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W761 UAR
Setra S250 Special
Arrow Coaches & Minibus Hire of Birmingham
Location: Station Road, Weston-super-Mare
Date: 18/08/2024
Routemasters at the Scottish Bus Group (SBG)….
This particular bus RM875 (WLT835) was new to London Transport in July 1961. By the mid-1980s, London Transport had realised that, fine bus though it was, the Routemaster couldn’t go on for ever and began to sell surplus RMs. Whilst initially it found little market for these buses other than scrap dealers, the impending introduction of deregulation outside the Capital was to change all that.
Deregulation forced bus companies to look carefully at their operations and seek whatever competitive advantages they could. One perceived idea was to reintroduce a conductor. The introduction of buses such as the Atlantean, National and Fleetline and their one person operation (OPO) had seen most conductor-operated services ended, as they were deemed terribly old fashioned. However, was there a place a conductor in this brave new world?
The logic was that a conductor could get passengers on a bus faster, faster than a OPO bus where the driver had to also collect fares. This had the benefit of a potentially faster, friendlier service as well as potentially less buses needed to maintain the same service levels. Yes the downside was the extra crew member and the extra resultant costs. But some felt it was a price worth paying if you got it right, especially as these front engines buses were dirt cheap. .
You’d hardly think of the SBG as at the cutting edge of progressive ideas of bus operation. But it was. It resulted from the new subsidiaries the Group created to prepare for deregulation. These were managed by new young managers with fresh ideas. One of these was Clydeside Scottish.
It decided crew operation was worth trying and so borrowed a surplus Routemaster (RM652 - WLT652) in 1985 from London Transport (LT) to trial it on various routes, particularly in and out of Glasgow. Obviously impressed it purchased that bus and ordered more and one was the bus seen here, which came in September 1986. It’s been restored in Clydeside livery with the ‘Welcome aboard. We’re going your way’ branding. Clydeside kept the ex-LT fleet numbers numbers for its fleet.
Clydeside also sub-hired one of its Routemasters to fellow new subsidiaries Kelvin Scottish and Strathtay Scottish, to trial on their routes. The trials were a success and led to both ordering their own versions Soon LT was selling loads of these buses to SBG and preparing these in-house. One of the Clydeside buses was also trialled in Edinburgh but perhaps that was a step too far for the famously conservative Eastern Scottish.
Soon the Clydeside fleet grew to be one off the most substantial fleets of Routemasters outside London. Most were standard RMs but a RML (RML900 - WLT900) was also acquired as was a former RMA Airport bus which was refurbished as a dual purpose bus available for hire. It refurbished its standard Routemasters to a high standard and even upgraded some with better lighting, these being known as ‘Clydemasters’ with a special radiator badge. All other Routemasters acquired a name beginning with the letter R at the rear entrance, such as Rodney the Routemaster, Ralph, Rudolph, etc. Some Routemasters were even acquired from Kelvin when it withdrew these, having overstretched itself on competitive routes.
Sadly, when Clydeside was reunited with Western in 1989, Western’s more conservative management had no time for such fripperies such as conductors and the RMs were an easy target. To be fair, an accounting error had seen Clydeside’s costs massively understated and so that company was facing massive losses, hence the need for its merger with Western None were repainted in Western’s new livery and all were renumbered into Western’s standard fleet scheme. Many of their registrations were transferred to Western’s coaches to hide their age and they were progressively withdrawn. Western then acquired various Fleetlines and other similar OPO buses - mainly from Kelvin which had withdrawn these as it grappled with its own issues - which needed fortunes spent on them to get them up to useable standards. All the Clydeside ones had gone from regular service by the end of 1991.
The Kelvin and Strathtay fleets lasted longer. The Strathtay ones were used in Tayway services in Dundee as well as competitive services against Stagecoach’s Perth Panthers. Most carried the Strathtay colours of orange, white and blue. Certain vehicles had this laid out in a very - er - distinctive style but it was soon changed to a style more conducive to the vehicle. Some were repainted out of Strathtay orange, white and blue and into a red and white Perth City Transport colours on routes within Perth competing with Stagecoach but these were ultimately unsuccessful and Strathtay ended up withdrawing from services within Perth.
The Strathtay ones lasted until 1994 and they had an interesting legacy. Currently what was Strathtay is now part of Stagecoach East Scotland and up until just before the pandemic Stagecoach was still using conductors on the Tayway services, presently run by Volvo B5LH/ADL Enviro 400MMCs making that service one of the last to use conductors.
Kelvin’s ones were no less interesting. All arrived in Kelvin’s bold yellow and two-tone blue livery. They were used in competition with dominant operator Strathclyde’s Buses, some in services they shared with sister company Clydeside. Sadly not all these routes were successful and in the end, Kelvin’s ones settled down on to the 5/5A service between Easterhouse and Faifley (5A) or Old Kilpatrick (5), They lived a fairly uneventful life on these services, rarely venturing onto other services, the only exception being the odd occasional appearance on what was left of the 61 service between Baillieston and Glasgow.
Kelvin seemed to lose interest in its Routemasters by this stage and some were looking increasingly careworn and being kept alive by borrowing parts from other withdrawn buses, although to be fair the company was hardly flush with cash at the time. Only a select few were repainted in successor Kelvin Central livery. Most were withdrawn in 1993. Oddly, just before that, the Routemaster fleet had grown slightly when Kelvin Central acquired Stagecoach’s Magicbus subsidiary in 1992 along with its Routemasters which included some new to Northern General, the only customer outside LT to buy the Routemaster new, as even the RMAs mentioned earlier were owned by LT, despite being used on services to what was at that time called London Airport (now Heathrow).
When the 5/5A service was split in the city centre, this led to the death knell for Kelvin’s Routemasters and most were replaced by OPO Leyland Nationals on these routes, acquired when Kelvin Central took over independent operators Greens of Kirkintilloch and John Morrow of Clydebank.
An interesting side note. As I mentioned LT was selling surplus RMs to SBG to compete with Strathclyde’s Buses. At the same time, Strathclyde’s Buses stocked up with mini-buses (MCW Metroriders mainly) to fight the RMs. This led to surplus Atlanteans as Strathclyde’s Buses renewed its fleet. It in turn sold these surplus Atlanteans to London Country, the National Bus Company subsidiary who used these on tendered services which were won from former LT subsidiaries, leading to surplus RMs. Plus ca change….
Hired for my daughter’s birthday party yesterday 24/09/22 parked up at spors nis where all the children were in playing I did what anyone would do and grabbed a few minutes peace outside to get a photo to mark the occasion 😄
Epping-Ongar Railway LT to LRT Running Day 18 February 2023. The unique twin staircase Volvo Ailsa B55-10 with bodywork by Alexander was giving journeys on route 339 from Epping Station to Ongar. It was new to London Buses in 1984 and is now preserved by London Vintage Bus Hire (London Bus Company).
Badge, paper, plastic, metal, round, produced by the Men's League for Women's Suffrage, yellow ground, printed with black inscription: 'Men's League for Women's Suffrage', paper covered with plastic, over metal base. TWL.2004.608
The 6U76 Crewe-Mountsorrel passes Colton ( Staffs) in the care of 66126 on June 1 2021. The loco is on long term hire from DB Cargo.
BRS Truck Rental & Contract Hire
F491 JVJ Mercedes-Benz 814 7.5-tonne Luton Van _ tail-lift 9/88
unlicensed since 01/03/09
Queen Street, Cardiff 29/03/91
Vehicle No 40805 seen here on the 1B53 14:32 Nottingham to London St Pancras international East Midlands Trains service on 11th January 2016
This was the one in National Express in silver and White livery light just got the better of me trying get a better one. Worth keeping a look out for it now. On hire to EMT
31.10.2018. In rapidly fading light, hired in Cross Country HST Power Car No 43366 is at the head of 1S22, the 15.00 LNER London King's Cross - Edinburgh service.
Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire service 9 linking Lancaster City Centre with Bowerham and Primrose with Maudslay badged Optare Solo KX03KYS is seen here dropping back into the city centre from Bowerham on Quarry Road.
Kilmore Coach Hire Kilmore Village, Crossgar, Downpatrick County Down Volvo B10M Plaxton Panther Reg YR52 MEV
this coach was Last with Coach Connections Newtownards and was Reg ANZ 5555 but was new Johnson Bros Worksop,Nott to as Reg M1 JBT
GM Buses Leyland Olympian 3228 was hired to Merseybus when new by virtue of it carrying an allover advertising livery for Primesight, who were specialists in the bus advertising field.
Although it was only hired for the advert it carried, Merseybus would later place an order with Northern Counties for a batch of Olympians similar to this.
It is also noteworthy that the telephone number is a Liverpool '051' code, which the bus only carried for its stay in Merseyside. On its return to Manchester it was replaced with 'Dial 100 and ask for freephone Primesight'.
Badge, metal, enamel, in the shape of a flag produced by the Women's Freedom League, flag composed of a green, gold and white horizontal stripe, gold inscription: 'Votes for Women', over stripes, gold flag pole. TWL.2004.605
14R 4-8-2s 1725 and 1745 at Johannesburg Station with the HTA 10th Anniversary special train to Magaliesberg and back.
These are from the original batch of 45 Class 14 locos built by R. Stephenson in 1913-15 which were then reboilered in the 1930s and classified as 14R.
Both locomotives were based at Krugersdorp shed until 1982 when they were hired to Zimbabwe for a year while the Zimbabwe Garratts were being rebulit. They returned to South Africa in 1983 and 1745 was sold to Natal Cambrian Colliery for industrial use. It was later returned to Krugersdorp for preservation.
02/07/1977 [SAR 154].
Quinns Coach Hire Ardboe Dungannon Co. Tyrone Volvo B12B Van Hool Astrobel Reg OIB 898 was Reg BFZ 9999 and 449 GTU and reg WA06 JGU is seen parked outside the kingspan stadium Belfast on a Private Hire
Spot Hire of Bearsted, Kent, Volvo B10M-60 Plaxton Paramount 3500 MIL 9315 in Brighton on 17th January, 2002. It was new to Selwyns as F39 LCA.
Earlier in the week the Enviro 200MMC loans began to appear and one of the first from Swindon was HF67ATO which is seen on Queens Road passing another Go North West hired vehicle LX09AYF
Whilst HF67ATO will see passenger service until around the end of the year, LX09AYF was brought in specifically for driver training.
On Hire to Border Bus From First.
Temporary luxury for the passengers travelling on the x95 eastbound at Carlisle
Driver still wearing full FG uniform too.
A pair of NBM Hire buses at their Penrith base on 2nd September, 2019. Nearest to the camera is Dennis Dart SLF Plaxton Pointer 2 T446 EBD whilst the Mercedes is one time Maidstone & District 709D Plaxton Beaver P221 LKK.
Scrabble with words Occupation, Application, Resume, Hiring
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Hannon coach hire Aghalee County Antrim Mercedes-Benz Tourismo Reg BD18 TLF is seen in Donegall Square North
An ordinary but historic shot of G513,B65,T345,T413 on 9140 goods from Mildura departing Ballarat. At the time Freight Australia were having a loco shortage , The rear 3 locos on this train were hired from West Coast Railway as T345 was a Great Northern Loco. Also at the time Orange and Grey V/Line units were starting to be scarce aswell due to the repaint programme into Freight Australia. 17-8-2001
Scrabble with keywords on wood able
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On Friday 24/1/2020, a late-running 5MP9 (SCT intermodal) is seen approaching Gawler Road, Virginia (SA) with CFCLA locos cf4410-cf4403 in charge of 75 wagons (not including fuel pod & crew van).
This was the first MP9/PM9 to have just twin c44aci’s in charge (with no other locos) & the first to not have any SCT-liveried locos since 2008.