158757
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Posts: 176
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Post by 158757 on Feb 14, 2012 0:23:52 GMT 1
IIRC around 2003 Huddersfield got a load of plain white single deckers on lease for about a year, with roller blinds, that then disappeared a year later. Can anyone remember what these were-and are there any pictures of them?
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Feb 14, 2012 18:32:29 GMT 1
Scania L94/Wright Solar 61214-61233
FirstGroup purchased them for long term rail replacement work surrounding the West Coast Mainline upgrade, prior to this starting First Huddersfield used them for about 5 months during the first half of 2003. I believe they are in Scotland thesedays.
At that point First Huddersfield was being regularly criticised due to the fleet having a lot of old Atlanteans and Metrobuses and not a great deal of low floor buses. They had been left behind the likes of Bradford & York who had lots of B10BLEs, ALX400s etc.
This was a stop gap/nice bit of positive PR. The miscelleaneous selection of Dart SLFs replaced them.
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Post by Burnside on Feb 14, 2012 21:07:10 GMT 1
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Post by driver6540 on Feb 14, 2012 22:10:27 GMT 1
Good topic, Brings back some memory's. IIRC they stayed plain white all the time they were in Huddersfield. Im glad they're still in service. Unfortunately, So are most of their replacement's. (The Dart SLF's, drafted in from other First area's). It would have good if these Solar's could have stayed at Hudds. But it wasn't to be.
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Post by clifton on Feb 14, 2012 22:31:34 GMT 1
Yes great topic, brought back memories for me too. Also spurred me on to upload some old photos onto my Flickr account. I'm off to do them now, they should be on shortly! www.flickr.com/photos/clifton009/ |
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Post by driver6540 on Feb 14, 2012 23:31:46 GMT 1
Yes great topic, brought back memories for me too. Also spurred me on to upload some old photos onto my Flickr account. I'm off to do them now, they should be on shortly! www.flickr.com/photos/clifton009/Excellent, Brings back lots of memories. Thank's for uploading those from Old Fieldhouse Lane depot. |
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Feb 14, 2012 23:54:42 GMT 1
The introduction of Metrobuses in Halifax & Huddersfield always seemed a strange one. They came in to replace Atlanteans & Fleetlines even though they were barely any newer. Some had very short lives in service and the longest only stuck around about 3 years
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Post by Father Dougal McGuire on Feb 15, 2012 13:27:26 GMT 1
The introduction of Metrobuses in Halifax & Huddersfield always seemed a strange one. They came in to replace Atlanteans & Fleetlines even though they were barely any newer. Some had very short lives in service and the longest only stuck around about 3 years There seemed quite a lot of the metrbuses and yes after about 3 years or so they were all gone. Think the Olympians did abit better because L306PWR had worked in Halifax all of its working life and was only withdrawn in 2009. |
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kendall17
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Post by kendall17 on Feb 15, 2012 14:02:59 GMT 1
The introduction of Metrobuses in Halifax & Huddersfield always seemed a strange one. They came in to replace Atlanteans & Fleetlines even though they were barely any newer. Some had very short lives in service and the longest only stuck around about 3 years There seemed quite a lot of the metrbuses and yes after about 3 years or so they were all gone. Think the Olympians did abit better because L306PWR had worked in Halifax all of its working life and was only withdrawn in 2009. Weren't the drafted in Metrobuses from the early 80s? |
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Post by Burnside on Feb 15, 2012 14:44:06 GMT 1
Was surprised by how well the Metro's looked in Kingfisher livery.
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Post by driver6540 on Feb 15, 2012 22:13:26 GMT 1
Was surprised by how well the Metro's looked in Kingfisher livery. Unfortunately, They flattered to deceive. They did indeed look very smart in Kingfisher colours, It seemed to suit them. But by the time Hudds got them from London, mechanically they were clapped out nails. They just were'nt suited to hilly route's. Of which Hudds has plenty. I knew a driver at Kingfisher very well at the time they were aquired and i remember him telling me at the time, that the only routes these lovely looking things were suitable for, were the "Short hop" Mecca bingo runs and the "Flat" Uni-Campus route. He always maintained the Atlanteans they were allegedly brought in to superscede had far more power. I remember catching one from Hudds Bus Stn to Linthwaite Church, The route in those days going via Morley Ln in Milnsbridge, Which is a very steep hill (As most Colne-Vallier's on this forum will know). It was almost embarassing to be a passenger on that service, as the MCW clearly struggled to cope with the aforementioned hill. It was obviously overheating as the, by now cursing & swearing driver stopped for 10 mins at the next stop to let it cool down, and i remember the smell of over hot oil that filled both the upper and lower saloon. Anyway, like i said in a previous post the Kingfisher Metrobuses do evoke memorie's for me. However much i like them as an enthusiast, Im glad we've now got "Modern" buses to tackle Hudds's hilly terrain. |
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Post by www.buseireann.ie on Feb 16, 2012 21:37:43 GMT 1
Those Metrobuses couldn't cope over Halifax way either and had the additional fault of not suiting the Calderline blue/white.yellow colours. On the 502s over Cullingworth way they took a good 10 minutes to climb the hill out of Cullingworth up to Halifax Road, a hill which could be done in 3 or so minutes with any other bus.
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Feb 16, 2012 22:03:28 GMT 1
Technically it was First Huddersfield by then and the livery they received was the First Huddersfield version, the one with the green chevrons rather than the Kingfisher/Rider Huddersfield version!
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Feb 16, 2012 22:10:27 GMT 1
Those Metrobuses couldn't cope over Halifax way either and had the additional fault of not suiting the Calderline blue/white.yellow colours. On the 502s over Cullingworth way they took a good 10 minutes to climb the hill out of Cullingworth up to Halifax Road, a hill which could be done in 3 or so minutes with any other bus. They was good on the 507 when HJC was in the process of knocking them off with there's. |
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Post by www.buseireann.ie on Feb 17, 2012 12:47:41 GMT 1
Those Metrobuses couldn't cope over Halifax way either and had the additional fault of not suiting the Calderline blue/white.yellow colours. On the 502s over Cullingworth way they took a good 10 minutes to climb the hill out of Cullingworth up to Halifax Road, a hill which could be done in 3 or so minutes with any other bus. They was good on the 507 when HJC was in the process of knocking them off with there's. You mean as good as HJCs, what a struggle it had to climb the half mile hill with an average gradient from Cullingworth to Halifax Road, the number of funerals that passed us by, I went grey and was given an elderley bus pass by the time it reached Halifax Road! |
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158757
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Post by 158757 on Feb 29, 2012 0:14:45 GMT 1
Thanks for the responses. I remember having one of the metrobuses on a 503 Halifax-Huddersfield, and at the time Elland bypass was single file due to one lane being closed. By the time we reached Ainley top from Elland there was a tailback as far as the eye could see!
Incidentally, I was thinking about this again tonight. Did Huddersfield at one point have a couple of what were ex Hong Kong darts, I seem to remember having one with dual purpose seats (ie headrests!) and tinted windows, or am I really going mad now?
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Post by Burnside on Feb 29, 2012 7:38:14 GMT 1
No, i think you're correct.
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Post by dwarfer1979 on Feb 29, 2012 9:21:20 GMT 1
Was surprised by how well the Metro's looked in Kingfisher livery. Unfortunately, They flattered to deceive. They did indeed look very smart in Kingfisher colours, It seemed to suit them. But by the time Hudds got them from London, mechanically they were clapped out nails. They just were'nt suited to hilly route's. Of which Hudds has plenty. I knew a driver at Kingfisher very well at the time they were aquired and i remember him telling me at the time, that the only routes these lovely looking things were suitable for, were the "Short hop" Mecca bingo runs and the "Flat" Uni-Campus route. He always maintained the Atlanteans they were allegedly brought in to superscede had far more power. I remember catching one from Hudds Bus Stn to Linthwaite Church, The route in those days going via Morley Ln in Milnsbridge, Which is a very steep hill (As most Colne-Vallier's on this forum will know). It was almost embarassing to be a passenger on that service, as the MCW clearly struggled to cope with the aforementioned hill. It was obviously overheating as the, by now cursing & swearing driver stopped for 10 mins at the next stop to let it cool down, and i remember the smell of over hot oil that filled both the upper and lower saloon. Anyway, like i said in a previous post the Kingfisher Metrobuses do evoke memorie's for me. However much i like them as an enthusiast, Im glad we've now got "Modern" buses to tackle Hudds's hilly terrain. They were never suitable for the 'flat' University route (only sort of flat until the last very steep climb up to the accomodation). Standing loads and that steep hill meant they were down to much less than walking pace by the top (I was always waiting for the day when one failed to make the hill but that never quite happened but it felt close on many occasions), the drivers best hope of a decent climb was to put his foot down on the short down hill section and hope he wasn't blocked, otherwise it was awful. I was at Uni at Huddersfield when the Metrobuses arrived and when an Atlantean strayed back on it was far superior, much more comfortable and they fair romped up that hill in comparison. |
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Post by driver6540 on Feb 29, 2012 20:31:56 GMT 1
Thanks for the responses. I remember having one of the metrobuses on a 503 Halifax-Huddersfield, and at the time Elland bypass was single file due to one lane being closed. By the time we reached Ainley top from Elland there was a tailback as far as the eye could see! Incidentally, I was thinking about this again tonight. Did Huddersfield at one point have a couple of what were ex Hong Kong darts, I seem to remember having one with dual purpose seats (ie headrests!) and tinted windows, or am I really going mad now? You are correct, First Huddersfield did have some ex-Hong Kong Dart's. (Cant quite remember, how many? 2 or 3 i think) I think they were S reg and despite being identical to the rest of the 40xxx batch, they had a large A/C pod on the roof. If memory serve's me right (That'd be a first!), they didn't stay long at Hudds, Quickly transferring to First Hampshire?, or somewhere else. |
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Post by driver6540 on Feb 29, 2012 20:41:38 GMT 1
You've got me thinking now!. Doe's anyone remember an S reg Plaxton MPD working for First Hudds at around the same time? IIRC there was just the one, and it seemed to be a regular on the 303 Hudds- Scapegoat Hill service. It didn't stay long and iv'e no idea where it went. Memorable only because it was the sole example of it's type in Huddersfield.
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Matty
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Post by Matty on Feb 29, 2012 21:25:46 GMT 1
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 29, 2012 21:31:26 GMT 1
First Hudds had about 5 Ex-hong kong darts,they operated for about 2 or 3 years (think they carried branding for service 372) & got replaced with Wright Eclipse`s.Also does anyone remember the Dennis Dart/NC Paladin What ran with huddersfield for around a year,it was a reguler on the 303/304 Huddersfield - Scapegoat hill & Holmfirth routes
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Matty
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Post by Matty on Feb 29, 2012 21:43:36 GMT 1
M615 SBA, it started life off in Manchester, then going to York then onto Huddersfield then scrapped.
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Post by driver6540 on Mar 10, 2012 23:05:23 GMT 1
Yes, definately ring's a bell. those are probably the one's alright. |
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