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- The Vanhool Astron
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My all time favourite Coach
The Vanhool Astron T818
As i say my all time favourite coach, We were lucky as at one point we had three at Redferns. Allegedly there were only twenty brought into the Country. They came in various seating capacity, mainly 60 seats with the toilet on the rear stairs. Designed as a people mover, powered by the MAN 280 engine with a ZF autobox.
B451KTV
This was the first Astron to join the Redfern Fleet. Bought new, it had the centre stage at the Birmingham Motorshow on the Vanhool stand. Most of its first year was as a demonstrator, before arriving at Lindley Street. Its main job was to The South of France, and changing the holiday from 15 days to 14 days meant that it could run back to back, with cleaning and servicing being done through Saturday night.
Costing £125,000 it first wore B451KTV which was later changed YSV604. Different to most other Astrons of the time it was only a 57 seater, with 51 seats upstairs, 6 in the lower rear. The toilet compartment along with full servery was also located at the lower rear. It came with 6 small monitors on the upper deck and a table for the lower deck, which couldnot be used as it covered the emergency exit.
Small engine and auto gearbox, it was never a flying machine, but high deck and smooth ride quality the passengers loved them, except for this was in the days of no aircon....
DJI 9059
Andy Moran's flying machine.
What can i say, A604TGE came second hand into the fleet. Ex Wigan airways, it was to be based at the Chesterfeield depot. A 60 seater, 49 upper and 11 lower, it was very different to the other astron. A dark brown floor no curtains only blinds, with the toilet on the rear stairs with the fridge and servery unit along side. It had 3 14 inch screens 2 upper and 1 lower. It eventually became Andy Morans and once often seen doing warp factor 6 along the M1...
GIL3206
My Baby.
Another that came second hand, ex Flights TOA737Y we think?. Different again, it had a orange floor 60 seats 50 upper and 10 lower. The servery was downstairs but the toilet on the rear stairs. It also had twin bunks, twin tanks and a second set of batteries, 4 small monitors and a 14 inch screen on the upper deck and a 14 inch on the lower deck. I covered many a happy kilometer in her.