Southern National Bristol RE, LDV467F barking/ climbing up a hill!

[@stresseddad1615]

That sound brings back lots of memories from back in the 70's.

[@robertp.wainman4094]

Music to my ears!

[@robertp.wainman4094]

Revisiting the video.......this beautifully driven RELH really does have the greatest soundtrack on KZbin!

[@stevesales4263]

Great to see a driver who knows how to use a semi box properly. Back in the day, taking over a bus from a driver who slammed through the gears was a nightmare until they settled down again.

[@1paultay]

That's a peak experience, riding off into the sunset on the A303 in a singing Bristol RE. Wish I had such balls at that age.

[@tarmokortelainen4572]

This lady drives very fine

[@paulwilson3083]

The Eastern Counties bus company had plain clothes inspectors to ride on these buses to check drivers were pausing in netutral to let the revs die before selecting the next gear this prevented stretching the bands in the gearbox, this lady showed the EXACT way they should be driven.

[@mikaelabowen5781]

That glorious Gardner growl overlaid with the sing-song transmission - it doesn't get any better than this. Driven beautifully, too.

[@DarrenMartin-r6i]

Go heather you can sure drive that Bristol re ❤😊

[@VHKDK]

Beautiful bodywork. The RE ain't bad either. I did a few long trips on REs in the 70s and they were a great vehicle to travel on.

[@russellbennett8516]

Lovely sound of childhood. Thanks for posting!

[@BritishRail60062]

Another great sounding classic. She drove it well and she knew how to make the gearbox sing too. None of that Enviro 200 crap where the engine sounds like a tree shredder here :).

[@darrenmartin2450]

Heather sure can drive that bus she's got skill

[@darrenmartin3497]

Well driven young lady hope you put more videos up 👍👍

[@engineerfireengine]

Well driven young lady just how an RE should be driven ;-)

[@STEVEHARLEY1956]

Great video...Well done to Heather for a perfect drive....drove the elderly RE with great sympathy for the Gearbox. Brought back so many memories of driving RE's back in my time with Bristol Omnibus in the late 70's and 80's. We had loads of Gardner and Leyland 0680 and 510 Engined variants ...great fun...Cheers...Steve.

[@uglycustard4488]

Steve Lewis......you're not Inspector Blake are you..?;)

[@STEVEHARLEY1956]

No, but met Him once lol.

[@markkneafsey9447]

"I 'ate you Bu'lah, hehehehemm. "

[@robertp.wainman4094]

Lucky you - which engine did you prefer? I know West Yorkshire's Leyland engined RELH's were flying machines, as apparently they were still fitted with the gearing/axle ratios for a Gardner. Although I always thought most Gardner engined versions were pretty quick too!

[@kev1973]

love the boom of the exhaust on a Gardner powered RE

[@LawnMowersThingsThatMakeNoise]

What a beautiful sounding bus :-) !!!!! Love this :-)

[@isaacmoss9950]

Excellent driving.Respect

[@gosportjamie]

I used to go to primary school every day on a Provincial Bristol RE. I still remember those sounds and the smell they always had like it was yesterday. Good memories...

[@darrenmartin2450]

I think heather driving is 😘😘😘

[@kevvywevvywoo]

heather is obviously a natural! She was very kind to those gears

[@johnboytd]

The young lady is very competent.

[@robertp.wainman4094]

As a kid I was lucky enough to travel on United RELH's from York to London driven by some great professional's who knew how to bring out the best in them - smooth, fast and effortless with that glorious whine - click into 5th and 'listen' to the miles cruising by. I still can't imagine a better way to travel! (I decided then that when I was old enough to drive - it would be with the smoothness and consistency of those United drivers.) Nicely driven in this video too!

[@stevesales4263]

Back in the 70's I spent many happy hours driving Southdown RE's. We had 32' and 36' versions, fitted with Gardner 150's mated up to manual 5 speed constant mesh gearboxes. Drive them properly and they were flyers. The 32' versions would easily top 70-75mph and the 36' would top out at 65mph. Great air suspension, quiet engine and required a reasonable measure of skill to drive properly. Only problem was that on wet roads they could be a bugger. I would love to get my hands on one again.

[@northstar1950]

Very nicely handled, those gear changes with the semi-auto box looked nice and smooth too.

[@RM1859]

Nicely done! Lovely sounds. I love that white steering wheel!

[@darrenmartin3497]

Good driving heather hope you put up more videos

[@nickgodfrey1973]

Very, very well driven! Nice work!

[@stevesales4263]

I like to just listen to a well driven bus.

[@teaofcourse]

Makes all the right noises, and well driven too. Excellent gearchanges including downchanges, Heather braking in plenty of time to do proper downchanges.

[@stevesales4263]

She is a credit to PSV drivers, I would be very happy to have her drive me.

[@johnboytd]

It's not the engine that sings, it's the transmission!!

[@smiffy1071]

I've driven this coach around Stroud, it's very nice!

[@LandAnchor]

Go on girl give it some. Nice work.

[@richardclark6513]

The Bristol/SCG 5 speed electrically controlled air actuated epicyclic gearbox, whilst requiring no physical effort from the driver, is by no means easy to use. The ratios are "gappy" and the engine is 30 feet behind the driver. There is no rev counter, or in this case an operational speedo. It takes a lot of know how to drive this well and get super smooth upward and downward changes with an engine that neither revs up or dies down quickly.

[@ringspanner]

Spot on, and to make it more difficult, the valves engage and release at different rates, those were the days.

[@dmfub2348]

Simply lovely.

[@patricksmodels]

Excellent driving!

[@ianjulian469]

Brings back memories Royal Blue livery before that awful National Express one.. Excellent driving and the sound of that Gardner engine. 🙂

[@Grayce1948]

Great vid and wonderful sound! Brings back lovely memories of owning this coach for 18 years.

[@robertp.wainman4094]

How great to have owned an RELH - I've wanted one since travelling to London on United's and West Yorkshire's as a child. The smoothest coach ever made!

[@brano2011]

Love the sound 1:57

[@MrHYDRO84]

Brilliant Heather

[@andrewbutler6477]

Merthyr Tydfil had 4 re with low gearing for the hills they made a awesome sound on the steep valley services they were later sold to a a bus company in East Anglia they were slow there as they were not used to flat straight roads !!!!

[@pauldiack3070]

Awesome ride there. Top Driver

[@jaggass]

That's how a Bristol RE should be driven.

[@lec0roh]

Top driving - don't know how I'd fare, I only driven Ailsas and a Metrobus!

[@stevesales4263]

Dare I say you have missed out? My 1st 5 years I drove Manual "crashbox" RE's, semi RE's, manual 4 speed split axle leopards and 4/5 speed semis, Bristol VR, Mk1, 2 and 3 mainly Gardner but 1/2 dozen Leyland 680 (I think) 6 speed Fords (awful gear selection, like stirring a pudding) PD2's, PD3's (Queen Mary) Bristol Lowdeckers and a Bristol K-Type.. Over the next 40+ years many, many more types, finishing with clapped out Citaro Bendi-buses. All these autos are no fun or challenge to drive, just point and go.

[@johnboytd]

Come back Crosville's RE buses and coaches! (Gardner engines of course!)and those singing gearboxes!!

[@Housephonestimes4]

Perfect engine! Not neurotic like Leyland Atlanteans!

[@gordontheorgan]

needs a sun blind, what a lovely film clip.

[@DarrenMartin-r6i]

Would love to see you drive that Bristol re in a pair of flip flops heather ❤

[@uglycustard4488]

The sound of those engines bring back soooo many childhood memories.was th Gardener engine used in Lodekkas aswell?

[@StephenAllcroft]

+uglycustard1 The vertisal version of this 10.45 litre Gardner Engine (6LX) was used in Lodekkas, generally the last two years of FLFS for english operators and all the FLFS new to Scottish Bus Group had this engine.

[@uglycustard4488]

Thanks for information great stuff!

[@jaggass]

Yeah i noticed that. 6HLXB's in MK2 Nationals seem to be slightly quieter than 6LXB's in Olympians.

[@smiffy1071]

uglycustard1 this has a 6hlxb engine, and not the standard 6hlx, so it's more powerful than it should be!

[@olepedersen5420]

what's the red lamp at the gear lever doing ?

[@NLTJ]

good video is this bus a manual?

[@nickgodfrey1973]

+Aaron R Electric over Air, Semi Automatic: Manually Controlled Automatic Transmission

[@stevesales4263]

semi automatic, electric shift. A good driver would "toggle up" first start of the day. this meant selecting each gear in turn to tighten the gearbox brake bands. Even more important on the pneumo-cyclic boxes as fitted to semi Atlanteans and Leopards otherwise they would tend to slip. Another peril taking over from a poor driver.

[@tonestaxis8494]

Can you bring the bus to a stop in gears 2/3/4? Presumably this is fine, but I guess it's best for the gearbox to be in a lower gear?

[@nickgodfrey1973]

Yes you can stop in any gear

[@stevesales4263]

Yes you can and no, not best doing sequential gear changes which just cause excess wear. Going back to the 80's we were training drivers to do block changes and then change into the appropriate gear. Gears are for going, brakes for stopping. For instance, on a 4 speed Leopard, 2nd gear was used to pull away in most situations. On a downhill, a block change into 4th was ok. Also, split shifting was useful, for example 3rd high ratio to 4th low ratio was an in between 1/2 gear. In the crashbox 5 speed RE's, 1st gear was a must unless downhill and generally going up the box would be sequential. Coming down the box 5th to 3rd and 4th to 2nd were particularly useful, occasionally 5th to 2nd. 1st gear was, generally speaking, a get moving gear, either double declutching on the flat or "snatching" on an uphill gradient. In fact, a rather attractive young lady I was training, learnt to do a beautiful snatch change. When she mastered it she proudly told all and sundry what a beautiful snatch she had got. Being a gentleman , I off course explained to her what she was saying, after a few days :-) A snatch change is when changing from 1st to 2nd on an uphill gradient, you dip the clutch and snatch the gear lever to select 2nd. Also used even on leopards which had no syncro on 1st and 2nd

[@tonestaxis8494]

@@stevesales4263 Thanks for such an informative reply and great story!

[@jimboforest4911]

Sounds like it needs other. Gear. Going Up. The. Box

[@marka5909]

Bad the Speedo don’t work

[@jimboforest4911]

Or. Possible. High speed. Differential

[@jasonrayner7312]

The coach is travelling at around 50mph in this clip and the engine revs are low. The transmission whine dulls out the engine. The coach is capable of well over 70mph.

[@-M0LE]

A woman driving a bus ...wow that’s dangerous

[@johnboytd]

This young lady is very competent!

[@stevesales4263]

I know that is said tongue in cheek, but I have trained many lady bus drivers. They tended to have greater vehicle sympathy and less ego than the lads. Unfortunately, many of the ladies were excellent going forwards, but on average not so good reversing. In my training career I trained many drivers for the IAM advanced commercial test (100% pass rate) and ladies were certainly on par with the lads.

[@edf6607]

@@stevesales4263 This excellent bit of driving reminded me of my late Mum was a WAAF during the war and learnt to drive there in here very early 20's. Cars vans and light trucks up to about 3 tons I think, but no power steering, no synchro iirc, and not sure about break servo either. She was an absolultely amazing driver til she stopped in her mid 70s and even then I felt completely safe as a passenger: careful, calm, considerate. She taught me loads of driving tips and one I still do that ppl pick up on is to press the knob in when i pull the handbrake on..they were taught to do that so the teeth don't wear out so quickly (wartime shortages and all that).