I was gricing a library book the other day about Manchester's buses and trams.
It got me thinking about something you used to see regularly on the motorways and roads of this country.........Bus chassis being delivered to have bodywork made.
Often with the driver in a crash helmet and protected by a rough wooden ' dashboard ' and a screen. They used to go in convoys of 2 or 3 up and down the motorways.
Most impressive were the modern type of bus with the engine at the rear but I also remember ' half cab ' Leylands and Bristols.
Do they still do it, or is everything moved by transporter ?...I imagine H & S might have stopped the activity.
Ted
|
In the old days the PTEs often had a body preference so they would order the chasis and then get their local body builder to build the chasis. Most of Manchester's were built by Northern Counties in Wigan for example on Leyland Atalnation or Olympian chasis.
These days most buses are built in the same place, for example Alaxander Dennis, they build the chassis and the body so the buses get delivered to the bus company complete. Also in the case of Alaxander Dennis if you specify a different body or chassis they will built it for you in the factory.
It is probably much less problem because most buses seem to be integerals these days with the chasis makers buying the body builders vice versa.
|
Ah yes....well remembered.
A nightmare for us in jam sandwidges for the chassis could not be classified in Motor Vehicle terms if I remember correctly so one did not know what driving licence the 'driver' needed.
dvd
|
|
Well I saw 2 in convoy the other day driving on the motorway between Borås and Götebörg. It was well below zero. They had goggles on, and those leather hats with a rabbit fur brim and drop down ear muffs. I think they were Scanias.
|
I think they were Scanias.
>
>>>>well i think they were nuts
|
|
|
|
Made of stern stuff don't think i'd have fancied the job, though some plating jobs were very well paid, i imagine they were.
Done my turn on the trade plates years ago when car transporters were more 'exclusive' and you had to earn (or born) your way into them....some of the plate jobs could be quite lucrative where train fares were paid for empty running but reciepts not needed .;)...never fear i've not had the good fortune or come from the right family or from the right chapel to get those jobs either.
It wasn't just the bus chassis that had unknown licencing requirements, it was always ambiguous whether a tractor unit chassis was an HGV without a 5th wheel being fitted, despite being around the 7 tons mark unladen.
At the time an HGV licence was required to drive anything over 3 tons unladed IIRC, i well remember working for companies where the entire vehicle would be stripped bare to get the weight under that magic figure at weighing time for licence renewal.
|
|
I remember seeing these regularly on the A5 around Dunstable (Vauxhall's, Bedford factory).
|
|
I'm sure I've seen some not so long ago on the M6 Cumbria, can't remember whether they were heading North or South
|
|
A few years ago I saw many bus chassis heading for, and completed double deck busses in full Hong Kong livery in transit from a nearby coachbuilder to the docks. A year or so later I saw them in service and took some photos for the Manager of the body works (an aquaintance). These were well recieved by him and guys who built them. I found it interesting seeing how a chassis was turned into a bus.
Edited by Old Navy on 02/01/2010 at 11:41
|
|
Our drivers always complained that having been strapped into a flying/tank suit,fitted with goggles etc. they found they were busting for the loo!!The last one we dealt with was probably in the late nineties and was designed for a mobile shop in the Netherlands.
|
any photos jc2?
never been able to find any as i used to see them daily going past my school as a kid
|
Coach chassis, Hull docks to Plaxtons in Scarborough.
|
I used to see a lot of these. Always thought they looked sporting, and they must have felt sporting too with no heavy brick-shaped bodywork to slow them down. Wouldn't have been much fun in this weather though, unless plug-in heated underwear is part of the system.
Haven't seen one for donkey's years.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I went to school (*) within a stones' throw of the M6, between J27 and J27, and they were a regular site going past, presumably from Leyland to Northern Counties in Pem
The next door neighbour used to work at NC, but thats' all gone in the last few years, apparently NC were far more efficient, but smaller, then the mother factory up in Scotland, so they got shut.
(*) I'm not saying it was a long time ago, but the young feller who was school chaplain is now the Archbish' of Wesminster
and as for driving one of these chassis, any guesses how they would score in an NCAP test - my recollection from bored maths lessons is that I don't think they even had seat belts....
|
I used to see bus chassis being driven past my home in the late 1960's / early 1970's
These were Bristol chassis, made by the state-owned Bristol Bus Works in Bristol, on their way to be bodied by Eastern Coach Works (also state-owned) at Lowestoft.
These chassis were front-engined Lodekka and, later on, rear-engined Bristol VRT type, which were both standard double-deckers of the nationalised Tilling Group, which went on to become the National Bus Company.
I remember too that the drivers wore crash helmets and heavy coats or anoraks and the only weather protection on the vehicle was a temporary plywood panel in front of the driver - some had a small perspex windscreen too, I think.
The famous AEC-PRV Routemaster, being of chassisless construction, was never seen in this state, but there were some wierd looking test mules fitted with Routemaster running gear - but I never saw one in the metal (or plywood)!
|
|
Many van manufacturers offer chassis cowls-or even less-for conversion into motor caravans,ambulances,ice cream vans etc..
|
|
A few years ago, M6, came upon a couple of those machines that sling a container underneath and move it around the driver being sat above it. Because of their size they had a police escort. They straddled both nearside lanes of the motorway and due to their height (without a cab around/above him) the drivers had to crouch down in their seats to pass under bridges.
|
|
|
|
bcv.robsly.com/ulre.html
eleventh photo down is the Ulsterbus Bristol that was in Bristol Industrial Museum pre refurb.
|
|
|
|
|
