[mbonwick]

Useful Photo Links
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_sim...7608262690096/ Ian Simpson's SCNW archive set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardo4eyes/ Richie B's Photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29311521@N08/ Cainebj's Photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/transliner Ross Watsons Photostream


http://mbonwick.cu.cc My Site

Fleetlists, Refurb tracker etc are now on my site.

[Guinness]

East Manchester buses are sheds, even the 2006 Reg ones!

[Tom B]

We got a load cascaded onto us - they didn't bother taking off the branding, so they still had adverts for routes in Manchester on the side.

[mbonwick]

Originally Posted by Billy Sharp

East Manchester buses are sheds, even the 2006 Reg ones!

Tell me about it!
But according to a driver friend of mine, each trident is having a 1month refurb before entering service.

[mbonwick]

Just thought I'd give an update on this:
Stagecoach Cumbria have recieved all their Tridents - 18354 (Beatrix Potter Vynls), 18355, 18356(Wordswork vynls), 18357, 18358, 18359 (Wainwright - Lakeland Pathfinder vynls), 18360, 18366, 18372, 18374.

The Olympians 16330 - 16340 are at Lillyhall for store at the minute with the exception of 16332/4 and 16335 (Liverpool Champions Leauge winners 2005 branding), which are in service at Preston


Tridents are now starting to arrive at Lancaster: 18324-6, 18361-3, 18375 and 18380.
As a result, all Titans (with the except of non-standard 10684 which soldiers on) have been withdrawn, as have Leyland Olympians 14206/8, 14210.

Optare Versas 25222-4 have entered service on the 6/6A with branding. B6's 30457-8 have been transferred to Chorley (YAY!). This still leaves several B6s, from which only 1 willbe retained.

Versa 25225 has entered service at Lillyhall.

[Nym]

hey, hey, hey, they get you there don't they?

There is nothing wrong with the old S&D buses that run the seafront route and the're A reg, (old A reg!)

[mbonwick]

It's just the B6s I really hate...legendary unreliability and a really small driving cab.
One thing I for got to add, T56 (56th Titan ever made) will go into the heritage fleet. It's the only bus in the NW in the old corporate livery (stripes not swirls)

[driver9000]

I was told it was 6 of the S registered East London Tridents (17012-17024) that were being deroofed for the 599 in the Lakes. Aparantly they can only be partially deroofed otherwise the structure becomes a little wobbly. I remember the S regs were horribly unreliable when Lancaster first put them into service, I was driving one on the first day they were in service (a Sunday) and by the Tuesday they were all off the road with various defects - climbing Hala Hill in the summer with a full load would often see the coolant warning light illuminate by the top of the hill!! I agree with mbonwick about the B6 being awful, I could never get comfortable driving them - way too small a cab, a little like Volvo Olympians 243 - 245 (L reg) that had NC Palatine 1 bodywork, tiny cabs but they were very fast! The only J reg Olympians expected to remain are 14208 & 14204, No.2208 being recently refubished and 2204 being in Morecambe & Heysham corpy colours

[mbonwick]

Yeah that's what I've heard as well. I think tho it's 17012-16
Could be wrong though... I'll have to check the e-mail I got from Gez.

It doesn't surprise me that they can only be de-roofed so far, if you look at the Titans currently in use, they are exactly the same.



I think I read somewhere that the B6 cab is only 6' 5.

[driver9000]

Originally Posted by mbonwick

I think I read somewhere that the B6 cab is only 6' 5.

If that!!

[mbonwick]

Well, all the Tridents have now arrived and the first, 17012 has gone to Lillyhall for deroofing.
It now seems doubtful that any ex-LakesLink Olympians will end up in Lancaster; apparently the number of buses in = the number out.

Lillyhall seems to be rather full at the moment. In addition to the storage of Olympians and B6s there is also a growing number of stored B10Ms from the introduction of new MAN/ALX300s and Versas to Lillyhall for the barrow services.

[driver9000]

so 17012 should be back for the beginning of the summer season proper then?

Are they brand new MANs at Barrow or 'new' from elsewhere?
Do you know where the N reg Olympians from Kendal are going?

[mbonwick]

I think the Lillyhall MANs are brand new, on delivery from Alexanders of Falkirk with ALX 300 bodies.

As for the N reg olys, no idea. Not heard much that way. I'd guess Carlisle or down south somewhere. More likely is long term reserve due to being slurpus - they would then be used if an event like the Carlisle floods happened again.


just another thought: They might end up back at Kendal, and see off their 14xxxs, eg. 14199 although maybe not as they have high backed seating?? Would make more sense to use N reg stock on school runs than 55 reg (the new tridents, which have had to be fitted with CCTV cos of the graffiti).

digressing slightly, one trident (18359 IIRC) had to be taked out of service after it's first school run!!

[mbonwick]

Looking at a fleetlist (don't know how accurate), 16336 is shown as at Barrow and 16338 shown at Lillyhall.

Of the other 8 - 16332-5 are definitely in Liverpool and the others are in store pending....I don't know what

16333 appears to have moved elsewhere - it's not on the list.

[Rich]

Stagecoach have just bought out local operator Mayne & Sons, who's fleet of about 50 buses is dominated by ancient knackered buses.

Prices on Mayne were much cheaper than Stagecoach and the buses were much cleaner and nicer, Stagecoach just overpowered them!