Arriva North West - Southport Depot

[K853 MTJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot

(19/02/2013 20:57)Scania1996 Wrote:  The SPD's were in Perfect condition. Better than any Marshall Dart.

I don't know which SPDs youve been riding then, I only ever went on 2 but they were rather rattly and seemed rather under powered, I wasn't a fan. There is some terrible Marshalls, but there are some good ones, and I wouldn't go as far to say that the SPDs were a better bus, better interior maybe seeing as they had been refurbished, but not a better bus.

[M113 YKC]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot

(19/02/2013 21:40)K853 MTJ Wrote:  

(19/02/2013 20:57)Scania1996 Wrote:  The SPD's were in Perfect condition. Better than any Marshall Dart.

I don't know which SPDs youve been riding then, I only ever went on 2 but they were rather rattly and seemed rather under powered, I wasn't a fan.

I agree! The ones (or one) that I had before they were (or it was) withdrawn was certainly far from perfect...!

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
I'm in agreement with Scania1996 here - the SPDs were great buses and well looked after. The four Marshalls from Bootle that replaced them are a considerable step backwards. You might get the occasional good Marshall but they're very few and far between indeed in my opinion.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
2292 was a nice one, had it on the 44 i think a week or 2 before getting withdrawn

[skemnational]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
The ex gas buses were withdrawn due to gear boxes failing they used to jerk forward changing gears with on more than one occasion injured passengers by falling, not sure what replacing other Volvo deckers but there no way they would take the ex London dafs back as they picked Olympians over them and I was told capacity was too low for our school tenders wouldn't put past them making 3 Wigan deckers school buses and replacing them with pulsars on wigans as there are never full quoter of deckers on 375/385 would love to see bendys used on wigans

[B10B6514]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
The ex-gas buses were always non-standard. Originally fitted with modified petrol engines (they had spark plugs to ignite the gas) married up to the Allison World series gearbox. Between 2003 and 2005 they were each retrofitted with standard Cummins 6BT engines but retained there original boxes as opposed to the standard Allison AT545 unit.

Gearing has never been a strong point of these pioneering vehicles. It will interesting to see how technology has progressed over the last 15 years when Runcorn's CNG powered MAN/Caetano fleet hits the road very soon. Alternative fuels are the way forward but initial costs need to come down drastically to be viable.
Remember, when new in 1999, 2291-2294 cost £145,000 each of which £70k was on the engine. They also took nearly 2 years in build as the gas engines were built specially in the USA as opposed to Darlington.
R.I.P 6248-6251

[MPTE1955]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
£145,000 in 1999, what a fee to pay back then, ouch.

[K101HUM]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot

(20/02/2013 12:55)skemnational Wrote:  The ex gas buses were withdrawn due to gear boxes failing they used to jerk forward changing gears with on more than one occasion injured passengers by falling

The SPD's were withdrawn in accordance to fleet upgrades in trends across the region where all S-registered Dart's were withdrawn. As MOT's expired and as faults became apparent in conjunction with the companies policy of not spending any more money on vehciles due for disposal (recall 2293 had a failure of water/fuel pump in its final stages?), they were parked up to await the inevitable. It would be quite a coincidence for all 4 buses of the same circa to succumb to gearbox failure within weeks of each other.

[B10B6514]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
IIRC 3 were funded by a grant from the EU to Sefton Council and other Government funding specifically for the Park and Ride routes then routes 21 and 22 which were renumbered E21 and E22 in a relaunch for these buses. MTL bought the fourth to evaluate in service.
Sefton Council also ran a few dual fuel Vauxhalls as part of its experiment - all refuelling at the specifically built gas plant at Canning Road garage. MTL also had a Vauxhall Combo on loan from Vauxhall for a time as well for engineering use.

[N271CKB]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
7656 on the 47 this afternoon