To be honest, thats the line we’re fed. The electric ramp mechanism lives in a really harsh operating environment to be fair.
It is blasted by salt; grit and water. It doesn’t take much to break them to be fair. And when they do, due to interlocks the bus cannot always* be moved.
Actually I am going to adjust my post as it isn’t well written.
No shit…
Left a few things out…
Cheers @Mnky what a cute little coach that is! I really like that. Very rare beast, that!
Thanks for taking the time to take and share the photos! 
No problem…it reminds me of the airline coaches …
Just checked…nothing like them .
.
The ones you’re referring to wete likely “deck and a half” coaches though; a clever way to maximise luggage and passenger capacity before longer longer coaches were permitted!
That’s pretty damned awesome too. How has the coach world gone so wrong ?
I remember seeing these at Heathrow mid 60s I guess …we used to visit rellies down that way. Dad would take me to Heathrow to watch the aircraft. We used to go up onto the roof wiewing area on the main terminal IIRC.
Just fractions of a memory…but I remember we’d wait for Caravelles to take off because they climbed out at a steep angle.
Although (in my opinion) the streamliners of the '30s and 50’s are stunning; the clean futuristic lines of the '60s were striking, coaches are much safer!
Hardwood framed bodies are a thing of the past- although quite common up to the late '60s!
Braking technology is way better too! Failsafe Spring Brakes, Retarders and Disc Brakes being obvious improvements!
There are still some cool looking coaches though. The current Setra range and Neoplan are very well regarded and have neat styling!
You’ve reminded me that when I was a kid Bedford VALs were A Thing, and with suitable bodywork they had just enough of a ‘Thunderbirds’ vibe to be deeply satisfying when you’re 7 years old, because Moar Wheels = Betterer
The only thing I know about them is that the 6 wheeler in ‘The Italian Job’ isn’t one, but I can’t remember what it was.
I think there was a bus variant, too…
Rabbithole led me to this:
And now I REALLY want one 
Apparently (and aptly for this thread), it’s one of two special twin-steer three-axle Leyland Tiger OPS2/10s built for the Northern Ireland Transport Board in 1948 to meet then-current axle-loading regs.
Apparently when the regs changed they binned-off one of the axles and the obs bodywork, which is a shame.
The Siamese twin of the coach world …
…
Wonderful thing …
Looks like a coach being humped by a double decker
Shit. Meant to include this link about Retarders. Other types exist, but this is by far the most well known:
An earlier purpose built twin steer is this:
A Leyland Gnu.
Who gnu, apart from you Stu.
adorable!