Walsall Garage

[nitromatt1]

My favourite Geminis are the BJ03's, they sound best in my opinion.

Worst are the Walsall ones, slow and horrible

[Tony]

My favourite Geminis are the BJ03's, they sound best in my opinion.

Worst are the Walsall ones, slow and horrible

Slow & horrible? They are identical mechanically to all of AGs. The only difference is the seats and trim! They are certainly not slow, if you want them to they will beat Tridents and Enviros off from a standing start with the same load on

[Liverpool Street]

My favourite Geminis are the BJ03's, they sound best in my opinion.

Worst are the Walsall ones, slow and horrible

Slow & horrible? They are identical mechanically to all of AGs. The only difference is the seats and trim! They are certainly not slow, if you want them to they will beat Tridents and Enviros off from a standing start with the same load on

Tony, Scania Omnilinks also beat Tridents off the mark. And B7RLE's, and B6's.... (and that's the truth.)

[Tony]

My favourite Geminis are the BJ03's, they sound best in my opinion.

Worst are the Walsall ones, slow and horrible

Slow & horrible? They are identical mechanically to all of AGs. The only difference is the seats and trim! They are certainly not slow, if you want them to they will beat Tridents and Enviros off from a standing start with the same load on

Tony, Scania Omnilinks also beat Tridents off the mark. And B7RLE's, and B6's.... (and that's the truth.)

I know. There is actually very little difference between all vehicle types, there is probably more difference between different vehicles of the same batches where either the engine or gearbox is 'worn' on some vehicles. But some people on here seem to think Tridents are fast.

I have just done the same duty on the 966 as yesterday, four buses I had were 4644, 4678 yesterday. 4667; 4646 today. 4644 was the worst with a well ropy gearbox, but all 4 had the power there if you wanted to use it.

I think what it is with tridents is they rev like mad if the driver floors it and they sound 'fast' whereas a good B7 will just go through the gears properly and actually be going much faster

[nitromatt1]

Slow & horrible? They are identical mechanically to all of AGs. The only difference is the seats and trim! They are certainly not slow, if you want them to they will beat Tridents and Enviros off from a standing start with the same load on

No, as I have explained before, certain buses can be worse than others which you'd expect to be identical on paper. The Walsall ones are horribly rough sounding, most of AG's aren't. They are also slow pulling off (even for B7s), a ZF Trident will leave any of those sheds standing off the mark, let alone a Euro 4

[Tony]

Slow & horrible? They are identical mechanically to all of AGs. The only difference is the seats and trim! They are certainly not slow, if you want them to they will beat Tridents and Enviros off from a standing start with the same load on

No, as I have explained before, certain buses can be worse than others which you'd expect to be identical on paper. The Walsall ones are horribly rough sounding, most of AG's aren't. They are also slow pulling off (even for B7s), a ZF Trident will leave any of those sheds standing off the mark, let alone a Euro 4

Have you travelled on all 7 recently to know they are all sheds. I am sorry Matt, but the couple that escaped onto V Festival this year were certainly not slow. It was one of those that a driver managed the fastest round trip with.

ZF gearboxes are sh*t. I hate them compared to Voith. They are the only bad thing about Geminis. They never change down smoothly without slight jerk to throw standing passengers. They have a habit of still trying to pull forward when you are down to 1-2 mph so you have to leave your foot on the brake slightly harder than with a voith so you don't get the perfect feathered stop without the slight rock back and generally seem more jumpy

[Liverpool Street]

My favourite Geminis are the BJ03's, they sound best in my opinion.

Worst are the Walsall ones, slow and horrible

Slow & horrible? They are identical mechanically to all of AGs. The only difference is the seats and trim! They are certainly not slow, if you want them to they will beat Tridents and Enviros off from a standing start with the same load on

Tony, Scania Omnilinks also beat Tridents off the mark. And B7RLE's, and B6's.... (and that's the truth.)

I know. There is actually very little difference between all vehicle types, there is probably more difference between different vehicles of the same batches where either the engine or gearbox is 'worn' on some vehicles. But some people on here seem to think Tridents are fast.

I have just done the same duty on the 966 as yesterday, four buses I had were 4644, 4678 yesterday. 4667; 4646 today. 4644 was the worst with a well ropy gearbox, but all 4 had the power there if you wanted to use it.

I think what it is with tridents is they rev like mad if the driver floors it and they sound 'fast' whereas a good B7 will just go through the gears properly and actually be going much faster

Well that's correct Tony. Although I, personally, would say out of alot of the buses past and present the tridents are of the slower end. However, the Enviro 400's BC have are definitely slowest at pull off, most likely due to the fuel saving ECU chip and the refusal of revving in 1st.

However, did you ever have the pleasure of the Scania N113's? From my recollection they were fast on the scale of motorcars, let alone buses. Brakes were horrendously screechy but I liked those machines none the less.

Slow & horrible? They are identical mechanically to all of AGs. The only difference is the seats and trim! They are certainly not slow, if you want them to they will beat Tridents and Enviros off from a standing start with the same load on

No, as I have explained before, certain buses can be worse than others which you'd expect to be identical on paper. The Walsall ones are horribly rough sounding, most of AG's aren't. They are also slow pulling off (even for B7s), a ZF Trident will leave any of those sheds standing off the mark, let alone a Euro 4

Have you travelled on all 7 recently to know they are all sheds. I am sorry Matt, but the couple that escaped onto V Festival this year were certainly not slow. It was one of those that a driver managed the fastest round trip with.

ZF gearboxes are sh*t. I hate them compared to Voith. They are the only bad thing about Geminis. They never change down smoothly without slight jerk to throw standing passengers. They have a habit of still trying to pull forward when you are down to 1-2 mph so you have to leave your foot on the brake slightly harder than with a voith so you don't get the perfect feathered stop without the slight rock back and generally seem more jumpy

I've stated that above comment previously Tony, but no one took the slight bit of notice. Also, the retarder will not slow down without a sudden change down of gear, so its effectively a 12 and a half ton catapult.

[Rob H]

Does anybody know which journey's the B7RLE operates on the 934/935/936 in the week? because I'm thinking of recording a vid of it :) on one of its journey's obviously ;)

[andyr]

It amazes me how someone without a car licence let alone a PCV licence who has never driven thinks he knows better than people who drive these buses day in day out.

[trident4370]

Does anybody know which journey's the B7RLE operates on the 934/935/936 in the week? because I'm thinking of recording a vid of it :) on one of its journey's obviously ;)

I can't promise it was the correct working but the last time I photoed a B7RLE 934 it was the 11:18 departure from town, may not necessarily be the right board as it could have just been a second B7RLE on the route though but worth a go I guess.

[Rob H]

Does anybody know which journey's the B7RLE operates on the 934/935/936 in the week? because I'm thinking of recording a vid of it :) on one of its journey's obviously ;)

I can't promise it was the correct working but the last time I photoed a B7RLE 934 it was the 11:18 departure from town, may not necessarily be the right board as it could have just been a second B7RLE on the route though but worth a go I guess.

Thank You Joe ;) I can work on that because sometimes I see a B7RLE on the 936 in Pheasey heading for Brownhills around 9:35-9:40 while heading into Brum on a 934 that's a Great Help Joe thank you once again :)

[trident4370]

Don't be silly, its all good! :P Good luck finding it ;)

[Tony]

However, did you ever have the pleasure of the Scania N113's? From my recollection they were fast on the scale of motorcars, let alone buses. Brakes were horrendously screechy but I liked those machines none the less.

Yes they were really fast when new but like all Scanias they aged quickly. The last couple I drove were no faster than a Metrobus.

[Liverpool Street]

However, did you ever have the pleasure of the Scania N113's? From my recollection they were fast on the scale of motorcars, let alone buses. Brakes were horrendously screechy but I liked those machines none the less.

Yes they were really fast when new but like all Scanias they aged quickly. The last couple I drove were no faster than a Metrobus.

Yes in their older days they were said just to be Metrobuses with a different skin. Obviously they weren't but its just drivers speak.

I thoroughly enjoyed the early days of this job. Get away with blue murder, but its all gone now with the reporting culture.

Never mind. This is a thread for Walsall speak haha

[mranon]

personally, i prefer zf over voith apart from the jerkyness. the tridents especially jumping around. im not sure but wn have a mix of both gearboxs on tridents, and the zf ones change at better times so the engine isnt revving hard. however in this age, you would have thought the manugacturers would have cured these problems so that in future/replacement units it is improved. it will be interesting to see how the i shift in the volvo hybrids lasts. anyway, i like wa's b7 singles, they sound and feel like they are set up right