BlueBrixx Brixxbus Double-Decker Bus Set 102632

BlueBrixx's Brixxbus Double-Decker Bus is a BlueBrixx-Specials model built from 433 blocks, weighing around 490 g. Designed by Alex, bricks by Qunlong. No stickers or prints.

Why Britain stacked its buses and the continent did not

Double-deckers are everywhere in Britain and rare almost everywhere else, and the reason is street width rather than national character.

A bus can hold more people in two ways: get longer, or get taller. Longer needs road space to swing through corners, and British towns grew up around streets laid out before anyone imagined a motor vehicle — narrow, with tight junctions and buildings hard against the kerb. Taller needs none of that. It needs headroom.

So Britain went up, and the continent, with wider boulevards and more room to manoeuvre, went long — which is why articulated buses are a German and French sight and double-deckers a British one.

The height was then fixed by bridges. British railway overbridges set a practical ceiling, and the standard double-decker settled at around 4.4 metres because that is what fits underneath. Operators keep lists of low bridges on every route, and a driver taking a double-decker under one built for less is a recurring and expensive kind of accident.

The open rear platform of the classic buses — no door, a pole, hop on and off at the lights — disappeared for safety reasons, and is the single thing people who remember them mention first.

In the BlueBrixx range

Sets 102960 (Articulated Bus) and 102746 (Long Distance Bus) are the other buses, all by Alex. Set 101470 is the London Taxi.

Specifications

Pieces: 433 · Designer: Alex · Series: BlueBrixx-Specials · No stickers · Weight: approx. 490 g