March 2022.
Optare Excel X606 XFX seen here in Llandudno whilst working the 09:10 Express Motors X1 Blaenau Ffestiniog service
Former NCT Excel 560 has been sold to Goodwin at Eccles. Seen in their yard receiving attention.
Fri 11th July 2014
I think this is an Excel, funny how you can debadge a car and put it in a foreign land and you question yourself. Looking rough, but still in use.
In Europe the Hyundai Excel was the successor of the Pony saloon back in 1989. The Excel was built until 1994.
Snapped in Weston-Super-Mare sporting the bright 'excel' livery last year, Alexander Dennis Enviro 400/Trident 2 33417 WA56FTP which was new to First Devon & Cornwall for the Plymouth Park & Ride services is seen here working the X1 Direct service to Bristol.
2174cc
First registered 13 September, 1985.
Currently on SORN,
No MOT - expired June 2015.
This looks in good order apart from the slightly wonky headlamp covers. Very nice-looking car.
A shot that was taken while out for a wander with P1ay and Paki Nuttah a few weeks ago.
The viewpoint is Victoria Dock, or as it is now known "Excel Marina"…i'll always know it as the former!
Notts & Derby Excel in Derby College 'rainbow' colours leaving Heanor on the Sundays 11 to Derby. Sun 12th April 2015.
Car: Lotus Excel.
Engine: 2174cc in-line 4.
Year of manufacture: 1987.
Date of first registration in the UK: 1st August 1987.
Place of registration: Taunton.
Date of last MOT: 17th June 2023.
Mileage at last MOT: 60,018.
Date of last change of keeper: 22nd April 2022.
Number of previous keepers: 8.
Date taken: 14th May 2023.
Album: Classics in Cardiff May 2023
Optare built over 600 examples of the Excel between 1995 and 2004 (inc), sandwiched between the Sigma on 'step entrance' Dennis Lance chassis and the Tempo.
Richards Bros operated two - 10.7m P508 NWU and 11.8m YN53 ELH, both of which were former demonstrators - whilst a third, 10.7m N205 LCK, was acquired just for spares. YN53 ELH was trialled in late 2003 and returned to Optare, but was acquired in early 2004.
She was perhaps the more prominent being allocated to Service 412 (Cardigan-Newport-Fishguard-Haverfordwest), for which she carried branding. This is evident in this April 2014 shot of her entering Haverfordwest Bus Station when returning to Cardigan (Aberteifi), with Silcox UVG-bodied Dennis Javelin P780 WDE laying over. She was withdrawn four years later, used for spares and sold for scrap in c.2020.
So much has changed in the ensuing years - Service 412 is now part of TrawsCymru Service T5 and has been extended up the coast to Aberystwyth, Silcox ceased trading in June 2016 and Haverfordwest Bus Station and adjoining multi-storey car park have been demolished and a new facility is currently being built on the site.
Notts & Derby Optare Excel 264 - Y264 DRC and Scania L94UB / Wright Solar 620 - FJ03 VWK are parked side by side in Derby depot. The Excel was the final operational example in Wellglade ownership out of a large fleet of over a hundred owned, and had already been withdrawn from service, while the Scania was a recent transfer from Nottingham depot and retained its Trent Barton Cotgrave Connection livery.