Sturdy or Shaky — or both — CFFC

This week’s Fun Foto Challenge requires a bit of thought. I think the Sturdy might be more prominent than the Shaky in my selection but lets see how things pan out.

Starting with a bit of both: Dynes’ Scania V8 R660 provides a sturdy recovery for a very shaky looking Tootbus that had a discussion with one of London’s Plane Trees earlier in the morning…

…Now you know how open top buses are made 🤣

Back in the mid-1980’s British Railways under pressure to reduce costs needed to come up with a cheaper solution to providing services on under-utilised routes while replacing the first generation diesel multiple units. Derby research centre had put a lot of effort into developing 4-wheel chassis for freight wagons that could run at 75mph. Lightbulb moment – put a bus body and bus engine on that wagon chassis = cheap solution! Called Pacer’s, here’s 141020 in passenger service at Doncaster…

…The ride was decidedly shaky and improvements to the suspension were made over time. They lasted in service until 1997. But they spawned classes 142 and 143 which would serve from the mid 1980’s until 2020/21. Despite the shortcomings, many services that might have been withdrawn were saved.

They don’t come much more sturdy than the British Railways ‘Peaks’ – Classes 44, 45 and 46. Weighing in at 139 tons these were equally at home on express passenger and heavy freight duties…

…Here’s 45009 in an amusing scene at St Pancras where the driver and stationmaster stare back at the secondman who’s running late getting to the engine😅 I believe this would have been a London-Nottingham service.

Here’s a shaky example…

…A somewhat rough ride at speed in RP90 on a special preserved bus run. The RP’s were bought by London Country Bus Services for the Green Line express services in 1972. They didn’t last long as a decision was taken to upgrade the routes to full coach specification. Two are preserved. This links to Sturdy because the RP’s were an AEC Reliance. These vehicles could be very long-lived. LCBS next batches of coaches would also be Reliance’s until Leyland ceased production of the type. East Kent loved their ones so much that they rebodied some of them mid-life and got over 30 years of service from them! Here’s an East Kent example…

…with Duple ‘Commander IV’ body photographed at Basingstoke in 1980.

Another sturdy example from the AEC stable – the Routemaster…

…Built between 1954 and 1968, the buses first entered revenue service in February 1956. They would remain in regular service until finally phased out in 2005. You can still find Routemasters on London’s streets but they’ve been re-engined to meet modern emissions standards and don’t sound like the AEC and Leyland equipped originals.