Preserved Bristol VR PFE542V driving through Lincoln 02/09/2017 

You're welcome, I just wish I had time to make more.

Well there's no kickdown as such on this VR, as the gears are manually controlled. And as for thrash, yes I do tend to rev the engine higher than most drivers, but there's nothing wrong with that when the gearbox is used properly.

@@scatmancraig1974 I'm not a driver but have had many years of riding on VRs etc. What the youth refer to incorrectly as kickdowns (on auto boxes) are, on semi boxes, "rev matching downshifts" with a burst of revs during the pause on downshift on a semi auto box which you have demonstrated perfectly in your vid. And of course this is entirely controlled by the driver's hand and foot and not by the bus! My dad's a lifelong (now retired) bus driver and always drove the same way so I guess that was how it was taught at the time. The generation of newer drivers in the early 2000s (or maybe even late 1990s too) seemed to have no idea how to do this (with due respect to those reading this who did! Sorry!) A number of those had no idea how to pause on upshifts either...

Morning Shaun, thank you for your kind comments. I spent many years riding on VR's in Lincoln when I was young, so I quickly got to learn the right and wrong way to drive a semi-auto years before I was officially taught at Roadcar. VR's in particular seemed to attract the most abuse, which is ironic considering they had arguably the weakest transmission setup of that generation of vehicles. All of Lincoln City Transport's VR's had fully automatic control, which protected the gearbox to a degree, but Roadcar always had semi-autos.

I don't consider that I've fully 'driven' a vehicle unless I've selected all of the gears!

Not many drivers set off in 1st in semi auto boxes.

Much less common to set off on 1st on a 5-speed semi-auto, as 1st is really only a crawler gear. I'm told that 2nd to 5th on a 5-speed have the same ratios as 1st to 4th on a 4-speed, the only difference on a 5-speed RE or VR is the addition of a crawler 1st.

Early VR'S had 4 speed boxes didn't they?

Yes, both series 1 and 2 VR's were usually 4-speed, but were all available with 5-speed as well. Series 3's were only 5-speed.

Michael Langley All VR's were built with electric over air gear selection (officially known as 'electropnuematic'). In other words, the gear selector is an electric switch controlling a solenoid block mounted near to the gearbox. There is one solenoid for each gear, and they control the air supply that selects the gears within the gearbox. The direct air selectors, normally fitted to Leyland Leopards and Atlanteans etc, are much simpler. The gear lever directly controls the air supply to the gearbox. The disadvantage of the direct air system is that there is usually a second or two delay between moving the gear lever and the gear actually changing.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9UujwHQ5eDk.html

Hand

I think so, but not 100% certain.

@@scatmancraig1974 I know that the ill fated NC Foden with the same engine as most VR's had a transfer box but mated to an Alison automatic. The axle whine in 3rd gear onwards in VR's is fantastic. Bristol must have used the same rear axle on RE's as well.

Short answer - yes.... Long answer - the SCG 'box (RV68?) used on the RE & VRT was a Bristol designed casing with SCG internals. It was innovative as it had input and output shafts at the same end of the unit, rather than having input one end & output on the opposite end, as on conventional gearbox. The gears used to return the drive to the input end of the unit are what gives the RE and VR their distinctive whine at speed. The mitre gearbox bolts on the output end of the unit & turns the axis of rotation through 90 degrees with bevel gears and then via a short prop shaft into the rear axle differential.

@@mickb6285 I thought it was the back axle that whined at speed. The Foden NC also had a transfer box which had a distinctive whine.

Michael Langley I've just bought a Tascam DR-04 audio recorder, which has adjustable levels etc. So, providing I can work out how to align separate audio to the video footage, I should be able to improve the audio quality no end.

Its how i used to record stuff until i accidently drowned my recorder. At the minute i use the my camcorders audio then eq,treble it until its cleaner or switch on Dolby to make it cleaner as well. Its fairly easy to align the audio to video footage. Use movie maker to mute the audio from the camera then align the audio recording to the video.

Michael Langley, I'm driving our museums ex Lincoln City Transport Leyland powered Bristol RE (UVL873M) tomorrow, so will hopefully get a chance to test out my Tascam audio recorder. Here's a video of that bus I made a couple of years ago... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R8V-4INhZxE.html

How will you mount it?

Not sure yet, but probably on a tripod mount, if I can get the tripod secure enough not to move.

Yes, a 6LXB.

much more dignified than the leyland, IMHO

No a Bristol VRT was a contemporary of the Atlantean and Bristol ended up being part of British Leyland so they became related

It is generally worse since that video as well, you literally spend all your focus weaving between craters on some roads around Lincoln at the moment, worst I ever saw it.

@@PhantomMark disgusting really the amount of taxes they extort from everyone yet don't maintain the roads,what would happen if everyone refused to tax their car,what could they actually do?

Semi-automatic, so two pedal control but gears still operated manually. Some VR's had the same gearbox but with fully automatic control, but most were semi-auto.