Old buses and heaters on in summer

[Draggletail]

6 hours ago, RollingJ said:

Not exactly a 'design fault' - more an efficient use of space.

On trains in Australia, you can change the seats from 'face to face' to 'face to back' in two seconds with one hand. On the downside, a train journey takes the same time as a car journey. No high speed trains.

[RollingJ]

Just now, Draggletail said:

On trains in Australia, you can change the seats from 'face to face' to 'face to back' in two seconds with one hand. On the downside, a train journey takes the same time as a car journey. No high speed trains.

Maybe, but the train seats are positioned on a flat floor, not, as on a bus, and with regards to the ones being discussed here, over wheel arches or the drive-train.

[Draggletail]

5 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Maybe, but the train seats are positioned on a flat floor, not, as on a bus, and with regards to the ones being discussed here, over wheel arches or the drive-train.

Yes, you're right. Got my wires crossed.

[pfifes]

3 hours ago, RollingJ said:

It is done that way to enable an extra 4 seats on the lower deck - these are positioned over the wheel arches, and would be unusable if they faced forwards - you would be having to literally climb onto them, and it would not be safe to have such a big drop. Similarly, the 'bench seat' at the extreme rear of the vehicle is positioned over the engine bay, which it is a bench, to cover the gay from the inside of the vehicle, whilst providing an extra five seats.

Ah OK, that makes sense.  But I have been on some buses that don’t do this though and they have squeezed some extra front facing seats in front of the bench at the back.  They are definitely not anyone tall though!  And I’ve seen seats facing each other at the back of the upper deck on double deckers.

 

[RollingJ]

9 hours ago, pfifes said:

Ah OK, that makes sense.  But I have been on some buses that don’t do this though and they have squeezed some extra front facing seats in front of the bench at the back.  They are definitely not anyone tall though!  And I’ve seen seats facing each other at the back of the upper deck on double deckers.

 

There are some 'buses' which have underfloor engines - but not that many -you may be thinking of those which were initially built as  touring coaches, as they do not get the kind of hammer a service vehicle does - they don't need as much regular servicing, so can be built a little differently. Be interesting to know where you have seen the ones with opposite seats on the upper deck.

[pfifes]

51 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

There are some 'buses' which have underfloor engines - but not that many -you may be thinking of those which were initially built as  touring coaches, as they do not get the kind of hammer a service vehicle does - they don't need as much regular servicing, so can be built a little differently. Be interesting to know where you have seen the ones with opposite seats on the upper deck.

They didn’t look like former touring coaches but I’m not a bus enthusiast so could be wrong.  The ones I’m thinking of are used by TM Travel and seemed oldish. 

 

The opposite seats on upper decks I’ve seen on First buses and looked like newer buses.

 

Both seen within the last year!

[RollingJ]

1 minute ago, pfifes said:

They didn’t look like former touring coaches but I’m not a bus enthusiast so could be wrong.  The ones I’m thinking of are used by TM Travel and seemed oldish. 

 

The opposite seats on upper decks I’ve seen on First buses and looked like newer buses.

 

Both seen within the last year!

Fair enough if you aren't a bus enthusiast - I am, although my interest goes a bit beyond 'enthusiast'. TMT did have some 'strange' vehicles, although the fleet has had a bit of a refresh recently, so the 'oddities' have mostly disappeared.

 

If you see the First buses with opposing seats on upper decks again, any chance you could note the fleet number, or registration? - must admit I've never seen them.

[Resident]

19 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Fair enough if you aren't a bus enthusiast - I am, although my interest goes a bit beyond 'enthusiast'. TMT did have some 'strange' vehicles, although the fleet has had a bit of a refresh recently, so the 'oddities' have mostly disappeared.

 

If you see the First buses with opposing seats on upper decks again, any chance you could note the fleet number, or registration? - must admit I've never seen them.

They're on the Doncaster fleet IIRC.

Doncaster also trialled tables upstairs, ones fitted with wireless charge pads but as per usual they were quickly vandalised. 

[RollingJ]

Cheers, @Resident - not something I would see as I don't travel round Doncaster and the fleetlist I use doesn't identify vehicles with non-standard seating arrangements, although I suppose if I paid more attention to the capacities it might be easier to spot them.

The vandalism doesn't surprise me, although I fail to see what the perpetrators get out of it.

[YorkieontheTyne]

2 hours ago, RollingJ said:

Fair enough if you aren't a bus enthusiast - I am, although my interest goes a bit beyond 'enthusiast'. TMT did have some 'strange' vehicles, although the fleet has had a bit of a refresh recently, so the 'oddities' have mostly disappeared.

 

If you see the First buses with opposing seats on upper decks again, any chance you could note the fleet number, or registration? - must admit I've never seen them.

Not in your area RollingJ but the Coastliner Leeds-Whitby/Scarborough have em, and also nice sunroofs, and Go Ahead North East have them up here in my patch.

Many years back some bright spark had the idea of having all plastic seats the full length of the upper deck to try and combat vandalism. They converted a Dominator, and I brought it out for its first trip on the 17:00 service 24 High St to Totley, a peak hour run that just did that one trip. There were head office staff going home, plus some big shots from the town hall who also lived that way. By the time I got back the phone lines had gone into meltdown with complaints about the upper deck seating. SYPTE didn’t continue with the experiment!