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Re: Made in England
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 10:26 pm
by nickjones
Ewan wrote:
I ran an Iveco 35:10 and a coachbuilt Transit - there's probably photos on Flickr if you do a search for North Harris Motor Services - and they are very different. The Iveco was bought when I needed a bus in a hurry and came off ebay for around 2k. 18 months and several k more in maintenance later I sold it on ebay for around 2k. The front suspension is the bug bear, it has torsion bars and the best/easiest way to change the bushes is to drop the whole front crossmember. That's when you find out that the bars themselves are knackered..... The front crossmembers can rot, and so can the chassis above the rear axle (that's why I sold mine, the next MOT would have been scrap time). On the other hand, it was the most fun to drive of any of my buses and I would have one again for that reason alone. The 49:10 is a bit smaller than the 59:12 and should still have decent headroom, if you get one a Webasto heater you won't even need the wood stove.
The coachbuilt Transit was a much bigger investment, far newer and the best bus I had by far. It wasn't ideal for the Isle of Harris as it was very light unladen and the wind used to catch it something rotten, one of my routes involved going over a high bridge across the sea and that was even scarier because the wind used to get under the bus and lift the back end up..... I think it did around 23 - 25mpg on very hilly routes which was pretty good, and everyone can fix a Transit. The only real problems some people had with them was with the top end of the engine, but I would have thought that any that would have blown up will have done so by now. Just one thing - do not, under any circumstances, no matter how good the deal looks, be tempted to buy an LDV.
Thanks for the tips Ewan, I also had an Iveco bus a few years back which I converted to a motorhome. I think a transit is probably the best way to go, I used to drive LDV's for the council so I know what they are like so there's absolutely no chance of me buying one of them lol.
Alex, My routemaster had a bar with beer cooler and draught beer on tap, CD Jukebox and sleeping room for about a dozen so pokey hotel room is no comparison, Mind you, every time I came to cleaning out the top deck I would find used luminous green glow in the dark condoms. I never did find out who kept leaving them there lol.
Re: Made in England
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 10:53 pm
by matchbox360
GHOSTHUNTER wrote:Here is Nick's new 'Bendy bus-boat'.
- Nick's new 'Bendy bus-boat'.gif (9.16 KiB) Viewed 2072 times
Ha ha, nice hybrid, Ghosty! I'd hate to be caught in the wake turbulence of that beast!!
Cheers,
Ken
Re: Made in England
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 11:19 pm
by motorman
GHOSTHUNTER wrote:Nick's new 'Bendy bus-boat'.gif
Here is Nick's new 'Bendy bus-boat'.
Where's the VBD decals ghosty??
Re: Made in England
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 11:24 pm
by motorman
[/quote]
Alex, My routemaster had a bar with beer cooler and draught beer on tap, CD Jukebox and sleeping room for about a dozen so pokey hotel room is no comparison, Mind you, every time I came to cleaning out the top deck I would find used luminous green glow in the dark condoms. I never did find out who kept leaving them there lol.[/quote]
Your really selling this alternative accomodation, how can i resist?
The green glow in the condoms sounds a bit supernatural.........maybe the Ghosthunter was responsible!!
Re: Made in England
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 11:34 pm
by GHOSTHUNTER
"Ghosty" works in mysterious ways......................................
The VBD decals..............................................................subject to copyright confirmation!
Ghosty.
Re: Made in England
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 12:18 am
by shockwavediecast
Re: Made in England
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 7:50 pm
by nickjones
Nice, But it's not quite what I'm looking for, Ghostie is nearer the mark but the boat I'm looking at don't have two hulls, it has three!.
Re: Made in England
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 8:25 pm
by GHOSTHUNTER
THREE HULLS......................................................................
That's a Trimaran isn't it. What you really need then, is a Short Sunderland 'Flying Boat', two Transit vans and a single decker bus!
Put that lot together and WOW!
Ghosty.
Re: Made in England
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 7:54 am
by ritchie
GHOSTHUNTER wrote:The attachment 'WORLD CLASS' Promotional material..JPG is no longer available
I don't know how many actual examples of these Caramel 'World Class' preproduction models were made, but the one used for photography on this promotional materiel for the range, seems to have white walled tyres, suggesting a slightly later version than the example in my pictures.
So Ritchie, keep looking for it, one day it may appear on the collectors market,
GHOSTHUNTER.
Hello Ghosty,
Thanks for the blessing. I was able to catch a caramel 'world class' preproduction (same black wall) earlier this year who joined the preproduction fellowship below.
- pDSC_1527s.jpg (42.15 KiB) Viewed 1979 times
The very first prototype was made of clear perspex (first row left). The use of the perspex enables transparent glazing as the model was used for promotional material photography. Resin prototypes were made using this first prototype. Other prepros from the crew include wheel trials, colour trials etc that you've covered. The yellow plastic prepro i remember it was done in Portugal instead of Spain. It was a company that made moulds for Matchbox 'Pre-school' series plastic toys. They asked them to make the mould for this Silver Cloud becuase the time was very tight that the model need to get into production before the film. I think they don't normally ask the Portugal company to do this. Mould testing samples were made of plastic because the Portugal company didn't have die-casting machinery. Finally there's the green prepro from Casper promotional set which unfortunately didn't make its way to release because of copyright issue.
Cheers,
R
Re: Made in England
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 2:31 pm
by GHOSTHUNTER
Very nice collection of Silver Cloud models you have there Ritchie and well done on getting the Caramel 'World Class' example.
From what I have seen so far from pictures you have posted here on the forum, you have a really good comprehensive collection of '3 inch' Rolls-Royce models and they warrant being placed in a book or magazine, something we will have to work on for you.
Thanks for showing them here Ritchie and keep on collecting.
Regards,
GHOSTHUNTER.