As any visitor to a bus operator's premises will know, there are often odd vehicles to be found lying around bus depots in varying states of dereliction. French operators are no exception to this, and these pages show a few such machines.
CTB, Bourges
no. 83 (870 QF 18) - September 2000
Long since withdrawn from service and awaiting the inevitable trip to the
scrapyard, this Mercedes O305 / Heuliez was found dumped
on the premises of Bourges operator CTB. It carries the operator's old red and
white livery, which was being phased out in favour of a blue and white livery.
CTP,
Perpignan nos. 32 (32 LQ 66) and 40 (40 NU 66) - September 1999
The sunny climate of the south seems to endow Perpignan's buses with long
lives - the collection of Mercedes / Heuliez and Berliet PR100s visible in the
background of this shot testify to that. However, by September '99 CTP nos. 32
and 40 had run their last and had been put out to grass on waste ground at the
back of the depot. No. 32, nearest the camera, is a 1976-built Perkins
V8-powered Berliet PR100PA, while no. 40 behind it is
two years younger and is a six-cylinder PR100MI.
CTAV,
Valence nos. 45 (9145 RM 26) and 48 (3348 RC 26) - September 1999
Also awaiting the call for scrapping in 1999 were these two slightly
battered Renault PR180s, at their owner's depot in the
Rhōne valley town of Valence. 48, farthest from the camera, was only the
twelfth PR180 built back in 1981, while no. 45 was two years its junior. These
two were the unlucky ones - of Valence's PR180s two were still in use at this
time while another two had been passed on to subcontractors providing services
on CTAV's behalf.
TCN, Nīmes
no. 200 (6920 RJ 30) - September 1999
Another forlorn Berliet PR100, this time a 1980-built bus gradually being
reduced to a pile of parts in Nīmes. 200 was one of the last two buses in the
TCN fleet carrying this green striped livery - TCN subsequently introduced a
very unimaginative (but presumably very cheap to apply) all-white scheme.