General Chat in The Marcus Lounge.

Mad as Fish

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2023
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
5,753
Doub
your lucky its not a spelling contest--- having made the challenge to a duel your opponent gets to choose the weapons .
I started driving buses when I was 12 --a crash gearbox AEC and my father who was a gentle man in every sense would clip me on the ear with a newspaper if I fluffed the gearchange which he insisted I use only two fingers to push the gear lever and said he expects me to use just one finger shortly to push/pull the 5ft high steel pole and no power steering .
we will use a Volvo b12b Declan .
Double declutching on the way down eh….. How’s the left knee?

One of the few things My father managed to instil in me when driving was to treat the gearstick as if made of glass. Not sure that empathy for the mechanicals is even mentioned in today’s driving lessons.
 

BIG FAT HOOR

Active member
New
Joined
Jul 9, 2025
Messages
103
Reaction score
135
Doub

Double declutching on the way down eh….. How’s the left knee?

One of the few things My father managed to instil in me when driving was to treat the gearstick as if made of glass. Not sure that empathy for the mechanicals is even mentioned in today’s driving lessons.
clutch less training was required for smooth clutched gear changes as gear change noise would get you sacked in London.
rolls drivers in the 1930 were trained to judge the speed perfectly and take foot off throttle gently enough to unload load on the present gear but not enough to load the gear again by using it to slow the car and they manually disengaged the gear in a silent smooth neutral load state and then waited for the revs to drop and without a rev gauge guess the precise spot they could change gear without use of the clutch --this involved gently pushing the gear lever to rub each gear together to act as a schryomesch cone now used to slow each gear to the speed of its mate which is about to mesh in modern gearboxes .
you had to be able to drive years ago and drive 18 hour days without complaint .
I drove a bus one day from knock in mayo to Kilkenny without a clutch pedal as the fluid had gone nobody knew and I stopped on a forward slope each time.
 

jpc

Moderator
Staff member
Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2022
Messages
3,198
Reaction score
4,448
clutch less training was required for smooth clutched gear changes as gear change noise would get you sacked in London.
rolls drivers in the 1930 were trained to judge the speed perfectly and take foot off throttle gently enough to unload load on the present gear but not enough to load the gear again by using it to slow the car and they manually disengaged the gear in a silent smooth neutral load state and then waited for the revs to drop and without a rev gauge guess the precise spot they could change gear without use of the clutch --this involved gently pushing the gear lever to rub each gear together to act as a schryomesch cone now used to slow each gear to the speed of its mate which is about to mesh in modern gearboxes .
you had to be able to drive years ago and drive 18 hour days without complaint .
I drove a bus one day from knock in mayo to Kilkenny without a clutch pedal as the fluid had gone nobody knew and I stopped on a forward slope each time.
Learned on fordson supermajors.
Same principles.
 

Mad as Fish

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2023
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
5,753
clutch less training was required for smooth clutched gear changes as gear change noise would get you sacked in London.
rolls drivers in the 1930 were trained to judge the speed perfectly and take foot off throttle gently enough to unload load on the present gear but not enough to load the gear again by using it to slow the car and they manually disengaged the gear in a silent smooth neutral load state and then waited for the revs to drop and without a rev gauge guess the precise spot they could change gear without use of the clutch --this involved gently pushing the gear lever to rub each gear together to act as a schryomesch cone now used to slow each gear to the speed of its mate which is about to mesh in modern gearboxes .
you had to be able to drive years ago and drive 18 hour days without complaint .
I drove a bus one day from knock in mayo to Kilkenny without a clutch pedal as the fluid had gone nobody knew and I stopped on a forward slope each time.
Didn’t RR install one of the first hydrostatic drives for some lady of the realm who thought it beneath her station to actually change gear?
 

jpc

Moderator
Staff member
Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2022
Messages
3,198
Reaction score
4,448
Drove one for a year in my yoof, loved that tractor so I did.
Two machines machines I drove and really liked.
JD 3040 properly soundproofed and yeah the Ford Q cab was good.
And the Leyland 2100.
Giving them the juice when turning on the headland pulling a disc harrow.
Blowing smoke and going!
Jeez im getting all nostalgic.
 

Declan

Administrator
Staff member
New
Joined
Sep 11, 2021
Messages
8,916
Reaction score
6,373
I first drove at 12 as well so dont think you can steam roll me. It was in a morris minor 1000 which is much more lethal than any bus from Norway
 

Declan

Administrator
Staff member
New
Joined
Sep 11, 2021
Messages
8,916
Reaction score
6,373
clutch less training was required for smooth clutched gear changes as gear change noise would get you sacked in London.
rolls drivers in the 1930 were trained to judge the speed perfectly and take foot off throttle gently enough to unload load on the present gear but not enough to load the gear again by using it to slow the car and they manually disengaged the gear in a silent smooth neutral load state and then waited for the revs to drop and without a rev gauge guess the precise spot they could change gear without use of the clutch --this involved gently pushing the gear lever to rub each gear together to act as a schryomesch cone now used to slow each gear to the speed of its mate which is about to mesh in modern gearboxes .
you had to be able to drive years ago and drive 18 hour days without complaint .
I drove a bus one day from knock in mayo to Kilkenny without a clutch pedal as the fluid had gone nobody knew and I stopped on a forward slope each time.
Bullshit, it was Knock miracle and Stevie Wonder could have done it
 

Mad as Fish

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2023
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
5,753
everything seems simple when you are driving around in a 6 seater a toy bus for a toy man .
add another 50 seats and we will see how you do Stevie.
I’ll raise you a 40’ milk tanker around God forsaken farmyards at three of the morning! 😅😅
 

BIG FAT HOOR

Active member
New
Joined
Jul 9, 2025
Messages
103
Reaction score
135
I first drove at 12 as well so dont think you can steam roll me. It was in a morris minor 1000 which is much more lethal than any bus from Norway
RE BUS FROM NORWAY --bus was an English AEC =ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT CO --who also made the iconic half cab routemaster London bus with its open platform loved by Londoners who could board any where and get off anywhere .
engines were in the middle on their side horizontal engine and the gearbox was 28 ft behind you and hence the 5 ft long pole to get gears from so far away .
some were fitted with a 50 gallon tank between engine and rad to try and keep them cool as the liners were paper thin and would distort and heat the pistons.
if you were mad you would try and open the heavy cap for the rad and you would witness the AEC death blast of 10 gals of boiling water which could cross the road and hop off a wall if you were lucky .
once witnessed you used the handle of a brush to tip open the cap and stood well clear .
 

Mad as Fish

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2023
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
5,753
Two machines machines I drove and really liked.
JD 3040 properly soundproofed and yeah the Ford Q cab was good.
And the Leyland 2100.
Giving them the juice when turning on the headland pulling a disc harrow.
Blowing smoke and going!
Jeez im getting all nostalgic.
Did a season with a silage contractor driving a Leyland 282 with the sun roof missing, Chasing a 400hp JD harvester, the biggest there was back in the day. Old battery acid was the additive and seeing as I had no hope of keeping up with bloody thing at any sign of a slope the cab would get filled with this acid soaked silage, with me sat in the middle of it! Ate through my jumper in three days it did, would have ended up stark naked if the farmer hadn’t wanted his tractor back.
 
Last edited:

Mad as Fish

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2023
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
5,753
Last edited:

Mad as Fish

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2023
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
5,753
She makes a swaying Junker look statesmanlike. I detest that horrible woman.
Everything is brought down to the level of a junior school headmistress ruling over her own little playground where nasty grown up reality is kept at bay, well away from the impressionable little children.
 

jpc

Moderator
Staff member
Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2022
Messages
3,198
Reaction score
4,448
Everything is brought down to the level of a junior school headmistress ruling over her own little playground where nasty grown up reality is kept at bay, well away from the impressionable little children.
It's a bit more sinister.
Control over everything and everyone.
No criticism allowed.
Brussels is right.
 

Mad as Fish

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2023
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
5,753
And the condescending patronising talking to simple people tones from that grossly incompetent VDL.
That is rather the attitude I was referring to, I don’t think she personally has the depth to be purposefully sinister, it’s she is just too thick to question her own ego and motives, or appreciate the need to do so.

others who are using her will possess those attributes.
 

willows68

Well-known member
New
Joined
Jun 25, 2024
Messages
821
Reaction score
1,127
That is rather the attitude I was referring to, I don’t think she personally has the depth to be purposefully sinister, it’s she is just too thick to question her own ego and motives, or appreciate the need to do so.

others who are using her will possess those attributes.
Oh no. She's purposefully evil. Of one of the bloodlines - the Albrechts...centuries of entitlement and disdain for the peasants. Hence the shameless unaccountability. Hunger Games style - she's at the top, the peasants fight for their lives and over the scraps.
She's supposedly a medical doctor, but the halo has come off that profession in more ways than one, and for all the airs and graces it is fairly obvious she isn't terribly bright. But evil through and through.
 

jpc

Moderator
Staff member
Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2022
Messages
3,198
Reaction score
4,448
Oh no. She's purposefully evil. Of one of the bloodlines - the Albrechts...centuries of entitlement and disdain for the peasants. Hence the shameless unaccountability. Hunger Games style - she's at the top, the peasants fight for their lives and over the scraps.
She's supposedly a medical doctor, but the halo has come off that profession in more ways than one, and for all the airs and graces it is fairly obvious she isn't terribly bright. But evil through and through.
Read up on her PhD dissertation "controversy "
 

Mad as Fish

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2023
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
5,753
Oh no. She's purposefully evil. Of one of the bloodlines - the Albrechts...centuries of entitlement and disdain for the peasants. Hence the shameless unaccountability. Hunger Games style - she's at the top, the peasants fight for their lives and over the scraps.
She's supposedly a medical doctor, but the halo has come off that profession in more ways than one, and for all the airs and graces it is fairly obvious she isn't terribly bright. But evil through and through.
I’m not excusing her by any means, just pointing out that we need look beyond her to find the deeper source of evil.

Much the same was said of Thatcher, although she didn’t pretend to be nice, but she ended up discarded, living alone in a hotel room, just another tool that had been used. No sympathy for her either, she was another that had no intellectual capacity for self examination, just a ragbag of ideas and notions that served the money men of the time.
 

Mad as Fish

Well-known member
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2023
Messages
4,203
Reaction score
5,753
I’m not excusing her by any means, just pointing out that we need look beyond her to find the deeper source of evil.

Much the same was said of Thatcher, although she didn’t pretend to be nice, but she ended up discarded, living alone in a hotel room, just another tool that had been used. No sympathy for her either, she was another that had no intellectual capacity for self examination, just a ragbag of ideas and notions that served the money men of the time.
I think it was Soros paying for the room. Follow the money……
 

Latest Threads

Popular Threads

Top Bottom