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Post by mkay315 on Aug 4, 2021 23:12:25 GMT
vjaska Here's the two interiors I could find Yeah, there's the mirror in the middle hence the abnormal position for the stopping sign ah yes that figures. It always intrigued me growing up.
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Post by LondonNorthern on Aug 5, 2021 7:12:27 GMT
One of my favourites is definitely the ELC Lolynes new to the 77 in Brighton & Hove - in the summer you could take the roofs off of them before putting them back on in the winter. A very well put together low floor design
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Post by redexpress on Aug 5, 2021 7:35:48 GMT
One of my favourites is definitely the ELC Lolynes new to the 77 in Brighton & Hove - in the summer you could take the roofs off of them before putting them back on in the winter. A very well put together low floor design Those convertibles were a nice idea in theory. In practice the upper deck was absolutely freezing in winter. They had no heaters, vinyl seats, and the roof never fitted perfectly so there was always a stream of cold air entering the bus. Being East Lancs products they weren't very well screwed together either, so they got markedly worse as time went on.
In London Go-Ahead had a few convertibles in the commercial fleet - a few of the ex-Putney Palatine II NVs were converted. The roofs were stored overhead in Camberwell garage during the summer season.
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Post by mkay315 on Aug 18, 2021 23:44:39 GMT
One thing I did find interesting was those First London dennis darts. When the message "Stand Clear Doors Opening" first came out in 2000/01 on the 257,295 and 296. I was like oh wow this is so cool. A talking bus hahahahaha. I was a kid those times
I think the 236 and the 339 also had that feature on their buses too. Could someone confirm this?
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Post by richard on Aug 18, 2021 23:51:03 GMT
One thing I did find interesting was those First London dennis darts. When the message "Stand Clear Doors Opening" first came out in 2000/01 on the 257,295 and 296. I was like oh wow this is so cool. A talking bus hahahahaha. I was a kid those times I think the 236 and the 339 also had that feature on their buses too. Could someone confirm this? I remember the VLAs had an announcement for the ramp "caution wheelchair ramp opening caution wheelchair ramp closing" the same for the Tridents aswell.
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Post by TA1 on Aug 19, 2021 1:02:26 GMT
One thing I did find interesting was those First London dennis darts. When the message "Stand Clear Doors Opening" first came out in 2000/01 on the 257,295 and 296. I was like oh wow this is so cool. A talking bus hahahahaha. I was a kid those times I think the 236 and the 339 also had that feature on their buses too. Could someone confirm this? I grew up with the Marshall Capitals out of H at the time and recall all the changes and different lengths and features, I remember when the D8 received new buses 8.9m DMS'330-335 I used to hate when that batch would occasionally stray on the 308 as the single door configuration would slow loading times especially along Forest Lane. The 236 received X7**HLF DML41729-738 740-745 the engine sounded different to the X & V reg buses but featured the Stand Clear Doors Opening followed by the chime and the door closing, that batch IIRC came without the carpet on the ceiling. The 339 DM 698-700 also were dubbed and vinyled the 'Fish Island Hoppas. I also remember in 2004 the dual doored vehicles lost their windows by the rear doors and received a window strengthening red panel.
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Post by vjaska on Aug 19, 2021 1:30:38 GMT
One thing I did find interesting was those First London dennis darts. When the message "Stand Clear Doors Opening" first came out in 2000/01 on the 257,295 and 296. I was like oh wow this is so cool. A talking bus hahahahaha. I was a kid those times I think the 236 and the 339 also had that feature on their buses too. Could someone confirm this? Can't answer for First buses but London Central & General buses between 51 & 02 reg had a similar message play after the bell was pressed which was, "Bus stopping at next bus stop, please stand well clear of doors". This was the short period where the bus stopping sign would light up green and were very hard to see in sunlight. The 52 reg buses onwards had stopping signs that lit up red and were much clearer
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Post by LondonNorthern on Aug 19, 2021 7:32:51 GMT
One thing I did find interesting was those First London dennis darts. When the message "Stand Clear Doors Opening" first came out in 2000/01 on the 257,295 and 296. I was like oh wow this is so cool. A talking bus hahahahaha. I was a kid those times I think the 236 and the 339 also had that feature on their buses too. Could someone confirm this? The 167 Caetenos under Docklands Buses had this as well
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Post by mkay315 on Aug 19, 2021 8:52:07 GMT
One thing I did find interesting was those First London dennis darts. When the message "Stand Clear Doors Opening" first came out in 2000/01 on the 257,295 and 296. I was like oh wow this is so cool. A talking bus hahahahaha. I was a kid those times I think the 236 and the 339 also had that feature on their buses too. Could someone confirm this? I remember the VLAs had an announcement for the ramp "caution wheelchair ramp opening caution wheelchair ramp closing" the same for the Tridents aswell. Yeah I remember that on the 123 especially.
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Post by mkay315 on Aug 19, 2021 8:53:08 GMT
One thing I did find interesting was those First London dennis darts. When the message "Stand Clear Doors Opening" first came out in 2000/01 on the 257,295 and 296. I was like oh wow this is so cool. A talking bus hahahahaha. I was a kid those times I think the 236 and the 339 also had that feature on their buses too. Could someone confirm this? I grew up with the Marshall Capitals out of H at the time and recall all the changes and different lengths and features, I remember when the D8 received new buses 8.9m DMS'330-335 I used to hate when that batch would occasionally stray on the 308 as the single door configuration would slow loading times especially along Forest Lane. The 236 received X7**HLF DML41729-738 740-745 the engine sounded different to the X & V reg buses but featured the Stand Clear Doors Opening followed by the chime and the door closing, that batch IIRC came without the carpet on the ceiling. The 339 DM 698-700 also were dubbed and vinyled the 'Fish Island Hoppas. I also remember in 2004 the dual doored vehicles lost their windows by the rear doors and received a window strengthening red panel. Oh yeah the red panel just before the exit doors. The same thing happened to the Caetano Nimbus that used to be on the 364 and 165.
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Post by mkay315 on Aug 19, 2021 8:54:55 GMT
One thing I did find interesting was those First London dennis darts. When the message "Stand Clear Doors Opening" first came out in 2000/01 on the 257,295 and 296. I was like oh wow this is so cool. A talking bus hahahahaha. I was a kid those times I think the 236 and the 339 also had that feature on their buses too. Could someone confirm this? Can't answer for First buses but London Central & General buses between 51 & 02 reg had a similar message play after the bell was pressed which was, "Bus stopping at next bus stop, please stand well clear of doors". This was the short period where the bus stopping sign would light up green and were very hard to see in sunlight. The 52 reg buses onwards had stopping signs that lit up red and were much clearer I did strangely enough remember the bus stopping signs in green and thought that was interesting as most buses at the time had the traditional black and orange stopping signs up which later went to the red style of writing. I wonder why they dropped that feature to the remaining plaxton go ahead buses?
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Post by redexpress on Aug 19, 2021 10:12:48 GMT
One thing I did find interesting was those First London dennis darts. When the message "Stand Clear Doors Opening" first came out in 2000/01 on the 257,295 and 296. I was like oh wow this is so cool. A talking bus hahahahaha. I was a kid those times I think the 236 and the 339 also had that feature on their buses too. Could someone confirm this? I grew up with the Marshall Capitals out of H at the time and recall all the changes and different lengths and features, I remember when the D8 received new buses 8.9m DMS'330-335 I used to hate when that batch would occasionally stray on the 308 as the single door configuration would slow loading times especially along Forest Lane. The 236 received X7**HLF DML41729-738 740-745 the engine sounded different to the X & V reg buses but featured the Stand Clear Doors Opening followed by the chime and the door closing, that batch IIRC came without the carpet on the ceiling. The 339 DM 698-700 also were dubbed and vinyled the 'Fish Island Hoppas. I also remember in 2004 the dual doored vehicles lost their windows by the rear doors and received a window strengthening red panel. I remember the 51-reg batch that was delivered to ON for the 223/224/226 - they not only had the "Stand Clear..." announcement, but also a huge delay before the doors would actually open. They were so bad that most people had already got off via the front doors by the time the centre doors opened, and most drivers unofficially worked them as single-door buses. The system was soon tweaked to reduce the delay. IIRC Thorpes' one-off Marshall Dart (AJ02ZRY) also had this feature, as it was originally built to First spec.
From X-reg onwards the buses had Marshall's new-style interior with a curved ceiling, which is what put an end to the carpeting. The exterior was meant to be restyled as well, but First asked for the buses to be built with the original front end for commonality with their existing buses.
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Post by mkay315 on Aug 19, 2021 11:46:31 GMT
I grew up with the Marshall Capitals out of H at the time and recall all the changes and different lengths and features, I remember when the D8 received new buses 8.9m DMS'330-335 I used to hate when that batch would occasionally stray on the 308 as the single door configuration would slow loading times especially along Forest Lane. The 236 received X7**HLF DML41729-738 740-745 the engine sounded different to the X & V reg buses but featured the Stand Clear Doors Opening followed by the chime and the door closing, that batch IIRC came without the carpet on the ceiling. The 339 DM 698-700 also were dubbed and vinyled the 'Fish Island Hoppas. I also remember in 2004 the dual doored vehicles lost their windows by the rear doors and received a window strengthening red panel. I remember the 51-reg batch that was delivered to ON for the 223/224/226 - they not only had the "Stand Clear..." announcement, but also a huge delay before the doors would actually open. They were so bad that most people had already got off via the front doors by the time the centre doors opened, and most drivers unofficially worked them as single-door buses. The system was soon tweaked to reduce the delay. IIRC Thorpes' one-off Marshall Dart (AJ02ZRY) also had this feature, as it was originally built to First spec.
From X-reg onwards the buses had Marshall's new-style interior with a curved ceiling, which is what put an end to the carpeting. The exterior was meant to be restyled as well, but First asked for the buses to be built with the original front end for commonality with their existing buses.
That also happened with the 257 and the 296. Even with the 364 when they received their Nimbus in 2003.
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Post by mkay315 on Jul 31, 2022 22:33:24 GMT
Something I did like that first Capital / Capital Citybus did with some of their buses was the red dot matrix bus stopping display they had on the 76, 259 and 369 (on a few of it's dennis arrows) and the 341 with it's volvo Olympians. The S-LLO batch I really did like that batch of buses especially with the lightning which matched the Palatine 2 version of the lights even though it was a Palatine 1 and the stopping sign was at the centre and not on the left hand side (I did think it was weird to see some bus stopping signs on the left).
Can anyone let me know whenever there's a bus rally and a bus from that batch (341's ex volvos) are on display and I'll definitely come and relive my younger days again.
I did also like their short stint on the 158 as well.
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Post by mkay315 on Sept 17, 2022 15:49:29 GMT
Hey folks. I have a question to ask. Do you think in the future centre staircases will make a return to London Buses?
What are your thoughts and why?
I personally think it could happen again. From when the roundels made a comeback in 2011 anything is possible.
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