New Routemaster Bus – Driven To Write

Reluctant To Fall – The National

Remembering the Leyland National.

The pall of smoke hung closely to the clattering, diesel din. The gruff acceleration, occasionally squeaking, yet hollow sounding brake alongside the hiss of the air compressor; these, more than any roaring car engines were the sound of my childhood as we rode the buses, and one in particular, the Leyland National, fifty this year.

By nature, Coachbuilt meant craftspeople hand building the bodywork onto a supplied chassis and taking anything up 1,000 man hours to complete. The National was “designed like an aircraft, built like a car” and took around 300 man hours, the idea being to Continue reading “Reluctant To Fall – The National”

The Quiet Revolution

Our Northern correspondent gets off his trolley.

Not wishing for one moment to hasten the demise of our favoured automobiles, we must take into account the future. With planners believing we’re all to live in mega cities with no need to own or run a car, we seek out alternatives, and as is so often the way, we look to the past to see the future.

In March 1972, the last of the UK’s once comprehensive trolley bus network was hooked down from the frog^[1] in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Leeds toyed with resurrecting the idea in the early 2000’s but came to nought. A sixty-year fling with this curious hybrid^[2] of omnibus and a railed, electrified tram was deemed non-standard, and the web of ‘must-be-followed’ grid was removed, never to Continue reading “The Quiet Revolution”

The New Routemaster Bus – Part 2 : ‘Old On Tight, Guv’nor!

In Part 1, we charted the genesis of the New Routemaster. Now, after intense anxiety counselling, DTW’s intrepid correspondent braves the world of public transport in order to see what it’s actually like.

image : focusfeatures.org.uk

image : tfl.gov.uk

image : focustransport.org.uk

image : boundary5.com

image : http://www.jamesojenkins.co.uk

image : standard.co.uk

My own view of the New Routemaster’s aesthetics is that they deserve full credit for avoiding any direct references to the original. The lines of the windows are not all mere graphics, they follow the stairs as they drop from the top deck, which would be more pleasing, rather like a piece of old-school modernist architecture, if they didn’t sit at odds with the curved roof, and the pinching as the line drops from the rear right hand corner is clumsy. Rival manufacturer Alexander Dennis was certainly impressed since their recent Enviro 400H copies the glazed staircase. At the front, the asymmetry of the original is hinted at by the diagonal windscreen line dropping right down to the bottom of the door. Little items such as the rear view mirrors seem a crude afterthought, but I like the fact that the exterior avoids some of the fussy detailing favoured by many in the bus and coach industry in the false belief that they make their vehicles look less ‘municipal’. Continue reading “The New Routemaster Bus – Part 2 : ‘Old On Tight, Guv’nor!”