Steam bus 'Elizabeth'

Elizabeth
Overview
Manufacturer
  • Sentinel (chassis, engine and cab)
  • Northern Star Motor Carriage Company (coachwork)
Powertrain
Engine Steam
Capacity 30
Transmission Chain
Chronology

Elizabeth is a steam powered 'combination bus' that operates in the English seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, and previously in Whitby.[1]

The vehicle was created in 2002, when a tourism transport operator, the Northern Star Motor Carriage Company, converted a 1931 Sentinel steam-powered DG6P flatbed lorry into a 30-seat bus.[1] It is used to take people on a tour of the town, providing up to ten trips per day over the summer months. It is the only steam bus in revenue-earning service in the world and has become something of a tourist attraction in its own right.[2] As of April 2015 it has been purchased by Crosville, a public and heritage bus operator in Weston-super-Mare.[3]

It has two gears, chain transmission, six wheels and ten pneumatic tyres, and a body made from white ash and mahogany.[1] It was a flatbed lorry and then a tar sprayer in its original commercial life, before being bought from a scrapyard for preservation in 1962.[4]

Before the bus could carry fare-paying passengers, it had to undergo a 35° tilt test and required an amendment to the Road Traffic Act since the exhaust was not sited at the rear of the vehicle.[5] In November 2011, it took part in London's Lord Mayor's Show.[6] The journey from Whitby to London, via York, Leeds, Bradford, Burton upon Trent and Rugby was all by Elizabeth's own steam power.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Elizabeth the Steam Bus". Whitby Steam Bus and Charabanc. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  2. ↑ Rees, Nicola. "The last steam bus". BBC News (Inside Out – Yorkshire and Lincolnshire). Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  3. ↑ "Unique steam bus to be new attraction". The Weston Mercury.
  4. ↑ "Whitby Steam Bus". Vintage Spirit. April 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  5. ↑ "Elizabeth – A Steaming Success in 2006". The world's only six-wheeled Sentinel steam bus... Old Glory (now at Internet Archive). Archived from the original on 30 June 2007. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  6. ↑ BBC 1 live coverage
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