Brakes on the VAL were air over hydraulics with the servo and master cylinder unit mounted midway on the O/S of the chassis. One of the modifications that we had to carry out was the re-routing of the small bore plastic air pipe that fed the warning light switch, the original position was too close to the exhaust down pipe and resulted in the plastic pipe melting and the warning light being activated. Back in the early days every time the brakes required bleeding the master cylinder had to be changed as you could never clear the air out of the tandem master cylinder system, we soon realised that pressure bleeding was the answer and saved a fortune. One of many memories was of a fairly new VAL being used on a tour in Switzerland, unfortunately a tyre blowout occurred, no tyres of the correct size were available on the continent so a new tyre had to be flown out from the UK, bet Stocklands made very little profit on that tour.
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bedford dupal
- Thread starter mw0njm.
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Lloyd
master brummie
If I remember right, there were three braking systems on a VAL - footbrake to all 3 axles, one handbrake to axles 2 & 3 (counting from the front) and a second handbrake on a disc on the prop shaft.
Little wheels turning quite fast at speed, with correspondingly small brakes which would wear out and fade far too quickly for comfort.
I did hear of one used on Swiss and Austrian tours which had a 'last resort' brake, which dropped a massive fork to dig into the road surface - the effect of a coach stopping dead, and it's passengers then travelling at whatever speed it had been going, but in a now-stationary vehicle don't bear thinking about. Still preferable to a 1000 ft drop!
There's an interest page on the VAL here.
Little wheels turning quite fast at speed, with correspondingly small brakes which would wear out and fade far too quickly for comfort.
I did hear of one used on Swiss and Austrian tours which had a 'last resort' brake, which dropped a massive fork to dig into the road surface - the effect of a coach stopping dead, and it's passengers then travelling at whatever speed it had been going, but in a now-stationary vehicle don't bear thinking about. Still preferable to a 1000 ft drop!
There's an interest page on the VAL here.
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Thylacine
master brummie
Here's VLJ 233J, a Bedford VAL70 Duple Viceroy, seen in Birmingham in the mid 1990s in service with Black Country Excursions as the "Black Country Buzz".
VLJ 233J. The Black Country Buzz. by reddman, on Flickr
VLJ 233J. The Black Country Buzz. by reddman, on Flickr
The parking brakes operated on the 1st and 2nd axle and the transmission brake was drum operated located at the end of the gearbox (or it may have been in front of the diff) later Bedford HGV transmission brakes were disc operated. Most Drivers only used the transmission brake as the front parking brake was rubbish with a total brake stripdown required every annual or the brake efficiency on the Tapley meter was too low. Telmars were located where the centre bearing was originally positioned and reduced brake wear by about 80%. One dodge we used for the annuals was to dab the footbrake when applying the front parking brake, this,of course, resulted in a higher percentage tapley reading, unfortunately the Vehicle Examiner became wise to this dodge and would ask us to carry out the brake test again without applying the service brake, suppose the servo exhaust gave the game away.
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motorman-mike
Brum visitor who stayed.
I drove a Bedford VAL/Duple a couple of times for Connaught Coaches of Chadwick End in the 1960's. The steering was all over the place and the Leyland engine was addicted to Easystart fluid for the first startup of the day. It wouldn't start without some even on a hot Summer morning.
My, soon to be, Brother in law bought a secondhand VAL in 1970, this was to bring his "fleet" to three, two VAL's and one AEC. On our first trial run around the Coleshill/Atherstone area a pin in the injection pump rack sheared and resulted in the engine going into full revs with no accelerator or engine stop control. At this point we were rapidly approaching a T junction with a give way sign with the engine at max revs and in 3rd gear, the only options we had were to dip the clutch and let the engine race itself to bits, plough into the upcoming field, hoping that the major road would be clear of traffic, or break the fuel feed. Fortunately Colin (my Brother in law) had a small adjustable spanner in his pocket which enabled me to disconnect the fuel line at the pump with the engine stopping about 20 yards from the junction. Probably the most scary moment I experienced during my coaching days with all three of us, Colin, Vic Sharlot and myself being very grateful for Colin's little adjustable spanner.
I don't know about later versions of Bedford Duple's but the coach ref. below was great to ride in...especially in the front seat next to the driver and the sound was a wonderful howl when accelerating. Worthington's had these if I remember correctly. Maybe they were the last version of the old 'charabanc' before they all became coaches.
Have no idea how good they were to drive. The prvacy print is too hard to understand so I have just posted the web ref. I'll bet there are still plenty around.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...coach_1947_Bedford_OB_Duple_Vista_DBU_889.jpg
Have no idea how good they were to drive. The prvacy print is too hard to understand so I have just posted the web ref. I'll bet there are still plenty around.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...coach_1947_Bedford_OB_Duple_Vista_DBU_889.jpg
The good old days of the Bedford petrol engine, wonderful whine from the engine and transmission (four speed bedford gearbox). Stockland used to have the later flat fronted forward control Bedfords (registration letters were SOL and VOL 1,2,3 and 4) kept at Burleys in Aston, if I remember correctly, during the winter and returned to service when the main holiday season started. Nice motors but they were very thirsty, especially when the petrol used to be syphoned off , the commercial pump petrol used to be dyed green, surprising how many staff cars had green dye marks on the carb. My pre employment exam was to carry out a full engine service on one of the VOL's, pleased to say I passed but never carried out any petrol engine services for the next four years.
