Latest snow chaos pictures added Jan 26, 2004
Driving a bus in the winter time in Norway can sometimes be a challenge. After a night of heavy snowfall, it may take time to clear the roads, and driving conditions sometimes are bad. The city buses are equipped with so called winter tyres, but without studs. On most modern buses, applying snow chains can hardly be done, there is just no room for chains.
Updated 29.12.04
| THE DRIVING COURSE FOR ICY AND
SNOWY ROADS Each year Sporveisbussene - my bus company - arranges a driving course for icy and snowy roads. We gather several buses and go to a closed test field some 100 miles NorthEast of Oslo close to the Swedish border (Norsk Trafikksenter). This field is open the year around, with parts of the test areas being covered by a teflon like slippery surface. This Sunday of December 14th, fresh snow had fallen on top of the teflon. Throughout the day, the field got more and more slippery. The course is a lot of fun, and we learn how the buses behave in extreme conditions and how to handle them. Several drivers participate year after year. We drove to the field with 10 buses early in the morning on Sunday December 14. The selected buses were articulated buses (joint buses) MAN NG312, MAN NG313 and Volvo B10L, two 15 meters MAN NL313 boggi buses and one Mercedes Cito midibus. The Cito behaves rather strange in snow and ice. Like in an amusement part, the training field has several "rides". The rides were: - Avoiding sudden appearing objects at high speed and with
break and stop (It is frightening to measure 100 meters stop length at 50
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| Volvo B10L #927 and MAN NG313 #723 both full of expectations at the parking place of Braskereidfoss Driving Course Facility. |
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WINTER DRIVING COURSE1 This is driver Arne who drove MAN NG313 #723 to the course site in the morning. Here he is happy singing some tune. |
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| WINTER DRIVING COURSE2 Content website editor Tore manuevring MAN NG313 #723 ready for ride "sharp bend with stop". In the background MAN NL313 15 m boggi bus revving engine for ride "avoid sudden object with braking and stop". |
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| WINTER DRIVING COURSE3 A Volvo B10L in full speed ready for hill climbing.
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| WINTER DRIVING COURSE4 Same Volvo B10L #927 trying a start in a steep hill, with little success. No other buses managed to start in the hill either, so we we had to manage a controlled backing of the bus in the steep hill instead. |
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| WINTER DRIVING COURSE5 47 km/h in the sharp bend became too much for this MAN NG313 #728. It ended in the ditch. |
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| WINTER DRIVING COURSE6 A tractor came to rescue and dragged the bus back on the road again. To the right, the Mercedes Cito #906 is wondering what is going on. |
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| December 7, line 30, between Nydalen og Bygdøy, #959 MAN NG312 at final destination Bygdøy. Normally ordinary Scania CN113 buses are used -except in the summertime (because of all the beaches and tourist attractions) and before Christmas due to the many Christmas arrangements - when articulated buses are used. Still no snow in Oslo. Good! |
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| Sunday Dec 21 2003:: #632, MAN NG313, just two months old, awaiting departure from Helsfyr at 21:48. Traffic is now more quiet after a an afternoon with all 37-buses filled to the brim with Xmas shoppers. A few centimeters of fresh snow just melting away. |
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| Snow chaos on line 37: Jan 11 2004: 10-15 cm (4-5 inches) of fresh snow lead to full chaos in the evening of that day. Driving an articulated bus, with only 40% of the weight over the driving wheels and with a mid-axle living its own life became gradually hopeless on the slopes up to Kjelsås. Eventually old Volvo B10Rs took over the final part of the line to bring the passengers from Bjølsen to Kjelsås. Two Volvos drove in shuttle. This is one of them, waiting for passengers from the downtown line 37. |
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| Snow chain bus: This old Volvo B10R standing by with snow chains waiting for bad winter weather. Picture taken Jan 17 2004. |
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| Full stop for line 30: Sunday 18.1.04 in the evening this is as far as I got. The car was parked to far into the road in this road with physically separated lanes.Poor snow clearing makes car owners desperate, and ths guy found he could not park the car in a heap of snow and gathered there was enough space for the bus. It was not! 30 minutes delay waiting for the car to be towed away. |
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| December 29 2004 in Moss: After a long period with no snow yesterday's rain turned into snow. This was what expected me at the garage at 5 a.m when I took the very first bus out. Rows of Mercedeses heating up with engines running - still snow covered. |
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| January 8, 2005 in Oslo: Pouring rain and no hazardeous winter conditions for this MAN NG313 new in October 2004. |
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