Least successful production chassis

[Busaholic]

But the Routemaster doesn't have a chassis!

Yes, they forgot to fit one and they still ran for fifty years.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Compared to its predecessors, the B5TL hasn't been much of a success.

Maybe not in the UK, but approx 750-800 have been built for the National Transport Authority of Ireland who settled on the type between 2012-2019.

 

[DunsBus]

The Leyland Lion. In production for just two years, with a total of 32 built - a victim of events.

 

[carlberry]

I define unsuccessful as unreliable and a failure in service. Therefore very limited sales and early withdrawal of all examples. For this the Routemaster and Titan are far from unsuccessful. for rear engine examples the VRL. An interesting example was the VRT in Scotland very unsuccessful, but in England and Wales very successful why ?

There are several books about the VR, so a quick summary. The VRT (Mark 1) was a rushed reworking of the VRL because of the need to make it eligible for bus grant. It wasnt Bristol's finist hour and it also coincided with SBG deciding it didnt like modern rear engine vehicles (SBG didnt like complex engineering, and was still buying high floor manual gearbox single deckers for intense urben services into the 1980s) therefore it made sense to swap their VRs with new FLFs from NBC. The Mark 2 VR was what the Mark 1 should have been and the Mark 3 is the one that NBC standardised on.

 

[Man of Kent]

Development of the Wulfrunian did not bankrupt Guy Motors. Guy Motors was driven into bankruptcy by the decision to take on direct supply of its chassis to South Africa from the two agents previously responsible . . . just before a boycott of the black/coloured township buses meant that many of the independent bus proprietors defaulted on hire-purchase agreements they had taken out with Guy Motors. The Wulfrunian saga certainly didn't add to the "bottom line", but it didn't bankrupt the company.

Interesting. I don't recall reading about the South African connection before.

 

[A0wen]

An interesting example was the VRT in Scotland very unsuccessful, but in England and Wales very succsesful why ?

Probably the same reason LT struggled with the Daimler Fleetline but others such as WMPTE and GMPTE got good service lives out of them.

Most likely a bit of "not invented here" antipathy mixed with the poor handling of the change from front engined to rear engined.

 

[Westcountryman]

Probably the same reason LT struggled with the Daimler Fleetline but others such as WMPTE and GMPTE got good service lives out of them.

Most likely a bit of "not invented here" antipathy mixed with the poor handling of the change from front engined to rear engined.

The story I heard about the Fleetline was that London Transport insisted it had to be set up to start from stationary in second gear. This was supposed to cause issues and when used elsewhere, and altered to start in first gear there were far fewer problems.