GUIDE TO GEARBOXES IN THE UK

Welcome to my guide to bus gearboxes in the UK.

This guide is about the sounds that buses make, with different combinations of buses and gearboxes. And which combinations sound the best.

VOITH

Lets start this guide with my favourite gearbox company.

Voith make amazing gearboxes with great sounds. Their best gearboxes change gear with hardly any loss of acceleration.

Awesome 1980s Voith

These are awesome vintage gearboxes, which make an amazing old sound. Most Metro Cammel buses have this gearbox, and the combination of this bus and gearbox makes such a good sound. (This gearbox has 3 gears).

Boring Voith

These were made in the 1990 - 2000s. These are rather boring and are often used on Dennis Tridents. (I often associate this gearbox with worn out buses in London). This gearbox only has 3 gears, and to me it feels a bit dated for the time.

EPIC Voith

This is an amazing gearbox. It changes gear with no noticeable loss of acceleration, this is such advanced technology. This gearbox makes the most amazing sound ever, especially when its on a B7TL. This is my all time favourite gearbox, It was by far the best gearbox ever made at the time (These were made in the 2000s). There simply isn't any other bus that makes that sound like a B7TL with this Voith. (as with all gearboxes at this time, you will only hear it at its full epicness with a fast driver, as it will change gear early if the driver isn't using full acceleration).

EPIC Voith (Rumbly version)

This is just like above, but sounds slightly different (but is just as awesome). It revs right up on the first gear, and as it changes to second, a low pitch rumble starts and increases pitch as the bus speeds up. This gearbox is found on the best VDLs (I don't actually know if this gearbox is different from the normal epic Voith, or if it just sounds different on a VDL).

Voith single deck

These make a fairly nice sound. Voith definitely works best with heavy double deck buses.

Present day Voith

Voiths gearboxes were very innovative in the early 2000s, but they don't appear to have advanced recently. Where I live in Medway, none of the new double deckers buses have voith.

NO VIDEO (I haven't managed to film one yet)

Present day single deck Voith

These gearboxes only have 3 gears, which is very behind the times. These gearboxes are nowhere near as good as Voiths past gearboxes (they don't even change gear all that smoothly). Wrightbus Streetlites have this gearbox, plus a few enviro 200s. In my opinion, as much as I like Voith, they are seeming to be overtaken by ZF and Allisons innovations.

ALLISON

And now for the Allison gearboxes. (Allison gearboxes are only found in single deckers).

Classic old Allison

These were made in the 1990s, and have that classic Allison sound. A lot of Darts have these.

A lot of Darts have lost their classic Allison sound over the years

Epic whinney old Allison

These make a very loud classic Allison sound. They were built in the late 1990s. They are more high pitched and whinney than the normal old Allisons.

New Allison

These are very well designed gearboxes. They change gear with no loss of acceleration whatsoever.

Allison has put a lot of effort into their AI system. When the bus is not using full acceleration, the gearbox goes into fuel saving mode, and changes up the gears early to save fuel. Also if the bus is accelerating at full acceleration, then stop accelerating, the gearbox changes up a gear early. If the driver then accelerates a bit more it will stay in the higher gear, but if the driver goes back to using full acceleration, it will change back down (The gearbox makes regular gearchanges like this whenever it feels like, it can do this as their is no power loss when changing gears). Also because of the way this gearbox works, it has a sort of half gear in between gears 2 and 3, this gear is only used for about 1 - 2 seconds, except when in fuel save mode where it acts as a full gear. Another thing about this gearbox is that it has to learn the bus. When it is new it changes gear at the wrong time. With every gearchanges it judges how well it did, so that it can change gear better next time. This gearbox sounds great with an Enviro 200.

ZF

And now for the ZF gearboxes

Old 1980s ZF

These are nice and old and make a great sound.

1980s Citybus ZF

The Volvo citybus's ZF sounds like no other ZF

1980s ZF single deck

Nice and old sounding

Boring ZF

These were made from the 1990s to the late 2000s. I find these Gearboxes boring. There is nothing wrong with them, they just don't inspire me. These gearboxes don't make much of an interesting sound (some of them are better than others).

EPIC ZF

Although I find a lot of ZFs boring, every now and then I come across an interesting one like this.

These make a very loud sound. Every time it changes gear it goes "BEW". On the 4th gear it makes a whining sound, then on the 5th gear it makes a high pitch whine, but on 6th gear it goes quiet as the engine is directly connect to the wheels. When it is traveling in 6th gear and the driver starts baking, when it changes back down to 5th, the gearbox is put back into action. When this happens it makes a sound known as the "ZF cat call" and the whole bus jerks suddenly (bus enthusiasts call the sound the "ZF cat call" because it sounds like a cat yelling).

Modern ZF

This is a nice modern gearbox, it sounds fairly nice on an Enviro 400. Notice that ZF has gone down the route of making gearboxes with loads of gears, but they haven't perfected their gearchanges to not lose acceleration to the same extent as Voith and Allison

Old gearboxes

And now lets take a look at some very old gearboxes

AEC

These make a nice whinney sound.

Leyland

THE END

I hope you have enjoyed this guide.

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Hybrids

Hybrid buses don't have gears. They work of a diesel electric system.

For info on hybrid buses, see my guide to hybrids in London.

Hybrids in London

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Further reading...

See more of my bus guides
Go to the BENO homepage