Headache relief on the move..

Jeremy · December 21, 2017, 05:16:23 AM

Just another story today about a double-decker having an argument with a low bridge:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-42435613

But what amused me was the advert on the side of the bus. Headache relief by means of decapitation perhaps?

Jeremy

CrabbyMilton · December 21, 2017, 05:21:32 AM

That's great!!!
Remove the source of your headache...ride our bus.
A childhood friend of mine once said in response to a question if someone he didn't like was having a heart attack, what would he do?
Cut out his heart so it wouldn't attack him anymore.

Oonrahnjay · December 21, 2017, 09:56:18 AM

Easy now. That kind of photo makes some of us (well, one of us ..) very nervous. Do they have any nerve pills?

chessie4905 · December 21, 2017, 10:05:27 AM

https://www.google.com/search?q=low+clearance+bridge+accidents&oq=low+clearance+accidents&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l2.22216j0j7&client=tablet-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

I was waiting for a double decker bus conversion.

Oonrahnjay · December 21, 2017, 10:19:13 AM

Quote from: chessie4905 on December 21, 2017, 10:05:27 AM
https://www.google.com/search?q=low+clearance+bridge+accidents&oq=low+clearance+accidents&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l2.22216j0j7&client=tablet-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

I was waiting for a double decker bus conversion.

That railroad underpass is less than 10 miles from my new wife's house. We drive by it a couple of times a month -- there are usually new scars! The thing that gets me is that there are easy overpasses just a block in either direction. Watching the videos, I'm surprised at the number of S & S RVs and 5th Wheelers that lose air conditioners.

chessie4905 · December 21, 2017, 10:32:14 AM

Think I'll get my lawn chair and go on down and sit this summer. Maybe I can score a couple useable AC's.
In Tyrone,Pa. They recently raised the railroad tracks to allow more clearance under a bridge in middle of town. Was a pita for trucks forever.

Iceni John · December 21, 2017, 01:00:03 PM

That's a suspiciously clean break on that English bus. I wonder if the roofs are designed to peel off without too much collateral damage, to make them easier to repair later? Maybe they should supply an extra roof with every new double-decker, just in case.

Seriously though, why are there not hanging height gauges well before the bridge/tunnel/mousehole that would set off LOUD sirens and BRIGHT lights if any vehicle touches them? Something as simple as that would completely prevent (OK, would reduce as much as human stupidity allows) this type of accident. It's fortunate that there were no passengers in that bus.

John

Jeremy · December 21, 2017, 02:32:50 PM

It's a fair question but I suspect the answer is that it wasn't a low bridge, it was a high vehicle. By chance there IS a particularly low bridge not far from where I live and on the approach to that bridge there are gantries over the road from which hang chains which will scare the bejesus out of anyone who drives a too-tall vehicle underneath. But there will no-doubt be many thousands of normal-height (but lower than a double-decker) bridges around the country, and I guess it would be impractical to fit every one with that kind of early-warning system.

Obviously, in theory at least, double-deckers usually follow very prescribed routes and rarely have reason to go under unfamiliar bridges - but on the other-hand there seems to be stories like this one in the press every two or three months and it wouldn't surprise me at all if, as you suggest, the roofs are actually designed to shear-off cleanly. If nothing else it ensures a ready-supply of vehicles for the open-top sightseeing tour bus industry

Jeremy

Oonrahnjay · December 21, 2017, 05:30:33 PM

Quote from: Jeremy on December 21, 2017, 02:32:50 PMIt's a fair question but I suspect the answer is that it wasn't a low bridge, it was a high vehicle. By chance there IS a particularly low bridge not far from where I live and on the approach to that bridge there are gantries over the road from which hang chains which will scare the bejesus out of anyone who drives a too-tall vehicle underneath. But there will no-doubt be many thousands of normal-height (but lower than a double-decker) bridges around the country, and I guess it would be impractical to fit every one with that kind of early-warning system.

Obviously, in theory at least, double-deckers usually follow very prescribed routes and rarely have reason to go under unfamiliar bridges - but on the other-hand there seems to be stories like this one in the press every two or three months and it wouldn't surprise me at all if, as you suggest, the roofs are actually designed to shear-off cleanly. If nothing else it ensures a ready-supply of vehicles for the open-top sightseeing tour bus industry

Jeremy

There is a very famous video showing a bus, with very strategic videographic viewpoints -- sorta looks like they were expecting to film it IYKWIM, and the roof shears off very cleanly. It turns out that it's a setup for an advert by a UK safety advisory group and they specifically sawed about 3/4 of the way through the uprights right where this bus sheared off to make a very dramatic result. The roof on that bus completely slid off and if anyone had been sitting upstairs, they would have been quickly about 10" shorter. But, as I say, it was a setup and all prepared; in fact, it may have been a radio controlled bus with no driver on board. There is a Clevelands (UK, near Newcastle o Tyne) photo that shows a bus very much like mine (Daimler Fleetline, with Northern Counties body) owned by an enthusiasts group -- after they rebuilt it, they took it out and drove it around on it's old routes around the city and of course, the city had resurfaced a road without removing any of the old road material (Jeremy, do you want to tell them why I'm avoiding the use of the word "pavement"

) and the bus on this "parade" tour hit the railroad bridge overhead and got stuck. No real damage, other than dents and scrapes on the roof, resulted and they got the bus out by deflating the tyres but it was sort of embarrassing.

I'm not sure about now, but in the old days, some models of buses were made to what was called the "Low Bridge" standard. At least in the '70s and 80s, the UK overhead standard was 14'4" (it might be something metric now that all the British bus companies are out of business, except sorta one) and low-bridge buses were made to 13' 10", or 13' 8", or 13'6" depending on manufacturer. I have been told that most bridges lower than 14'4" on public roads are "legacy" railroad bridges, but that may not be true. Mine is a 13' 8" but it actually measured out to 13"7" and a bit so with very slightly lower tires and a mod to an air-over-spring suspension, it now sits about 13'6" and that gets me legal in the 35 US states that are 13'6" and all Canadian provinces - about 15 Western states have a 14' foot legal limit. As usual, you don't get something for nothing and the body is built lower on the chassis frame and interior ceiling clearances are cut down to a tiny bit less than 6' which is just barely enough for me to deal with comfortably, it's noticeably a bit more compressed than the buses to usual height. This makes it harder to fit interior walls, and closets, and things like shelves high on side walls. You can spot these buses because the upper saloon windows have a lower height measurement than the windows in the lower saloon.

Geoff · December 21, 2017, 06:04:25 PM

In 2002, there was a hippie bus conversion that drove under the Broadway overpass in San Francisco on their way to a protest. The school bus had two VW micro- buses attached to the top of the school bus with look-out hatches. Two people died that had their heads out the hatch.

Jeremy · December 21, 2017, 06:32:47 PM

I've never been particularly into double-deckers (or any kind of transit buses really) so I don't know all the intricacies, but I was aware that the manufacturers built them in different heights depending upon which operator used them and thus which bridges they had to go under - and I've seen bus dealers advertise the shorter versions specifically as being suitable for export to the US, no-doubt because of the law you mention.

But the version below was definitely not a standard model - it's actually quite a famous Routemaster owned (and roof-chopped) by a hot rod club here who use it as their club vehicle at car shows:

Jeremy

PS - Kind-of along similar lines to building buses at different heights, I know a boatbuilder who builds different versions of the same river cruiser with different height cabins depending which river it's going to be used on, and thus which bridges it will have to fit under

PPS - 'Pavement' refers to the sidewalk and not the road here folks..

PPPS - Watch this at about 2.20 - obviously staged again, but that roof comes off very cleanly too (although a double-decker as ancient as that one probably has a wooden body frame I'd guess):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuDAx4Yndv0&t=109s

Oonrahnjay · December 21, 2017, 09:02:40 PM

Quote from: Geoff on December 21, 2017, 06:04:25 PMIn 2002, there was a hippie bus conversion that drove under the Broadway overpass in San Francisco on their way to a protest. The school bus had two VW micro- buses attached to the top of the school bus with look-out hatches. Two people died that had their heads out the hatch.

About 10 years ago, there was a "party bus" with an open upper deck that was hired to drive a group from an office to a baseball game. Apparently, there was alcohol involved and a couple of the partyers decided to "surf" standing on their seats on the upper deck during the ride home. The cops shoveled their brains into a 5 gallon bucket.

Iceni John · December 21, 2017, 09:53:30 PM

Quote from: Oonrahnjay on December 21, 2017, 09:02:40 PM
About 10 years ago, there was a "party bus" with an open upper deck that was hired to drive a group from an office to a baseball game. Apparently, there was alcohol involved and a couple of the partyers decided to "surf" standing on their seats on the upper deck during the ride home. The cops shoveled their brains into a 5 gallon bucket.

Damn, what a waste of a good bucket.

pabusnut · December 22, 2017, 07:28:35 AM

I seem to remember "King of the Road" Super Dave Osborne and a deck on a bus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbUc5nsAPTo

lostagain · December 22, 2017, 07:30:06 AM

One summer I was driving city tours for Vancouver Grayline in old British Leyland double deckers. Right hand drive with the stick on the left, you get used to it. On hot summer days, the windows were open, and going through Stanley Park, the tree limbs would brush along the upper deck, and bees would get inside. I knew it when I could hear lots of stomping and goings on upstairs, lol. I remember taking one on a charter to a game in the city with a high school sports team. I drove the route with my car ahead of time to check out the height clearances... Still scary when you know you're over-height... i don't miss them.

JC