(07/07/2012 12:35)K101HUM Wrote: [ -> ]Some were stored withdrawn at a South Yorkshire garage if I recall surrounded by Mainline Dominators, minus various parts in a general delapidated state. Could very well have been Rotherham works.
Thanks for that, shame they ended up like that I always thought First might might have transferred them to Eastern National/Thamesway who had a lot of similar aged Lynx's back then. Very unique vehicles and could have easily become a single deck standard for Greater Manchester if deregulation/the cut throat competition hadn't happenend.
Does anyone know who actually bought the Dennis Dart SLF/Wright Crusaders? Also where did they start life? I've been under the impression for so long they've been at Oldham since the beginning.
(08/07/2012 13:31)P528LND Wrote: [ -> ]Does anyone know who actually bought the Dennis Dart SLF/Wright Crusaders? Also where did they start life? I've been under the impression for so long they've been at Oldham since the beginning.
They where bought by First Manchester in late 1996 early 1997 all have been allocated to Oldham depot since new although a few members have had odd spells away at Bolton, Wigan, Rochdale and Dukinfield.
They where the only ones of this combination bought by FirstGroup as shortly after the relationship between Wrightbus and Dennis broke down over the building of some Lance SLF's for Stagecoach East Kent (See Wrightbus book).
Similar buses where also bought by Dawson rentals and rented out to various operators, and others where bought by Oxford Bus Company (GoAhead) and CMT Buses in Liverpool, London United also had some. This though was the largest such batch in the Country.
The reason the Lynx's where repanelled was that the body parts where expensive son simple parts where put on from out of the spares bin eg F reg Olympian fronts where taken in from Wigan, standard panelling was fitted on the sides and the skirts removed also the B10B lights where fitted.
They where not the most reliable vehicles as they where unfortunate to be amongst the few with Gardner Engines, they really got restricted to Bolton locals as they where not too far away then from the depot to tow in and seeing them out of Bolton in Salford, Bury or Wigan/Atherton/Leigh was a rarity, they had a spell at Pennine when that was taken over along with batches of standard Lynx's ex-Pmt but some originally new to CentrewWest and Toppings.
Interestingly GM Buses had considered buying 10 with bodies built by Northern Counties as Volvo had declaired an intention at one stage to make it available for building by other bodybuilders but the closure of the Lillyhall Factory at Workington cancelled this out, they would have been MKII examples with the same body style as B10M J461OVU and would probably of ended up being K Plates and certainly the lasdt new buses, new to GM Buses had they gone ahead.
Two of the lynxes spent time at Chester and they were terrible things although the gardner engines in them were turbocharged and they went well. i read somewhere that a number of lynxes were moved to rotherham where they were to have been refurbished and repainted and held as a 'reserve' fleet to be deployed as required. in other words they would have probably been sent to whichever garage had had a load of buses taken off the road by VOSA that week. Never happened though.
Thanks for all the information guys, its why I posted this thread, to find out all about gm buses north and this is doing the job
(07/07/2012 11:54)Gillmoss 0324 Wrote: [ -> ]Does anyone know what happenend to the Lynx's at Bolton? I used one once in July/August 1997 and they were then transfered by First from Greater Manchester to another division but can't exactly remember which one. Thanks
3 of them went to First Pennine now Pioneer and think they where scarpped after that
does anyone remember the DAF engine natiaoal 202 ABA 27 T this engine was so powerful it could set car alarms of as read on a photo about it
my fav national was 160 KBU 895P it and 132 JNA 588N out lived the others by a long way
(23/06/2012 00:01)Damien Wrote: [ -> ]A THREAD TO DISCUSS THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF GM BUSES NORTH, FROM DEPOTS TO VEHICLES USED, ALLOCATIONS, OPERATING AREA, ROUTES.
Gm Buses North were
OM= OLDHAM DEPOT
QS= QUEENS ROAD DEPOT
BN= Bolton Depot
BY= Bury Depot
An= Atherton Depot
NB = North Bury Seprate operating unit
SA = South Atherton Seprate operating unit
add MS Mumps this is where the yellow bus 4373 ORJ 373 W was run from mainly on 343/355 and 387