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Favourite buses to drive

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Chris217

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Not sure if this has been covered?

As an enthusiast.
I quite enjoyed driving most types of buses
especially if was something I hadn't already driven.
Ha,I'm a scratch merchant lol

That aside.I used to have individual favourites as an enthusiast.
As a driver though,I just prefer the easiest buses to drive where the brakes ain't snatchy and the heaters work lol.

From my GTL days,I enjoyed driving Leyalnd Titans the most with 2703 and 3003 being my favourites.
My favourite MCW Metrobus was 631 and I took that out on most of our routes much to the fury of other drivers who hated them.
Wasn't a fan of the early Darts with spring suspension,but enjoyed the later air bagged ones as they really were the easiest bus to drive.
As an enthusiast I liked Volvo B6s,but as a driver,no no!
Not sure if this was Down to age or poor maintenance.
Volvo B10Ms were brilliant. Loved The Alexander PS's.
Today,most of our buses are Environs.
I don't mind them. Some are ok and some are not so good.
We have had a small fleet of Scania double deckers with enviro400 bodies which came from Stagecoach South Coast.
These I do like a lot as well as our Tridents.
Not a fan of the MMC's though. They are harder work!
Optare Solos gets a final mention only to say,I rarely drive them as they only work specific routes out of Gillmoss although I sometimes treat myself lol.
Enjoyed the Versa's whilst they were here too.
 
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Jordan Adam

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As a non-driver i'll speak on behalf of a member of my family (Grandfather) who's been a driver since the mid/late 70s....

His favourite over the years were
Atlanteans
E-DRS Olympians
Mercedes O405's (Specifically the Prisma bodied examples)
Volvo B10BLE
Vanhool A330 Hydrogen
 

robk23oxf

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The Mercedes Citaro is the best bus I've driven. The ADL MMC range is also fairly good.
 

507021

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Single deck:
BYD D9UR/Alexander Dennis Enviro200.
DAF SB220/ELC Myllennium.
VDL SB120/Wright Cadet.
VDL SB200/Wright Commander.

Double deck:
DAF DB250/Plaxton President.
Volvo B5LH/Wright Gemini 3.
 

ACBest

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I enjoy driving Optare things - so far, I’ve driven the Solo/Solo SR, Versa, MetroCity and most recently, the Tempo. However - slight caveat in that the newer the vehicle, the worse it is - my previous employer had two 67 plate Versas, and they were absolutely horrendous to drive compared to the earlier 60/11/62 plate examples - so much so that I often used to try and swap them off when I was allocated one.

However, away from Optare, the Scania OmniDekka (okay, so Optare ended up bodying them...!) has to be the best low floor double decker vehicle I’ve driven. They’re spot on - they just do what you want them to do, go where you want them to go, no matter how tight a squeeze, and they’re just brilliant.

The best vehicle I’ve ever driven overall though? A one-time Lothian vehicle - a J reg Leyland Olympian. Nothing will ever beat that!
 

Chris217

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Single deck:
BYD D9UR/Alexander Dennis Enviro200.
DAF SB220/ELC Myllennium.
VDL SB120/Wright Cadet.
VDL SB200/Wright Commander.

Double deck:
DAF DB250/Plaxton President.
Volvo B5LH/Wright Gemini 3.



You sound like an Arriva driver lol.

Would love a go on the VDL/ Gemini 2s that Speak depot have.
Single deck:
BYD D9UR/Alexander Dennis Enviro200.
DAF SB220/ELC Myllennium.
VDL SB120/Wright Cadet.
VDL SB200/Wright Commander.

Double deck:
DAF DB250/Plaxton President.
Volvo B5LH/Wright Gemini 3.
 

richw

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We’ve got some Plaxton President Tridents that are lovely to drive and others not so. The good ones are up there as my preferred vehicle across the fleet. The lesser ones are only saved from the bottom by our BMCs!
 

buses7675

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I am definitely a fan of Enviro400MMCs, much better than their predecessors.

Optare Solos I like too, good tools for the jobs but mainly the shorter ones. Bigger Solos have such poor lock on steering they can be a pain to drive.

Can't really fault many buses I've driven, Optare Aleros though, they are bad, manual gearbox and utterly horrendous steering lock.

Some van derived minibuses are poor too, not always good on the routes in cities with more than a few stops and passengers - or speedbumps if they have a narrow rear axle that hits all the bumps.
 

Swanny200

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As a non-driver i'll speak on behalf of a member of my family (Grandfather) who's been a driver since the mid/late 70s....

His favourite over the years were
Atlanteans
E-DRS Olympians
Mercedes O405's (Specifically the Prisma bodied examples)
Volvo B10BLE
Vanhool A330 Hydrogen

My father was a Grampian driver in the 70's and loved the Atlantean, still swears it was one of those buses that drivers loved.
 

Jordan Adam

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My father was a Grampian driver in the 70's and loved the Atlantean, still swears it was one of those buses that drivers loved.

My Grandfather joined in 1978 and saw them through to the end. Only downside to them was on hills, Westburn Road between Foresterhill Road and North Anderson Drive could be a bit of an ache with an Atlantean as most barely done 20MPH along it, compare it to the likes of the B10BLEs which happily sit at 30MPH and could go much faster. I think with the Atlanteans for him it's a mix of nostalgia seeing as they were the main vehicle type when he joined.

He was also rather fond of the Renault Turbo minibuses.
 

robk23oxf

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Optare Solos I like too, good tools for the jobs but mainly the shorter ones. Bigger Solos have such poor lock on steering they can be a pain to drive.

Having driven a 10 metre Solo I can say it was absolute pig to get around tight and twisty roads. Solos are okay depending on what engine they have; the older ones are fine with Mercedes, Cummins and MAN engines but the newer ones are really only good with Mercedes engines. The Cummins powered examples of the newer Solos are difficult to get a smooth ride out of.
 

Chris217

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Nice replies everyone,thank you.
Here is my experience with buses I have driven

Atlanteans are great buses..I have driven a couple in preservation.
Thoroughly enjoyed driving those.
I was a touch too late for driving these as Arriva had not long dispensed with its last ones at Speak depot. They still had Nationals in the driving school though.
I learnt on a mk1 Leyland National and have driven mk2s too with Arriva.
Both pretty good buses to drive and nice driving position and easy handling.

Leyland Titan TN types
Driven about 80 of these,all for GTL.
Absolute massive fan of these.
We had some good and bad examples.
They were very abusable which added to the entertainment value lol.
Love driving position,better with single doors although it didn't matter to me really.
I miss these quite a lot and have many fond memories of probably was my favourite double decker type to drive.
On their final days,we arranged a Titan farewell running day thanks to our depot Manager Les Burton and utilised about 12 titans for the final day travelling all round Liverpool and a trip to New Brighton.
That was a very special day for me as I had the honour of driving T1,that came up from London.
So on the last day,I had that honour to be the last driver to drive the first bus T1, on the last day of the Titans in service in Liverpool.

MCW Metrobus.
Voith symphony orchestra alert lol.
I quite liked these although the ex Arriva single door ones were an improvement on the dual doorway examples.
Made some lovely sounds but most drivers hated them!
I kept the last one going M818 for quite a few weeks past their withdrawal date taking it out on the 432 route to New Brighton. Many enthusiasts dotted along the route taking photographs.
She went out In style with an enthusiast bus tour around Liverpool. I was the driver.

Leyland Olympians.
We had a few here over the years at Gillmoss..when Stagecoach took over GTL,we had a couple of ex United Counties
Gardner ZF Olympians. They were awful!
Later,we got some Voith Cummins engine Olympians which were far better and I liked these ones a lot although,my favourite without doubt were the hydrocyclic Gardner Olympians of which I had driven 2 with Arriva and a Stagecoach open topper.

Dennis Tridents.
Love driving these,a double decker Dart lol.
Mostly fairly quick although Gillmoss had some tired ex London ones for a while.
Absolutely no good on Motorways though for belts flying off or water hose blowing off! Great stop/start bus unlike the MMC.

Scania double deckers are brilliant I must say,although you never know what gear it's in with so many gear changes lol.

Leyland Lynx
Drove a couple of ex CMT ones which where knackered with a capital F!
Nice enough to drive but very rattly.
Quick off the mark and generally pretty fast. Funny the CMT ones,never knew what engines were in them as they seemed to all sound very different...probably because they were wrecked hehehe.

Enviro 300s,we have ADL's and MAN's at our depot.
I enjoy both tbh. Some of the .MAN's are pretty poor tbh,with a handful governed down to save on fuel consumption. On those,the gears change far too quickly.
Some have now been fitted with new engines too as per ADL 300s.
The ADL 300s are a bog standard bus really.
Every one of them seems to do exactly the same thing,same gear ratios etc,all do 56mph flat out. It feels like everything was programmed in on these for maximum efficiency. Nice buses to drive though.

MMC 400s. This could be a better bus if I'm honest.
I don't mind driving them but prefer their predecessors.
Slow on acceleration so no good on busy roundabouts. No kick down if you are struggling going up hills,
Most change gears far too quick,so no real beef!
On top of slow acceleration we have some with engine cut out when you open the doors to let passengers on. Makes journeys slower in my opinion.
Makes for delayed journey times worse.

Volvo B10M.
Absolutely loved these.
Stagecoaches best single deckers for a long time.
Alexander PS body voith or ZF gearbox.
ZF's were fast and excellent on the motorways when running in.
Voith were great on stop/start but not so good on Motorways.

Volvo B6.
What a contrast to the superior B10.
Very sluggish,although if you had one where the kick down actually worked,then you could get some beef out of it.
As an enthusiast I liked them but mostly for the sounds.
We had one Volvo B6BLE which was an improvement.
Strange that our ones were prone to overheating especially in the summer!
We got o load of ex Stagecoach Alexander Dash examples at GTL.
It must have been an in house joke to buy newer buses to replace our elderly MCWs and Titans from an operator that was to eventually buy us out lol!

Dennis Darts
Driven hundreds of these.
The early spring suspension ones were awful compared to the less bouncy air bag buses.
Most were fairly quick though.
Always nice driving position
And we had a few different body types too.
The ex CMT Wright's ones were all over the place and pretty poor by the time they came to us.
We had East Lancs ex Merseytravel livery ones.
I called them leaks lancs as they leaked when it was raining.
Again,these were all over the place and mostly pretty poor with gears changing too soon and gear stunting common!
Then we had Alexander Dash ones all ex Stagecoach which seemed a tad better.
The Stagecoach ones that were delivered to us brand new were like Rolls Royces by comparison.

Finally Optare Solos and Versa's
Didn't mind driving either tbh.
The Solo driving position compared to the position of the passenger doors wasn't the best tbh.
Always seemed to get a neck ache eventually!
This is where the Versa was the improvement in my opinion.
Although steering locks were a bit poor on these.
We had a couple with Cummins engines.
Seemed very nippy although a bad one would be sluggish.

As a driver of 15 plus years Its got easier,although I tend to enjoy the older buses for the enthusiast value.
Stagecoach and GTL were both enthusiast friendly in my opinion but as a driver enthusiast the latter has to take second preference unfortunately

Thanks for reading all this if you are still awake lol.
 
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As much as I respect the views of you drivers as you are the ones who actually has to deal with such things, personally from someone who has rode plenty of each variety of Enviro, I would say the following:
Gearbox seems to make all the difference these day - Allison Enviro 200s vs Voith ones sound very different, and the Allison ones seem much more powerful due to their setup, which includes kickdown. On Enviro 400s it’s the same, the ZF ones revving higher makes all the difference, some have been altered for 2000rpm through Topodyn software too. As well as sounding immense, they perform much better on hilly routes than a Voith one does. Wright Streetlites are not known for being the smoothest rode, but put the same engine and gearbox in an Enviro 200, and the result is something completely different.
 

Bletchleyite

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Some van derived minibuses are poor too, not always good on the routes in cities with more than a few stops and passengers - or speedbumps if they have a narrow rear axle that hits all the bumps.

I can assure you that sitting at the back of those would be far worse than driving them! :)

I bought a car as a result of back pain from being catapulted around MK on those things.
 

Stan Drews

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Favourite buses to drive?
My Top 3
1) A Scania Metropolitan
2) Another Scania Metropolitan
3) A different Scania Metropolitan

The End!
 

Chris217

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I take it you like Scaia Metropolitans hehe.

Hard pressed to find three of them nowadays
let alone one!
 

philthetube

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surprised how recent most of the choices are.

For me it would have to be a Bristol RE semi automatic or a manual AEC Plaxton bodied coach. Used in service regularly by Premier Travel in the Cambridge area, a dream to drive.
 

Chris217

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I must say Bristol 'RE buses were beasts
back in the day.
Would love a go on a 5 speed example and try out crawler first gear lol.
Made some wonderful sounds.
There used to be many quality bus types which were great.
Never get away with using them now with the Smokey exhausts and lack of low floors.
I loved the Cardiff Guy Arabs .
Some superb sounds on those.
Also AEC Regents and Swifts.

I took a ride on a St Helens corporation
Leyland PD2A a few years ago.
Brought tears to my eyes that did.

Would love to have a go at driving a voith
Ailsa Volvo and a 5 speed Atlantean.
Loved the GM Buses examples.
Nice and high up in the cab.
 

PG

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Volvo B10M with ZF gearbox and Alexander PS body (Stagecoach)

Leyland National Mk1 phase 2 (NBC)

Leyland Atlantean with Alexander body 1981-4 (Grampian)

Leyland Leopard with Alexander Y body 1983 (Strathtay)
 

jp4712

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My driving experience is unusual, in that as a preservationist I've driven older buses but not newer ones. I think my top ten would be:

1. Bristol RE - light steering, lovely sounds, reasonably nippy. But Gardner-engined ones had heavy throttle pedals, in extremis it could give you muscle ache the following day!
2. Leyland Atlantean - more poke than most Fleetlines, lighter controls than a typical Fleetline, nice brakes.
3. AEC Regent - light steering, light gear change, not quite as much bottom-end grunt as a PD but enough.
4. AEC Renown - once you've squeezed your way into the cab over the wheel arch, lovely! Raked steering wheel like a car, lots of poke, lovely gearchange - quite like a car.
5. Crossley DD42 - comfortable smooth ride, nice synchromesh box, quiet. But no guts on hills!
6. MCW Metropolitan - only drove one once. But man it could move, when you pressed the throttle the whole front end lifted up...
7. Leyland PD2 - no two PDs are alike but overall they're dependable, rugged - the 1-to-2 gear change is appalling but unless you're carrying a 'swinger' you start in 2nd anyway.
8. AEC Reliance - nice sounds, good suspension, light controls. The only downside is that the gear change gate is very narrow so you have to be careful you're engaging fourth and not second.
9. Leyland TS2 - appalling in every way! Heavy, hot, awkwardly positioned controls, stiff steering. But man, to drive one of those down the road is something...
10. Leyland Leopard - indestructible, rugged, powerful (the 680 engined ones, anyway). Steering a bit heavy but positive, light throttle - which on a long coaching run is important.

Bottom three:

1. Guy Arab IV (only driven the one, mind) - appalling gearbox, like stirring rice pudding.
2. Foden PVSC6G - noisy, Gardner governor means you hot a brick wall trying to accelerate beyond about 35 mph, on the one I've driven the nearside mirror is about six feet behind you as well as six feet to the left!
3. Daimler CVG with manual preselector gearbox - nothing wrong with it in itself, but if you don't select the gear change pedal properly, the pedal can shoot ut at great speed and beyond its normal travel to thump you on the shin harder than a man's kick. You only forget once...
 

Chris217

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In contrast to my Solo last night.
Tonight I have 15564 Scania.
Another winner for driving20190408_210827.jpg
 

Chris217

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This one is very nice to drive.
Lovely and warm,brakes work a treat.
And quick to.
Second scratch this week.
Pretty good for me to drive winners on
217s as they are always Enviro 300s.

Only need 15563 then I've driven all Gillmoss ones.
 

Aictos

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Never driven buses at all but I remember the local buses growing up had manual gears and I think double clutches before they went fully automatic.

The idea of double clutches to me sounds complicated but to someone used to it, it’s probably easy?
 
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