Roller Blinds

[alexf380]

Hi all.
This question has been bugging me for a while; On the older buses with manual roller blinds that had numbers on 3 (or 4) separate tracks, how did the driver change the numbers with only 1 handle?
i'm intrigued as to how it works.

Alex

 

[156441]

There is a separate handle that selects each roller.

 

[overthewater]

There was two handles, one for moving the blind up and down and another one to change the first handles position so it can change the other two separate tracks.

 

[quarella]

Something I did so often and now I have to think about it. On the coaches I drove with roller blind numbers there was a lever beneath the winding handle that clicked in three positions which connected the winding gear to the corresponding cogs for changing the relevant blind.

 

[alexf380]

I see. Thanks for your replies folks

 

[Liam]

Why do TfL require all buses to have roller blinds, when most of the rest of the country now use digital diplays, even retrofitting them on older vehicles and ex London vehicles?

 

[Eagle]

Why do TfL require all buses to have roller blinds, when most of the rest of the country now use digital diplays, even retrofitting them on older vehicles and ex London vehicles?

Supposedly easier to read.

Obviously the main benefit of digital displays is flexibility (you don't need to fit a new one every time you get a new route or destination), but somewhere where the buses are so regulated and unchanging as London then that's less of a problem.

 

[Liam]

Supposedly easier to read.

Obviously the main benefit of digital displays is flexibility (you don't need to fit a new one every time you get a new route or destination), but somewhere where the buses are so regulated and unchanging as London then that's less of a problem.

Thanks, I suppose one problem with digital displays is that when they go wrong you get nothing, or you can end up with random lines or patterns across the display.

 

[Eagle]

I suppose one problem with digital displays is that when they go wrong you get nothing

That's better than roller blinds! When they fail they get stuck on the wrong names, making them outright misleading.

 

[Liam]

That's better than roller blinds! When they fail they get stuck on the wrong names, making them outright misleading.

There was a bus going around Edinburgh the other day with the blind half way between 34 and 35. Must have caused some confusion as they share a destination, and a follow broadly similar routes.

 

[bronzeonion]

Because they are better in pretty much every way apart from the flexibility issue, but in London where buses are allocated to a garage and buses from that garage only operate a certain selection of routes that hardly matters.

Blinds are so much easier to read than awful orange on black LED displays. The only LED displays I would consider readable just as well as blinds are the new (probably more expensive) ones fitted to the X1 in Suffolk/Norfolk to the new Enviro 400s.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jS9d0ZTwA...eat+Yarmouth+05.10.13++Copyright+SYD+EADE.JPG

 

[jopsuk]

Supposedly easier to read.

Which is fine until someone sticks a curved bit of glass prone to glare in front of the blind. But no-one would design a bus like that if they were sane :P

 

[radamfi]

The Citaro K (short Citaro recently been made as a RHD for the first time) demonstrator has an LED which looks very like a paper blind.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjs251/9479702465/

 

[455driver]

I used to work on some buses (Bristol VRs I think) that only had one handle, to select the different tracks you pushed the handle in (or pulled it out) and there were 3 seperate positions representing the 3 tracks.

 

[Be3G]

Thanks, I suppose one problem with digital displays is that when they go wrong you get nothing, or you can end up with random lines or patterns across the display.

There also seems to be a greater temptation with digital displays to use them to show adverts about bus passes etc. rather than something useful like, I don't know, which bus route it is. :-x Hopefully, if ever TfL abolish roller blinds, they wouldn't be engage in such tomfoolery.

 

[Statto]

Supposedly easier to read.

Obviously the main benefit of digital displays is flexibility (you don't need to fit a new one every time you get a new route or destination), but somewhere where the buses are so regulated and unchanging as London then that's less of a problem.

Only problem is even when lit up roller blinds are quite hard to see at night, LEDs are a problem in bright sunlight but great at night or when it's dull.

Another problem are TFLs rules on new blinds that rather than for example showing South Croydon Garage, the blinds now only show South Croydon, which may be fair enough if it wasn't that there are a few terminuses in South Croydon.

 

[Liam]

There also seems to be a greater temptation with digital displays to use them to show adverts about bus passes etc. rather than something useful like, I don't know, which bus route it is. :-x Hopefully, if ever TfL abolish roller blinds, they wouldn't be engage in such tomfoolery.

Not seen that, but that's ridiculous. One thing that is useful is they can have the number and destination, then in smaller lettering below that, the intermediate places served scrolling across.

The M91 goes on for hours...

M91 Edinburgh
via Aviemore, Kincraig, Kingussie, Newtonmore, Blair Atholl, Pitlochry, Perth, Kinross, Dunfermline, Ferrytoll.

And I've probably missed some places out.

 

[Be3G]

Another problem are TFLs rules on new blinds that rather than for example showing South Croydon Garage, the blinds now only show South Croydon, which may be fair enough if it wasn't that there are a few terminuses in South Croydon.

Indeed. Buses terminating at Little Park Gardens in Enfield now just show ‘Enfield’ on the blind, despite the fact that Enfield is an entire borough of London!

 

[WillPS]

Not seen that, but that's ridiculous. One thing that is useful is they can have the number and destination, then in smaller lettering below that, the intermediate places served scrolling across.

The M91 goes on for hours...

M91 Edinburgh
via Aviemore, Kincraig, Kingussie, Newtonmore, Blair Atholl, Pitlochry, Perth, Kinross, Dunfermline, Ferrytoll.

And I've probably missed some places out.

I recall NCT had theirs spend about 5 seconds out of 15 displaying "Bus Operator of the Year" on the front destination board for ages.

 

[Eagle]

The M91 goes on for hours...

M91 Edinburgh
via Aviemore, Kincraig, Kingussie, Newtonmore, Blair Atholl, Pitlochry, Perth, Kinross, Dunfermline, Ferrytoll.

NX 336 is way longer: (from memory)

336 Edinburgh
via Totnes, Exeter, Taunton, Bristol, Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent (Hanley), Manchester Airport, Manchester, Salford, Preston, Lancaster, Kendal, Carlisle, Hamilton, Glasgow, Edinburgh.

(And when I went on it we took an unadvertised detour via Shotts to drop one of the drivers off near his house.)

Probably not the longest one out there.

 

[MCR247]

I recall NCT had theirs spend about 5 seconds out of 15 displaying "Bus Operator of the Year" on the front destination board for ages.

Thats only on the back ones, which alternate between
27 Carlton
27 We won bus operator of the year blah blah blah*

The front screens only ever say
27 Carlton
27 via Carlton Hill & Tesco
27 Go2 Lilac

*now I think they use some silly things like "if its blue, you know when its due," "don't drive, take the sky blue 45," "77, the route to heaven" (which it really isn't )

 

[bb21]

Thats only on the back ones, which alternate between
27 Carlton
27 We won bus operator of the year blah blah blah*

Is that only a recent thing?

I certainly remember after they won Bus Operator of the Year in 2004/5(?) they had it on the front display for a good while. I have a picture of the Scanias on the 35 somewhere if I can find it.

 

[WillPS]

Is that only a recent thing?

I certainly remember after they won Bus Operator of the Year in 2004/5(?) they had it on the front display for a good while. I have a picture of the Scanias on the 35 somewhere if I can find it.

Yeah that's when I was referring to. It was on *every* digital destination board equipped bus IIRC.

 

[bb21]

I guess that given their main competitor in the city was in the top two for five consecutive years just before that, it made sense that they tried to make good use of their time in the limelight.

 

[MCR247]

Is that only a recent thing?

I certainly remember after they won Bus Operator of the Year in 2004/5(?) they had it on the front display for a good while. I have a picture of the Scanias on the 35 somewhere if I can find it.

Oh right, I don't remember when they won then, but what I described is what they've done since they won 2012

 

[Goldfish62]

Thanks, I suppose one problem with digital displays is that when they go wrong you get nothing, or you can end up with random lines or patterns across the display.

London blinds are electronically operated these days (well, all new buses of the past few years, anyway), using the same style control pad in the cab as for LED blinds, thus can and do go wrong. They do, though, seem generally reliable.