Anyone have any idea how did the Volvo B57s came in and
deregistered?
B57 by ZYX
Well the first unit was of cuz the demonstrator. built in Soon Chow
bodywork the bus came in may 1979 to show off with SBS. Bus was
registred as a SBS6790P and placed with the 6xxx bus depot... =
TPDEP. Bus was trial on svc 148. it
is unknown what happens to this bus after the
trial.
So i guess SBS liked the B57s and ordered some (i think) 200 or
so unis built with new Zelanad bus builders NZMB and tranny was
Allison auto tranz. The first NZMB unit came as SBS3433R and was
deployed on svc as 140. By 1981, both ranges 34xx and 47xx began to
come in. i have no ideas of the
original deployments of each and every B57.
But juding by the rego ranges ,, the 3xxx ones shd be new with
west side depot like Woodlands depot (assuming it still existed)
but weird was 3433 was new to TPDEP...and the 47xx ones were definitely new to BNDEP.
(recall BEDEp only ake 2xxx buses) i have faint recallation of the
first few 47xx ones on svc 14. (Orchard svc lol)
as the years passed some 34xx B57s were trasnferred to the East and
BBDEP. The B57s even strayed into JRDEp doing svcs like 20 and 192.
The 47xx ones were more stable and mianly stayed in the east Bedok
area until in the late 90s some stay over to BBDEP. i recall many
of them doing svc 202 and then svc92, 95 and svc75.
In the late 90s, came the things called JB B57s. Not very sure of the ranges then but i think 3500
to 3533 were 170s. these guys never left 170. after 170 took
on the nice Mark 2s the buses languished ard BBDEp feeders and
trunks like 176 etc.
By the end of the late 90s , many of the B57 were screeching
with their fan belts. this i remember fondly and today rides on
Mark IVs when fan belts screech remind me of the B57s.
Some interesting facts
1) in the later years of their life, a few B57s were chosen to be
remodelled with air-con unit at the driver area to cool the BC
down.. cooool
2) Mark 2 style seats was fitted on some B57 in a refubsihment
excercise in the mid 90s.
3) in the early days the rear desto holder indeed held rear destos.
However it was shhort lived and the SBS logo were slotted in intead
of rear destos.
4) the B557 came in raised roof and flat roof versions. most 34
and 35xx were raised roof and the rest 47xx were flat roof.
Rasied roof means the desto hhoding
area at front was raised. perhaps for a bigger desto box
epilogue:-.
I took my last ride on a b57 on svc361 and the buses were gone.
i dunno what happened to the east B57
and what their last svcs were.
Will be very grateful if anyone cd provide a orignal new new
deployment of B57 for furhter discussiona nd if any one cd answer
the questions in maroon
Cheers
ZYX
