Bristol Olympians

Leyland B15 "Titan"

Leyland created the B45 project to provide an alternative to the Titan. It was named Olympian in 1979. This fitted in well with the Titan name. Whereas the Titan was a full integral build the Olympian was designed in a more traditional way, though more of what that meant later !

At the time there was a demand for non-integral vehicles; operators wishing to remain with more established manufacturers. Thus this was in many ways an update of the popular Bristol VR (Bristol Commercial Vehicles merged with Leyland in 1965), with many VR customers choosing Olympians. Later the Olympian also replaced the Leyland Atlantean.



Delivered about the same time as the A reg "Bristol" Olympians this one is a product of Workington ! So a Leyland Olympian ?

The design had three modules, front axle and front end, the rear axle assembly and the engine compartment which were to be linked with bolted chassis sections that would permit length variations. The chassis as such was not of the traditional "ladder" form but went around the perimeter and over the wheels. Instead of the normal out-riggers in-riggers were used. The final stiffness of the whole design being accomplished when the body was built. It was really a semi-integral double decker.

This permitted vehicles for the home market to be built to two lengths

The newly adopted chassis codes gave

ONTL/1R 9.56m (31ft 5in)
ONTL/2R 10.25m (33 ft 8in)
ONLXB/1R 9.56m (31ft 5in)
ONLXB/2R 10.225m (33ft 8in)

The R indicated a right hand chassis as the Olympian was designed for either driving position.

As normal a Leyland TL11 engine was offered but a Gardner 6LXB could also be fitted. As production increased the 6LXCT was also available. Some later Olympians had Cummins L10 engines. One even had a 5LXCT.

Air suspension was fitted all round with four air-bags at the rear and a combination of leaf and two air-bags on the front. This modified front end allowed air brakes to be fitted to all wheels and a front mounted radiator to be fitted.

A 5-speed hydracyclic gearbox was fitted. This could be automatic or semi-automatic and was available with close or wide ratios. The final drive also was available with two ratios.

A wide variety of body types were offered from introduction:

Eastern Coach Works (ECW) - highly popular.
Alexander, with various R-type bodies; very popular with Irish and Scottish operators as well as the export market.
Northern Counties, who built numerous styles for the Olympian
Charles H. Roe (Roe)
Optare
East Lancashire Coachbuilders (East Lancs)
Marshall
Leyland (jig-built kit bodies from ECW)

The ECW body was built to two heights, low-bridge 13ft 8in or high-bridge 14ft 2in.

Initial sales of the Olympian were quite good considering the depressed state of the double-decker market. Production of of the Olympian was to be at the Brislington Works of Bristol Commercial Vehicles who had merged with Leyland in 1965. This was decided considering that the Olympian was seen as the replacement of the Bristol VRT that was produced there.

Nine prototypes were built and production began with Ribbles 2101 GFR 101W in June 1981. This joined the second prototype which had become Ribble 2100 DBV100W both had ECW EX bodies.

By 1982 it became apparent that the volume of sales would not provide the volume of work that Brislington would need. So on 1st January 1983 it was announced that future production would take place at the Titan factory at Workington. Construction began there in parallel before the last chassis emerged from Bristol.

This article now concentrates on the Bristol built Olympians that were delivered new in 1984 to the newly formed NBC companies Devon General Ltd, North Devon Ltd and Western National Ltd. Southern National Ltd had none new but did acquire some of the Devon General vehicles when they were sold.

All of the “Bristol” Olympians were of the type ONLXB/1R with bodywork by ECW.

Western National Ltd













1800 A750 VAF to 1803 A753 VAF
1807 A754 VAF to 1810 A757 VAF

1809 & 1810 eventually were with First Hampshire and are now withdrwan but the remainder soldier on !

These were perhaps the most colourful carrying many different liveries.

Devon General Ltd



1804 A680 KDV to 1806 A682 KDV
1811 A683 KDV to 1814 A686 KDV

These were sold early in their lives when Devon General took the Minibus approach ! All were sold to the Cawlett Group with intially 1813 going to North Devon and the others to Southern National.

North Devon Ltd

1818 A989 XAF 1819 A990 XAF


These were sold to Wilts & Dorset in 1986. They were converted by them to convertible open top and suspension lift for Sandbanks ferry

To keep this record complete Devon General Ltd had three more on order. They were built at Workington and were re-registered before delivery to

1815 A271 MTA 4/84 diverted A888 PKR Maidstone & District 5888
1816 A272 MTA 4/84 diverted A889 PKR Maidstone & District 5889
1817 A273 MTA 4/84 diverted A890 PKR Maidstone & District 5890

North Devon and Southern National

Southern National livery

North Devon Tiverton & District livery

North Devon Atlantic Blue livery

Preserved



1804 Terry Bennett

1813 Terry Partridge (currently in First livery)



1814 Colin Billington

Light Horizontal Short Marshall

Photo courtesy of Terry Bennett

I see that my good friend Terry Bennett has seen his Marshall bodied LHS gain back its original registration, pass its MOT and was back on the road again !

This started me thinking again !

Bristol Commercial Vehicles introduced its LH in 1967. It was a lightweight vehicle powered mainly with the horizontal Leyland O400 series engine which was mounted amidships under the floor. It was seen as a replacement for the SU type. The design envisaged three lengths designated the LHL (long) LH (medium) and LHS (short)



In all 308 LHS chassis were built. From this we have only 19 that received this austere bus body from Marsall's of Cambridge. It has been referred to as a Marshall Camagna body.

NDL 768G - NDL 771G went to Southern Vectis

http://members.fortunecity.com/vectis_buses/zs_lhsm.htm

VOD 88K - VOD 93K went to Western National as part of the Devon General fleet. They had been ordered by the then independent directors.



VOD 120 - VOD 125K went to Western National as part of the Western National fleet.



The other three were supplied to independents.

NVO 772L & HRB 848N went to Gash of Newark

http://tony3972.mysnaps.org.uk/p16721922.html

PCV 178R went to Harveys (Blue Bus), Mousehole.



Here seen as part of Western National PCV 178R operated alongside the six 1972 examples to and from Mousehole.



VOD 93K was used by Bristol Commercial Vehicles as a demonstrator.

It was loaned to London Transport in 1973 and to Bristol Omnibus Co in 1980.

In 1983 when the NBC Western National was being split VOD 91K - VOD 93K became Southern National vehicles.





The indignity of it !!!! This was the only one that went to Western National in 1983 and is now preserved by Paul Derrick.

Taunton Depot

Still quite original the First depot in Hamilton Road Taunton dates from 1935.

The house and garage at the far end of this photo were acquired by the Western National Omnibus Company Ltd in 1933 from Dunn's Services. Dunn had services radiating from Taunton to Bridgwater, Minehead, Seaton, Sidmouth and local villages as well as three town services.

Dunn purchased a plot of land in what is now Hamilton Road (formerly Bridgwater Road) and built a house, a garage and fronting on to the road a filling station.

Dunn sold out to WNOC Ltd 1933 and 19 vehicles were added to the National fleet !

WNOC Ltd bought additional land to the right of the original Dunn garage and built a large extension that opened in 1935.

Up to then WNOC had been using the premises in South Street that they had acquired upon formation from the National Omnibus Co Ltd.

View Larger Map

These are aerial views. Top is South Street (situated just below the red arrow) and below is Hamilton Road.

View Larger Map

The house and original garage are on the right. The extension is at an angle.

Above : Believed to be the original Dunn's garage.

Below : Interior of the extension

The Yard

The Mercedes parked in the space to the left of the house.

Leyland DAB Articulated buses

I came across this photo recently and it started me thinking.........

FHE 292V at Winchester. She was dismantled and scrapped by 7/90

FWA 450V at Winkleigh

So a bit of research.

Bus companies in the late 1970s were still trying to increase the capacity of each vehicle. Up to then the double-deck bus seemed to be the solution. However as articulated buses had been used in most European countries for many years they took a close look at such vehicles.

An artic had much in common with 2 axle single deck buses and had a much larger crush maximum loading.

Double-decker buses were generally considered less expensive to purchase and operate. The cost of the strengthened deck framing and staircase was more than offset by the added weight of the additional axle(s) and coupling mechanism of an articulated bus. They also took up less road space, had more seats and could be one person operated.

In1977 Leyland demonstrated a left hand drive DAB artic in Sheffield where the South Yorkshire Passenger Executive had identified a suitable route that was highly traffiked but required single deck buses. As the law at that time only allowed Leyland to demonstrate it as an artic with the driver possessing an HGV licence.

The PTE were not permitted to charge fares. Permission was granted to SYPTE to conduct a two year trial to assess the future of the articulated bus in Britain.

Ten buses were required. Leyland would supply 5 and MAN the other 5. DAB had been associated with Leyland since the early 1970s and built 6 right hand drive chassis in Denmark. The first was exhibited at the 1978 Motor Show. Another was exported to Australia to be bodied locally whilst the remaining four would be for the PTE. They would also have the first chassis after its use as a demonstrator.

The five chassis for SYPTE were fitted with Leyland 690 engines and a ZF torque converter transmission. The chassis were sent to the Leyland National factory at Workington where the bodywork was completed using many standard National components.The first chassis to be completed was to be a demonstrator before entering service and differed slightly from the other four. It had all 10.3 metre components whilst the others front portions had 11.3 metre components.

The chassis had the engine mounted midships underfloor on the driving unit with the rear unit coupled with the Swiss Saurer double-ball coupling unit. This made the chassis nearly 7 inches higher than the National underframe. This gave rise to the three step entrance and the spacers above the door and around the skirt. In effect the National body less the floor was fitted by conventual means to the chassis. The overall length was almost 57ft. Internally the buses were finished off similar to Nationals but had better heating with floor mounted heaters in each section ! As built they could seat 64 and stand 56.

The first vehicle was registered CRM 927T. The single axle rear section was connected by rods to the turntable. This made the rear section follow the front easily. Weighing about 15 tons its trials in Helsinki were highly successful.

The second vehicle was FWA 450V whilst the remaining three were FHE 291 - 3 V. These entered service in Sheffield returning to Leyland occasionally for modifications needed from operating. The trial under the Department of Transport's dispensation was successful and a case for the alteration of the British Construction and Use rule was applied for and seemed to be going well enough for the buses to be sent to Leeds for fitting of ticket machines. However the trial was abruptly ended in 1981 because of industrial relations difficulties. So not a fare was taken !

Leyland DAB produced another 7 for British Airways airport use (RLN 232-8W), though similar bodies they were assembled at the Leeds factory of Roe.

The 5 MAN artics were registered CLM 346T, DAK 301V - DAK 304V.

Further details at

http://www.reddibus.com/Bendi-bus.htm

SYPTE were to return to artics again in 1985 with the introduction of 14 complete vehicles produced by DAB using Leyland running units. (C110 - 113 HDT) By then the legislation allowed them to be used commercially which they were with great success.

http://thebusgalleryarchive.fotopic.net/c1203945_1.html

The five original vehicles were returned to Leyland and they did see further use with two operating in Glasgow before going to Winchester. (FHE 291V & FHE 292V).

Three were converted as mobile classrooms etc.

Known users were

McGill, Barrhead (FHE 291V /FHE 292V)
Hampshire Bus (FHE 291 / FHE 292V)

Guildford College 1989 (FHE 291V)

Oldham MBC as a mobile creche (FHE291V) 4/93

Sure Start Fenland, Camridge (Bendy Bus) 2000

Wirral Metropolitan College

Eureka FWA 450V

David Chambers has acquired three, two complete and one just the front section. These are illustrated with their possible registrations !

Believed to be CRM 927T

The "Sure Start Bendibus" believed to be the front section of RLN 237W.

As usual E & O E. Any further information welcomed !