In Donnybrook Garage on 21 January 1989 shows D756 just before it went into service in it’s new ‘Blood Donor’ AOA.
D756 was in Philips Philishave AOA livery until November 1988 when it was temporarily withdrawn from service and was stripped of its Philishave AOA and replaced with very short lived Santa Bus livery in which it appeared for just for the month of December 1988. In January 1989 it was withdrawn once again, its Santa AOA stripped and was painted as a ‘Blood Donor’ AOA, a livery it remained in until mid 1992 when it was painted back into Dublin Bus green. It received a DAF engine in March 1989 thus was re-classified as DF 756.
The other Philips AOA, D757 for Philips Compact Disc also lost its AOA in December 1988 and was painted into Dublin Bus green and re-entered service as such in January 1989.
This 19th February 1989 picture was taken on the North Strand Road, Dublin just prior to the making of the CAN (Commuter Advertising Network) promotional video which included the three Coca Cola AOAs, in order of appearance, KD 345 (Phibsboro), KD 353 (Donnybrook), KD 186 (Cork),
This picture was taken from under the
Buses utilised in the video were the three KD, Coca Cola, AOAs, KD 186, 345, 353, Blood Donor, AOA, D756, the two PMPA Telecover AOAs, DF 617 and KD 348, Dulux KC 168, Aer Lingus KC 118 and two KDs in fleet green livery, KD 6 (Clontarf) and KD 349 (Phibsboro). KD 349 had prototype advertisement frames fitted and this concept was introduced fleet-wide by summer 1989.
On this same day the demonstrator bus, Leyland Titan, LD 1 was seen in service on the
Phibsboro’s KD 348 and Donnybrook’s DF 617 in PMPA Telecover AOA position for the cameras on
Donnybrooks D605 (ex Clontarf, Ringsend) with a CAN ‘Tons of Room’ advertisement hailing the benefits of then new concept of bus advert frames. The CAN video as detailed in pictures above launched the ad frame concept and from February 1989 onwards all Dublin Bus classes with the exception of standard D Atlantean class (except Donnybrook D551 which had prototype frames fitted) were fitted with advertisement frames on both sides and rear. On the KDs this necessitated the relocation of an engine air intake on the upper deck rear offside.
With the fitting of the advertisement frame, the re-positioning of the ‘Bus Atha Cliath’ script became necessary. More compact versions of ‘Bus Atha Cliath’ and ‘Dublin Bus’ scripts were implemented in the 3rd quarter of 1989 as evidenced in the picture of Donnybrook (ex Cork) KC 93 below.
In April 1989 Donnybrook Garage got a ‘new’ towcar, an ex. Iarnrod Eireann, Seddon Atkinson, registered 602 VZA (1977), classified as SA 2, later re-classified as RU2.
This picture taken in April 1989 from Matt Talbot Memorial Bridge shows the two Guinness ships, ‘Miranda Guinness’ and ‘The Lady Patricia’ tied up along City Quay. Notice the gas holder on Sir John Rogersons Quay, this structure was used to store town gas and became obsolete as a result of the introduction of natural gas to
April 1989 - The former Johnson, Mooney and O’Brien bakery in Ballsbridge awaits its fate while two Donnybrook KDs pass along
Donnybrooks DF 785 (785 BIK) in Denny AOA livery at the route 11 terminus, Bird Avenue, Clonskea with revised text
‘ Denny – The art of good food for over 160 years’ which was applied during March/April 1989.
In September 1990, DF 785 bus was painted into the Dublin Bus green livery. In later years, DF 785 moved from Donnybrook to Ringsend and had the honour of being the last Ringsend service operated Vanhool D completing its final journey on the 15B route on Saturday, 22 April 1995 ousted from service by the delivery of Ringsend’s RA 195 –
RA 215 batch.
During May 1989,
May 1989 – Donnybrook’s KD 152 (152 JZL) on its first day in service in the Brylcreem AOA livery at 11 terminus,
DF 822 (822 NIK) poses in Donnybrook just before it entered service in its new ‘Cancer Awareness Year 1989’ AOA livery in May 1989. The AOA lasted until September 1990 when the bus was painted back into fleet green livery
Phibsboro's D376 (376 IK) freshly painted from tan into green livery on Chesterfield Avenue, Phoenix Park, awaits the start of the Dublin bay rally in June, Notice the Hillman Avenger about to pass by.
Donnybrooks D 378 (88-D-988) in the
Former CIE Atlantean D 316 (VZI 316) travels northbound on
Galway’s Leyland Vanhool, Worldmaster, WVH 22, (HZD 596) in Expressway livery
pictured in August 1989 at Bus Eireann Depot, Eyre Square. At this time, Galway had one other WVH, WVH
13 (HZD 593), both of these buses were kept in pristine condition and were
painted into the new red stripe livery and were treated to PD class rear light
units. These two 1964 vintage buses soldiered on long after the class was
withdrawn from Bus Eireann schools fleet but finally their end came and they
were seen withdrawn in Broadstone in June 1999.
EVH 15 (SI 3015) in Expressway red/orange livery at Galway Railway
Station on a sunny July 1989 afternoon about to depart for the long trek via
Dublin/Holyhead to
Donnybrooks DF 780 (780 BIK) in Manhattan Peanuts and Popcorn AOA in
July 1989 having received a full make-over. Notice the newly introduced
Wayfarer ticket machine, at the time these machines were been installed for the
first time fleet-wide.
Donnybrooks KD 362 (GSI 362) photographed in July 1989 during its first week in service as the Johnson & Johnson, AOA at the number 8 terminus in Dalkey, notice the Renault 5 parked up behind.
KD 364 (GSI 364) in Donnybrook maintenance area in July 1989, notice the blue ‘Cityspeed’ destination scrolls, and 7X route number, this Cityspeed express service was introduced on the route 7 during July 1989 as a limited stop service for morning and evening peaks. In May 1990, KD 364 was painted into an AOA for West Coast Cooler.
KC93 (UZG 93), (Ex Cork) moved to Donnybrook for further service in
Summer 1989, this July 1989 shows KC 93 after a full repaint a day or two after
it had entered service at Donnybrook. Notice the smaller sized Dublin Bus logo
and script, this was necessitated due to the fixture of advertisement frames on
the KD and Vanhool Ds, see picture of
Ulsterbus, Leyland Lynx, fleet number 3011, (HXI 3011) on trial/loan to
Dublin Bus photographed in July 1989 outside Donnybrook Church on the 46A
outbound to
Leyland Lynx demonstrator, (F 608 WBV) on trial/loan to Dublin Bus, photographed in Donnybrook Garage in July 1989 while having radio equipment fitted prior to entering service.
DAF Bus SB220, registration (F 372 KBW) on trial/loan to Dublin Bus
photographed in September 1989 outside
There was also a Century Radio advertising campaign in the advert frames
as demonstrated by Donnybrook’s DF 781 (781 BIK). A closer look at 781’s Century Radio advert
shows that this advert is actually stuck onto the panelwork of the bus as
advert frame inserts in the early days tended to detach themselves from the bus
sides, so an interim solution was to revert back to sticking them on!
The Dublin Bus fleet of 1989 comprised: double decker,
Also on fleet at the time (not shown) were
the 15 MCW ‘MB’ class minibuses registered in the years 1987 to 1989.
New Alexander Belfast assembled double decker buses were due to arrive the
following year, 1990, the RH class on a Leyland chassis teamed with a Cummins
engine were formally launched into service on 20 May 1990, (launch buses were
RH 1 – RH 6 inclusive). Fifty nine RHs were registered in 1990 and it would
take up to 1999 to deliver all 640 buses, RH 1 – RH 175, RA 176 – RA 325, RV
326 – RV 640.
In 1989/1990, Team Aer Lingus were kept very busy carrying out C and D maintenance checks for the Australian airline, Qantas, their Boeing 747-238/338, 747 SP Jumbo jets fleet mainly marked in on the Sydney – Manchester route were maintained at Dublin over this period. Notice the two long term resident Nigerian Airways Boeing 707s in the background. Virgin Atlantic were another important customer at the time. In this 7 October 1989 picture, Qantas, Boeing 747-338, VH-EBV after undergoing routine maintenance approaches the threshold of runway 23, destination,
Airlines operating scheduled/chartered services into Dublin at the time were: Delta and TAP with Lockheed Tristar L1011-500’s, Air Canada utilising Boeing 747-100’s and Tristar 1’s, Iberia with Boeing 727-200’s and Lufthansa with a combination of Boeing 737-200 and 727-200’s, British Airways with Boeing 737’s and 757’s, British Midland with DC9 and Boeing 737-300’s, Aeroflot with Tupolev 134’s, Balkan with Tupolev 154’s. Aer Turas (Cargo) with DC-8’s. Ryanair had a small fleet at this time comprising Atr 42 turboprop and Rombac 1-11’s jets. In this late 1989 period the newly commissioned runway 28/10 was increasingly being utilised gradually replacing runway 23/05 as
Summerhill’s KC 119 after undergoing middle door removal/interior re-fit and exterior repaint into Aer Lingus AOA livery at Donnybrook in November 1989.
This December 1989 picture shows Donnybrooks KD 231 with one of the earliest 98FM Radio bus advertisements, the channel had only gone on air three weeks previously on November 10th 1989, it's first song played was 'Hotel california' by the Eagles. Bus advertising by the newly launched radio stations was to prove to be an effective media used in the battle for listeners and was and continues to be a popular platform for 98FM and other radio broadcasters to reach its target audience.
This St Stephens Day, 1989 picture shows the then newly delivered Aer Lingus Boeing 737-448, EI-BXB taxi towards the terminal, in the background is Aer Lingus, Boeing 747-130, EI-BED, in full Lan
