704 FE02 AKV
New To: - Nottingham City Transport
Chassis: - Scania L94UA YS4L6X20001841182
Body: - Wright Solar Fusion E314 AB59D
History
Scania L94UA 704 was new to Nottingham City Transport in March 2002 and was delivered in the then new GO2 Lime Line livery for service 58 from the City Centre to Arnold Killisick Estate.
704 was one of a batch of 5 Scania bendy buses for Nottingham City Transport and the first in the region to be fully DDA compliant. According to John Lowrie - the former engineering director who placed the order for the bendy buses - "the bendy buses were ordered to show Nottingham City Council there was an alternative to a tram network".
The bus is licensed for 59 seated passengers, but with its standing capacity can transport up to 146 passengers.
704 and the other bendy buses were short lived on the Arnold route before being moved onto Navy Line Clifton service GO2 48. After another brief period they were once again repainted for the dedicated Nottingham Trent University, campus to campus service Unilink 4, later becoming GO2 Uni Navy Line 4. The route operated from the City Centre Campus via the Train Station, Trent Bridge, and Wilford to the Clifton campus. Throughout this period of both the 48 service and Unilink operation they were all based at Gotham Depot.
Over the years the bendy buses became an icon within Nottingham City Centre. The end of the road came for them in June 2014, being replaced by '55' plate Scania Omnidekkas in August 2014 ready for the next academic year.
704 is now the only surviving mechanically complete example from the Nottingham bendy fleet as all the others except 702 were cannibalized for useful parts by NCT and then scrapped. 702 was converted by the Territorial Army for use by a school in Chilwell as a library within the school grounds.
In August 2014 the vehicle joined the charity. It was purchased for a nominal value after removal of the seats, destination equipment and CCTV by Nottingham City Transport.
Since joining the collection, a large amount of mechanical work has been undertaken, including replacing most airbags and the power steering pipes.
A set of seats has been fitted thanks to the generosity of Paul S Winson Coaches who donated seats from an ex Lothian Dennis Trident which was being scrapped.
Externally, the bus was repanelled and painted in the livery you see today. 704 never ran in this livery, but it is felt that this is a nicer livery than the lime green it was delivered in.
It is always very popular on road runs at our open days, and always turns heads.
Relevance to Collection
This is the only roadworthy example of an iconic design operated by NCT, and a milestone in the fleet history.
Chassis: - Scania L94UA YS4L6X20001841182
Body: - Wright Solar Fusion E314 AB59D
History
Scania L94UA 704 was new to Nottingham City Transport in March 2002 and was delivered in the then new GO2 Lime Line livery for service 58 from the City Centre to Arnold Killisick Estate.
704 was one of a batch of 5 Scania bendy buses for Nottingham City Transport and the first in the region to be fully DDA compliant. According to John Lowrie - the former engineering director who placed the order for the bendy buses - "the bendy buses were ordered to show Nottingham City Council there was an alternative to a tram network".
The bus is licensed for 59 seated passengers, but with its standing capacity can transport up to 146 passengers.
704 and the other bendy buses were short lived on the Arnold route before being moved onto Navy Line Clifton service GO2 48. After another brief period they were once again repainted for the dedicated Nottingham Trent University, campus to campus service Unilink 4, later becoming GO2 Uni Navy Line 4. The route operated from the City Centre Campus via the Train Station, Trent Bridge, and Wilford to the Clifton campus. Throughout this period of both the 48 service and Unilink operation they were all based at Gotham Depot.
Over the years the bendy buses became an icon within Nottingham City Centre. The end of the road came for them in June 2014, being replaced by '55' plate Scania Omnidekkas in August 2014 ready for the next academic year.
704 is now the only surviving mechanically complete example from the Nottingham bendy fleet as all the others except 702 were cannibalized for useful parts by NCT and then scrapped. 702 was converted by the Territorial Army for use by a school in Chilwell as a library within the school grounds.
In August 2014 the vehicle joined the charity. It was purchased for a nominal value after removal of the seats, destination equipment and CCTV by Nottingham City Transport.
Since joining the collection, a large amount of mechanical work has been undertaken, including replacing most airbags and the power steering pipes.
A set of seats has been fitted thanks to the generosity of Paul S Winson Coaches who donated seats from an ex Lothian Dennis Trident which was being scrapped.
Externally, the bus was repanelled and painted in the livery you see today. 704 never ran in this livery, but it is felt that this is a nicer livery than the lime green it was delivered in.
It is always very popular on road runs at our open days, and always turns heads.
Relevance to Collection
This is the only roadworthy example of an iconic design operated by NCT, and a milestone in the fleet history.
Scania L94UA 704 was new to Nottingham City Transport in March 2002 and was delivered in the then new GO2 Lime Line livery for service 58 from the City Centre to Arnold Killisick Estate.
704 was one of a batch of 5 scania bendy buses for Nottingham City Transport and the first in the region to be fully DDA compliant. According to John Lowrie - the former engineering director who placed the order for the bendy buses - "the bendy buses were ordered to show Nottingham City Council there was an alternative to a tram network".
704 and the other bendy buses were short lived on the Arnold route before and moved onto Navy Line Clifton service GO2 48. After another brief period they were once again repainted for the dedicated Nottingham Trent University, campus to campus service Unilink 4, later becoming GO2 Uni Navy Line 4. The route operated from the City Centre Campus via the Train Station, Trent Bridge, Wilford to the clifton campus. Throughout this period of both the 48 service and Unilink operation they were all based at Gotham Depot.
Over the years the bendy buses became an icon within Nottingham City Centre. The end of the road came for them in June 2014, being replaced by '55' plate Scania Omnidekkas in August 2014 ready for the next academic year.
704 is now the only surviving mechanically complete example from the Nottingham bendy fleet as all the others except 702 were canabalised for useful parts by NCT and then scrapped. 703 went to Barnsley for scrap, the others (including 700, the ex Lothian former London Omni bodied demonstrator) were broken up at Langar. 702 is currently being converted by the Territorial Army for use by a school in Chilwell as a library within the school grounds. £40,000 was gleaned from the MOD towards this project. It no longer has an engine or gearbox.
704 was one of a batch of 5 scania bendy buses for Nottingham City Transport and the first in the region to be fully DDA compliant. According to John Lowrie - the former engineering director who placed the order for the bendy buses - "the bendy buses were ordered to show Nottingham City Council there was an alternative to a tram network".
704 and the other bendy buses were short lived on the Arnold route before and moved onto Navy Line Clifton service GO2 48. After another brief period they were once again repainted for the dedicated Nottingham Trent University, campus to campus service Unilink 4, later becoming GO2 Uni Navy Line 4. The route operated from the City Centre Campus via the Train Station, Trent Bridge, Wilford to the clifton campus. Throughout this period of both the 48 service and Unilink operation they were all based at Gotham Depot.
Over the years the bendy buses became an icon within Nottingham City Centre. The end of the road came for them in June 2014, being replaced by '55' plate Scania Omnidekkas in August 2014 ready for the next academic year.
704 is now the only surviving mechanically complete example from the Nottingham bendy fleet as all the others except 702 were canabalised for useful parts by NCT and then scrapped. 703 went to Barnsley for scrap, the others (including 700, the ex Lothian former London Omni bodied demonstrator) were broken up at Langar. 702 is currently being converted by the Territorial Army for use by a school in Chilwell as a library within the school grounds. £40,000 was gleaned from the MOD towards this project. It no longer has an engine or gearbox.
Vehicle joins the charity
In August 2014 the vehicle joined the charity. It was purchased for a nominal value after removal of the seats, destination equipment and CCTV by Nottingham City Transport. As Our intended use did not require any of these to be in situ such removal did not deter our interest and we are grateful to NCT for recognising our interest in one of the vehicles. Our intention had been to secure the original demonstrator vehicle 701 Y701LRB but NCT required the gearbox from this and others as by removing part of the casing they could be used in the Scania Omnidekkas. With 704/705 both having uprated engines and gearboxes such use was not possible. We had viewed 705 prior to 704 but it was suffering from rather unsightly crazing of the bodywork on the front end, clearly from involvement in an RTC at an earlier date.
Since arrival at our site we have removed the internal handrails, most of the vinyl advertisements and renewed much of the internal lighting owing to missing inverters and inoperative wiring. Unfortunately the vehicle turned out to be in rather a poor state requiring a large injection of cash towards mechanical repairs. One of the power steering pipes had been rubbing on the chassis frame to the rear of the coupling area. On inspection it became necessary to replace this from the coupling to the rear of the vehicle. We have replaced 7 out of the 10 airbags on the vehicle and repaired other smaller faults. In June 2015 the bus returned to the road again after being reticketed.
Our appreciation must be extended to Wrightbus for their assistance by way of supplying the manuals and service details for the vehicle after failing to locate them locally. It is rather disappointing that none of the 5 sets of handbooks originally supplied with the vehicles when delivered to NCT appear to exist. Here is a photographic record of progress to date.
Since arrival at our site we have removed the internal handrails, most of the vinyl advertisements and renewed much of the internal lighting owing to missing inverters and inoperative wiring. Unfortunately the vehicle turned out to be in rather a poor state requiring a large injection of cash towards mechanical repairs. One of the power steering pipes had been rubbing on the chassis frame to the rear of the coupling area. On inspection it became necessary to replace this from the coupling to the rear of the vehicle. We have replaced 7 out of the 10 airbags on the vehicle and repaired other smaller faults. In June 2015 the bus returned to the road again after being reticketed.
Our appreciation must be extended to Wrightbus for their assistance by way of supplying the manuals and service details for the vehicle after failing to locate them locally. It is rather disappointing that none of the 5 sets of handbooks originally supplied with the vehicles when delivered to NCT appear to exist. Here is a photographic record of progress to date.
We have since sourced and fitted a replacement set of seats from a Lothian Trident and located a set of dot matrix blinds. These will be fitted after the vehicle has been repainted. Watch this space !