Chinese Routemaster

Jeremy · April 25, 2012, 11:31:37 AM

Here's a bit of weirdness... not content with producing carbon copies of state-of-the-art Neoplans, you can now buy a modern Chinese-built facsimile of a 1950s Routemaster - complete with a half-cab, which surely has no place in the 21st Century:

Jeremy

Oonrahnjay · April 25, 2012, 11:32:49 AM

My gob has been smacked!

bevans6 · April 25, 2012, 11:51:23 AM

It's more of a mirror image, isn't it? Left hand drive?

Brian

Len Silva · April 25, 2012, 12:07:45 PM

I hope they will soon build a 1936 Yellow. I would love to do a conversion with one of those.

CrabbyMilton · April 25, 2012, 01:06:27 PM

Too bad we can't do that over here.

TomC · April 25, 2012, 03:22:21 PM

Never seen a left hand drive routemaster. And that front end over hang would make getting in and out of driveways a challenge. Looks good-but...

There is a Chinese company (won't say the name) that makes short touring buses that look like small MCI's based on the Freightliner motorhome chassis. They are in our facility frequently with electrical problems.

Good Luck, TomC

Oonrahnjay · April 25, 2012, 03:59:11 PM

Quote from: TomC on April 25, 2012, 03:22:21 PMNever seen a left hand drive routemaster. And that front end over hang would make getting in and out of driveways a challenge. Looks good-but...
There is a Chinese company (won't say the name) that makes short touring buses that look like small MCI's based on the Freightliner motorhome chassis. They are in our facility frequently with electrical problems. Good Luck, TomC

I don't mind the "half-cab" arrangement (other than the fact that if you converted one to living accommocation, there wouldn't be a place for The Management to ride along side you) but I was looking at that front overhang and low floor. What do you think the chance is that it's a front-wheel-drive? I know the the Chinese, like most copiers, don't like to really innovate or even try anything notably outside the usual arrangement, but I was wondering. And, like most copiers, when they try to strike out into unknown territory, the results are usually disaster, even if what they're trying to do is "a good idea".

TomC · April 25, 2012, 04:09:08 PM

I went online to Yutong bus, but didn't see anything about the Routemaster. It looks to me to be a rear axle drive. I would think that a front drive would limit turning radius too much. Good luck, TomC

Iceni John · April 25, 2012, 04:28:05 PM

This is getting weird. It's deja vu, all over again. Does Boris Johnson know about it? (He's London's mayor.)

What's next? Maybe a brand-new Crown? Oh, my knees are trembling at the thought of it. Why stop there? We could have brand-new Ford Pintos and AMC Gremlins once again gracing our highways, along with new Scenicruisers and Fishbowls.

John, also with smacked gob

Jeremy · April 25, 2012, 05:06:31 PM

Quote from: Iceni John on April 25, 2012, 04:28:05 PM
Does Boris Johnson know about it?

That was one of my first thoughts too - I bet you could buy ten of these Chinese 'Routemasters' for the price of just one 'new Routemaster', with it's fancy planet-saving hybrid drive system. Maybe even twenty.

Jeremy

PS - Just to prove that it's not a one-off, here's a fleet of them in Macedonia:

I don't think that front overhang is necessarily a big problem by the way - plenty of coaches on the road with a bigger overhang than that.

Jeremy · April 25, 2012, 05:25:19 PM

There's a couple of articles about them on the Yutong website here:

http://www.yutong.com/english/news/press/09/28852.shtml

http://www.yutong.com/english/news/press/03/22152.shtml

The second article states "The bus is similar to the RouteMaster double deckers which were in use in Skopje around 50 years ago". If that's true, I had no idea the original Routemasters had travelled so far.

No technical details are given about the buses themselves - it seems unlikely that they'd be anything other than rear-wheel-drive, but the whole bus seems unlikely, so who knows?

Jeremy

Iceni John · April 25, 2012, 09:03:26 PM

Eureka!!!

I think I have a solution (to paraphrase Jeremy Clarkson):
1. The front of this bus, at least the right side, looks similar to the rump of a certain British doubledecker owned by a gentleman on this here forum who resides in North Carolina.
2. These Hooflungdung buses (or whatever the heck they're called) have their doors on the wrong side for use in London.
3. We all know how manoeuverable forklifts are, because of their rear steering.
4. Rear engines are generally preferred these days to front engines.
5. It's not a major job to swap axles, or at least turn them upside down to reverse their direction.
6. Failing that, how fast does a London bus have to go? There are also times that having lots of reverse gears may come in useful, such as backing out of a gridlocked narrow street. At those times it could also be useful to be able to drive it from the other end.

OK, can you see where I'm going with this?

Put another steering wheel and controls in the back (actually it will end up being the front), and hey presto, we have the solution to London's bus woes. Boris would be so proud of me. London could be the world's only capital city with an entire fleet of Chinese buses going backwards everywhere. What's not to like? How difficult could that be? (to again quote The Great Buffoon himself).

John, feeling really quite chuffed with himself for this out-the-box thinking.

Oonrahnjay · April 26, 2012, 06:20:26 AM

Quote from: Iceni John on April 25, 2012, 09:03:26 PM(snip) John, feeling really quite chuffed with himself for this out-the-box thinking.

Perfect! Find a way to bill them as "green enough" to justify charging people a tax to drive on roads that they pay $5 a gallon tax on fuel already for -- "public" roads at that and you'd have a sale!

(PS People who live in N America may not know that if you drive into London, your license plate (or "licence plate" or "number plate") is recorded and you get a bill for driving in London that day and that bill is rated based on how "green" your vehicle is. I think the going rate for driving a bus built before emission controls came in is about $100 per day. This is to "reduce vehicle use in London" and "clean up the air".)

bevans6 · April 26, 2012, 07:20:46 AM

178,000 Euro's each, near enough, delivered to Macedonia. That is pretty cheap.

Brian

belfert · April 26, 2012, 07:29:07 AM

Just a standard run of the mill transit bus (not double decker) in the USA costs more than what one of those Chinese bus costs. I think part of the reason transit buses are expensive in the USA is because nearly all of them are government purchases and the manufacturers kinda have a captive market. The government is likely to keep buying buses no matter what the cost.

Hasn't New York City talked about charging to drive into downtown to alleviate traffic? I don't know if they would charge based on emissions like London.