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Trent Barton Optare Excel 264 - Y264 DRC, one of only a handful remaining in the fleet, finds itself in Nottingham City Centre substituting for a Volvo B10M coach on the peak hours limited stop 'Club Class' service to Sandiacre. In the background may be seen the iconic Council House building.
Thought I'd go and investigate the special service between Canning Town and Excel today, this being provided due to the DLR strike. Ensigns turned out much of their fleet, old and new(ish). For my first trip from Canning Town I had the Trident in the centre (now numbered 159, ex Stagecoach 18229) to Excel for M1 back. The bus on the left is Regal Busways ex Metroline TP64, parked up between peak workings supplementing the 474. 3/11/15.
New to First London in 2008 with dual doors, Enviro 400 33566 arrived in the First West Of England fleet via a spell in Leicester. Sporting the orange Excel livery, it was seen in Portishead operating a X4 service.
Seen here is an example of the unloved Optare Excel integral vehicle R209 DKG, one of a number new to Cardiff in 1997. It had formerly been with Central Connect before being photographed here at a dealers in October 2009. It latterly operated with Edwards Coaches in Cardiff. Alongside it is seen Volvo B10B / Alexander M416 UNW that had been new to Yorkshire Woollen in 1994 and had latterly operated with Arriva North West. Unusually although a red band has been crudely applied to distingush it as a sold vehicle, the Arriva names have not been covered over.
Now there's something different to do with a badly exposed shot, invert the colours. Maybe not everyone's taste but I think it works here. Taken whilst on The Slip at Macduff.
First West of England 33506 (LK08FKY) is seen at Portishead, Combe Road on "Excel" route X4.
Formerly First London DN33506 and First Leicester 33506.
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.
Now at the very end of its life and about to donate some of its mechanicals to keep 693 running, TWM Excel 687 nears completion at Optare, 12 November 1998.
Love Open Water London Royal Docks and the ExCeL Exhibition Centre located at Custom House and the 4 star Sunborn Yacht Hotel in East London
Pentacon Six TL (S/N 51715)
Mir-26B (W) 3.5/45 (S/N: 911233)
Kentmere PAN 400 at 3200ISO
Fomadon Excel 1+1, 22 min. 30 s. (20C)
Former TrentBarton Excel 234 has been used by Kinch recently but it looks like the end of the road parked up in Kinchs' yard, Loughborough with Kinch 618.
Tue 1st April 2014.
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.
Excel High School strives to offer education of the highest academic level, in an environment that will help and encourage each student to develop his or her full potential. www.excelhighschool.co/
The original Hyundai Excel (chassis code X1, 1985-1989) once was a very common sight in Los Angeles, but today it is very rare, and an example in as good a condition as this one is even rarer. The license plate and the red turn signals indicate that this is toward the tail end of the original Excel's production run.
The Excel became Hyundai's first US-market model in February 1986, and remained the sole model through the end of 1988. Thanks to its low price (as low as $4,995 in 1986) and attractive body designed by Giugiaro Italdesign, it set sales records right away, selling 100,000 units after just seven months on the market, and over 200,000 per year in 1987 and 1988. But due to its cut-rate quality and engineering, as well as aggressive sales to subprime customers who could afford neither the payments nor the proper maintenance, many Excels came back repossessed, and by then they were in too poor a shape to be resold.
Between the atrocious reputation of the Excel and the rising South Korean labor costs, Hyundai products could not compete, and US sales nosedived; by 1998, the entire 4-model lineup of Hyundai was lucky to sell just 30,000 units in the US for the year. But between the super-long powertrain warranty from 1999 on, and improving product reliability, Hyundai turned its fortunes around. Today, Hyundai's US lineup includes nearly a dozen models, including desirable luxury, sport, and utility models, and the Sonata cracked the 200,000-unit annual sales barrier in 2011.
I would have loved to park my own Genesis next to this Excel for a family portrait and a contrast, though I could not, as I was driving my backup Honda Accord on this particular day.
The 4-door sedan version of the original Excel was marketed within the South Korean domestic market under a different name, Presto. The larger bumpers and side reflectors, which were required for the Excel to comply with US safety requirements, were an option package on the Korean domestic Presto as well. European versions were sold under the old Pony name, and the US-spec bumpers and reflectors were not offered. The redesigned X2 Excel (1989-1994) dropped the Presto name for the Korean market, but kept its Pony name in Europe. The Accent/Verna has been the replacement for the Excel since 1995.
New to Harris Bus of Grays, Optare Excel P321 KAR later operated for East Thames Buses and South Gloucestershire of Patchway before ending up at this dealer in October 2009. It later passed to Thomsons of Ringway but was broken for spares in 2011. Next to it is parked Volvo / Wright M531 WHF that had latterly been with Arriva North West in Liverpool.
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........
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.
Optare Excel R208DKG had been new to Cardiff in 1997 but soon passed to Reading Buses and then on to Eastbourne Buses. It had also spent time with South Gloucestershire of Patchway, but it's final PSV owner before this shot at a dealer in October 2009 had been Red Arrow of Huddersfield. It was not to operate again and was scrapped before 2011.
Next to it is Dennis Dart / Alexander K109 XHG which had been new to United Counties before passing to GTL in Merseyside and then A2Z of Walsall.
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
Company: Trent Barton
Fleetnumber: 151
Registration: P151CTV
Chassis: Optare Excel
Bodywork: Optare
Location of Photo: Broadmarsh Bus Station, Nottingham
Previous Registrations: N/A
New to: Barton (Fleetno: 151)
Other Notes: N/A
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.