36180 Under Wraps

Thanks to regular contributor Jim Long we can bring the latest pictures of the progress on the repaint of Norwich Gemini 36180, it is currently undergoing its transformation at Simon Morris in Ipswich, Jim managed to capture some photos of her this morning.

36180 still masked up and drying in the sun!

 Thanks as always to Jim for the photos.       Grahame.

San Fran Transportation

At last some time to post a report on some of the observations during our few days in San Francisco - a great city suffering the same variations in the weather as Great Yarmouth! It can be quite cool in early June, especially when the fog rolls in

San Francisco is one of the few places in the world you can ride on cable cars. They are manually operated and are pulled along by cables embedded in the street.

A fully loaded Powell and Hyde cable car about to head off for Fisherman's Wharf

Named a national historic landmark in 1964, they have been refurbished and equipped with new tracks, cables, turnarounds and cable propulsion machinery. They operate as much as they did on August 2, 1873 when Andrew S. Hallidie guided the first car down the Clay Street grade.

Our return to the hotel on the F Line was this 1948 streetcar painted in honour of the Market Street Railway Company

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) runs three cable car lines. These historic vehicles are not self-powered; they move using a mechanism that grips cables that run beneath San Francisco's streets. The three cable lines are Powell-Hyde, Powell-Mason and California Street

SFMTA (MUNI) trolleybus ETI Skoda 5574 making its way to Stockton Caltrain Depot

SFMTA also runs a fleet of buses and historic streetcars including an example from Blackpool although I saw no evidence of it in service

City Sightseeing 1987 built MCW Metrobus open topper complete with its British registration E767JAR

City Sightseeing is the original Open-Top Double-Decker bus company in San Francisco. It provides  a wide variety of San Francisco Tours with the most comprehensive coverage in San Francisco with many hop on hop off stops

Big Bus Tours also offer an open top double decker hop-on/hop-off service, stopping at 20 major sites and attractions around the city, including crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. The company additionally provides panoramic night tours.

Yosemite Transport

Today's report comes from Yosemite National Park in California. First protected in 1864 the park is best known for its waterfalls and covers almost 1,200 square miles

The National Park Authority replaced its ageing fleet of diesel buses with a fleet of eighteen diesel-electric hybrid shuttle buses in April 2005

By switching to hybrids it is estimated that particulate matter emissions have been cut by 90 percent (along with a 60-percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions), while fuel-efficiency has increased from between 20 to 55 percent.

They were built by the Gillig Corporation and equipped with General Motors' Allisons hybrid propulsion system. The hybrid powertrain isn't the only innovation on the buses; they also have comfortable air suspension systems, panoramic light-sensitive windows and a GPS navigation system that lets passengers know exactly where they are. A regenerative braking system recaptures the energy normally wasted while braking or coasting on downhill stretches, and stores it in batteries for use by the electric motors at the next startup.

The Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System, also known as YARTS, is a public transport service based in Merced in the state and operates bus services which also access the national park

#TBT Wellington Road Bus Garage

We continue the Bristol LH6L theme from last week's Throw Back Thursday by showing a photo of two of them inside Wellington Road bus garage

The LH6Ls are WEX927S and WEX929S which were both delivered in 1978; the former arriving in January with the latter following in April that year Both remained in the ECOC fleet for ten years prior to their disposal to Trimdon Motor Service and subsequently Busways Travel of Newcastle

Next to the saloons is decker KPW473D - an ECW bodied Bristol FLF6G new in November 1966. FLF 473 enjoyed twenty years of service with ECOC before being sold privately to the Church Army of Thirsk

Peeking in the photo on the extreme right is a Bristol VR - DAH392K new in December 1971. This is believed to have left the fleet for scrapping sometime during 1992 or 1993

Las Vegas Buses

Before I loose the WiFi service for a while I have just a little time to prepare a post on buses operating in Las Vegas

Apparently 'the great cities of the world haven't got anything on Las Vegas, at least not when it comes to buses' says the official blurb! 'We have double-decker buses -- shiny gold ones and red ones with open tops. Plus, you'll see traditional buses, trolley buses, bendy buses and even environmentally friendly hybrid buses on our streets,

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada operates two partially overlapping routes that blanket these areas. The Deuce is a double-decker bus system reminiscent of the iconic red ones in London. But this is Vegas, so we bling'd up our double-decker buses in a glittering gold color. The Deuce runs 24 hours a day and stops at most of the resorts between Mandalay Bay and downtown.

Then there's the Strip and DowntownExpress (aka the SDX) . It's articulated vehicles are designed to look and feel like trains. The SDX uses bus-only and HOV lanes as well as bypasses much of the Strip hotels in order to provide a faster "express" service

Ipswich News

Thanks to regular contributor Jim Long we can report the safe arrival of  Norwich Gemini 36180 in Ipswich for her repaint at Simon Morris.

36180 BD11CDZ Rubbed down ready to enter the paintshop.

Moving on to Ipswich Buses and the first of their recent arrivals from Lothian Buses in Edinburgh has returned in its new livery and was captured by Jim today on one of its first duties on the X5 service in the town.

136 SN53AVM heads along Foxhall Road in Ipswich.

Many thanks to Jim for the Photos as always.     Grahame.

New National Holidays in town

An evening trip to Beach Coach Station was supposedly to photograph the first arrival back into Yarmouth of the new Megabus service which began today but with best laid plans it never materialised after a half hour wait, so i am guessing it was running late or had no passengers to drop off in town this evening. Anyway my time was not wasted as i was greeted by the sight of two brand new Mercedes Benz Tourismos in National Holidays livery.

NH15LDH

 

 

NH15GCH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three of Shearings vehicles were also noted in the shape of Setras BN09FXD,BN09FXJ and Grand Tourer liveried BK09RNJ.

Grahame