French buses are well engineered, solidly built and well cared-for. However, there are other countries in the world where operators find new machinery expensive and difficult to obtain, and do not enjoy the levels of income experienced by the average French urban operator. For this reason, French buses are much in demand for export to countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and other destinations such as Cuba.
In 2003 I was contacted via this website by Nikolai Markov. Nikolai lives in Tula, some 200km south of Moscow in Russia. Nikolai contacted me on behalf of the engineers at his local trolleybus depot - they had acquired eight of the rare Renault PER180H articulated diesel-trolleybuses from St. Etienne and were experiencing some difficulties in keeping the vehicles operational, not least because there was no easy supply of spare parts and the roads in the local area are not particularly good.
However, the PER180Hs are not the only French built machines in Tula. From 1999 to 2003 Tula received regular deliveries of imported French buses, mostly vehicles supplied through Heuliez who had taken them in part-exchange for new machinery. Few have been repainted, most still operate in the liveries of their previous owners (sometimes still with their fleetnames).
Nikolai has been kind enough to supply me with photos of many of them. Identifying the origins of all these elderly machines has been a fascinating and enjoyable task. Thank you Nikolai!
Tula
trolleybus no. 109 (B 103 TB 71)
This is how I first got to find out about Tula! Tula 109 is a Renault
PER180H. It was originally no. 802 in the fleet of TAG, Grenoble, however it
was photographed still carrying the livery of its last French operator, STAS,
St. Etienne, with whom it was also no. 109. And, when photographed, it was out
of service due to a fault... Without access to spares or even workshop manuals
in Russian, keeping these complex beasts on the road must be challenging indeed.
Tula
trolleybus no. 111 (B 313 TB 71)
Unusually for second-hand buses in Tula, some of the PER180Hs have now
been repainted. No. 111 was originally STAS, St. Etienne no. 101, and now
carries this blue livery advertising a well-known electrical appliance
manufacturer. Other PER180Hs (there are eight in Tula) can be seen in the
background. Note that the destination displayed (10 - Place du Peuple) is
definitely not Russian!
Tula
trolleybus no. 104 (B 099 TB 71)
Another PER180H to receive a repaint is no. 104 (formerly no. 104 in the
STAS fleet). It looks great decked out in this blue and yellow advertising
scheme, although as I don't speak Russian I can't tell you what it's
advertising!
Tula
trolleybus no. 104 (B 099 TB 71)
No. 104 again, this time from the rear. More view of Tula's PER180Hs
may be found on the site of local enthusiast Edward Gratchev here.
Tula no. 821
(AH 132 71)
Tula's first French imports were 30 1981-built Renault
SC10Us form the fleet of TCL, Lyon. 821 was previously 1357 in Lyon and was
a very late model SC10U (Renault were by this stage already building SC10Rs for
Paris). The SC10Us apparently arrived in Tula in a particularly battered state,
but some are still running in 2004. They are a testament to the strength and
robustness of the 40 year old design.
Tula no. 817 (AH 119 71)
Another survivor from the batch of ex-Lyon SC10Us is this bus. As with the
rest, it still carries Lyon colours. Note that there seems to have been some
swapping around of door panels at some point.
Tula no. 821 (AH 132 71)
No apologies for including another photo of an ex-Lyon SC10U - here's the former Lyon no. 1357
again, out on service.