The Guy Wulfrunian Story: The Edsel of British Buses? [UK Bus History]
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 лип 2024
- In the late 1950's an entirely new British bus appeared that was different than anything that came before it. Sporting air suspension and disc brakes, as well as a front entrance - with the engine up front, it was quite revolutionary for its time.
Deisgned by Ronald Brooke, Fleet Engineer of the West Riding Bus Company, at that time the UK's largest independent bus operator, and built by Guy Motors, it quickly became a real thorn in the side of its owners.
There were only 137 units built, of which West Riding had 126, and bought many of the others second hand.
Why did this revolutionary bus fail so miserably?
Find out in the video!
#transportationhistory #buses #vehicledesign
It's actually pronounced 'Wulfroonian'... native to Wolverhampton (which was founded by Lady Wulfrun in 985CE).
Living less than 0.5 miles from the factory, I remember bare chassis being road tested around local streets with the driver perched above, completely wrapped in multiple layers of clothing for protection against the often unfavourable weather!
According to Wikipedia, the native American badge/emblem arose from Guy using the slogan "Feathers in our cap".
Good job Jeffrey. For an American making a video on British buses, I expected you to get it wrong, but you did your research well and made an excellent job of it. Well done, very interesting.
I seem to be drawn to Jeffery's British bus videos - I simply find it fascinating to hear an American accent talking so enthusiastically about British buses!
Hi There Everybody. The reason why I’m sending you those interesting messages is that I and all of us East and North Londoners would Like you to bring those Particular Grey Green buses back to service. So you will be able to Replace All of the Arriva Buses in North London and some of the other Buses in East London? So you will have the opportunity to get most of them back into Service Again Pretty PLEASE.
There’s a lot of hard work on your behalf researching this video . Well done and thank you .
"Feather in Our Cap" slogan was introduced on Jan 22, 1924, to celebrate repeat orders as satisfaction. The red feather was taken from an Indian Chief Head Dress. The Indian head Mascot was adorned all new vehicles.
Given that the all-up weight of a British 1950's era double decker bus was around 27,000 to 33,000 pounds, so somewhere around 15,000 to 18,000 pounds on the front axle, removing the upper front sets to remove 8 passengers (about 1,200 pounds) is not going to make any noticeable difference to handling or wear on front end components. It must have been some non-technical manager's bright idea.
The pronunciation of Wulfrunian was a little painful as I’m actually a Wulfrunian myself. I have had the ”pleasure” of actually driving one of these at the Black Country Living Museum where I was a volunteer driver for the buses, trams and trolleybuses for around 10 years.
A very satisfying comprehensive overview of this very ambitious product. Disc brakes in a heavy vehicle in the 50s is incredible.
Glad I found this video, my grandfather worked for Rotherham Corporation and I have researched the corporation extensively, I have never found any information about them buying this bus but you say they nearly did. It blew my mind to see this. Thanks for enlightening me.
Wow - never expected to hear an American expert talking about the Guy Wulfrunian from my old local bus company West Riding - great! Rode the local lanes a few years ago on a preserved model.
Hi Jeffrey, yet again another well researched and excellently produced video, the ‘Feathers in our cap’ slogan was used by Guy to advertise repeat orders, each feather had the name of a repeat customer on it, after that it became the mascot for Guy and appeared on the tops of radiators as a mascot, as you can imagine they are now quite sort after and very expensive when they do appear
I came for the bus videos I stayed because of the enthusiasm and high quality and now I find myself as a Canadian spending a lot of time reading the comments for the comic possibility I find when an American New Yorker has made a video on a British bus and so the Brits also known as the English offer up pronunciation advice. I could imagen entire series of comedy skits written around different English speakers correcting each other and personally I think it would be good to have a over educated lumberjack Canadian quietly trying to play referee until he has had enough EA lol
Fascinating as one born in Wolverhampton ! I well remember the GUY North American chief emblem, and no I never knew why it was chosen. As a boy I would often see chassis' being delivered by a driver - no windscreen, just a well insulated man with goggles.
Nice to see Accrington Corporations Guy Wulfrunians mentioned. I have read that conductors didn't like the ride, as standing on the rear platform was very bouncy, and made some of them seasick. Bury's Wulfrunian was sold very quickly after purchase, to the point were it made the front page of the local and called a waste of money. A third Wulfrunian survived, the one that Bury bought. It was in existence until the mid '80s. It was kept in the training compound at GMPTEs works at Hyde Rd in Manchester. The story I read was hit by a Leyland Atlantean that had lost control on the skidpan, and hit with such force the Wulfrunians body was very badly damaged. The body was scrapped, but I think the chassis still exists.
I wasn't expecting to see my home town featured at
I grew up in Wolverhampton and all the buses were made by Guy. On these buses I travelled to Wolverhampton Grammar School ( founded 1512) where our school song was Carmen Wulfunense, in Latin of course!
The Volvo Ailsa was very popular in Scotland amongst Municipal operators Grampian Regional Transport in Aberdeen (forerunner to the First Group empire) Tayside in Dundee and GGPTE in Glasgow bought loads of them until Volvo ended production of the Ailsa in 1985 and replaced it with the Volvo Citybus. I used to travel on the MKiii Ailsa in the 1990s, the top deck steps went to the front right side which meant the 2 front left row seats were single seats.