Recent content by Ex24Driver

Ah the memories, school trips to swimming lessons on elderly Bedford SB's and other vehicles from that maker, then when I switched Primary School Alder Valley with a selection of flat front Bristol VR's some of which had leaky wheel arch seams so in the wet one learned not to put one's legs by...

Having driven on that road recently and over 2 years of school contracting through Wellhouse Lane I can tell you that the signage on the center of the arch is clearly visible from both sides, the issue is why did the driver of the Double Decker not turn left onto Bedfield Lane as that is the...

I got bored this morning and pulled off the shelf C1112 and C1113, the PSV circle books on the Leyland National and can confirm the following National I total production run of 6,550 vehicles in left hand and right hand drive formats Sold abroad to 20 operators in Australia, 4 in The...

Let's put something into context here out of the 7000+ Leyland National I and II's built over 800 were exported with 450 to Venezuela alone, Australia took significant numbers with a small order to Jamaica too. The reason for the changes to the vehicles projected life span was the ending of the...

I think the early LCBS one's that went elsewhere was more to do with the fact that NBC companies by the early 1980's had realised that they had gone too far with MAP when Birmingham had forced them into cutting bck on routes, vehicles and personnel. Certainly when Alder Valley was split into...

It's a chicken and egg thing, the repowering was done because of the appalling reliability of the fixed head 510 engine that frequently would just let go at inopportune moments, one of the most notorious weaknesses was the angle drive used for the cooling fan which you could change and then have...

You only have to look at how People's Provincial went from being the Arse end of H&D through privatisation and the subsequent employee ownership scheme under James Freeman to a good payout when First Group snaffled them up. Truth is on responses if you want to see a real bus war in operation...

I think that the issue with with Transdev has become like that with Michael O'Leary and Ryanair, he has been a good manager with good ideas and that has bred some contempt for his critics in that "I've proved myself so what about you?" But when people stop listening to the critics then they lose...

Just been reading this over the last few days and User1234 seems a bit confused about the state of the modern bus industry, so let's look at it. Reading Bus's happen to have reversed the passenger loss in their area that be devilled both Thames Valley and Alder Valley, yes maybe you don't like...

I will honestly say it and I know some will disagree but the Leyland National as I loved traveling to school on them as a kid, but I hated driving them for a living. On a cold day you were absolutely frozen when the pod heating system failed and found out how skittery they were on an icy road...