More on the ex-Strathtay Myllenium Tigers
Aug. 10th, 2008 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
suzyscottdotcomA few updates and clarifications to this post from Strathtay's Commercial Director at the time, Sholto T, who states;
Suzy
The main reason we had to go for rebodies was the 2000 DDA Act. This was delayed, but manufacturers were reluctant to start a project which might not be able to be certified come the day. They were also to have been B10Ms using ex-Western B-CGA chassis (automatics) fitted with Paramount 3500 bodies and just then being withdrawn by Stagecoach. However Frank Carter vetoed this as there were various Tigers available in the Group.
With the Super DP43F Darts 314-317, we had gone as far as we could with that concept.
Step heights didn't need to be compliant on rebodies - we just wanted shallow steps, Dutch style. All my time of driving I have never heard the infirm complaining of the number of steps on a bus, just the height of each step. A trip on Tayway soon after delivery confirmed this.
The body of 426 was still in reasonable condition in 2000 which is why it wasn't used. However when it was withdrawn a couple of years later, its ZF auto gearbox was transplanted into one of the rebodies.
All the chassis were prepared (old bodies cut off and a subframe constructed for the body to be mounted on) at Barnsley. There fore we only "got back" 431 (ex 409) which I deliberately gave back to Forfar, and 425. If I recall, 427 was the prototype and once it was pretty-well fully built and we were happy, the other five followed as a batch. The floor was only built directly on the chassis at the front, it was raised at the rear to clear the luggage boot and the rear wheel arches.
There was at least one other Hyline - a B10M/DP70F for Jones of Login which is pictured in the current Welsh Bus handbook. It has bonded glazing. The TC/TE Tigers ex-Stagecoach were bought for school contracts (the two TCs at Forfar were upseated to 60) as the TCs came with seatbelts, while the TEs with 53 seats, glider doors and a large standing capacity, but no belts, replaced a couple of those awful life-expired ex-Fife DP Olympians on service work, that we then used on that burnt school* contract in Dundee.
Hope this fills in some detail.
* - To add to this, Morgan Academy was fire damaged, so pupils were bussed to the former Rockwell site at Lawton Road. Strathtay had a contract to use up to four double deck buses to take pupils between Mains Loan and Lawton Road.
Suzy
The main reason we had to go for rebodies was the 2000 DDA Act. This was delayed, but manufacturers were reluctant to start a project which might not be able to be certified come the day. They were also to have been B10Ms using ex-Western B-CGA chassis (automatics) fitted with Paramount 3500 bodies and just then being withdrawn by Stagecoach. However Frank Carter vetoed this as there were various Tigers available in the Group.
With the Super DP43F Darts 314-317, we had gone as far as we could with that concept.
Step heights didn't need to be compliant on rebodies - we just wanted shallow steps, Dutch style. All my time of driving I have never heard the infirm complaining of the number of steps on a bus, just the height of each step. A trip on Tayway soon after delivery confirmed this.
The body of 426 was still in reasonable condition in 2000 which is why it wasn't used. However when it was withdrawn a couple of years later, its ZF auto gearbox was transplanted into one of the rebodies.
All the chassis were prepared (old bodies cut off and a subframe constructed for the body to be mounted on) at Barnsley. There fore we only "got back" 431 (ex 409) which I deliberately gave back to Forfar, and 425. If I recall, 427 was the prototype and once it was pretty-well fully built and we were happy, the other five followed as a batch. The floor was only built directly on the chassis at the front, it was raised at the rear to clear the luggage boot and the rear wheel arches.
There was at least one other Hyline - a B10M/DP70F for Jones of Login which is pictured in the current Welsh Bus handbook. It has bonded glazing. The TC/TE Tigers ex-Stagecoach were bought for school contracts (the two TCs at Forfar were upseated to 60) as the TCs came with seatbelts, while the TEs with 53 seats, glider doors and a large standing capacity, but no belts, replaced a couple of those awful life-expired ex-Fife DP Olympians on service work, that we then used on that burnt school* contract in Dundee.
Hope this fills in some detail.
* - To add to this, Morgan Academy was fire damaged, so pupils were bussed to the former Rockwell site at Lawton Road. Strathtay had a contract to use up to four double deck buses to take pupils between Mains Loan and Lawton Road.
