| No
Smoking Signs...
New Regulation Seat Belt Vinyls...
Last
Routemaster in normal service...
Derek's
Back...
Malcolm
Randles...
Ian Grimshaw...
The Choice is yours...
Smartblind...
Coach & Bus 2004...
Jane
Hall's Big Bad Bus Ride...
Sounds Local...
|
Click
on the image to see one
of our recent advertisements |
| Last
Routemaster in normal service...
This
picture was taken on Thursday 8th December the penultimate day,
pictured are Malcolm Randles Operations Director McKenna Brothers
and Leon Daniels Commercial Director UK Bus and the Driver for that
day.
The following day on
route 159 between Marble Arch and Streatham Hill the last Routemaster
in normal service made its final journey.
 To
commemorate this historic event McKenna Brothers have produced a
Limited Edition of 159 prints of each ultimate destination incorporating
the front number and intermediate displays at full size using the
original artwork that produced the destination blinds on the vehicle.
In addition
to the limited edition prints, McKenna Brothers have produced complete
sets of Route 159 blinds. Each set of 7 blinds comprising of : 1
x NN front ultimate, 1 x NN rear ultimate, 1 x LL side number/via,
1 x VV rear number/via,
1 x KK front intermediate, 1 x PP canopy number and
1 x MM front number.
Click
here for more details
Back
to Top |
Derek's
back ...
We
are
pleased to announce the return of Derek Dawson as Commercial Director.
Derek comes back to McKenna Brothers from Wrightbus where he has
spent the last 14 months as National account Manager. Derek said
“It was a tough decision to leave Wrightbus, but I believe
that McKenna Brothers are in a very strong position within the UK
market and are ready to take the business to another level. I have
seen all our competitors’ products during my time at Wrightbus
and fully believe that the McKenna/Mobitec product is superior on
all fronts. He went on to say that he would like to thank Wrightbus
for all their support and in particular Mark Nodder and Sam McLaren.
Vincent McKenna MD said “I am delighted to have Derek back
he is a valuable addition to our team and his vast knowledge of
the industry will be a major asset to the company”. Derek
spent his first week with McKenna’s in Rome supporting our
partner Mobitec at UITP.
Back
to Top |
| 
Malcolm
Randles
- Operations Director
As acknowledgement for his service to the company Malcolm Randles
has been appointed Operations Director at McKenna Brothers. Malcolm
has worked for the company for over 25 years and his knowledge of
destination displays and vehicle types is second to none. Many customers
rely on him to ensure that their blinds are produced in the correct
styles and sizes to suit their vehicles.
Back
to Top |
| 
Ian
Grimshaw
- Sales Executive
Ian continues to expand our customer base as well as liasing with
our existing customers. His many years of bus engineering experience
help us to better understand our customers needs.
Back
to Top |
| The
Choice is yours...
At
McKenna Brothers we like to give our customers a choice of Destination
Displays, whether it be LED, Flip-Dot, Smartblind or Traditional
Printed. We can even supply a combination of signs all programmed
from the same controller. For example the front sign on the vehicle
could be a roller blind with the side and rear either an LED or
Flip-Dot giving the customer a truly versatile choice.
We
feel the company has a very exciting future and with ongoing investment
will continue to grow. We intend to maintain this trend by increasing
our product base and investing in the future. We are the oldest
company in the U.K. producing Printed Destination Blinds and the
only company that can offer the customer a real choice of displays.
Back
to Top |
Smartblind
Smart Choice
The
introduction of Smartblind
to the UK has proved very successful for McKenna’s, with sales
exceeding all expectations.
The
robust units are constructed using lightweight rigid anodised aluminium
profile with a toughened front glass to avoid dust and static problems.
The system incorporates intelligent adaptive sensing to ensure accurate
blind positioning. If the blind does get dirty with age the system
can detect this and adapt the sensor to compensate. Also the width
of the code takes into account that a blind can move from side to
side as it is rolling to the next display, tolerance is allowed
to compensate for this. The system also has a  manual
over-ride option as backup and is supplied complete with high quality
back lighting.
Vincent
McKenna says, “We understand that there are occasions when
major route changes dictate new or modified blinds, with this in
mind we have developed Smartblind
with a removable inner chassis. Destination blinds can be changed
in the vehicle or by removing the inner chassis to a bench. This
allows easier working conditions for the garage staff.” When
route changes are made the existing text and graphics can be easily
updated using a conventional PC and saved to a smart card. This
card is inserted into the drivers control unit, which reads the
stored destination text and transfers them to the internal memory.
Vincent
continues,” We have taken great care in producing what we
feel is the highest quality, fully compliant and easily programmed
electronic roller blind system available today.”
Smartblind the Smarter Choice.
Back
to Top |
It’s
a story littered with mishap, love and betrayal or so I’m
told. Jane Hall’s Big Bad Bus Ride was filmed for Granada
TV in Manchester and tells the story of sweet shy heroine, Jane,
who embarks on a journey that takes her from Huddersfield to Hounslow
bus garage and see’s her signing up as a double deck bus
driver. Sarah Smart (At home with the Braithwaites) and Gillian
Taylforth (Footballers wives) star in this 6 part series, but
if you watch carefully in one of the episodes you might catch
a glimpse of McKenna’s double act Malcolm Randles and Gary
Beech.
The story begins the day before the first days filming by Manchester
based Red Productions. They had acquired 6 London buses that to
their despair did not have the correct destinations required for
the story. On the advice of TFL they contacted Malcolm with an
urgent request to provide displays for the next days filming.
After all without the correct names displayed on the vehicles
the Actors, Film Crew and all involved in a big production such
as this would be unable to work. Production of the displays was
immediately started and were completed and collected later that
day for fitting into the vehicles. Since then McKenna’s
have produced the rest of the displays required for the series.
As a thank you to Malcolm and Gary for their efforts to keep filming
on schedule the production company have included the above bus
side advert that appears in the series. Lets just hope that this
fame does not go to there already swelled heads.
Back
to Top
|
| Sounds
Local...
Ipswich Buses New Park & Ride
Five
East Lancs Myllennium Spryte single deck buses are in service on
the Park & Ride service 802, between Martlesham and Ipswich
Town Centre. Ipswich Buses in conjunction with Suffolk County Council
run the service. Each vehicle has a GPS unit linked to the driver’s
controller which triggers both voice announcement and signs giving
passenger information about the service and next stop. Both sign
information, sound data and trigger points are fully programmable
on a PC, using the new Mobitec MIE software, and transferred to
the bus by flash memory card. A local radio station ran a competition
to get local voices for the announcement system. The result is that
each of the buses is programmed with a different person’s
voice.
|
| |
