The End of Everything

Tell us about life with your BX, or indeed life in general!
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docchevron
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Post by docchevron »

MULLEY wrote:I dont think theres anything wrong in talking about these things either, & infact i think they can quite often do some good.
Absolutley. open and honest: good. Left festering: bad.

Mulley wrote:David, if you are reading, come back. I have no personal issue with you at all, & as everyone has said on here more than once, you have provided excellent help/advice to the forum members, may that continue for the future.
Quite so, although I think it's more that David is rather busy at the mo...

Mulley wrote: even less than handbags at dawn.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Clint Eastwood will never look the same to me again!

Mulley wrote:Of course i'll come & chat to you Doc, i think i normally look for you underneath cars :D .
:lol: :lol:
I'm rather hoping not to be under a car this year, although I probably will be...

Either that or I'll be leaning against one looking slightley the worse for wear!
Smokes lots, because enough's enough already!

Far too many BX's, a bus, an ambulance a few trucks, not enough time and never enough cash...
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docchevron
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Oh to be mobile..

Post by docchevron »

A little while ago my mobile picked up a "worm", which I'm told is a virus that phones get.
The drawback of bloody technology and phones that are now more powerful than the space shuttle.
Anyhow, the upshot was that the thing died.
Now, I'd had the phone a fair while, a few years in fact, but I liked it.
So, I ordered another one, exactley the same, but with working software and stuff.

After a few days of the phone not arriving I make a call to be told "you have to wait 21 days for delivery before we can process a replacement".
So I wait 21 days even though it's bloody obvious after the first week that it aint ever going to actually arrive.

Time elapses and I ring again, "no problem sir, we shall send another one at once".
Joy thinks me.
Then I get an E-mail to say they are refunding my account instead.
So I ring them up again, turns out in the 21 days it's taken for the phone not to arrive they have discontinued the bloody phone.
ARSE.

Just to really piss me off, there were two of these things on E-bay a couple of weeks ago, used, so I let them go, but now there are none. And I want another 3230.
Bastards.
The house brick I am currentley using is ok and all, but it doesn't do piccies, or video, doesn't have colour screen or any of the goodies I've come to admire in a device to call people with....
Smokes lots, because enough's enough already!

Far too many BX's, a bus, an ambulance a few trucks, not enough time and never enough cash...
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MULLEY
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My Cars: 1999 Xsara LX 2.0HDI (90) Hatch - Fern
2002 C5 2.0 HDI (110) Estate - Jasmine - SORN
2011 Mini Cooper D Clubman - SOLD
2016 Mercedes A180D Sport - Auto refinement
1992 TZD Turbo - Bluebell - SORN
1992 TZD Turbo Estate - SORN
1991 Gti 16V - Blaze - crash damaged, will get repaired - SORN
1990 Gti 8Valve SOLD - looks like it's been scrapped
2002 Mini Cooper S - SOLD - i miss this car
1992 TXD - Scrapped in March 2014
1988 CX 25 GTI Turbo2 - SORN
1996 - AX Memphis 1.5D - Dream - SORN
x 8

Post by MULLEY »

I'll check my phone cupboard to see if i've got a spare one of those. The number doesnt sound familiar, buy you never know.
2002 C5 2.0 HDI Estate - Jasmine - Now SORN
2011 Mini Cooper D Clubman - SOLD
2016 Mercedes A180D Sport - Auto refinement
1992 TZD Turbo - Bluebell - My daily
1991 Gti 16V - Blaze - crash damaged, will get repaired.
1990 Gti 8Valve SOLD - looks like it's been scrapped
2002 Mini Cooper S - SOLD - i miss this car
1992 TXD - Scrapped in March 2014
1988 CX 25 GTI Turbo2 - SORN
1996 - AX Memphis 1.5D - Dream - SORN

I'm not just a username, i'm also called Matthew.
M

Post by M »

Image
There be a couple on the Bay right now


Or could I recommend finding a 6300 - nice, does video, does camera etc etc.

I have a N95, keep bluetooth turned off and only surf bxc and ebay via my home WiFi point - so far it seems to have resisted being fooked up by malevolent forces
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docchevron
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Post by docchevron »

Thanks fella's.
Oddly enough when I looked on the bay of plenty t'other day I found none, but W2G found a link to some, one of which I am the current high bidder on, so hopefully I should be Nokia'd up again soon.
In the unlikely event some scrote outbids me (it'll be the last thing they ever do) then I was considering the 6300, or maybe the N7x series..

I shall also keep the bluetooth turned off from now on...

In other news, anyone want to give me £11K??

Before the end of month, repayable at say, £10 a week interest free??

No?
Oh well...
Smokes lots, because enough's enough already!

Far too many BX's, a bus, an ambulance a few trucks, not enough time and never enough cash...
M

Post by M »

docchevron1472 wrote: In other news, anyone want to give me £11K??

Before the end of month, repayable at say, £10 a week interest free??

No?
Oh well...
This may be your friend

They gave me £10k, no questions asked and apparently I have a bit of a moody credit rating. Think I'm paying back £70 a month till the end of time....
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MULLEY
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Location: Derbyshire
My Cars: 1999 Xsara LX 2.0HDI (90) Hatch - Fern
2002 C5 2.0 HDI (110) Estate - Jasmine - SORN
2011 Mini Cooper D Clubman - SOLD
2016 Mercedes A180D Sport - Auto refinement
1992 TZD Turbo - Bluebell - SORN
1992 TZD Turbo Estate - SORN
1991 Gti 16V - Blaze - crash damaged, will get repaired - SORN
1990 Gti 8Valve SOLD - looks like it's been scrapped
2002 Mini Cooper S - SOLD - i miss this car
1992 TXD - Scrapped in March 2014
1988 CX 25 GTI Turbo2 - SORN
1996 - AX Memphis 1.5D - Dream - SORN
x 8

Post by MULLEY »

Sorry Doc,

all my old phones are erm, old one's. Funnily enough, the batteries seem to last ages & never had any problems with them, less to go wrong perhaps (just like the bx??).
2002 C5 2.0 HDI Estate - Jasmine - Now SORN
2011 Mini Cooper D Clubman - SOLD
2016 Mercedes A180D Sport - Auto refinement
1992 TZD Turbo - Bluebell - My daily
1991 Gti 16V - Blaze - crash damaged, will get repaired.
1990 Gti 8Valve SOLD - looks like it's been scrapped
2002 Mini Cooper S - SOLD - i miss this car
1992 TXD - Scrapped in March 2014
1988 CX 25 GTI Turbo2 - SORN
1996 - AX Memphis 1.5D - Dream - SORN

I'm not just a username, i'm also called Matthew.
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Terry Brooks
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Post by Terry Brooks »

MULLEY wrote:Sorry Doc,

all my old phones are erm, old one's. Funnily enough, the batteries seem to last ages & never had any problems with them, less to go wrong perhaps (just like the bx??).
Same here .......I'm still using a Nokia 3200 .........its great,I can make phone calls on it .... :roll: .... and it sends text messages too..... :shock: :wink:
But the little badge on the front wot sez "Nokia" has fallen off ......... :cry:
So I s'pose I'm gonna have to buy another phone now ... :roll: ..... :cry:

Unless I can get hold of a battery for my old 3310 ......I bought a new case for it in 1999 ..........and it looked the dogs bloxos .......[it should do .....it cost me £2.99 . :roll: ........£2.99 for two bits of plastic wiv holes in them ....... still,all the holes were in the right places,so I must'nt grumble] ......... :wink:


T.
Dont let the 2CV fool you,I'm not a hippy,I like violence
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docchevron
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Up to yer nuts in....er....

Post by docchevron »

Isn't the weather just crap.
I mean utter total crap.
Global warming huh?
Remember all the reports a few years back saying England would be become a desert?
We'd all need air con in our homes and two minutes in the sun would result in cancer.
Well, where the hell did it all go?!

Even last year in the floods the barn never actually flooded, but this weekend it did. REALLY flooded.

An upshot of which was that on Sunday, whilst Smiffy was drowning outside changing the front struts on his BX the power went off in the building.

Myself, Matthew and Gary decided to check the feed cable back towards it's source thinking a junction box had got wet and blown (as has happened before).
So, out the back and off I go with test meter in hand.
Now I've walked the same path before, but this time I clearly did something wrong!
Whilst Matthew and Gary followed at a safe distance I bounded off ahead determined to get the power back on.
Then I stepped onto what I thought was just a shitty bit of ground, only to discover it was a trench filled with cow shit.
Having sunk to my knees in this stinking mess I immediatley discovered I couldn't actually move, and the more I tried the more I sank, upto my balls in it in fact.
Assuming my mates would leap to my rescue I was rather perturbed to discover they were both pissing themselves so much they were damn near crying.
Happily Matthew composed himself sufficientley to take a bloody photo which has since been E-mailed to the whole bloody world and will apparentley feature in the next edition of the company newspaper. Bastard!

Of all the things I'd like to have been up to my nuts in (oh Claire Danes, where for art thou?) several tonnes of stinking, rotting cow shit was not on the list.

After the red mist descended I removed myself from the pit of doom and proceeded to hose myself down and find some less "James Herriet" clothes.

Several showers later I feel almost human again.
*Note to self, next time walk the other way!*
Another fine reason why cows are bad.

As most of you should know by now, I'm fairly straight talking, wear my heart on my sleeve and call a spade a spade.
So I've been busy making myself really popular in work!
I happened across the local directors who were showing some directors from "Group" around the shiny new bullshit bus station.
After the Area manager pulled me aside infront of them all and suggested I should smarten myself up I retorted with "why should I? the company is being run into the ground, and I work for a bunch of C*%ts"
That went down really well!

It's all true of course, but they dont like to hear that sort of thing, it upsets the bean counters...

MY hatred of the place has become so well known even my line manager has noticed! Which is quite astonishing as the only thing he actually notices is the bloody cake trolley (the fat bastard).
Whilst stood out back having a smoke he wandered over and asked if I was happy in my job.
After a tirade of abuse lasting a full Embassy Number 1 and pointing out why it's all gone to hell he quite calmly said "well if you dont like it here you should leave"
"typical attitude from you then you useless bastard" I replied
"Well, things are getting better, if you cant see that then fuck off" says he!
The blind fuck.
He fails to realise the reason we have chronic staff shortages and all time dismally low morale is because of HIM!

Bring back the Badgers, First bus really is utter shite.
Last edited by docchevron on Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
Smokes lots, because enough's enough already!

Far too many BX's, a bus, an ambulance a few trucks, not enough time and never enough cash...
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Re: Up to yer nuts in....er....

Post by mat_fenwick »

docchevron1472 wrote:After the engineering director shafted me over the purchase of my favorite bus (that had been arranged some 4 years ago) I sent him a fairly blunt E-mail detailing what a total cock he is and told him (for the second time) he was responsible for Grahams death and should rot in hell.
I'm slightly confused (not for the first time...) Who is Graham? Is he the bus? Were you wanting to buy Graham?
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docchevron
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Post by docchevron »

Ah, no.
Graham was the night engineer at the Bus station.
See, when the bus station was a depot and workshop as well it was like a little family.
Those of us that always did late shifts, which was 10 drivers, 5 fuellers / shunters and Graham really were like a family.
After they demolished the station and moved the depot and workshops to Lawrence Hill (City Line) the family kinda died and it all went to hell.
But during the building works we had a temporary station inside the original station based in portacabins and the such.
At that point the buses were kept in the station, down the at the park and ride site, at Lawrence hill and sometimes at Hengrove depot, so it was chaos for a while.
The underling theme with engineering has always been that they are lazy bastards and wont fix anything until the bus is so fucked it wont actually move anymore.

One night back in November, 3 years ago I was sat in the canteen portacabin with Graham, I used to give him my Evening Post (the local paper) everyday after I'd read it. That night I hadn't finished reading it when he got a call to ask if he'd attend a broken down bus just round the corner.
So off he went. That was the last time I saw him alive.


20 minutes later my mate Gary (an inspector at Lawrence Hill) rang me and asked if we had a broken down bus round the corner as the police had been on the phone saying there was a guy trapped under it and no-one in our office knew what the hell was going on.
So I wandered round the corner and discovered a Dennis Dart bus buried in the front of Grahams Transit. Graham had been crushed to death under the bus, only his van had stopped the bus rolling down the hill.

There was a whole chain of events that night that led to his death, a chain of events that shouold NEVER have happened had any of the useless bastards that run the place followed proper practice, but thats never been the case within FirstBus.

The bus in question 255, had been repeatedley defected for a sticking park brake for months, there were 15 drivers there that night all of whom had defected it for the park brake in the past.
But it had been ignored, for months and months.
That night it had stuck on, Graham went to have a look, didn't know about the hand valve that stuck and was under the bus removing the air dryer (as thats the first thing you tend to look at with air issues on Darts). Whilst he was under it the valve in the park brake lever opened and the bus rolled back killing him.


The enginering manager went to Lawrence Hill and removed 41 old defect cards pertaining to 255 and destroyed them, all of which mentioned the park brake sticking on. I know this because he was seen doing it by a reliable source, and it all tallies up with the dates I drove it and the missing cards.
When Vosa turned up to take all the defect cards for that bus 41 days worth were missing, and the company lied and explained it away as days the vehicle had been off the road and a small percentage due to the driver not handing the cards in, all of which is bollocks.

The engineering manager involved has since left the company under a cloud.


EDIT: somewhat edited for now, the full thing will return, and the reasons for it's edit will be made knwon once I am in a position to do so.
Last edited by docchevron on Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
Smokes lots, because enough's enough already!

Far too many BX's, a bus, an ambulance a few trucks, not enough time and never enough cash...
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Post by mat_fenwick »

Thanks for the explanation Chris, a shitty story although unfortunately it doesn't surprise me.

Sorry for my flippant comments earlier. I did truly think that Graham was a name given to your favourite bus that had been scrapped rather than sold to you!
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M

Post by M »

Did anything ever come of those Preston Corporation Buzzes?
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docchevron
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Post by docchevron »

mat_fenwick wrote: Sorry for my flippant comments earlier. I did truly think that Graham was a name given to your favourite bus that had been scrapped rather than sold to you!
No apolagies required mate, I failed to appreciate that no-one on here would actually know who Graham was as I've not discussed him on here before.
Alas 132 (my fave bus) is just called 132, although since the company went to the Sema Voyager system it became 67132, although it will always be 132 to me.
At the moment it's still on the road, but it's days are numbered until July 27th..
If it doesn't work out then thats life, it's only a lump of mixed metals after all, but I've put 10 years of tinkering into that bus, and I want it.

What really pisses me off about the whole thing is that 132 is actually in exceptional condition structurally, unlike most of the other Lances we have, given that it's had 3 MAJOR front end collisions so it's spent 2 years off the road whilst it was rebuilt, and mechanically it's like new.
The only reason it's the first to go is that the MoT runs out on July 27th, and since 2 Lances have to go 132 and 1228 are the two selected. Even though I'm sure it'd piss through another class 6. Although it black smokes badly at the moment and cuts out / idles like a bag of shit. The engineers cannot work out why!
Despite me having told them it's because the tappets have closed up, as Cummins C series engines do, but they are too fucking stupid to work that out and even more clueless with feeler gauges.
I would do it myself, as I have before but since the advent of H&S blue sky thinking and the installation of CCTV if I was caught I'd be fucked right royally... and it aint a five minute job on a Lance.
As I said before, I really do work for a bunch of C^&TS.


Marty (or Big M!) alas no, although the Lynx with the odd front end caused a massive stir round these parts I can tell you!

It's all extremley hush hush at the moment so I cant say anything much (mainly cos it aint my place to do so and nothings set in stone yet) BUT, the dude thats risking rather alot to get this thing off the ground is looking to the future and decided that Lynxes (whilst they are fucking brilliant buses) are not what the company needs, since by definition they cant ever be DDA compliant, and everything after 2015 MUST be DDA compliant, so we're looking at Mk2 low floor Lances with Pathfinder bodies, or maybe if the budget stretches far enough Volvo B10BLE's with Renown bodies.
It's all still very much early days yet, and it may all still come to nought, but things are looking more and more likely, his acountant seems happy enough with the figures we have so far, my mates wife is very supportive and those of us involved are determined to make it work.
Guess what job I'll have if it happens!
I'll have a three lane fully equipped workshop all to myself! Bliss!
Last edited by docchevron on Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Smokes lots, because enough's enough already!

Far too many BX's, a bus, an ambulance a few trucks, not enough time and never enough cash...
M

Post by M »

docchevron1472 wrote:Marty (or Big M!) alas no, although the Lynx with the odd front end caused a massive stir round these parts I can tell you!
I fancied a bit of a change!
Apparently according to someone from the corporation it had been in a bit of a front ender and they had grafted the front end of a "retired" bus (Atlantean I think) onto it rather than spend any time getting it repaired properly.
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