4004 & 4022

[wilmotm (Matt Wilmot)]

Over the past couple of weeks George on the guestbook has recorded both these Spectra's as being at Carlyle both with Front End accident damage, any news anyone on these for me anyway two beloved Spectra's? I do hope they are repaired and brought back into service, especially with the 2013 21 new hybrid DD order... They are in better condition than a lot of Merc's out there and practically all of PE's Mercs. It would be a great shame if any Spectra was to go before a good many more Merc's and would love to see a direct swap with some. Surely in my mind for a passenger seeing a new livery, clean, tidy, LED blind, Double Decker not crammed full like a lot of Merc's with no awful black mouldy remains of branding stickers on that a lot of Merc's have along the top is a far better advertisement. Bring Spectra's to PE I say! Whose with me? Remembering that the Spectra's came joint first in a poll on here not long ago for everyone's favourite bus. Not bad for a 14 year old bus. Have that ADL with your Enviro's! West Midlands Bus Photo's members prefer Spectra's!

[winston]

I'd be more than happy to see the Spectras transfer to PE to replace further tired Mercs; I think the styling of the Spectra still looks far more modern than they actually are, especially since LED blinds were added. The only thing I would say, is that they need re-trimming / window etchings removed etc to improve the internal appearance for passengers.

Over the past couple of weeks George on the guestbook has recorded both these Spectra's as being at Carlyle both with Front End accident damage, any news anyone on these for me anyway two beloved Spectra's? I do hope they are repaired and brought back into service, especially with the 2013 21 new hybrid DD order... They are in better condition than a lot of Merc's out there and practically all of PE's Mercs. It would be a great shame if any Spectra was to go before a good many more Merc's and would love to see a direct swap with some. Surely in my mind for a passenger seeing a new livery, clean, tidy, LED blind, Double Decker not crammed full like a lot of Merc's with no awful black mouldy remains of branding stickers on that a lot of Merc's have along the top is a far better advertisement. Bring Spectra's to PE I say! Whose with me? Remembering that the Spectra's came joint first in a poll on here not long ago for everyone's favourite bus. Not bad for a 14 year old bus. Have that ADL with your Enviro's! West Midlands Bus Photo's members prefer Spectra's!

[Ash]

The mercs have been great buses for PE as they deal with the hills and steap gradients well especially when compared to the b6le's when these were the main two allocation for buses for PE but agree some of them sound really worn and if there going to be kept need a refurb but I think there good powerful vehicles, never really travelled on the spectra's i did once on the 79 and werent bad buses but in the summer last year i saw alot of ones broken down on the 79 im guessing due to overheating so would they cope well with the hills and steep gradients dudley has to offer?

[wilmotm (Matt Wilmot)]

I do take your point Ash and by no means look at the Spectra's with rose tinted glasses and admit to one or two cooling issues but there are plenty of PE routes that are not too bad for gradients, the 246 in particular that really doesn't have too many steep sections and is in desperate need of Double Deckers, and if there ever is a problem, PE depot is ROUGHLY halfway between Dudley and Stourbridge and never more than a couple of miles away.

[Ash]

I do take your point Ash and by no means look at the Spectra's with rose tinted glasses and admit to one or two cooling issues but there are plenty of PE routes that are not too bad for gradients, the 246 in particular that really doesn't have too many steep sections and is in desperate need of Double Deckers, and if there ever is a problem, PE depot is ROUGHLY halfway between Dudley and Stourbridge and never more than a couple of miles away.

I agree the 246 would be a good choice to use them on especially with the over crowding issues people are talking about