Wheeling In The Years 1990 by Jonathan McDonnell

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Ultra long haul Kangaroo. On the 3rd February Qantas Australian airlines B747-SP “VH-EAA”, “City of Gold Coast / Tweed”, returns to Dublin airport following a post maintenance test flight. Whilst forays to Europe were not unknown, the Qantas 747SPs were very rare sights to Europe at that time. The Australian airline bought a pair for the ultra long haul Trans pacific route from Sydney to Los Angeles. For years the route held the distinction of the longest air route, timed at 14 hours and 45 minutes. The 747SP was not as successful as Boeing had hoped and less than 50 were built, most were operated in the Pacific Rim. An early exponent of the type, and who influenced its design was South African Lines. SAL (later renamed South African Airways / SAA) owing to apartheid were denied over flight rights for most African countries and had to take a circuitous route on lucrative services to Europe, the 747SP met that requirement easily. Beginning in 1989 Boeing started delivering the improved 747-400 series which became the most successful version of the jumbo. The 400 can do everything the SP did and more and ultimately displaced the SPs. From this point the Qantas 747SPs were frequent performers of the QF5 to Rome, occasionally seen in London also. VH-EAA, later followed to Dublin by sister ship “EAB” makes a fine sight in the winter sunshine.

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“Get me to the church on time” ! The 4th March saw Donnybrook based KD366 out shopped in the new “Wedding Bus” colours. As can be seen if required, the driver can be dressed in an appropriate manner! One would of course hope that the maintenance supervisor also standing in would not be required! The concept was remarkably successful for Dublin Bus and eventually the “Wedding bus” fleet grew quite substantially. KD366 was however the only Bombardier so treated. Shortly afterwards Phibsboro based “RH3” became the first Olympian of many to don the colours.

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The painting area in Donnybrook Garage in late February contained two buses being prepared for advertising liveries. Hardly a week went by without another one appearing. This picture shows D378 & KD28. The D had its popular “Millennium” livery replaced with a luminous orange for a long since disappeared brand of washing powder. A lot of Dublin Bus personnel were puzzled by the move, as D378 in its “Millennium” guise was much in demand. One wedding party had hired D378, no doubt attracted by its attractive colours. Imaging their shock when a washing powder like bus was presented instead! KD28 was being prepared to receive a “Bachelors’ Beans” livery.

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On the 16th March Phibsboro based DF511 looked well on Waterloo Road whilst operating on route 10 toward Belfield. At this time the fleet contained large numbers of “D” & “DF” class.

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The St Patricks Day parade as it was known in the days before it became a “festival” often contained floats based upon a truck and trailer. When the event had a makeover in the mid 1990s it became more “theatre” based and the blatant commercial floats were banished. Personally I feel anybody with an interest in transport will lament their passing, I guess some readers will recall with some affection the likes of “Abel Alarms”, “Superquinn” “Fanta”, and so many more who made the parade very memorable. In 1990 “Fanta” orange utilised the classic design of the “Bedford TK” lorry from Irish Rail to mount their float.

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Late in the evening of the 23rd March a very significant event occurred for Dublin Bus. After many weeks of delays the first two of an order of 18 Leyland Olympians were delivered. These became known as the “RH” class. They were built by “Alexander” bodybuilders in Mallusk, Northern Ireland. The “R” coming from Alexander’s own body designation, and the “H” denoting that they were built to full height specification. The next morning the pair were photographed. Eagle eyed readers will note that the buses are incorrectly registered. Eventually the “Olympian” fleet would reach 640.

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Old buses never die, they just fade away: Following a life with CIE, the Irish Army acquired a fleet of “M” class buses. MD136 was one such example seen in Broadstone on the 24th March. Co-incidentally in the background is “MD29”, which was acquired by the “Scouting Association of Ireland”.

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26th March saw Donnybrook based KD361 ready to roll sporting a fleshly applied livery for the now defunct “B&I line”.

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As was shown in “WITY89”, the “Commuter Advertising Network”, or CAN, was keen to get its message across. There was an advertising conference held in Cork city in March hosted by CAN. KD28 had by this time been out shopped in an advertising livery for CAN. They were very keen that this bus took a starring role! There was huge pressure to make this happen, as the timescale was ludicrously short. What happened was that CAN gazumped “Bachelors’ Beans” and took KD28, as its preparation was well underway to receive an advertising livery. Ultimately KD159 received “Beany and Barney” a short time later. Also taking part was the freshly painted KD361 for B&I. Both buses positioned to Cork. KD28 going direct, and KD361 went via Waterford. By remarkable co-incidence Dublin Bus “D378” was in Cork at the same time engaged in a promotion for “Radion” washing powder. This picture shows the line up of all over advert buses parked on the quayside, among them KD28. The delegates to the conference travelled by train and were collected by KD361 and driven past the line up, all very clever ...one would think. But in a classic case of mis-communication, or in this case no communication, it all went horribly wrong for CAN. The picture shows KD28 as part of the line up. The plan was to have KD361 in the line up, and collect the delegates in the flagship for CAN, KD28 in their very own colours! But, but, but.... nobody told anybody in Donnybrook garage of the intention, and KD28 did not arrive in Cork in time! No doubt whilst the very capable Donnybrook driver, Packie Foley and the photographer ambled along the N7 in KD28, stopping for a leisurely lunch, somebody was having a hernia in Cork waiting for the KD28. When we did eventually arrive in Cork, KD28 was hastily grabbed and reversed quickly into place, it was almost like a hi-jacking! How a mobile phone would have helped! In the end the pressure must have been unbearable and KD361 was dispatched to meet the train instead. At least KD28 was in the line up when the delegates passed by!!!!

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By complete coincidence D378 was in Cork while KD28 & KD361 were there also in connection with the CAN advertising conference. On the 29th March, D378 was supporting the ”Radion” promotion; it is seen here in Patrick Street in company with KD325 & 186. It was in Munster for several days. Upon returning to Dublin the “Radion” colours were not worn for much longer, this mantle was taken up by DF816. Upon conclusion of the “Radion” campaign it was noticed that the visit to Cork was left short of one date. To honour their commitment DF816 was sent to Cork also, on an up to now unknown date. Perhaps some reader knows the date?

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The all over advertisement bus as they were known then were quite prolific in the early CAN days in 1989, 1990 & 1991. By no means were all in Dublin. KC126 was a design unique to Cork, whilst KD180 wore a similar livery to KD363 in Dublin, for failed radio station “Century”

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In 1990 the Van Hool “CVH” & “EVH” class were frequent performers on Dublin Cork service 007. On the 29th March CVH2 is operating to Dublin, and on 31st March EVH8 was operating to Cork from Dublin.

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What goes down must come back! Upon concluding its commitments in Cork for CAN, KD28 was ferried back to Dublin. Once again this task fell to route 84 driver Packie Foley. En route to Dublin the opportunity simply could not be ignored to stop at the Rock of Cashel, for this unusual photograph of a KD well outside its usual theatre of operations.

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Previous photographs have illustrated how popular the all over advertising bus was in 1990. Both Dublin and Cork had large numbers of them relative to today. Some smaller regional centres also had them. Aer Lingus were keen to advertise their new UK routes from Waterford, and rented space on KC172 to get their message across. Around the same time locally based “Coca Cola” corporation used Drogheda based KR162 to promote their wares. The KR is seen freshly painted in Donnybrook Garage, Dublin, before returning to Drogheda.

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Interchange! Bus meets DART. To celebrate their first anniversary advertiser CAN organised an event in the point depot Dublin on the 23rd April. Advertising space aboard the DART railway has always been a big seller. In a most unusual move they hired a DART set to bring passengers from Tara Street station to the Point Depot. Surely this was a first? KD365, 361 & 353 are seen in company with “8340”. Some thoughtful soul even remembered to bring a set of steps to enable the DART passengers to disembark without a bungee jump!

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1990 saw the first attendance by Dublin Bus at the annual ITT bus rally. D376 was brought from Phibsboro the day before, and “Alexander’s” had delivered brand new RH5 to Ulsterbus Great Victoria Street the same day. Both buses attended the rally, and are seen here in the prestigious grounds of Bangor Castle with R389, R788, R827 & RA30. The six green “deckers” made a fine sight, and a very strong contingent from “the South”. 1990 was the last year that the buses parked on the grass. Poor weather had left the ground very soft and some buses got stuck, including D376. No doubt damage was also done to the immaculate grounds.

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RH5 & D376, seen at the gates of Stormont Buildings, a most unusual photograph.

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Ulsterbus Great Victoria Street was host for two nights to the pair of Dublin Bus vehicles. Upon returning to Dublin the plan was to ferry RH5 also, but it developed a defect and had to remain.

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“Belfast says No”, .... Dublin Bus says yes, yes we will stop and take a picture outside the magnificent Belfast City Hall. A quick stop on a quiet Sunday morning whilst en-route to Dublin.

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Upon returning to Dublin, D376 resumed activity on its more normal activities. On the 30th April, it is seen in O Connell Street looking smart.

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D378 did not last long in its “Radion” colours. It was replaced by DF816 in this role. The two barely overlapped, but just long enough to photograph them together on the 6th May.

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“Beany” and “Barney” finally get released! Having bean gazumped by KD28 some weeks earlier, the well known saucy duo made finally their debut on KD159 on the 12th May 1990.

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With the new “RH” class having made its debut in Phibsboro, Dublin Bus could finally start to replace the “D” & “DF” class. On Sunday the 13th May, Ringsend garage demonstrated an impressive line up of “D”s & “DFs”.

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The once mighty “Spring Show”, held in the RDS Dublin every May often saw increased bus traffic around the RDS. In 1990 with so many advertising buses on the go Donnybrook allocated most of theirs to route 7, as they drive past the RDS. It was not uncommon to see several at once! Here KD28 and 353 return to the city on the 12th May.

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In addition to the advertising buses, the services were strengthened using the regular fleet. Here a trio of D class assist with the movement of fans after a Landsdowne Road soccer match.

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Bus Eireann were crying out for new buses in the early 1990s. The 40 “TE” class tigers from 1988/89 were not entirely successful. Following on from this was a batch of 20 “PD” class Plaxton / DAF MB230s. These were followed in 1991 & 1992 by 40 more. On the 17th May a brand new PD8 is seen at Dublin airport.

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In May, KD199 was fitted with an experimental style destination display

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Curiosity got the cat! In a fanfare of publicity, including a hired band, Dublin bus “officially” launched the RH class on the 20th May. RH1-6 were present. The RHs had at that point being used on the 39X. The incumbent minister, Seamus Brennan, took a shine to RH2 on account of its European Union colours, being the good euro citizen that he is, so RH2 was elevated to the head of the queue. The whole thing was just too good to ignore for a number of American tourists who simply asked Dublin Bus PR Man, Joe Jennings, what was going on, as they were enthralled. For their curiosity they were marshalled aboard and occupied the front seats upstairs, and by God did they love it, thereby claiming a piece of history, by becoming the “first” official RH class passengers. Imagine their surprise when their journey terminated at Clerys! No chance of the Cliffs of Moher then???

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A class is born: Dublin Bus officially launches its “new” double deck bus of the 1990s. Waved off by senior management, bystanders, and the Minister, RH2 with its cargo of American tourists sets off from the Gresham Hotel, on the ultra long-haul service to Clerys department store, approximately 500 feet down the street. It might well be the shortest working ever of route 10, but it gets its place in the history books. Dublin Bus drivers are all very professional drivers, just as well, because in the heat of the moment, the fanfare, a minister and a very energetic press photographer, not many people noticed the young lad on the bicycle, the driver did. It could have been a disaster.

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With RH2 successfully launched into service and en-route to Clerys so far away, the press photographers kept on snapping. Dublin Bus MD John Hynes chats with the Minister, looking on are Frank Feely, Dublin City Manager and John Browne. It was a big day. John Hynes was a most mercurial character who introduced initiative after initiative, most of which would not have been possible in CIE days.

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Sunday 20th May was a very big day indeed for Dublin Bus. Fresh from the RH launch, the focus shifted in the afternoon to Phibsboro garage which was hosting the “driver of the year” contest. Suitably bedecked KDs were used.

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Boeing 727 CS-TKA is about to depart Dublin. In the background can be seen the giant “TEAM Aer Lingus” hangar which was nearing completion. This was a bold move for the national airline and a vote of confidence in the future. Aer Lingus had worked hard and built up an international reputation in third party aircraft engineering work. Right throughout the 1970s and 80s they won major contracts. This really was a major achievement given the more traditional agricultural background of Ireland. This fact had not gone unnoticed, and in some quarters was viewed quite sardonically. A very good example of this was in the Aer Lingus 747 EI-ASJ “St Patrick” that went on lease to British Airways as G-BDPZ. Using phonetic alphabetic call sign this would have been “Papa Zulu”, under internationally recognised call signs. But it was affectionally and unofficially known as “Paddy Zulu” !!! Some years later Virgin Atlantic Airlines awarded Aer Lingus a contract to fit in flight entertainment systems to a brand new 747-400, which was flown direct from Boeing field to Dublin where the work was carried out. Long before some dude invented the words “Celtic Tiger”, Aer Lingus were quietly advancing high skill jobs in a very competitive market with remarkable success. The new hanger was the very epitome of all that.  Portugal’s “Air Columbus” was a very colourful airline which operated to Dublin in the early 90s.

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Previous photographs in this series illustrated just how popular the all over advertisement bus had become in Dublin Bus in 1990. Nothing illustrates this better than this photograph taken on 27th May, lining up no less than twelve adverts, and three “special liveries”. KD363 Century Radio, KD362 Johnson & Johnson, KD361 B&I Line, KD353 Coca Cola, KD159 Batchelors, KD28 CAN, DF822 Irish Cancer Society, DF816 Radion micro, DF785 Denny, DF780 Manhattan Peanuts , DF756 Blood Transfusion service & DF617 PMPA insurance. At the end are KD366 Wedding Bus, DF413 Tour, & DF450 7Up.

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The 31st May saw two buses on demonstration to Dublin Bus, one a Leyland DAB articulated bus from South Yorkshire, and an Omni. Dublin Bus was to acquire a small fleet of the Omnis later on, forming the “W” class. In the year 2000 artics followed forming the “ AW” class. Interestingly the artic shown here was later  operated by “Citibus” in Belfast a few years later. The bus eventually joined the fleet of “Alan Martin” in Dublin.

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The 30th June saw Phibsboro Garage host the 1990 “Dublin Bay Rally”

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Externally the Bus Eireann “TE” Class Tigers were virtually identical to the Ulsterbus “Goldliners” as this June 1990 view at Busaras demonstrates.

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Two for the price of one! KD364 was out shopped in a “West Coast Cooler White Wine Spritzer” livery. The imaginative design simulated a bus on a bus.

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Air Spectacular 1990 moved from its traditional haunt of Baldonnel aerodrome to Shannon airport. Dominating the static display was “Fat Albert”, a Lockheed C5A Galaxy of the United States Air Force based at Dover air force base, Delaware.

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Taxi anyone? Whilst the C5 dominated Air Spec 90 on the ground, heavy transports were seen overhead too. Doing several flypasts was a Lockheed C141 “Starlifter”. Fast jets like the F4s and F15s and 16s which were also taking part may thrill the crowds, but the large aircraft still attract attention. For any us of a “certain age”..., the  C141s were very much synonymous with the Vietnam War, where the aircraft was extensively used and earned  the nickname the “Saigon Taxi”, That moniker stuck with the aircraft right up to its final withdrawal from USAF service in 2006.

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Arguably one of the most attractive open top conversions done by Dublin Bus was to D576. It was always a very clean specimen; once wearing an overall advertisement for “Quinnsworth” supermarkets. Again those of us of a, well, certain age will recall when Tesco in Ireland was “Quinnsworth”. D576 spent most of its life in Cork.

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By 1990 the widespread practice of placing all over advertisement liveries on buses was not limited to the D, DF, or KD class. Factory new RH18 received a livery for “Fast Fit”.

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By late summer deliveries of new RHs was well underway to Ringsend and Summerhill garages. The 13th August saw Ringsend place RH17 in service, seen here after completing its maiden voyage on route 15B to Ballyroan

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Whilst brand new RHs were becoming increasingly common on the streets of Dublin, a vehicle still active at the other end of the scale was “P193”, still in use as the Conyngham Road tow car, seen here attending to a stricken “D” class.

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One particularly colourful and extremely rare visitor to the Northern Hemisphere was a Boeing 747 of “Air Pacific” which was visiting Dublin for an overhaul. Air Pacific is the National airline of Fiji. The 747 depicted here was on lease from the Australian airline “Qantas” at the time explaining its appearance in Dublin, as Aer Lingus had a major contract from Qantas. VH-EBJ “Island of Viti Levu” was about to depart Dublin for the long hop back to Nadi when photographed in September.

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One very high profile advertising campaign, and in the view of this scribe a very worthwhile one, was the campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of clean fuel. Displaying synchronous adverts D689 passes by a billboard hoarding in Terenure on the 27th October, advertising the “return of the sky at night”.

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Even before RH18 was delivered the original order had been increased way beyond the 18 first ordered. Seen in Donnybrook before entering service was Donnybrook RH43 & 44. They were allocated to route 48A.

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Dublin Bus and CIE before it have operated services to Dublin airport for almost as long as anybody can recall and possibly even before that! The buses used over the years have been enormously varied and could be the subject of a volume in their own right. On the 18th November 1990 KC119 demonstrates another chapter in the service. Recently repainted from Aer Lingus advertising livery, the bus shows the livery that was to last 4 years, but as it was freshly painted it was still devoid of any kind of titles.

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Having been illustrated in WITY 1989, the arrival in Dublin airport of the Van Hools for Aer Lingus as apron transfer buses allowed the transfer of the Bedford VALs to Shannon. Sharing the ramp at Shannon on a cold November 18th with an Aer Lingus 747, and an Emery DC-8 were three of the fleet huddled together.

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On the same miserable November day Shannon was graced by a real classic jet. A Southern airlines B707. It is hard to beat the classic lines of the 707. This machine N525SJ was originally built for Kuwait airways and delivered to them on 4th November 1968. When photographed it was flying for Miami based Southern. It eventually found its way to Brazil, flying for a Brazilian Cargo airline.

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Early in 1990 Dublin Bus acquired a number of Wright bodied Mercedes mini buses, these became the “MW” class. Largely redundant owing to trade union issues the buses were surplus. A niche was created for them at Christmas 1990 on a seasonal shopper city centre service “the Nipper”. MW6 was operating the service on Christmas Eve.

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No review could possibly be complete without mention of D360 which has had an amazing kaleidoscope of liveries over its time as the special events bus. As was the case in 1989, the bus was used in conjunction with the Gay Byrne radio from Grafton Street on Christmas Eve. Following the show it is seen in Donnybrook garage.

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We hope you enjoyed this look back at 1990, courtesy of Jonathan McDonnell.
Click here for more editions of 'Wheeling In The Years'!

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