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What do you think are the ugliest buses ever built?

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TheGrandWazoo

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Eh! Go easy on the Dodge/Renault S56 - it may not have been a Merc but Eastern Scottish, later SMT, got very good service out of their ones. They were scheduled for replacement after three to four years but ended up running for between eight and ten years. They certainly gave LRT a bloody nose, too.

United Auto had both Mercs and Dodgeys and in a direct comparison, the Merc was better. More reliable, more popular with drivers, better fuel consumption. Some Mercs survived into Arriva days AND gained aquamarine whereas the newer Dodges were gone by 1997.
 
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scosutsut

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I think most deroofed decker > single conversions didn't look right...

 

Man of Kent

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It appears I stand corrected! :oops: I thought it was Duple handiwork when I referred to it in my post. Still ugly whichever factory made it.
You were partly right - the design originated with Duple before it shut down, it was Carlyle that took over the rights and put it into production. When Carlyle went bust, Marshall acquired the rights - I believe the basic structure of their C-series bodies on Darts (and Volvo B6s) was the Carlyle design.
 

SteveyBee131

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You were partly right - the design originated with Duple before it shut down, it was Carlyle that took over the rights and put it into production. When Carlyle went bust, Marshall acquired the rights - I believe the basic structure of their C-series bodies on Darts (and Volvo B6s) was the Carlyle design.
Thanks for the clarification :D
 

Roilshead

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Normally companies learn by their mistakes - this abomination alongside the one quoted earlier appear to be slightly different abominations of each other (not sure which came first, bot either way they clearly didn't learn!)
[/QUOTE]

The body-builder had learned. The Dennis Dominator is a chassis designed for double-deck applications, with a relatively short frame-length and rear overhang, at the end of which suspended transversely is the weight of the engine, plus gear-box . . . like the Daimler Fleetline. When Daimler introduced the single-deck version of the Fleetline in the late '60s it stretched the chassis frame and the rear overhang and body-builders designed bodies that incorporated the engine inside the passenger saloon with the rear bench seat perched on top. The consequences of the weight of the engine and gear-box flexing around at the end of the rear overhang caused tremendous strain on the rear half of the body leading to "body-sag" - a batch of Willowbrook bodied Fleetlines diverted from Maidstone & District the Northern group literally cracked-open. Birmingham received some Fleetline single deckers bodied by Marshall which retained the rear bustle, and Great Yarmouth received some Leyland Atlantean single deckers bodies similarly - retaining the rear bulkhead in front of the engine clearly improved structural stability as these vehicles were much more trouble-free in service. What we have is a couple of small municipal operators who both wanted a straightforward, tried-and-trusted, chassis for a single deck application; Dennis probably had space capacity, and was able to offer a good price to get the work; and Marshall - remembering the problems of two-decades previously - stuck the engine outside the body . . . not pretty, but structurally-sound at least.
 

Bletchleyite

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I think most deroofed decker > single conversions didn't look right...


Indeed, I think the low windows are the killer. TBH, they're probably best converted to open-tops rather than single deckers.
 

Crossover

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I think it was a fleet of Ikarus buses that had coach type (high backed amd cushioned) seating in it - they were very chunky on the outside but were also not all that nice to travel on either. I believe they have since "moved on" (yayy!) but I vaguely remember following one when I was in the car relatively recently (a couple or so years ago)
I think the arriva yorkshire buses with ikarus bodies were deltas in the number range 40xx but could be wrong.

PIL 973x I have found are the ones I was thinking of (that had coach type seats) - DAF chassis it seems

Middle bus here - https://flic.kr/p/23tJkUq, which I think was fleet number 17
 

lxfe_mxtterz

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Only just discovered that these existed yesterday!


Wright StreetVibes. They look horrendous in my opinion, as if the manufacturers were tasked with constructing a Wright StreetLite (which I think actually looks decent), but were lazy and couldn't be bothered with any curves, so shoddily built the entire vehicle with straight pieces instead.
 
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Jordan Adam

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Only just discovered that these existed yesterday!


Wright StreetVibes. They look horrendous in my opinion, as if the manufacturers were tasked with constructing a Wright Streetlite (which I think actually looks decent), but were lazy and couldn't be bothered with any curves, so shoddily built the entire vehicle with straight pieces instead.

It's actually just a narrow bodied version of the Streetlite originally built by Nu-Track as the "Nu-Vibe", but production later moved to Wrightbus and it's now sold as the StreetVibe.
 

upasalmon

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Romsey - In his Buses magazine Fleet News column the late G.W.Watts ALWAYS described Southamptons Park Royal bodied Leyland Titan PD2As as ugly!
 

Non Multi

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Whilst searching for Lex Tillotson vehicles, I arrived upon this boxy beauty:
FLH129T is a Leyland 650TR with Lex Tillotson body.
 
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MotCO

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Whilst searching for Lex Tillotson vehicles, I arrived upon this boxy beauty:

FLH129T is a Leyland 650TR with Lex Tillotson body.

How much were the designers paid for their designs? There were some designers, right.....?
 

Megafuss

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Any Dennis Dart variation, but a special mention to the Marshall bodied ones, which are truly horrific
 

py_megapixel

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I'd never call the Streetlite a looker, but that "livery" is also spectacularly grim!
I'd say it looks like the side panels have been taken from one vehicle, and panels around the roof and front screen from another!

Was there ever a single-decker bearing the newer Wright design style - the one on the StreetDecks?
 
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