Oldest Bus in regular service

[route101]

Stagecoach ran them for a couple of months however all of the ex South Glos deckers had been replaced before the schools shutdown by 06 plate Tridents. The N reg Olympians were often used on public (rush hour) services until Jan/Feb this year.

N reg surely the contender for oldest

 

[hst43102]

not sure if you count school services, but if you do then until recently, south gloucestershire bus and coach used L reg olympian palatine IIs on school routes, and I believe stagecoach still use olympians which go up to P and S reg and Volvo B10M-55s that go up to K reg.
if not, then the best I found is stagecoach using N reg palatine IIs on services acquired from south gloucestershire bus and coach, with the palatine's also being ex SGBC vehicles.

Stagecoach also acquired a B10M Citybus from SGBC, I think it was a G-reg example. Anyone know what happened to it and the Olympians after withdrawal?

 

[Swanny200]

I know it is the other end of the country but a lot of the older Olympians Stagecoach had in fife went to Rennies (obviously still Stagecoach owned) but I do know that E&M Horsburgh in West Lothian had a few G reg ex Stagecoach examples along with some ex Lothian olympians for a while, funny thing was EMH didn't bother taking the stagecoach colours off, which looked really out of place, don't know if they still have them.

 

[Zakforbes4]

Gutted. My housemate owns an ex-First London Marshall!

Lucky

 

[Observer]

I know it is the other end of the country but a lot of the older Olympians Stagecoach had in fife went to Rennies (obviously still Stagecoach owned) but I do know that E&M Horsburgh in West Lothian had a few G reg ex Stagecoach examples along with some ex Lothian olympians for a while, funny thing was EMH didn't bother taking the stagecoach colours off, which looked really out of place, don't know if they still have them.

Depends on the age of them but they did take a good amount of ex-Lothian Geminis recently to get rid of some step entry deckers, and those have been getting painted.

Although saying that it did seem to be a knee jerk reaction to getting called up by the Traffic Commissioner due to the complaints they were getting over vehicle standards, as they hadn't bought anything from Lothian for years.

Saying that, West Lothian Council doesn't appear to have any age limit in place which no doubt encouraged particular purchases. Low floor deckers were purchased mostly for Falkirk Council contracts which does have an age limit in place.

 

[Murray J]

Stagecoach also acquired a B10M Citybus from SGBC, I think it was a G-reg example. Anyone know what happened to it and the Olympians after withdrawal?

The citybus has been sold for preservation to the Oakdale bus preservation group whereas 2 Olympians (L562/564 YCU) have been sold to Bromley preservation group. 3 other Olympians, N305/6/8 CLV, are in storage, all according to bus magazine.

 

[Swanny200]

Depends on the age of them but they did take a good amount of ex-Lothian Geminis recently to get rid of some step entry deckers, and those have been getting painted.

Although saying that it did seem to be a knee jerk reaction to getting called up by the Traffic Commissioner due to the complaints they were getting over vehicle standards, as they hadn't bought anything from Lothian for years.

Saying that, West Lothian Council doesn't appear to have any age limit in place which no doubt encouraged purchases. Low floor deckers were purchased mostly for Falkirk Council contracts which does have an age limit in place.

I remember they had a few of the K--CSF batch from Lothian definitely and they had some of the R--HHK from Stagecoach along with some of the early G reg Oly's, the stagecoach ones were still in Stagey colours with their fleetname added which I would have thought would have put them in hot water.

 

[Observer]

I remember they had a few of the K--CSF batch from Lothian definitely and they had some of the R--HHK from Stagecoach along with some of the early G reg Oly's, the stagecoach ones were still in Stagey colours with their fleetname added which I would have thought would have put them in hot water.

Yes, the ex-Lothians had very awful single door conversions with panels put over the lower half of the door.

There would have been a much better way to do those, sealing the middle of the doors with bars on the inside and outside as well as disabling the mechanism would have done the job.

Saying that there were worse conversions done by others over the years, where the door was replaced with metal panels, with no window in sight.

 

[swifty]

Stagecoach ran them for a couple of months however all of the ex South Glos deckers had been replaced before the schools shutdown by 06 plate Tridents. The N reg Olympians were often used on public (rush hour) services until Jan/Feb this year.

One of the N reg Olympians was still in use up until the lockdown started. I used hear (and occasionally see) it pass my office most days.

 

[hst43102]

The citybus has been sold for preservation to the Oakdale bus preservation group whereas 2 Olympians (L562/564 YCU) have been sold to Bromley preservation group. 3 other Olympians, N305/6/8 CLV, are in storage, all according to bus magazine.

That's great! I kind of assumed they had headed off to Barnsley!

 

[ALEMASTER]

I had thought these had all disappeared a few years ago, but I have just discovered that 66112 (former Bath 1912) is still operating in South Yorkshire.

Yes, they did a farewell tour for those buses in Sheffield and made a song and dance about new buses. However it seems they weren't withdrawn, they simply moved to Rotherham. Then when Rotherham depot closed and Sheffield took over most of the work, those buses moved back!