Favourite buses to drive

[Chris217]

Just checked my log.
15564 was my 900th bus
for driving lol.

A thousand will be a long time coming though
as I'm down to 32 to clear our depot!

 

[jp4712]

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?

People ask me what it's like to drive old preserved buses - they ask if it's hard. I say no, it's different. Double-declutching is second nature once you've learned. In fact on buses with sychromesh gearboxes it's still a good idea to double-declutch as it reduces wear on the gearbox's sychronising cones.

 

[philthetube]

Going from a different angle, as far as passengers were concerned the Nation 2 took some beating, never a rattle and decent heating.

 

[B7rleThrasher]

In terms of modern vehicles in the fleet I drive, Volvo B7rle or Volvo B9TL - they’re in fine fettle, they’re superb!

 

[Swanny200]

I have driven two coaches round a yard, I was on private land and was going to start learning to drive buses anyway, one was a Neoplan Skyliner and the other was an old Trathens Van Hool decker, the Van Hool was a B12 and felt like it could run away from me at any time which I found strange for such a big vehicle. Health got in the way of driving a bus or coach for real which is a shame as there are loads I wish I could have had the chance to drive.

 

[Driver362]

SCANIA L113

 

[PG]

Going from a different angle, as far as passengers were concerned the Nation 2 took some beating, never a rattle and decent heating.

I've only driven one Mk2 National (Gardner engined with pod) as opposed to a few Mk1's and I'd have to agree that it felt altogether a heavier more solid bus without the crashing rattles typical of the Mk1.
Took an age to warm up though and steering felt like you were attempting a 3 point turn on the Titanic!
Apart from the front radiator encroaching on the platform it was an improvement from the passenger viewpoint if not from (this) drivers!