Classic Bus Histories Episode 11: Metro Scania
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2024
- Hello and welcome to episode 11 of Classic Bus Histories. In this one I look at the Metro Scania single decker bus. Now I must admit, it's probably not the first thing that springs to mind when talking about classic buses BUT it did play quite an important roll in the bus industry.
This was quite a hard one to research so if I've missed anything or got anything not quite right, I apologise in advance.
I hope you enjoy this video. If you do, please like and share the video and consider subscribing to the channel so you get notifications when I release further videos in this series. Also don't forget to check out my other videos here on my channel.
In the early 1970's I was both a Youth Leader at a local youth club in Birmingham and Worked on the SVR and me and a friend organised a day out at the SVR for some local people hiring a bus from the WMPTE on a Sunday, expecting some ordinary single decker we were surprised when the only Metro Scannier the WMPTE had 4242 turned up for our party and it caused even more of a stir when we arrived at Bridgnorth Station to drop our party off for a trip on a Steam Train, I think that Sunday there were more people photographing 4242 than the steam trains it caused quite a stir being a new type of Bus and at the time new to the WMPTE
Remember these and the Scania double dockers in Leicester in the 70s, they were way ahead of the Damiler / Leyland fleet we had in Coventry in terms of speed, ride and all round passenger experience which was on a par with the Metro Bus.
@@grahamariss2111 Leicester loved them didn't they? One day I'll get to have a ride on one. Used to drive Metrobuses. Stunning vehicles.
Slugs' ,N.' Gas Cookers, my first acquaintance with Scanny,s 'Gas Cooker' is a few years ago at Brislington Bus Rally, seeing a very tidy Metro Scania with its lopsided windscreen and Austin Allegro headlamps. Reason I nickname them 'Gas Cookers' is the gear selector for the SLM automatic box looks like the knob off a Tricity Belling Gas Cooker of the sort that graced many an 1970,s kitchen oh so Abigail,s Party. With their typical Swedish wisdom Scanny took a Darwinian path, evolving from their double deck Metro Scania, the dreaded 'Slug' Scania,s Omni double decker, goes well on the flat, show it a steep hill and honestly you could hear the Slug whimper in pain. Stroud Depot of Stagecoach has several Slugs in the fleet in various states of Stroud pox, dressed in awful enviro bodywork, nearly all shagged out but one or two have a bit more get up and go, like an OAP after a splif of best weed. I think there was a lot of developmental meat left on the 'Gas Cookers.' bone, swap the DSC11 for the smaller 8,5 Litre DSC8, bolt on a 4-5 speed Self Changing Gears Wilson box and Scanny would have something more marketable to UK bus operators.
@@basiltaylor8910 The Neoplan coaches I drove on an 08 plate had the same sort of gear selector.
I`m going to throw something a little bit different into the mix here. At a now defunct church I was involved with they operated 4 Metro Scania double deckers these were both used as transport and evangelism campaign vehicles 2 of them had been fitted with kitchen at the rear of the lower deck and both of those were in use until the mid late 90`s
I would quite like a tardis to go back to my childhood travelling on the S2 again , I remember the trials of these buses alongside the Nationals & Swifts.
You mentioned corrosion, I think it was a body rather than a chasis issue?
The MS that took a bath in Clapton Pond I understand was down to the different layout of the gearbox which led to driver error?
Now you need to do a film on the Metro-Scania double declers😊
@@Maschine103 yes indeed. I believe it was the MCW bit that corroded, although Scania aren't above rust too... but that's a story for another day!
And the Metropolitan is the next in this series.
@@jakeyb2003 But shurley in Sweden the equivalent vehicles wouldnt have rusted so quickly ? Scania sponsered at least one of our HCVS Wheels Of Yesterday rallies in Battersea Park after Leyland dropped out (or was it a London - Brighton run ?- that started from Battersea Park and I cannot recall if we had two sponsers or one - I have the programms somewhere )
I loved the Metropolitan. WYPTE had them on the 603/604 route, Dewsbury to Bradford. Comfortable and fast.
I was a student in Leicester and used to take the Metro-Scania double deckers into town from my digs every day. The hydraulic transmission had only two speeds, making the gearchange very noticeable as the diesel had to climb back onto its torque curve after an upshift.
@@1258-Eckhart it's mad isn't it that they were so fast but only a 2 speed box.
@@jakeyb2003 Like the American Autos of the 1950's, the strain was taken by the torque converter! And why not? If it's there, use it.
@@jakeyb2003 one for acceleration, one for fuel economy (overdrive)
Hi Jake, nice video. If you want to see MS4 in Clapton Pond Hackney on the S2 route in what was it's first day go to flicker and steve 835 he has 3 lovely colour photos of said bus haveing a dip. The bus was back on the road about a month later. The bus had come to its last terminating stop and had emptied out passengers and the driver had his foot on the accelerator and centre doors open and that ment once the hand brake was released and he closed the doors shut and the 10mph max speed with doors open, suddenly the bus went to full speed and a surge from the fuel pump occurred and his wheels turned right heading to the stand behind the pond ment it shot across the upper clapton Rd and the bus headed in said pond !
I do remember the day, as i a 12 year old playing in the street in Hackney where I lived was a Driver (who worked at Dalston Garage) called Leslie who lived across the road and came home late afternoon and said one of our buses has gone in the pond to his daughter Sharon who was with us all.
I recall in my high school years buying Golden Rover tickets with my best mate & travelling from the South London suburbs to the North of London new towns tracking down unusual buses. The Metro Scanias on the Stevenage Superbus was one of our quests, never got to ride on one though.
Remember going to Leicester in the early 80s chasing half cab Leyland Titans....
Leicester Corporation as you mentioned had a fleet of these and the double deck equivalent ...aswell as some lovely ECW Bristol REs ....a fascinating and immaculately turned out fleet ...
Anyhow these impressed with their modern looks comfort and speed ....
Been a fan ever since ....rode on the preserved Leicester example a few years ago at the GCR ...still goes like the clappers 😂....
Hi i'm viatron from Sheffield again, but there was a good old british integral double deck bus from B.M.M.O. of Birmingham known as the D9 via being an integral design which is a half cab & been fitted with a B.M.M.O. KL 10 litre 6-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine & a Wilson 4-speed semi-automatic gearbox with central fugle clutch as standard. & during that time this new B.M.M.O. D9 half cab rear enclosed platform entrance fitted with air-operated platform doors & this was a revolutionary integral double deck bus from Midland Red throughout the 60s with the bodies built by Carlye upto 1968 when the last ones were finished off by willowbrook of the end of production via two prototype D10s were built to an underfloor design & the first one having a front doorway while the second one is dual entrance & exit at both front & rear of the bus in a very strange unusual way & I hope you make a feature on both the B.M.M.O. D9 & the D10 integral double deck buses of Midland Red of Birmingham in Classic Bus Histories series. Thank you for your co-operation on this very special B.M.M.O. integral double deck bus subject from David Viatron Esquire of crookes in Sheffield.
@@user-fn2ee1di3c I will certainly do the D9 at some point. Lovely looking buses David. Thanks for watching 👍🏼
Loved the WYPTE Metropolitans - fond memories of them out accelerating cars from traffic lights!
It's only this year that the last Scania buses have left the fleet here in Newport after 50 years I running Scania there is still one omnicity used as a driver trainer now over 50 electric utongs in the Newport fleet
Another cracking video👍 I remember coming home on leave from Germany in the '70s and being blown away by the looks of the Tyne and Wear PTE Metropolitans the first time I saw them!
@@WOLFIE-96B-UK thanks Wolfie. Very modern looking buses at the time.
Good stuff 👍👍👍
@@craigsibley8161 thanks Craig
I’ve never been on a MetroScania or a Metropolitan. Would like to have a go one day.
@@discogareth Me too!
@@jakeyb2003 LT metropolitans a bit for me, fast , and almost better than the metrobus . I must have gone on WMPTE ones when I worked in Birmingham - they were always full commuting in peak hours so I never paid much attention to what I was travelling on otherwise I would have never got to work.
Use to go to my grandad's on Leicester s metro scania outer circle route
@@jamespoyser106 I've never travelled on one so I'm envious!
Love this channel, one thing I was surprised at the time of Leyland introducing the National, why they also didn't adapt this in to a double decker version.
@@Dreamweaver787 Glad you're enjoying the channel. I believe they had done all the development on the National which had cost a lot of ££. Hence them sticking with the design they did.
I drove Scania L113s in Sydney dating from the 1990s and they were very powerful units and had highway diffs of about 3.8:1 yet had no trouble in traffic and were speed limited to 80km/h (50 Mph) with the engine hardly revving at all! I heard they were capable of cruising at 120 kph or about 70 mph without the limiters.
One time I was in the pit area of the depot and saw a turbocharger from one out of the engine bay and it said made in England. I believe it's a Garret unit they use. They are nearly all withdrawn now.
Absolutely loved this video.
@@jamesfrench7299 That's very interesting James. I must admit, most of the Scanias I've driven have shifted - as long as they had been set up correctly. One or two of the old N113s I drove had horrendous lag on the accelerator which wasn't great on a busy roundabout on the A28....
Glad you're liking the videos 👍🏼
@@jakeyb2003 don't worry, I was describing the ones that were set up well. I drove some shockers with the same problem you describe. That's why I often requested an older bus like a MAN SL202 or Mercedes O305.
@@jamesfrench7299 I also remember on the N113s we had at East Kent, the steering wheel was adjusted with a large nut. Unscrew it and the wheel slid up. On one journey on the A28 to Canterbury the nut somehow fell off and the steering wheel popped up and nearly popped off!
@@jakeyb2003 that sounds dicey! You don't hear of AECs doing that!
@@jamesfrench7299 Oh no. Or Bristols!
Loved the mini documentary on this type. I was surprised to see one day in 1975 Metro Scanias on route 53 through Woolwich. They took over from RM operation. I was intrigued. One day in 1980 they were all transferred to the new Plumstead garage, it wasn't the same world for me, as I loved RM's. A bus preservation group I used to visit, in 1980, had MS2 (PGC 202L) owned by a guy called Gordon Laming. I did several trips in it. He also had 832J, RT's and RF's there. Wondered how the Swedish bus got to London. France also has great buses. LT had a Renault too. Had mixed feeling on Scanias, I didn't travel on them well. Air bag suspension made me sick. Many of LT's went to Reading. I'll look out for more of your videos. Great stuff.
@@ROCKINGMAN Glad you liked the video. Many years ago - around 2003/4 - I used to run a bus company in Kent and Gordon Laming used to call me up when the trains broke and they needed rail replacement buses. Small world eh?
@@jakeyb2003 we are going to need a story of your bus running company ....
@@jakeyb2003 Gordon used to run a bus preservation group in Woolwich, later at Purland Rd. He seemed in his 40's then. He then moved to Coulsdon I heard. He told me he was ex ticket clerk for BR. Otherwise unsure what he did for an income. He and a gang of associates were always working on buses. A young man Nigel owned NEH 453 low height Potteries bus. RT 2799, 2629 was there, RF 381, 442 and 271. Later RMC 1469.He bought AEC Militant MR 1456. Drove 832J breakdown tender. Current issue of Buses & Coaches has pages on sister 739J. I think he converted RM 66 to single deck. Not seen him since 1983. Many memories and some photos.
Never had a ride on a metropolitan or metro scania.
@@russb2286 me neither. There was a Metropolitan at South East Bus Festival a few years ago but I was so busy chatting I missed my opportunity 🙁
Ikea of buses. Then again aren't they all. Always thought the Metro Scania was the precursor to the Metrobus.
Great video.
@@69Phuket glad you liked the video. The Metro Scania gave birth to the Metropolitan which gave birth to the Metrobus 😁
@@jakeyb2003 I got a photo of one of the Metropolitan demonstrators - think it was at Showbus, but the other was rather elusive - got a shot of the first B15/Titan Demonstrator in service around Parliament Square too. I think for the Metro-Scanias there was some reluctance about "British" (publically owned) bus companies buying "foreign" vehicles- and maybe there were memories of the Daimler Roadliner still floating about. Newport, being Welsh , I think could try to think a bit different and was Geoffrey Hilditch at Leicester - I dont think he liked Nationals.
Yes another great video I absolutely love these
@@thedaddie glad you're enjoying the series
І remember seen pte colours in 1970s ön. express routes
The problem Metro Scania had was they were riddled with tin rot. Otherwise they were excellent buses. The reason why the S2 ran them was because of a low railway bridge next to Bow garage. (The S2,as it was then,is now the 488)
oddly that bridge is rarely used by train services - though I was on one the other week into Fenchurch Street from Stratford
Shame about the body rot on the metropolitan tge netro suffered similar a few at S had to have the rear quarters rebuilt. One M1200 took 3 months to do ,my uncle trained the driver at Chiswick who took the MS for a dip at Clapton pond 😂
It’s ok Graham Madge trained me great guy
All the best
Mark 😊😊
@@marksinthehouse1968 Hi Mark. It is a shame about the rot as they were good looking buses.
Did your Uncle tell him to drive on dipped headlights? 😉
Loool😂😂,my uncle was bill love he’s in the getting to grips video showing John how to skid an RM,I’ve seen a photo of the MS in the pond looks so sad ,drove a nice DOE type scania at westbus on rail replacement work very nice to drive considering it was an 07 plate mind you westbus done a lovely job on it retrim and a red repaint ,all the best 😊
The MDs (the double deck version) were brilliant to work on - way ahead of their time but sadly riddled with body rot and very heavy on fuel.
Independent engine heads I bet. Volvo, MAN and Mercedes engines at the time were so equipped.
❤❤😊😊👍👍
@@a11csc 👍🏼 Glad you liked it
The Sir Richard Branson idea that smaller can hold more passengers.Shrink a Cross Country train down to 3 or 4 carriages (i exclude first class).All well and good maybe if you can double the frequency but all you need is one cancelled and then you have double the passengers.Of course such problems have nothing to do with Branson,"bloody Network Rail and Department of Transport i just run the trains!"
...what the hell are you blabbing on about? Branson hasn't owned or run any UK rail franchises in years and years...
Metrorusts