Apart from the routemasters, these were the best buses ever to run on London's transport network. Metroline even replaced S reg Olympians with these on one long distance night bus route as they were more reliable. Thank Ken Livingstone for killing these off.
Absolutely love this! Birmingham wasn't the only MCW haven, I grew uo in Reading, Berkshire wher MCW's were everywhere. My point is the sound is my childhood.
I drove Metrobus's in Birmingham in early 90s until around 2011 when most had been replaced by Dennis buses. The Metrobus was great, but crap in the snow unlike the earlier Fleetlines which were excellent in snow. Great days on buses then. Seems pretty dull nowadays for the modern bus rubbish. I loved driving the Lynx best, very quick bus for sure. Seems like them days didn't happen... But they certainly did happen.
I used to drive MAN SL202s in Sydney with same Voith gearbox as many London MCWs carried but they sound so different due to engine being transverse in these and longitudinal in the MAN. Very good ride capture.
3 survive if you count the Rolls Royce engined Prototype, which are 6832, 6835 & 7007. Rode this beast on the August Bank Holiday car park trip. Sounds as good as she looks for a bus turning 40 next year. A lot of painstaking work was done on this beast to bring her back to the road & well done to all involved
I was really excited to learn that they got 6835 running again a few months ago, and I am very grateful to all of them. Sorry for being pedantic, but 6835 would look absolutely perfect if it is possible to source or fabricate a original lower grille (which extends sideways right to the fog lights' edge) and earlier style headlight mounts (which are closer to the middle), just like SELNEC's 5001. Never had a chance to see 7007 yet, and I imagine it must be interest to hear how a Rolls Royce diesel sounds like.
What makes it look different is that the production Metrobus mk1's had a different light configuration with the indicator/side light & round fog lights, but the grill was the same. Only London ones had a different front grill
No, I am very sure that the original headlight position and lower front grille of early Mk1's are different from those with round fog lights, take 6833 for example: www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/14941621189/
6835 looks the same as the picture of 6833 to me. The production mk1's had square indicator/side lights as opposed to the strip style indicator on the 7 Prototypes which would make the lights look different on the production
Well, I knew production Mk1's have different indicators and fog lights, but that is not the point I tried to make. Let me try to elaborate a bit more. Headlight position: If you look closely at the headlights of M1, you can see they are asymmetric. The left one should align with the round fog light, which is more outboard. The right one is closer to the middle, and it aligns with the old rectangular fog light. This is the original headlight position of early Mk1's: www.flickr.com/photos/31973233@N08/31507379975/ Then look at 5001. Symmetric and well aligned: www.flickr.com/photos/31973233@N08/27549058615/ Lower front grille: A close-up of 5001's fog light. You can see those slats extending beyond the middle portion of the grille, and roughly follows the shape of the fog light: www.flickr.com/photos/31973233@N08/27272429280/ Almost all early Mk1's had that extending bit removed, including 6835: www.flickr.com/photos/31973233@N08/37438382960/
Loving the overdrive going from 1st to 2nd, I know when I rode these when in service I always willed them to overdrive in 1st sometimes they obliged but most of the time they did not
i remember see this vehicle or similar at MOTOR SHOW BIRMINGHAM, BEFORE IN SERVICE WITH W.M.P.T.E INTERESTING VEHICLE AS DAIMLER FLEETLINE- WAS STILL SERVICE AND BUILT
I would love to drive a metro again,miss them some how a Volvo VH/MV I drive is to easy a metro you had to respect her lovely drivers bus dare I say better than the RMs I also drove
