THE LONDON & HOME COUNTIES BUS IMAGE GALLERY
Red Rover Nottingham AEC Renown 3B3RA Weymann Orion
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128 |
  
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 Newly delivered and painted 128 (DAU352C), ex Nottingham 352 with earlier arrival, 123 (DAU369C), alongside.
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 MAN's demonstration driver was a former employee of Red Rover - Keith Coaches so arranged to garage the MAN bendibus intended for use on the Hillingdon Show courtesy shuttle to Uxbridge LT Station overnight for the weekend in the Red Rover yard where it is seen nose in alongside 128. The bendibus went on to serve South Yorkshire PTE as 2001 (DAK301V), but for the weekend it was running on German plates!
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 A unique occasion at the height of the summer back in the late seventies is seen here. Saturday stage carriage operations required just six buses, normally four of the five AEC Renowns were used and most likely Derwents 105 (UKX150J) and 106 (UKX151J). However on this particular busy Saturday 106 was despatched on one of the South Coast Express services and the fifth Renown put to work. That was fine until around 6.00pm. The Bicester service went under a low bridge and the the 4.30pm and 6.00pm departures from Aylesbury overlapped. So on this occasion the Renown left Aylesbury with blinds set for route 16 to Bicester. It rendez-voused with 105 at Linnett Drive in Westcott, with the Renown returning to Aylesbury and 105 assuming the 6.00pm Bicester service. Passengers can be seen transferring between the buses. Using the Derwents on South Coast Expresses was not a regular occurence and the Coaching Manager, Brian Kirton, recalls an occasion when he put passengers suitcases into the boot of one of the buses only to see them bob on the water that filled the boot from a recent downpour!
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Here is the offending lowbridge located between Marsh Gibbon and Launton, so with the above incident in mind it was decided to test one of the Renowns under it. The bridge is plated at 13ft 6in and the bus was up to 12 inches taller, but plates on railway bridges have a 3 inch margin, so if it was actually 13ft 11in it would be plated at 13ft 6in, equally it would if it was 13ft 9in. Julian Peddle and Martin Isles took the bus, like the Westcott picture above it may not have been 128, and found it did fit under, but on the Bicester side the road started to rise and the emerging bus would have hit the bridge as the front wheels rose. Sadly 128 did not stay long in the fleet,being sold to Maybury's for use on Round London Sightseeing Tours, albeit with its roof still in place. They repainted it in a faux London red livery with a white waist band.
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