View allAll Photos Tagged Excel
Former Nottingham City Transport Optare Excel FD51 EYY number 772 with Centrebus leaves St Margarets Bus Station in Leicester on 15-04-15.
173 "Gentle Giant" Ipswich Buses
YG52DGF
seen at Tower Ramparts Bus Station, Ipswich.
If green/white single deckers are your thing, then the Excels are the last gasp to sample it nowadays (as of November 2017).
New and improved Excel drawing now available:
www.flickr.com/photos/108834608@N06/52678961915/in/datepo...
Joining the E400 City in the 'buses from the 36 club' is the Optare Excel, the initial vehicle type used to start off the service in 2001.
I don't really know much about the orange line Excels' fleet history with NCT, as there seemed to be two Y reg buses, then two for yellow line, then 51 plates numbered 549-556, with 557 coming in later off green line, and 557 being an 02 plate.
The bus which I traced this over is Andrew's Y546 DTO, the same Y546 DTO which was one of the two Y regs mentioned above.
Blackpool Transport Optare Excel 221 (T884 RBR) is seen stored inside the tram depot at Rigby Road on 24th January 2016.
There is a rumour that this bus might see further service........
Trentbarton Optare Excel 263 Y263 DRC still looks good in Sutton in Ashfield working the 141 on 09-07-15.
EJ-PRLN Cessna 560XLS Citation Excel +
Latest biz jet addition to Irish register
Shannon 3rd December 2022
Abus of Bristol still operate this Optare Excel that was new in 2001. It's seen here parked up next to Cabot Circus shopping centre.
Operator: Abus
Vehicle: Optare Excel
Reg: Y243 DRC
Location: Bond Street, Bristol
Route: Not in Service
Date: June 15, 2016
A surprise at a very local show, another Excel.I didn't get to catch the owner at this time, but he is now a friend.
A very tidy example, with a few individual touches and modifications.
Spotted a long while ago by . [https://www.flickr.com/photos/47381765@N04]. See comment.
The Lotus Excel was made between 1982 and 1992. It is based on the 1975 Lotus Eclat and is powered by a 2.2-litre, four cylinder engine.
Optare Excel T714NOE is seen approaching Wolverhampton bus station on 24/03/09.
It looks to have been recently re-painted, which would have been welcome given how scruffy a lot of the Excels looked around this time.
These are Optare Excel liveries done for [https://www.flickr.com/photos/192780442@N06], of Bluebird 'hi-tech low floor', the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester based off their LDV van, plus half & half variants. Presumably they relate to FD02 SFN in some way, although I just kind of winged it with the front panel and other finer details.
Looking up references for Bluebird, as well as rogue images of American school buses there seemed to be Bluebird, and Blue Bus, that appeared to operate up Manchester way, but I couldn't tell if they were connected or not. Bluebird had this two-tone wavy livery for low floor buses, that was actually quite fun to draw on. I'm assuming they didn't have an Excel IRL so I just added the livery how I thought they might paint one, and the centre panel ended up light blue with black light surrounds.
The MOTGM van is red up to just under the waist rail, then cream, with a red roof. On the Excel the red roof is split with the cream half way up the panel running above the windows, so the cream is still visible enough without it being too cream, and all-red round the destination box. Similarly under the windows there's a thin cream stripe so that it's a proper window 'surround', and cream doors to get the right balance of red/cream on a vehicle with bonded glazing. In the end it looks not to dissimilar to something Barton might've had, if their Excel 2s weren't delivered in route branded liveries.
The first half-&-half is widthways with the MOTGM livery offside and the Bluebird one nearside. No idea if that's what Calum meant but, well, I did it. The MOTGM logo splits the cream from the dark blue on the front, but where the red is against the light blue it did give off a bit of a Home Bargains feel as I was making it! The offside, although you can't see it, would be more or less the mirror image of what the red and cream one looks like.
And then just to see what on earth it would look like, the other half-&-half is front half Bluebird, back half MOTGM, which certainly looks... well it looks something and I don't have the right words for it; not bad, just kinda odd. Again, the MOTGM logo comes to the rescue on the lower bodyside, and the top just has the colours curving up/down as they intersect because the Bluebird already had a curve to it. In a way it reminds me of that Arriva heritage bus with the zip, because it looks like it's being unwrapped from one livery into another.
Top right is my favourite.
TrentBarton Excel 257 still going strong on frontline duty working Rainbow 1 through Langley Mill.
Thu 3rd March 2016.
I sometimes make these quick 'n dirty gantt charts in Excel. You can download the templates from my website.
L-R: 713 T713NOE, 7205 R408HWU, 685 S685YOL.
Ousted by brand new Volvo B7RLE's at Wolverhampton. these Optare Excels await thier fate at Miller Street garage in Birmingham. Probably to be shipped off to NXWM's infamous 'car park' storage site and stored till the scrap man calls.
685 and 713 were new to Travel West Midlands. 7205 was new to Travel London and came to the West Midlands via Travel Dundee.
Optare Excel 2 (X307 CBT) www.flickr.com/photos/138705729@N04/32846793097/in/photol...
Optare Excel 2 (X308 CBT) www.flickr.com/photos/138705729@N04/33913276768/in/photol...
After the Delta, came the Excel. Although another futuristic design, the bus wasn't as popular as it should have been. Trent were good Optare customers, so bought the Excel. 194 (V194DRC) is in the famous, and recently demolished, Derby Bus Station on 20 March 2000.
East exit/entrance the the ExCel Convention Centre. It is part of the ExCel Phase II development, designed by Grimshaw.
Jonathan Reid | Travel Portfolio | Architecture Portfolio | Facebook
Springfield also operated the Optare Excel on Easylink services, though these weren't part of the deal when First Manchester took control of the services in 2000.
I'm unsure where this and it's bretheren went after leaving Wigan but this one later turned up with Stagecoach, it being allocated with the rest of the groups Excels at East Midlands.
Wigan bus station is the location of R641MBV not long before the company called it a day on stage carriage work.
First Manchester inherited eleven Optare Excels from the slice of Timeline Travel that they took over [Arriva got the other slice!]. The former 218 is seen on Bolton's Moor Lane bus station having been repainted out of 'Tomato Soup' and into the livery adopted for vehicles that didn't confirm to First's standard interior, not that the travelling public would know this. The lower expanse of white would soon be wrapped in the 'Barbie Pink' fade out vinyls which cost an absolute fortune and quickly became shabby looking [even more shabby than your usual First operated vehicle that is!].
6606 would become 60145 in the new national numbering system and the bus now operates out of Wigan depot, which is currently on the 'hit list' of depots to be sold off in the big First shake up of its UK operations.
Former Stagecoach Devon Volvo B6LE P709 BTA (31709) sits with Optare Excel P101 UNH at Wigley's scrapyard in February 2012.
As far as my knowledge of recent Asian cars helped me to recognize this car I consider her as a Hyundai 1994-1997 Excel Type X3 from the first generation. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
This end-of-life vehicle has found a new destination as part of a piece of art. She is now in good company with the 'Banksy Pink Car' on the other side of this wall. Happily she regains respect...
Number seen: 1.
London, E1, Grey Eagle street, Jan. 5, 2018.
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