(11 Dec 2016, 5:06 pm)Jamie M wrote 13 is no good either. 09 is decent since washy fixed it, 12 is going strong but has a massive painful fault and 16 is good since the faults were repaired in october. 12, like 5337/8 has the steering wheel way out - but not only this - it veers to the right when the wheel brake is applied. 6009, and 16 are the only ones which fall under 'drivable'. Drivers say 6011 is mint, but dies on the hills, same with 32. This makes them completely unsuitable in dewentside. They do the job, but only just, and for seemingly a limited scope of time.
Stanley doesn't need any premium buses, it just needs some with gearboxes which are the right size for the terrain. Streetlites die on any embankment because of the size of the gears, constantly slipping into 3rd then back to 2nd, causing a huge jolt multiple times per hill.
Stanley should have been structured around its purpose - a budget depot. They should be sending more mercs and omnicites up there because they work perfectly - not sending the decade old buses around to routes which would be perfect for cheap gearboxes. Although this is now turning into a service suggestion/upgrades post, they should be upgrading the 1 or 50 and cascading them to Stanley, not sending old Stanley buses elsewhere. The omnicity redkite allocation was flawless - streetlites were a downgrade.
Looping back, if you wish to see decent presidents on B7 chassis; 6009,11 and 16 are the best. The rest are not a pleasure to be in (32 is questionable), nor suitable for dewentside trips. Catch one on a 16/a from Stanley to Consett and you will have a flawless ride. South moor and South stanley will be painful on one of those.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Arriva's don't. I live at least as high above sea level as Stanley etc, at the top of such a long steep bank. The arriva 22 has no problems with this bank with its allocated streetlites - if they jolt, it's at the start of shallow inclines at low speed to start with ie in Durham city, on Gilesgate bank, and that's only with certain drivers. They take the bus killing bank nearer to our village at a steady pace. Out of Stanley's GNE fleet, only the mercs, the better Omnicities and the solo SRs could manage this bank without going into a crawl or overheating.
Where I think they will fail is with longevity. One of the 7 vehicles was problematic from the start and another has been pretty iffy, lately. At the current age of the TTX deckers, I expect they'll be in similar condition (though, TBF, the route is no less forgiving, with miles and miles of windy NSL roads, and lots of the aforementioned inclines - it's hard on any gearbox)