se10
Cleaner
Posts: 17
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Post by se10 on Jan 26, 2024 20:37:59 GMT
Worry about the answer to this, but what is the best way/where is the best place to see a Plaxton President these days? Guessing as even the newest ones are probably close to 20 years old that I'm asking for a lot
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Post by busoccultation on Jan 26, 2024 22:25:11 GMT
Worry about the answer to this, but what is the best way/where is the best place to see a Plaxton President these days? Guessing as even the newest ones are probably close to 20 years old that I'm asking for a lot Metrobus still has two ex Metroline VP's that was inherited from Southdown acquisition last year and are being used ex Southdown routes out of Copthorne depot.
While this a lot further away from London, First Eastern Counties does still have 6 of them on a B7TL chassis in use on handful of Norwich routes though these are in the process of being replaced by new StreetDeck Electroliners that are slowly entering service in Norwich over the last few months and will eventually go in the next few months.
If you want to stick nearer to London without having to hunt deep on bustimes, then really your best chances is whenever there is a London based bus events that sees low floor buses taking part in the event.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Jan 27, 2024 11:06:30 GMT
Worry about the answer to this, but what is the best way/where is the best place to see a Plaxton President these days? Guessing as even the newest ones are probably close to 20 years old that I'm asking for a lot Although not an ex-London example, I rode one with Transdev in Keighley last August. In September 2022 I rode one with Stagecoach in Lincoln. Admittedly I don't know whether they are still there.
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Post by theferret124 on Jan 27, 2024 11:37:11 GMT
Worry about the answer to this, but what is the best way/where is the best place to see a Plaxton President these days? Guessing as even the newest ones are probably close to 20 years old that I'm asking for a lot in terms of SW London, afaik Bear Buses still do SWR rails and send out their trident and B7 presidents.
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Post by YY13VKP on Feb 7, 2024 20:39:59 GMT
Ex Arriva London T92 has been sent for scrap following accident damage with First.
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 18, 2024 21:33:40 GMT
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Post by vjaska on Feb 18, 2024 21:43:39 GMT
This wasn't a thing exclusively to First London Tridents - I believe most Euro II London spec Presidents had the stopping sign at the rear window and at the front above the dashboard - certainly Go-Ahead had this on both the V to Y reg PVL's & X reg PDL's up to the spec change which was at 51 reg
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 18, 2024 23:09:34 GMT
This wasn't a thing exclusively to First London Tridents - I believe most Euro II London spec Presidents had the stopping sign at the rear window and at the front above the dashboard - certainly Go-Ahead had this on both the V to Y reg PVL's & X reg PDL's up to the spec change which was at 51 reg I know Metroline's early tridents had that too. I remembered seeing it on the 271 (when it was around)
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Post by vjaska on Feb 19, 2024 0:01:33 GMT
This wasn't a thing exclusively to First London Tridents - I believe most Euro II London spec Presidents had the stopping sign at the rear window and at the front above the dashboard - certainly Go-Ahead had this on both the V to Y reg PVL's & X reg PDL's up to the spec change which was at 51 reg I know Metroline's early tridents had that too. I remembered seeing it on the 271 (when it was around) Yeah, they did as well - never quite understood though why Metroline went for the mirror upstairs in the middle though whereas every other operator went for the conventional position on the right hand side
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 19, 2024 4:51:49 GMT
I know Metroline's early tridents had that too. I remembered seeing it on the 271 (when it was around) Yeah, they did as well - never quite understood though why Metroline went for the mirror upstairs in the middle though whereas every other operator went for the conventional position on the right hand side I did read up somewhere many years ago. (I will need to dig up my archives for this) that during 1999 the early plaxtons delivered for First and Metroline were made around the same time. This probably explains why the tridents that were given to the 1, 18 and W8 had the mirrors in the middle whereas the 25 with its messy T-KLF and V-HBY regs didn't have the mirror in the middle. I do remember some Metroline tridents also having V-HBY regs plates as well from memory and some had the first london style seats (not moquette wise but just the base) and some of the metroline tridents having the one big window on the front of the upper deck and not two splits.
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Post by redexpress on Feb 19, 2024 8:40:05 GMT
Yeah, they did as well - never quite understood though why Metroline went for the mirror upstairs in the middle though whereas every other operator went for the conventional position on the right hand side I did read up somewhere many years ago. (I will need to dig up my archives for this) that during 1999 the early plaxtons delivered for First and Metroline were made around the same time. This probably explains why the tridents that were given to the 1, 18 and W8 had the mirrors in the middle whereas the 25 with its messy T-KLF and V-HBY regs didn't have the mirror in the middle. I do remember some Metroline tridents also having V-HBY regs plates as well from memory and some had the first london style seats (not moquette wise but just the base) and some of the metroline tridents having the one big window on the front of the upper deck and not two splits. The early Metroline TPs were effectively built in two batches - first batch was TP2-31, second batch was TP1 and TP32-65. There were some differences between the two batches. Most notably the second batch had fewer seats (H41/21D instead of H45/22D) as the first batch was found to have insufficient legroom. Also the second batch was built with one-piece upper deck windscreens instead of split screens, although many of them later had split screens fitted following damage to the one-piece screen. The second batch did have a mix of T-CLO and V-HBY regs (with one T-KLD and one V-GLB) as they were delivered over the reg changeover period.
The bus that was originally built as TP1 was retained by Dennis as a demonstrator. It eventually ended up as a playbus with a 52-reg plate as it had never been officially registered T101KLD despite being displayed with that reg. A new TP1 was then built in its place for Metroline, which explains why TP1 has the same specs as the second batch. Incidentally the bus shown in this photo must be the original TP1 - you can tell by the split upper-deck windscreen - so it isn't the bus that ended up with BBPG.
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 19, 2024 9:00:06 GMT
I did read up somewhere many years ago. (I will need to dig up my archives for this) that during 1999 the early plaxtons delivered for First and Metroline were made around the same time. This probably explains why the tridents that were given to the 1, 18 and W8 had the mirrors in the middle whereas the 25 with its messy T-KLF and V-HBY regs didn't have the mirror in the middle. I do remember some Metroline tridents also having V-HBY regs plates as well from memory and some had the first london style seats (not moquette wise but just the base) and some of the metroline tridents having the one big window on the front of the upper deck and not two splits. The early Metroline TPs were effectively built in two batches - first batch was TP2-31, second batch was TP1 and TP32-65. There were some differences between the two batches. Most notably the second batch had fewer seats (H41/21D instead of H45/22D) as the first batch was found to have insufficient legroom. Also the second batch was built with one-piece upper deck windscreens instead of split screens, although many of them later had split screens fitted following damage to the one-piece screen. The second batch did have a mix of T-CLO and V-HBY regs (with one T-KLD and one V-GBY) as they were delivered over the reg changeover period.
The bus that was originally built as TP1 was retained by Dennis as a demonstrator. It eventually ended up as a playbus with a 52-reg plate as it had never been officially registered T101KLD despite being displayed with that reg. A new TP1 was then built in its place for Metroline, which explains why TP1 has the same specs as the second batch. Incidentally the bus shown in this photo must be the original TP1 - you can tell by the split upper-deck windscreen - so it isn't the bus that ended up with BBPG. Wonderful history lesson there. As much as those early tridents on the 25 sucked badly with capacity I do miss them and it's sad we'll never get days like that in London again. I bet I'll probably say the same thing when the current new buses on the road now goes into retirement 15-20 years from now 😆
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Post by galwhv69 on Feb 19, 2024 9:18:51 GMT
The original TP1 (52 reg playbus) is actually stored pretty close to London. Saw it recently when looking at another bus to buy (all will be revealed soon ) but it is way too far gone to be saved and is essentially just a shell at this point
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Post by redexpress on Feb 19, 2024 11:45:58 GMT
The early Metroline TPs were effectively built in two batches - first batch was TP2-31, second batch was TP1 and TP32-65. There were some differences between the two batches. Most notably the second batch had fewer seats (H41/21D instead of H45/22D) as the first batch was found to have insufficient legroom. Also the second batch was built with one-piece upper deck windscreens instead of split screens, although many of them later had split screens fitted following damage to the one-piece screen. The second batch did have a mix of T-CLO and V-HBY regs (with one T-KLD and one V-GBY) as they were delivered over the reg changeover period.
The bus that was originally built as TP1 was retained by Dennis as a demonstrator. It eventually ended up as a playbus with a 52-reg plate as it had never been officially registered T101KLD despite being displayed with that reg. A new TP1 was then built in its place for Metroline, which explains why TP1 has the same specs as the second batch. Incidentally the bus shown in this photo must be the original TP1 - you can tell by the split upper-deck windscreen - so it isn't the bus that ended up with BBPG. Wonderful history lesson there. As much as those early tridents on the 25 sucked badly with capacity I do miss them and it's sad we'll never get days like that in London again. I bet I'll probably say the same thing when the current new buses on the road now goes into retirement 15-20 years from now 😆 Nostalgia ain't what it used to be! I do have a soft spot for those very early Tridents, particularly Holloway's TPs. I can still remember when I first saw one on the 43. It really stood out in the sea of neglected ex-MTL Metrobuses. The "Metroline future" fleetnames actually seemed appropriate at that stage!
Of course they were by no means perfect, and I don't think they were popular with drivers. Nice buses to travel on, though, so long as you avoided the seats with the worst legroom.
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Post by mkay315 on Feb 19, 2024 12:25:33 GMT
Wonderful history lesson there. As much as those early tridents on the 25 sucked badly with capacity I do miss them and it's sad we'll never get days like that in London again. I bet I'll probably say the same thing when the current new buses on the road now goes into retirement 15-20 years from now 😆 Nostalgia ain't what it used to be! I do have a soft spot for those very early Tridents, particularly Holloway's TPs. I can still remember when I first saw one on the 43. It really stood out in the sea of neglected ex-MTL Metrobuses. The "Metroline future" fleetnames actually seemed appropriate at that stage!
Of course they were by no means perfect, and I don't think they were popular with drivers. Nice buses to travel on, though, so long as you avoided the seats with the worst legroom.
Hahaha literally that and seeing the new tridents on the 25 back in the summer of 1999 it did feel futuristic back then, I would even avoid getting on the metrobus just to wait for the trident to arrive
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