The British Coach – A Journey Through Time

I bought myself a 10m x 45 seat Bedford VAM5 Plaxton Panorama. No power steering, a real muscle builder at slow speeds, and brakes very poor, dangerously so with a full load if going downhill. You had to allow lots of time going uphill keeping well over to allow cyclists to pass! My technique for downhill braking was to grip the steering wheel tightly with both hands, actually stand not site, standing one-legged on the brake pedal while pulling upwards on the wheel to get maximum possible pressure on the air over hydraulic brakes. I then bought a Panorama Elite Express lll on a Bedford YRT chassis, 53 seats and a mid-engine set up with full air, operating double doors, wipers, steering, and working brakes. Tried the Vam5 braking technique downhill and being empty it simply locked its rear wheels while trying to catapult me through the screen. Still slow and underpowered with the Bedford 446 engine but in every other way a pleasure to drive.

brilliant

the 'c' is silent in the french style.

Fascinating and informative but, given the choice, I'll stick to train travel thanks.

I remember push starting an old Bedford normal control bus of wartime vintage, in Kirkwall. This was obeying the request of the driver, saying that if the passengers did not push it, we were all going nowhere. Well it started, and on arriving at our destination, the engine appeared to blow up, for the final time I suspect. Imagine what people would say and do today about that. We even paid the driver the fare, for the short journey! What would happen today? Lawsuits, complaints and media articles??

I remember Hanson's in the north of England and Baddely's buses too.

I was glad to see that Sheffield United Tours was mentioned. As a child I remember a week in a Torquay hotel after a journey lunch break in Stratford-upon-Avon. The coach trip of an evening titled, "A tour of Devon Inns" was a delight to see grown men and women after having a couple of halves of rough cider finding themselves unable to climb aboard the smaller and lower coach and missing their familiar top step. Happy days for a kid laughing at the grown ups.

A most interesting and informative video. Many Thanks Terry

Hi there my real Name is Mr C. T. Boxill-Harris I was wondering, why couldn't you and your teammates can still do those Rebuilding and Repainting each of those nice fresh shiny Gardner 6LXC, Cummins L10, Volvo D10A, Gardner 6LX, Volvo TD102KF, Gardner LG1200, and Cummins M11, Very Very Loud 4 speed Leyland Hydra cyclic Automatic Transmission Alexander RV Buses Modernisation of the inside on Most of the Alexander RV Buses so that the Alexander Bus Builders will be have the interesting Opportunities in Rebuilding most of the Alexander RV Buses into a insurable modernisation of the Low Floor Alexander RV Buses Pretty Please, Repaint most of them to a Grey Green Pattern Colours just like the original Scania Grey Green's which were in the North London and East London bus routes such as 141, 179, 103, 210, 20, 275, 66, 125, 24, 168, 173, 313 and also the bus route 167, if you guys would like to Rebuild about 378 each of those Gardner 6LXC, Cummins L10, Gardner 6LX, Volvo TD102KF, Cummins M11, Volvo D10A and Gardner LG1200, Very Very Loud 4 speed Leyland Hydra cyclic Automatic Transmission Alexander RV Buses can you and your teammates put most of those Cummins M11 and those Gardner LG1200 Very Very Loud 4 speed Leyland Hydra cyclic Automatic Transmission Alexander RV Buses to those East London and North London and that especially is including the London Bus such as those London Bus Routes such as for example the W3, 396, N41, 221, 341, N29 and that also willing to be including each of the East London Bus Route Number 147 for all of us Grey Green bus lovers in North London and including East London For all of us passengers out there Please? Could you please Repaint most likely be able to Repaint most of them into the Exact grey-green bus Colour and put each of the North London and another each of the East London Bus Routes which are each of the W3, 341, N41, 34, N29, 56, N26, 221, 86, 147, 262, 396, and N73 for all of us Grey Green Bus lovers out there because we are Really Really desperately need Are those types of the pattern colour buses to be brought back again in London Please? Do it for all of us, customers and passengers in North London, and those living in areas such as East London, please. It will be Very Very Very Very Very Very Interesting Buses to see them being Repainted into the exact Grey Green Pattern Colours I am a Big Fan of those Cummins L10, Volvo D10A, Gardner 6LXC, Gardner 6LX, Volvo TD102KF, Gardner LG1200 and Cummins M11 Very Very Loud 4 speed Leyland Hydra cyclic Automatic Transmission Alexander RV Buses Please? Thank You Very much for your help, time, and support.

Thank you for the preparation in this detailed video. Twi comments:

1. Hated the coaches of old, used to puke up virtually every trip. Carrying a bag was a necessity.
2. Did a number of coach tours in Europe with Wallace Arnold. Travelling overground was so much better than flying to a destination. One gets to a mental grip with the county/countries, one is travelling through, not to mention sharing the experience with co travellers. Indeed, I back-packed for two months in Australia. Travelled everywhere by bus. The long journeys made an impact on the sheer scale of the country. A road sign saying Darwin 1000 km, with not much else between, says a lot.

In the early 1960's Duple Coach works used to be about 150 yds from where I lived in Blackpool, their premises were situated in Vicarage Lane. They had very poor parking facilities for its workers who would prk bumper to bumper i the local streets. I regularly saw drivers delivering engine chassis from Leyland. They would be seated on a wooden box construction and i. the winter ware big heavy coats, balaclavas and motorcycle goggles.

Very interesting video, although very Northern Centric. As a kid I remember Lewis Coaches in Greenwich, and then Eltham Coaches. It does appear that the 1930 traffic act was designed to assist the "Big" companies.
Funny just a hundred years ago, you did not need permission to build a vehicle. Then the Governments drafted "Acts" of Parliament, to increase the profits of their controllers.

I well remember catching the old Midland Red coaches in the late 1950s from Manchester and alighting at Fenny Stratford. That took from around 9am until around 4:30pm including a one hour stop in Birmingham bus station (dreadful coffee 🤢). There was also a big interchange coach depot at Newcastle-under-Lyme. No motorways then.

What a really great video!

Passenger trains? What are those?

BET did not pass into public ownership in 1947: get your facts right 👺

Good ole Lionel Tancock 😂

Shit useless irrelevent adverts, why are you so greedy!

My first overnight long distance bus was from Hartlepool to London in about 1970 when I was a child.I'm guessing that the vehicle was run by United which will have just become part of the National Bus Company then.

Aside from here in the U.K. where I’ve lived 24 years in Manchester, I’ve also got the overnight coach and ferry to Dublin at Holyhead where the coach simply drives onto the ferry and drives off the ferry at Dublin Port North Wall, directly into Dublin Busaras Coach station - it’s the convenience and also the flexibility of coaches as a concept, originally designed to connect outlying villages to railway stations that in turn served the big ships (cruise ships and ferries) but they are also able to make use of motorways and are still very relevant in the 21st century, given where in Rural Ireland my extended family still live, as there is simply no other form of transport

i remember all the lovely Southdown coaches and buses of the 60's.mostly Leylands with that great exhaust note !

When the operator ordered the body from the coachbuilder did this include the seats, or were these a separate item?

A wonderful presentation...greetings from the Philippines where we have many long distance coach services.

The first was built with the Musk family in mind.

Very interesting video, thank you. Only annoyance was repeatedly saying 'charabanK' - 'charabanG' would be preferable.

That's when coaches was made by humans not robots they also didn't catch fire as much as modern coaches