Stagecoach in Warwickshire 40148 - N348 AVV

Stagecoach in Warwickshire Nuneaton Depot's Mercedes 709D N348 AVV (40148). This bus has the Alexander AM Sprint body & is filmed on the Bedworth Shuttle 6 between Bedworth, Mill Street & Coalpit Fields

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Mercedes
• 709D
• Alexander
• Belfast
• AM
• Sprint
• 40148
• N348AVV
• N348
• AVV
• Stagecoach
• in
• Warwickshire
• Nuneaton
• Bedworth
• Shuttle

[ThisIs2009]

the Sprint bodies were made at Falkirk, not Belfast.

[Ally31334]

I know lol but they call them Alexander Belfast ones for some reason, even the chassis plates say they are Belfast but made in Falkirk lol it's strange!

[Ally31334]

Jagass' comment:

They had them in worksop, notts until last year. they did have noisy gearboxes and rear axles though. the suspension was very stiff as well everytime you go over a hump you go flying out of your seat.

Which I accidentally deleted trying to press Reply!

They were sometimes tempermental with the clutch & gears yes lol, we loved watching the new trainees stall them!

I used to say things like that about them, you put your head through the roof & your arse through the floor

[jaggass]

do they still have these?

[Ally31334]

Nope, none at all now unless Rugby garage are still taking N347 AVV apart which I doubt. These left about August 2008 time but left passenger service in June 2008.

[TheMegaMuncher]

they had 2 alexander 709Ds, 1 alexander 811D, 1 plaxton 709D, and 2 alexander O814s from september 2008 to september 2009, they have just been withdrawn :-(

the T2s were all auto/blinds, one vario was auto/flipdots, and the other was auto/LEDs.

I'm ThisIs2009 btw

[ThisIs2009]

lol OK but i regularly travel on 2 709ds and 1 811d both with alexander sprint bodies and they all say "falkirk" on the plate above the driver's window :)

[ThisIs2009]

i'm guessing the flip disc display was making up for the manual box :)

cos the 709d's and 811d's in based in shrewsbury are still running today with arriva midlands but they have it the other way round - auto box with blinds :)

[mondyboy81]

Never had that, did have one with a clutch pedal stuck to the floor though, and one blow an engine. Left me coasting down a duel carraigeway with no power or anything. I drove the morning X57 several times, think I had 40160 on it when it carried an advert but my favourite was 41505, the old 811D. All the drivers at Rugby hated it but I liked it and drove it a lot. I used to often take it out on late evening 86's too.

[Ally31334]

I did like the 709's, had some good times with these myself like the driveshaft falling off, the accelerator getting stuck down & the radiator blowing up damaging the steering + many more! Was always fun on these having all the problems & the good thing about them in the summer is you could pull 1 passenger door open while leaving the other closed to cool the bus down since they're electric not air. Rugby used to run an X57 journey, used to see 40160 on it a few times.

[mondyboy81]

These 709's were excellent, they were cheap to run and easy to drive. I started driving buses in 2001 and must have covered 0000's of miles in them with Stagecoach. They had good heaters for the drivers so they were nice in winter. Worst thing about them was the weak clutch and gearboxes which wore out easily. Drove all the sister examples to this bus at Rugby and Leamington garages between 2003-2005. Used to often get them on the X57 between Hinkley and Cov too

Happy days!

[jaggass]

those buses were alright in its time . its was a shame too see elderly people struugling to get on these minibuses