Your favourite-sounding bus?

[Strathclyder]

Basically what it says on the tin. Doesn't have to be your overall fave bus type per-se nor one you've ridden, it can be any bus whose soundtrack appeals to you the most on a visceral and/or evocative level.

In no particular order, a few of my personal faves linked below (thank the lord for YouTube lol) to kick things off...

MCW Metrobus (both Gardner & Cummins powered examples):

Volvo Ailsa (Mk1s in particular)

Volvo B10M Citybus

Leyland Olympian (Cummins-powered)

Other faves of mine include Leyland-powered Bristol REs, Detroit Diesel-powered Bombardier KDs, Perkins-powered Daimler Roadliners and DAF-powered Leyland Nationals.

I'll turn the thread over to the rest of you now.

 

[Albaman]

Daimler Fleetline with a Gardiner engine.

 

[Sankey Wire]

Warrington’s ex-Leicester Dominators.

 

[mic]

leyland Leapord and Leyland Tiger

 

[cnjb8]

Going a bit more modern, the Dennis Trident, Scania L94UB, Volvo Olympian and ADL Enviro200 MMC

 

[Pat1105]

Optare Versa - Cummins isbe
Optare Solo - Allison AT545

 

[LUYMun]

Alexander-Dennis Enviro 400 with a Trident chassis, which means having a Cummins engine.

 

[Journeyman]

London Metrobuses, they were so distinctive! Closely followed by the original engined Routemaster.

 

[Richard Scott]

Leyland National 2 with Leyland engine or anything with a TL11! If allowed more than one also like Cummins engined Olympians (or even Dominators for that matter) and Ailsa with Voith transmission. If can have another one then the B10M would also feature. Sorry, know it's more than one but so many decent sounding buses been built over the years!

 

[harz99]

Leyland National with any of 680/690/TL11 in the back end, and preferably a semi auto gearbox...

 

[Kremlin Stooge]

Got to be a Routemaster with a proper AEC engine for me.

Also noteworthy were London’s MD-class Metropolitans, anyone standing by a bus stop when one of those pulled away certainly knew about it!

An honourable third place goes to 680-powered Atlanteans.

 

[scosutsut]

Volvo B10M-55 with ZF auto box, on kickdown, oh the thrash.

 

[Goldfish62]

Bristol LH with Leyland 0401 engine
Leyland Olympian with Gardner 6LXB
E400 (Cummins)

 

[Bus9120UK]

Got to be the B7RLE (Euro 5, Eclipse 2, the one's found on Lothian vehicles)
and the B5TL

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Think this might be skewed towards childhood memories for most, if only because vehicles have become quieter over time.

For me:

Bristol LH with Leyland 0401 - the soundtrack of my childhood
Bristol VR with Gardner 6LXB and that high pitched transmission whine
MCW Metrobus with Cummins L10

Think the OP is right in that it's a visceral thing and usually associated with those instances of bounding along open roads; it certainly was for me and I still recall one journey on a Sunday afternoon just before de-reg with an LH between Durham and Bishop Auckland at full pelt.

 

[typefish]

I was going to separately mention some of the New Flyer buses, along with some of the ALX400/Enviro400s but the thing that is common between them is the Cummins powerplant that's in them - something that appears to be rather common already in this thread!

I'll need to dig it out, but some of the ex-Soviet buses I've seen out and about have a nice sound to them too.

 

[philthetube]

Leyland Tiger Cub, not sure why but you always got a blipping engine sound when they departed up hill.

They used to sound great departing Nelson bus station.

 

[Zamracene749]

Bristol RE. L10 Olympian. Ikarus 280. But especially the Bristol RE, the gearbox and engine sounds were just magnificent!

 

[507021]

DAF/VDL DB250 and Wright Commander.

 

[AM9]

An LT RT (not RTL or RTW) with it's AEC 9.6L engine and a 'sniffing' air operated preselector transmission. Interesting when they hit the governor speed limit at about 45mph.

 

[Strathclyder]

Bristol RE. L10 Olympian. Ikarus 280. But especially the Bristol RE, the gearbox and engine sounds were just magnificent!

Leyland-powered REs had a soundtrack all their own, despite the powerplants in question being used in other bus applications. Can always rely on them to set car alarms off and rattle windows!

 

[Andyh82]

Leyland Lynx

 

[TR673]

For me it would be pretty much anything that evokes the nostalgia of trips to 'town' (Nottingham) in the 2000s, with Scania N94UDs (which sound like they have big 'tractor' engines compared to other stuff), Optare Excels (some of which went "whoooof" as they set off like a massive hoover), Optare Solos with their singing gearboxes, Scania L94UBs that Trent ran and NCT's Euro 2 Tridents which I recall for having a low but distinct howl at idle.

All these are quite tame, however, compared to ARC 666T; the turbocharged Leyland Atlantean AN69, some NX Coventry B7TL/Gemini that (I guess) had a broken exhaust bypassing the silencer which made it sound like a muscle car and - what I consider to be the greatest bus I've ever heard - JMA 413L; a preserved North Western Road Car Bristol RELH.

 

[Contains Nuts]

Leyland Olympian with the Cummins L10 engine and ZF gearbox.

 

[M803UYA]

In no particular order:
Volvo Citybus (got to drive an open top Badgerline one last year in the course of 'employment')
Bristol RE/VR with Gardner 6LXB engine
Leyland Lynx/Olympian with Cummins L10 engine
Leyland Leopard/National 2 with a Leyland 680 engine
AEC Routemaster with the original AEC engine.

 

[RELL6L]

Er...... Bristol RE with Leyland engine!

Also: Bristol RE with Gardner engine
Metropolitan or Metro Scania
Leyland National 2 with 0680 or DAF engine
Leyland Lynx with Cummins engine
Leyland Olympian with Cummins engine also the coach ones with the TL11 engine
older Mercedes eg the 0405
VRT3 with Gardner 6LXB engine....

And more:
Leyland Atlantean
RT
Optare Delta with DAF engine
Dennis Dominator with Rolls Royce engine

Am I allowed to add class 127 DMU?!

Not some other choices though, eg Bristol LH, Volvo Ailsa...

 

[Stan Drews]

Scania Metropolitan
Headphones on... Volume up... Sit back and enjoy...
from Leicester

from London

 

[bobslack1982]

Yorkshire Traction had some Scania K92s with Plaxton Paramount bodywork that ran on NatEx Express Shuttle services from Sheffield to Leeds in the early 00s which sounded epic. Cant find any videos of them though.

 

[Richard Scott]

Just realised I forgot one in my earlier list, later Leyland (DAB) Lion with TL11 and ZF transmission. Awesome sound.

 

[Pit_buzzer]

London country RP class AEC Reliance, my all time favorite