Leyland Olympian Tri-Axle (Ex- China Motor Bus)

[JumpinTrainz]

Hi all,

Just looking for a little background on the above bus type which operated with First PMT then Manchester and on to Glasgow. I remember them being in Glasgow and being really good motors. They were good capacity and always seemed pretty speedy and clean inside.

Their cascade to Britain seems a little unusual given they were new to China Motors. Does anyone know why they were moved to the UK and acquired by First? Surely movement of these buses from China to the UK must have been a costly operation. I really liked these buses and am fascinated by them also.

Nothing of the type has really happened again from my knowledge (I could be wrong). Was this a rare one off and could it happen again with some of the newer Wright and ADL tri axles which operate one China, do we need them?

 

[WillPS]

ISTR there was a batch of them repatriated en-masse c.2000. If it wasn't by Ensign it was somebody like that.

Quite a few ended up on school operations here and there.

 

[CM]

Hi all,

Just looking for a little background on the above bus type which operated with First PMT then Manchester and on to Glasgow. I remember them being in Glasgow and being really good motors. They were good capacity and always seemed pretty speedy and clean inside.

Their cascade to Britain seems a little unusual given they were new to China Motors. Does anyone know why they were moved to the UK and acquired by First? Surely movement of these buses from China to the UK must have been a costly operation. I really liked these buses and am fascinated by them also.

Nothing of the type has really happened again from my knowledge (I could be wrong). Was this a rare one off and could it happen again with some of the newer Wright and ADL tri axles which operate one China, do we need them?

Speedy they weren't, IIRC they only did about 45 flat out. They also had the exact same seating capacity as the Volvo Citybuses at the time which were shorter and quicker.

 

[JumpinTrainz]

Speedy they weren't, IIRC they only did about 45 flat out. They also had the exact same seating capacity as the Volvo Citybuses at the time which were shorter and quicker.

I always thought they were good accelerators and these were the days that buses could move off without waiting on the doors fully closing! I always have fond memories of these buses for some reason.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

ISTR there was a batch of them repatriated en-masse c.2000. If it wasn't by Ensign it was somebody like that.

Quite a few ended up on school operations here and there.

Some did come back via Ensign - Dekkabus had one (perhaps still have) that had an Essex plate.

However, First and Stagecoach also repatriated some directly as they had shareholdings in New World First Bus and Citybus respectively. Think both firms transferred Olympians and Pointer Darts to the UK, though Stagecoach seemed to have more Olympians and they lasted longer - seem to recall that Stagecoach at Ayr and Kilmarnock had quite a few as school buses?? They (some?) were also the initial Megabus.com vehicles

 

[mbonwick]

Stagecoach repatriated 20 Olympians from Kowloon Motor Bus, and 54 from Hong Kong Citybus (plus 21 Darts and 14 Dart SLFs from the latter as well).

 

[Jordan Adam]

Speedy they weren't, IIRC they only did about 45 flat out. They also had the exact same seating capacity as the Volvo Citybuses at the time which were shorter and quicker.

That's typical of all HK spec buses, even First's Enviro500s only do about 47MPH (Although some now can go a bit faster). It's law over there that all buses are limited to 75KPH or thereabouts.

 

[Simon75]

Wardle Transport , in Stoke on Trent had a few

 

[CM]

That's typical of all HK spec buses, even First's Enviro500s only do about 47MPH (Although some now can go a bit faster). It's law over there that all buses are limited to 75KPH or thereabouts.

Aye, but over there they'll do 45mph uphill, downhill, around corners etc. It's probably why there are lots of articles on the internet about HK deckers having a wee lie down.

 

[Strathclyder]

The K-EUX batch of tri-axle Leyland Olympians that First Glasgow had were among the last Leyland Olympians bought for the Hong Kong market (along with a similar batch for Kowloon Motor Bus) and the last non-air conditioned buses CMB ever bought new. They were only withdrawn when they were as CMB's successor (New World First Bus) wanted rid of all their non-air con buses on normal service/franchised work (something they achieved in 2002 with the last DM-class Dennis Condor withdrawal). Otherwise, they likely would've lasted as long there as the last non-air con KMB buses did; their last non air-con Olympians and Dragons were withdrawn over the 2011-2012 period.

 

[fgwrich]

Stagecoach repatriated 20 Olympians from Kowloon Motor Bus, and 54 from Hong Kong Citybus (plus 21 Darts and 14 Dart SLFs from the latter as well).

Those ex Hong Kong Dart SLFs were awful (P-AYJ) batch. We were lumped with them in Basingstoke for many years, they were fairly slow, the Air Conditioning never worked and they often leaked. We certainly weren't sorry to see them go, even if the new network had one of the stupidest network names Stagecoach had ever come up with (Line xxx replaced with the "JaZz").

Incidentally, while I don't believe many of the ex Hong Kong imports operated by both Stagecoach and First have made it into preservation, there is one rather nicely restored Plaxton Pointer SLF. I've not seen it on the scene for a while, but former New World FirstBus HY8116 (Ex First Bus R344SUX) has been restored back to it's Hong Kong guise.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/marti...kas-8t3NzD-aD2EUe-5QRPPd-bmiqow-9jT8qt-od8wKW

 

[Tackleberry]

Those ex Hong Kong Dart SLFs were awful (P-AYJ) batch. We were lumped with them in Basingstoke for many years, they were fairly slow, the Air Conditioning never worked and they often leaked.

Well I enjoyed driving them, until the crappy E200s arrived...

 

[fgwrich]

Well I enjoyed driving them, until the crappy E200s arrived...

Would that be the crappy 07 E200s by any chance or the other notorious 58 plate batch?

Unfortunately I never had good memories of the batch - I remember catching one home from the town centre one day and we had a very heavy thunderstorm with some considerable rain. It wasn't long before some of it managed to find it's way into the old Air Con hoppers and started to drip through them. I think, some of it was leaking through the destination box as well - something was certainly leaking in the front as the driver wasn't particularly happy with it!

 

[Tackleberry]

Would that be the crappy 07 E200s by any chance or the other notorious 58 plate batch?

The 07s, when the 58s came in the MD of South happened to be at the bus station and asked what I thought of them (driving a 58) and said it sounds like something rolling around in the roof, he took that onboard (forget the actual fleet number now) but it turns out it WAS a screwdriver in the roof!!!

 

[Tackleberry]

Drove this one on Nottingham rail replacement quite a few years ago...

 

[Bletchleyite]

The 07s, when the 58s came in the MD of South happened to be at the bus station and asked what I thought of them (driving a 58) and said it sounds like something rolling around in the roof, he took that onboard (forget the actual fleet number now) but it turns out it WAS a screwdriver in the roof!!!

On Stagecoach buses in Manchester in the 90s it seemed rare for something (a screw or rivet, probably) not to be rolling round between the roof inside and outside panelling, and to make an irritating noise on braking and acceleration.

 

[90sWereBetter]

The K-EUX batch of tri-axle Leyland Olympians that First Glasgow had were among the last Leyland Olympians bought for the Hong Kong market (along with a similar batch for Kowloon Motor Bus) and the last non-air conditioned buses CMB ever bought new. They were only withdrawn when they were as CMB's successor (New World First Bus) wanted rid of all their non-air con buses on normal service/franchised work (something they achieved in 2002 with the last DM-class Dennis Condor withdrawal). Otherwise, they likely would've lasted as long there as the last non-air con KMB buses did; their last non air-con Olympians and Dragons were withdrawn over the 2011-2012 period.

The K-EUX batch saw out their last few years in Great Yarmouth. Sadly, while they were an impressive sight on the roads around here, they were pretty much knackered from 14 years abuse in Hong Kong, Manchester and Glasgow. I think the last of them were withdrawn in early 2010, being outlasted by a few F and G-reg Olympians hanging on with Eastern Counties.

 

[fgwrich]

The 07s, when the 58s came in the MD of South happened to be at the bus station and asked what I thought of them (driving a 58) and said it sounds like something rolling around in the roof, he took that onboard (forget the actual fleet number now) but it turns out it WAS a screwdriver in the roof!!!

That doesn't surprise me unfortunately, I've never been a fan of those 07s.

On Stagecoach buses in Manchester in the 90s it seemed rare for something (a screw or rivet, probably) not to be rolling round between the roof inside and outside panelling, and to make an irritating noise on braking and acceleration.

Funny enough you've also just reminded me of another Basingstoke based vehicle, one of the R-FOO batch formerly of Line 5 fame which had something in the roof. It may have been a load of left over rivets or something of that sort, but it was metallic and rattled every time the vehicle turned a corner - think of it as sounding like it's very own inbuilt Maraca. I remember that one rather well as it was one of the ex Selkent / London City Airport batch, where someone had taken the plastic coving panel down and not bothered to replace it!

As for the ex Hong Kong / Megabus / SWT Olympians, I do remember those as well. Some of those were particularly fast - pretty good vehicles for Rail Replacement! The Ex China Light and Power vehicles did look rather smart in the Mortons Travel livery.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/49007...rkN-bVfv6S-8Cz1ii-JaGg6j-ijkBCh-rn8gMj-8zGEAa