New in February 1993, K507 RJX was one of two Ikarus 480 Citibus bodied DAF SB220s for small independent company Yorkshire Travel. The pair was painted in all-white with large 'Yorkshire Travel' fleet names and was given fleet number 7.
No.7 soon found further use with FirstBus with their Rider York operations where it carried fleet number 27 and was painted into the green/cream Rider York livery as the colours of course stem from the Yorkshire Rider livery even the red fleet names. Later, the bus transferred to First's Cherry Row depot in Leeds for further use there and did gain Leeds City Link fleet names. This bus was one of a few Ikarus Citibuses with First Leeds but none even got repainted to the local red/orange/yellow/white Leeds City Link livery even when First revised their fleet branding in the late 90s. The bus was often seen on the 18 linking Leeds city centre to Garforth which has seen many changes over the years as in 2001 the route went through a guided busway system along York Road and Selby Road. Today the route along with a few others is now numbered as the 19 using a fleet mainly consisting of Wright GB Kite Electroliners.
The bus didn't last that long with First in Leeds as the bus was soon to be sold again, this time not too far away as the bus was sold to K Line, a keen DAF customer operating a fleet of DAF SB220s bodied by Ikarus and Optare. The bus was repainted into the white and blue livery with red wheels but no longer carried an official fleet number. It is not known if this bus worked with Taylors as they used the same livery as K Line because during its time in the blue and white livery the bus never carried any official fleet names. During this time the bus worked the 21C linking Leeds City Centre to Middleton.
During its time with one of the independent operators, the bus was reregistered as PIL 9734 before being sold once again but when it was purchased, this bus gained a feat which is a complete rarity for any bus in West Yorkshire...
The bus was purchased by Arriva Yorkshire and is one of (if not the only) bus to see service with the two big giant operators of West Yorkshire (Arriva and First) discounting demonstrators. The bus was allocated to Dewsbury working mainly on the low profile services with the occasional stint on the 202/203 deputising the more higher standard buses which of this time would have been newer DAFs. The bus was repainted into the Arriva Cotswold Stone livery for its stay whilst starting to look rather tired.
Sadly, its time in Yorkshire came to an end as the bus was transferred to Wales to work with OR Jones Llanfaethlu and was repainted again in white just how it started life whilst complete with fleetnames at the front and adverts. Later, the bus gained black lower panels before eventually being retired from use and was presumably scrapped sometime around 2012.
The Ikarus 480 type was a very popular type from the Hungarian firm, it was a good seller in its home country as well as the UK built on the DAF SB220 running units. This type of body can be found in rigid and articulated form whilst powered by diesel and overhead wires in trolleybus form. The type replaced the very popular 280 series but in 2002 the 280 made a surprise comeback into the Hungarian bus market.
Again with the 480, a few variants were released as later examples of the step entry body would feature a peaked destination display whilst at a slightly longer length. Other types would often be built with a split windscreen aswell unlike seen in the drawing. A low floor variant of the Ikarus 480 would later be made with a new front end, deeper bonded glazed windows whilst keeping the original rear end. The low floors didn't prove as popular as the step entry ones.
In the UK the Ikarus 480 was replaced by a a totally brand new body in 2001 which is Ikarus' Polaris which again never saw the success the 480 has seen as mainly small operators bought that type which most ended up with Arriva after the operators ceased trading or were bought over.
Today there are a couple of survivors two of which now exist in their home country of Hungary, one of which is 564 KHT as this bus is one of a few Ikarus buses for UK operations as there is also an Ikarus Polaris new to Aztecbird, Guiseley whilst in her recent owners' livery Arriva. That bus was also said to be Ikarus' last ever bus to be built although I am not sure about that as I am sure Ikarus has carried on building buses until 2003 but they have since returned to the bus market since they last ceased trading.
Tags: Yorkshire
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Yorkshire Tiger
Wright Gemini 1
DAF DB250
LJ53 NHZ (833)
Seen here leaving Leeds Bradford Airport on a 747 to Harrogate vice a broken Omnicity.
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On a clear day....... I can shoot for miles and miles!! Shots taken today from the western outskirts of Sheffield and stacked/processed using Registax6/Photoshop.
Tags: Humber Bridge
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A very clear evening yesterday; this is a shot that I took around 6.30 pm from a view point on the west side of Sheffield. Lincoln Castle and Lincoln Cathedral (43 miles away!) can be seen on the distant horizon (on the left side of the frame). Ante-crepuscular rays are also visible on this shot; this is the first time I have managed to get a photograph of this phenomenon. The sun was actually behind me when I took the shot but these rays give the impression that the sun was above the clouds somewhere in the top right corner!
Tags: Ante-crepuscular rays Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Castle Mayfield
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As it says on the bus, RM 1000 was the 1000th AEC Routemaster to be delivered to London Transport, new in March 1962.
The bus first started life without its branding as that came later as the bus just carried advertisements.
But RM 1000 was later retired from use and soon carried branding to commemorate London Transport's milestone into buying their 1000th Routemaster as the bus is still active at various events each year including the 70th Anniversary of the Routemaster after the bus was purchased back in 1987 for preservation.
In May 2022, Corgi modelled this bus and is also the most recent Routemaster casting produced by the popular model manufacturer.
The reason for drawing the AEC Routemaster is because 1) its about time I drawn one with a 3D interior and 2) which was the final push is because the type celebrates its 70th anniversary this year.
If you hear the word London you might have an image of these very famous buses in your mind, they are regarded as an icon from London and are well loved by many with some still in the capital city working tours and other uses such as private hire, some might say this bus gets far too much attention like in the media but just to prove how much loved these buses are, back in the 2000s there was a protest to keep these buses on the road but with the rise in technology and low floor buses making more of an influence it was clear the Routemaster had its day after being replaced by low floor double deckers and articulated buses.
In 2012 Wrightbus launched their own modern day answer to the AEC Routemaster, named as the NB4L or New Routemaster but unlike the original Routemaster, Wright's New Routemaster brought along some controversy in its time, once being dubbed as the 'vanity project' by locals and now the rear platform is permanently closed off, the air-con being unreliable so hopper windows were installed, and now most if not all are in the process of being refurbished with one being converted to all-electric drive, something which is unlikely to happen on the rest of the fleet, plus exactly 1000 were produced but many more AEC Routemasters were made in many more configurations including standard length, the RML and also the RMX. Some had front entrances and those were called the RMA with the RMC coach primarily for London Transport's Green Line services. However AEC produced a one-off rear engined Routemaster which is named as the FRM.
The type replaced the AEC Regent III RT but unfortunately after the AEC Routemaster there was no proper replacements as AEC ceased trading before any new answer to the Routemaster came out. The only true replacements were Mercedes-Benz Citaro Gs which like Wrightbus' New Routemaster brought some controversy including some bursting into flames with some accidents including a few fatalities concerning cyclists which the latter is what led to their premature withdrawal from use and were seen in other areas in the UK and even as far away as Malta.
But with such a popular type, the AEC Routemaster is a popular type in preservation and is quite popular in model form aswell in many scales especially in OO (1:76 scale) but the largest has been produced by Sunstar and Revell in 1:24 scale even to this day and the largest was 1:12 produced by Hachette.
I myself have had some memories of this great type, I have taken a few photos of this type like in York and once at White Rose Centre in Leeds whilst one was being used for a one-off Mothers' Day pamper event in 2018. I once looked round one in York in 2015/16 which was the only time I snapped Routemasters in York but speaking of the historic city, perhaps the most unusual Routemaster EDS 300A has an open staircase after having a large chunk of its rear being removed for the sake of making the bus look more older than it already is, that bus belonged to Yorkshire Belles but the whereabouts of that bus is now unknown.
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