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Post by mkay315 on Jan 17, 2021 16:44:51 GMT
I also forgot about the Caetano Nimbus that was on the 165, 296 and 364 back in the early 2000s as the replacement for the Marshall Darts for First London which went out of business.
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 25, 2021 21:11:04 GMT
Evening guys
Who remembers these powerful buses from back in the day.
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Post by 725DYE on Feb 25, 2021 21:47:25 GMT
I am an Optare man myself. I attribute the 52-reg Solos at Epsom (OP01-11) as the vehicles that really got me into buses. They certainly were the best vehicles around with the AT545 gearbox - to this day I have no clue why they were so much louder on these vehicles than anything else but they totally over-powered the sound of the actual engine itself. They also had a much nicer interior than the 53, 09 and 11-reg Solos and were also bettered by not having Civic seats. This really was Quality Line at its best. Hard to believe they've been gone for 6 years now. The S4 certainly hasn't been the same ever since being ruined by Abellio's terrible ZF E200s; likewise with the 463 being shat on with arguably London's worst Streetlites.
Slightly cheating as these aren't London vehicles but I absolutely love the ex-Brighton and Hove N270UD Omnicities at Metrobus Crawley. They go like the absolute clappers and are an absolute delight on the 420/460/820, particularly down the A217 between Tadworth and Reigate Junction. Its a real shame that they're largely absent from these routes now in lieu of the B9TLs which Metrobus also picked up from B&H. Haven't been on any of these routes since this change happened and to be honest I don't have a great deal of interest since I can't see the Volvos being anywhere near as interesting.
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Post by vjaska on Feb 25, 2021 23:00:56 GMT
I am an Optare man myself. I attribute the 52-reg Solos at Epsom (OP01-11) as the vehicles that really got me into buses. They certainly were the best vehicles around with the AT545 gearbox - to this day I have no clue why they were so much louder on these vehicles than anything else but they totally over-powered the sound of the actual engine itself. They also had a much nicer interior than the 53, 09 and 11-reg Solos and were also bettered by not having Civic seats. This really was Quality Line at its best. Hard to believe they've been gone for 6 years now. The S4 certainly hasn't been the same ever since being ruined by Abellio's terrible ZF E200s; likewise with the 463 being shat on with arguably London's worst Streetlites.
Slightly cheating as these aren't London vehicles but I absolutely love the ex-Brighton and Hove N270UD Omnicities at Metrobus Crawley. They go like the absolute clappers and are an absolute delight on the 420/460/820, particularly down the A217 between Tadworth and Reigate Junction. Its a real shame that they're largely absent from these routes now in lieu of the B9TLs which Metrobus also picked up from B&H. Haven't been on any of these routes since this change happened and to be honest I don't have a great deal of interest since I can't see the Volvos being anywhere near as interesting.
You need to a N270UD on the 291? from Crawley to Tunbridge Wells, now that was fun despite the big delay outside of East Grinstead. I’ve rode B&H B9TL’s on the 29 & 7, the one I had on the 7 wasn’t great but the one on the 29 was very good
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Post by busman on Feb 25, 2021 23:18:11 GMT
Evening guys Who remembers these powerful buses from back in the day. Classic! Remember riding these on the 131 back in my bus hopping days.
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 26, 2021 0:07:01 GMT
Evening guys Who remembers these powerful buses from back in the day. Classic! Remember riding these on the 131 back in my bus hopping days. Good Times good times. They don't make buses like those anymore. I remembered seeing them around Wimbledon when I had to go to that area in the summer holidays as a kid from East London and the fact it was a ZF engine made it even more sweeter.
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Post by vjaska on Feb 26, 2021 0:52:29 GMT
Evening guys Who remembers these powerful buses from back in the day. I took a few rides on them although not as many as I'd of liked. The TA's that came after were very nice, well looked after by London United as well, such a shame Streatham lost their unique operator.
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 26, 2021 1:14:26 GMT
Evening guys Who remembers these powerful buses from back in the day. I took a few rides on them although not as many as I'd of liked. The TA's that came after were very nice, well looked after by London United as well, such a shame Streatham lost their unique operator. Those 02-reg ZF tridents were the best in my opinion the 51-reg on the 131 comes second. My goodness those buses used to fly. I know around my side of the river we had loads of those dennis tridents ZF euro 3 buses in the Plaxton President form. They were mostly on the 179, 123, 25, 215 and the 58. It's going to take me a while to fully adjust to the electric buses.
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Post by vjaska on Feb 26, 2021 3:12:42 GMT
I took a few rides on them although not as many as I'd of liked. The TA's that came after were very nice, well looked after by London United as well, such a shame Streatham lost their unique operator. Those 02-reg ZF tridents were the best in my opinion the 51-reg on the 131 comes second. My goodness those buses used to fly. I know around my side of the river we had loads of those dennis tridents ZF euro 3 buses in the Plaxton President form. They were mostly on the 179, 123, 25, 215 and the 58. It's going to take me a while to fully adjust to the electric buses. For me, the best Tridents were the Connex ones because nothing could live with them due to their uprated engines but there are a number of other batches of Tridents I really liked such as most of the TN's & TNL's, the PDL's, Stagecoach's Voith Euro II's & the early Euro III 3 spd Voithers and the Metrobus & Blue Triangle Lolynes.
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 26, 2021 9:10:08 GMT
Those 02-reg ZF tridents were the best in my opinion the 51-reg on the 131 comes second. My goodness those buses used to fly. I know around my side of the river we had loads of those dennis tridents ZF euro 3 buses in the Plaxton President form. They were mostly on the 179, 123, 25, 215 and the 58. It's going to take me a while to fully adjust to the electric buses. For me, the best Tridents were the Connex ones because nothing could live with them due to their uprated engines but there are a number of other batches of Tridents I really liked such as most of the TN's & TNL's, the PDL's, Stagecoach's Voith Euro II's & the early Euro III 3 spd Voithers and the Metrobus & Blue Triangle Lolynes. See the Blue Triangle Lolynes took me a while to adjust to them especially on the 474 where back in those days the stairs was in the middle of the bus (thank goodness the powers from above reversed that decision). That slyly made me a bit claustrophobic sitting downstairs on them but upstairs was much better. The ones on the 248 however were proper beasts and when they swapped to be on the 474 in 2007 they used to fly especially around Silvertown and Beckton.
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 26, 2021 9:14:38 GMT
I am an Optare man myself. I attribute the 52-reg Solos at Epsom (OP01-11) as the vehicles that really got me into buses. They certainly were the best vehicles around with the AT545 gearbox - to this day I have no clue why they were so much louder on these vehicles than anything else but they totally over-powered the sound of the actual engine itself. They also had a much nicer interior than the 53, 09 and 11-reg Solos and were also bettered by not having Civic seats. This really was Quality Line at its best. Hard to believe they've been gone for 6 years now. The S4 certainly hasn't been the same ever since being ruined by Abellio's terrible ZF E200s; likewise with the 463 being shat on with arguably London's worst Streetlites.
Slightly cheating as these aren't London vehicles but I absolutely love the ex-Brighton and Hove N270UD Omnicities at Metrobus Crawley. They go like the absolute clappers and are an absolute delight on the 420/460/820, particularly down the A217 between Tadworth and Reigate Junction. Its a real shame that they're largely absent from these routes now in lieu of the B9TLs which Metrobus also picked up from B&H. Haven't been on any of these routes since this change happened and to be honest I don't have a great deal of interest since I can't see the Volvos being anywhere near as interesting.
The only optare buses I didn't really gel with was the Versa and Excel. The Delta's that used to be in stagecoach were decent buses to travel on especially when they used to be on the 169 and 145. I vaguely remember them on the 150 and 369. The solo's I've not really been on them as much so I can't really pass a judgement on those but I'll take your word for it for how good they are. As for the S4 ZF E200s that was the same with Go Ahead on the 100 especially around Shadwell and Wapping. Also you can name whatever bus design you like regardless of what area its in hahahaha.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Feb 26, 2021 12:12:19 GMT
I am an Optare man myself. I attribute the 52-reg Solos at Epsom (OP01-11) as the vehicles that really got me into buses. They certainly were the best vehicles around with the AT545 gearbox - to this day I have no clue why they were so much louder on these vehicles than anything else but they totally over-powered the sound of the actual engine itself. They also had a much nicer interior than the 53, 09 and 11-reg Solos and were also bettered by not having Civic seats. This really was Quality Line at its best. Hard to believe they've been gone for 6 years now. The S4 certainly hasn't been the same ever since being ruined by Abellio's terrible ZF E200s; likewise with the 463 being shat on with arguably London's worst Streetlites.
Slightly cheating as these aren't London vehicles but I absolutely love the ex-Brighton and Hove N270UD Omnicities at Metrobus Crawley. They go like the absolute clappers and are an absolute delight on the 420/460/820, particularly down the A217 between Tadworth and Reigate Junction. Its a real shame that they're largely absent from these routes now in lieu of the B9TLs which Metrobus also picked up from B&H. Haven't been on any of these routes since this change happened and to be honest I don't have a great deal of interest since I can't see the Volvos being anywhere near as interesting.
Bold claim for the 463 I'm sure the 227 will certainly be contesting. Quite a sad situation of affairs on that route, going from some of London's best single deckers if they weren't already the best to some of London's worst overnight. As for Optare, I don't think there's a manufacturer I disliked more growing up. The Versas at BK were just terrible in every aspect, but in a way their dumping on the 62 could be argued as a blessing in disguise as they were so bad that they'd always be sat in the yard requiring deckers to cover. Could have around 6 out of the 14 Versas BK had out at any one time. Then don't start me on whatever Hybrid Tempos were roaming around on the 276. The MetroDecker EV has to be the best Optare vehicle I've travelled on, and even that seems to have far more problems associated with it than benefits.
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Post by vjaska on Feb 28, 2021 1:22:30 GMT
Evening guys Who remembers these powerful buses from back in the day. These were sadly from before my time on London services. However I was lucky because my primary school used Westbus for swimming runs and some trips so I was lucky to go on S137RLE (ex ML AV37), which I think was scrapped a couple of years ago. I was also lucky enough to go on all three of their Northern Counties Palatine II Olympians as well, P428KSX, P424KSX and P423KSX, the latter being the only survivor I believe (they only one I could find picture of post Westbus). Something that all of them had in common were heated rear seats (you could feel the heat from the engine)! The heated seats was a common denominator with many of the step entrance contingent and even some low floor double deckers like the early Enviro 400's with the plastic surrounds around the rear seats downstairs which would heat up. On some days during my youth, you could literally fry an egg on the engine shelf of a L or M as that's how hot they were. The T's engine shelf was on the outside due to the nature of the rear and I suspect that would of been roasting. I managed to ride a S RLE example with Ensignbus and it was a brilliant ride, I also rode a Route 4 AV in their final days before withdrawal which ironically was my first ride on the route.
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Post by redexpress on Feb 28, 2021 7:15:37 GMT
Evening guys Who remembers these powerful buses from back in the day. These were sadly from before my time on London services. However I was lucky because my primary school used Westbus for swimming runs and some trips so I was lucky to go on S137RLE (ex ML AV37), which I think was scrapped a couple of years ago. I was also lucky enough to go on all three of their Northern Counties Palatine II Olympians as well, P428KSX, P424KSX and P423KSX, the latter being the only survivor I believe (they only one I could find picture of post Westbus). Something that all of them had in common were heated rear seats (you could feel the heat from the engine)! The P-KSX Olympians had Alexander Royale bodywork, not Northern Counties.
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Post by allentc on Mar 1, 2021 18:48:30 GMT
The Darwen olympus bus for me is underrated. It's a shame that not a lot of those were seen in London as much. The ELCB/Darwen Olympus and Esteem bodies have aged really well. They could be still on sale today and not look at all dated, more so if they had square corner gasket glazing rather than rounded corners which jars with the clean sharp lines of the front and rear end. I think Optare shot themselves in the foot when they focused completely on integrals and stopped selling the Olympus. I'm sure there would have been more sales to be had there for a good few years.
The Caetano Nimbus has been mentioned a few times earlier but I like to throw in its predecessor the UVG/Caetano Compass particularly in Limebourne livery for consideration. Unusually styled buses with their unique top corner mounted indicators which were usually painted over later in life and droopy corner front windscreen. Shame there weren't more of them in London. I think they are underrated.
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