Minibus on Service 144

[Red Midland]

I had the 'privilege' of operating the 2200 ex-Birmingham journey of Service 144 on Friday evening; the last journey of the day to traverse the entire route.

My initial allocated vehicle was Enviro300 67649. Whilst this had been a pleasant drive on my previous venture to Birmingham on the 1715 journey on Wednesday afternoon, she certainly wasn't in the mood for an evening drive on Friday night and began blowing out some steam - quite literally.

Shortly after being alerted to a 'low coolant' warning whilst passing through Fernhill Heath, the engine management system decided to take action and withdraw any response from the engine, reducing the bus to a gradual coast before rolling to a stop in the lay-by just shy of the Copcut Elm pub. The coolant pipe had split, enveloping most of the rear of the bus in a cloud of steam and vapour.

I requested, out of sheer desperation to reduce the delay to the service, for a bus of any type. The engineering department responded by providing 'Fuchsia'-liveried Optare Solo 53044 as a replacement!

That became only the third journey of Service 144 I've operated in a minibus and is pictured on the fuel bay at Padmore Street after her return from Birmingham.

IMG_9581.jpg

[AdamH]

When I was a lad, which was quite a while ago now, all evening journeys (Monday-Thursday) on Service 144 were operated with a minibus. Back in those days that would have been a C-reg 20-seat Mercedes-Benz L608D, which made for a very long journey.

[asb]

Indeed, the first trip on a Sunday was as well (at least in winter) so many a time I travelled to Birmingham on a 608

When the depots I worked at had either Metroriders or 709s , I used to enjoy using them on services that never normally saw a minibus. You did have to work harder to convince passengers that you were actually the bus they wanted though!

[MattW]

When I was a lad, which was quite a while ago now, all evening journeys (Monday-Thursday) on Service 144 were operated with a minibus. Back in those days that would have been a C-reg 20-seat Mercedes-Benz L608D, which made for a very long journey.

Good for building muscle I bet

[AdamH]

Good for building muscle I bet

Oh yes. No power steering on those and a nice heavy clutch as you needed to change gear yourself. Not so bad on a 144 as it is mostly a straight line, but if you had 3 hours on local Malverns you knew about it.