Classic Bus Histories Episode IX: Leyland Olympian

Hello and well to episode 9 of Classic Bus Histories. This episode I delve into the history of the Leyland Olympian or project B45 as it was otherwise known.
I used to love riding the ECW bodied Olympians of Southern Vectis - these were really the only ones I came into contact with until I started driving buses. I was based at Thanet in Kent and we had two contrasting types of Olympians, the native Northern Counties bodied ones with Cummins L10 engines that absolutely flew. Then we had a handful of ex Selkent ECW plodders that took about three days to reach a top speed of 36mph! So there's my memories, what are yours? Did you travel on them or drive them? Or did you spend time under them in a pit?
I hope you enjoy the video. If you do, please like and share as well as subscribe to the channel. This will give you notifications of when I release further bus related videos.
Thanks for watching. Bye for now 👋🏻

[@jasonyu6649]

As a Hong Konger born in the 80s, Leyland Olympians are so much closer to my heart than the Fleetlines. KMB operated 4 distinct classes: BL: a 2-axle variant, ranging from 9.5m (production version) to 10.3m (demonstrators), with a total of 123 vehicles. S3BL: 11.3m, totalling 470 vehicles. AL: 11.3m with A/C unit, totalling 150 3BL: 12m, totalling 163 vehicles. CMB operated 2 BRs (Leyland Olympian 2-axle demonstrators); 25 LAs (11.3m with A/C unit); 10 LMs (11.3m without A/C unit) Citybus the greatest varieties of Leyland Olympians: Coaches with A/C units: Around 100 in 11.3m, ~10 as 12m coach Buses without A/C units of various lengths in 2-axles (more than 10, all second hand units) Buses with A/C unit ~30 with 10.3m for narrow streets on Hong Kong Island ~55 with 12m KCR (operator of Kowloon-Canton Railway) also run around 30 as railway feeder buses

[@jakeyb2003]

The Hong Kong buses look absolutely amazing to someone used to seeing standard length NBC spec buses.

[@craigsibley8161]

Nice video 👍👍👍

[@jakeyb2003]

Thanks Craig 👍🏼

[@melvy211]

These are my childhood buses, growing up in Dover in the 90's/00's. My favourites were a Stagecoach Hastings 'F reg' on that had the bus chassis but coach seating and used in the 711 route, then 2 volvo ones which had a small extension on them, which meant a small window in the middle of the bus. I believe they were R298 HCD and R299 HCD. I think they were Thanet buses working the Compass, but would sometimes work Dover routes.

[@russellb1212]

There were 3 mega dekkers, 2 went to Cumberland with coach seats, as well as the bus seated version to United Counties

[@dancedecker]

Very good. I once had cause to hire in an ex Red Ensign East Lancs bodied Olympian coach to cover a schools contract. What an awesome vehicle it was!! It had "Athens" on the destination blinds and we never really found out what its actual top speed was, as either we ran out of straight roads before it stopped accelerating, or the driver chickened out. That was no. "Limp.along", I can assure you. Wow.

[@jakeyb2003]

What a brilliant memory. Some of the Cummins engined ones I've driven have flown too.

[@dancedecker]

@@jakeyb2003 Thanks. You are welcome. I think this had a Gardner, but I could be wrong. It's 20 odd years ago. But it certainly was a beast.

[@camperp195]

Drove rm,s then olympians and titans,loved the titans,just easier to drive,all out of bexleyheath garage in the 80,s and 90,s

[@user-fn2ee1di3c]

Hi i'm viatron from Sheffield again, I still remember Yorkshire Traction having a large fleet of Gardner 6LXB lowhight ROE bodied Leyland Olympian double deck buses in Barnsley, South Yorkshire back in the 80s via having hydraulic gearboxes. But they is one of those preserved in Mexborough & District green & cream livery & now preserved at the South Yorkshire Transport Trust Collection at Eastwood in Rotherham & that's what I remember all those years ago. Thank you for your co-operation on this very bygone journey on the Leyland Olympian double deck bus subject from David Viatron Esquire of crookes in Sheffield.

[@jakeyb2003]

Glad you liked it. Always a pleasure.

[@dancedecker]

Because the name of the company actually building them was called Leyland Motors. In the 60's Austin made some Austin Princess's with Rolls Royce engines, but they were still Austins, just having an R added to the 4 litre badge. Lotus engined Cortinas were still Fords and some Dennis Dominators for SYPTE were RR engined, but were still classed as a Dennis. A Boeing 747 has RR engines too. Doesn't make it a Roller!! Plus there are numerous similar examples.

[@marksinthehouse1968]

You may agree with me on this I found the leyland Olympian a nice bus to drive,I drove them for LT and armchair ,Reading transport had a fleet of standard bus Olympians but with coach style dash panels for their gold line X1 service they looked smart,later they received a metallic blue livery or maybe had this from new ,my fav is the ECW in Ribble livery but the LT ones and the all leylands we had on the 237 but with single door were smart when new ,great video all the best 😊😊

[@discogareth]

Being a Birmingham boy, the Olympian was very alien to us in these parts! Speaking of which, I hope there’ll be a video on the Metrobus!

[@jakeyb2003]

There most certainly will.

[@fuzzynutter8344]

The only times I ever saw Olympians in Birmingham were when Midland Red North were serving the city, through their Mercian and Chaserider operations. WM Travel was very much Fleetine and Metrobus territory in the 80s and early 90s! With a few Aislas too.

[@grahamariss2111]

Recall seeing Midland Red ones in Coventry which had a Rolls Royce engine badging at the back.

[@Trident4544]

@@jakeyb2003I have a few Metrobus photos you can use if you want They are of West Midlands preserved examples

[@jakeyb2003]

@@Trident4544 I'd love that please! That would be a massive help

[@a11csc]

i loved driving these in service

[@michaelcolllett9082]

Enjoyed your video, managed ride on midland red with east coachwork,lucky one survive in preservation in midland red colours,, attending rallies!

[@martinhudson2552]

Excellent video as always. I had the privilege of travelling on the Stevensons Olympian many years ago.

[@NileTI]

I wonder what happened to A138 MRN. I spent the best part of 5 years catching her to and from school during her Stagecoach era. She was always there every morning regardless of rain, snow or shine!

[@jakeyb2003]

She's still around apparently. Last spotted at the King Alfred Running Day in Winchester last year.

[@johnmontgomery9149]

None of Leylands modern contemporaries ever came anywhere near the Atlantean, Fleetline or VR.

[@Simon-us1fu]

If I remember rightly Plumstead garage (PD) when Selkent was an all Olympian garage

[@Ju1ian10001]

Yes PD was, it had a large number of olympians, but it also run quite a number of titan's. PD also ran a fleet of metroriders and MA/MB single deckers before darts became the norm.

[@alanbaker2347]

That was totally AMAZING thank U for such an amazing video the Leyland Olympian is my favourite Double Decker Ever Especially the ECW bodied Olympian & it makes a really amazing sound & it's better than all other Double Deckers

[@jakeyb2003]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@alanbaker2347]

@@jakeyb2003 I did Thank U I'd Love to see a video about the Leyland Lynx & that makes a really great sound aswell

[@jakeyb2003]

@@alanbaker2347 Yes the Lynx is another lovely motor. The ones I've encountered sound like single deck Metrobuses.

[@AaronCable-tf9tt]

I'm not going to lie I'm glad I got to go on these when I was at school that was around ten year ago when I was on these or around that time when confidence bus and coach hire had a few of them in Leicester but now there's only two leyland ones. Which sadly ones scrap and the other I believe I'd the oldest one still in service a 1982 olympian but the scrap one luckily I have a part of. Ironically I have a seat base which I hated when I was younger as they where itchy now after a 60s routemaster the leyland olympian is one of my favourite buses. I love it when they have a leyland 680 engine I believe with the engine idling when starting before It idles properly. Probably one of my favourite sounds and the clattering sounds too

[@Captainpubwatch]

I was looking for Ron’s comment to ask whether you were old mates on the bus scene and having a bit of a laugh with it all, but it’s gone now. Cheers Jake and another great watch, good to see the work from someone with buses in the blood. Cheers, Alex

[@jakeyb2003]

Glad you liked it Alex. No, not sure who he is to be honest.

[@DarrenSaw]

Great video, another terrific round up of an iconic vehicle.

[@jakeyb2003]

Glad you liked it

[@sameyers2670]

East Yorkshire had a number of Leyland Olympians with ECW and Northern Counties bodies bought new and Leyland and N/C bodies secondhand. K573RRH was the last new one for EY, I found them nice vehicles to drive.

[@WOLFIE-96B-UK]

Great buses to drive, at Northern General, later Go Ahead Northern, we had Olympians alongside AN68 Atlanteans, VR's and Metrobuses. Always preferred driving the Olympians. (Noticed that Almex ticket machine in the intro!)

[@jakeyb2003]

Yes that was a Northern one! Very forward thinking with the Cummins/Voith combination.

[@carabara3947]

Good Stuff Handbrake As Usual British Invention Perfected By Other Countries

[@chrisanderson8784]

Always loved the Invctaway Olympians …they always looked superb . As always - a great video matey 😊

[@jakeyb2003]

Beautiful vehicles. Thanks Chris

[@tpaul2866]

Only once in the last year have I managed to navigate Coppins Bridge with all lights green. I remember catching the 96 service on Southern Vectis many moons ago. Limited stop from Ryde to Blackgang Chine? I also remember catching the 400 Eastern National from Kings Cross down to Romford. 96 was definitely an Olympian. Think the 400 was also.

[@jakeyb2003]

To get green lights around Coppins you must be worshipping the God of traffic lights!

[@Colin_Pole]

I lived there for 26 years I never had a run of green lights, That roundabout worked better when the traffic lights failed.

[@brianwood9913]

Ahh the god old limp-a-long! Not a bad bus and quite forgiving when you forgot to change gear after driving a metro....

[@DELTIC55007]

Fab video as ever, really looking forward to the Metropolitan one 😊😊

[@jakeyb2003]

Thanks 👍🏼

[@jamesfrench7299]

Were the rear axles on these and the Titan AEC derived? The hubs seem to be the same size and have the same bolt circle with no two bolts being opposite each other like the AEC axle. Only difference I could discern was instead of nuts that AEC rear axle hubs had, the Titan Olympian had bolts.

[@carabara3947]

Could You Possibly Do A Video On The A.E.C. Reliance Being Shipped Abroad Where In Sweden It Became The Volvo B58 One Of The Best Chassis And B10M's Which Ended Up The Backbone Of The U.K. Bus And Coach Fleet

[@fuzzynutter8344]

Another great video! Does anyone know if ECW produced 'highbridge' bodywork for the Olympian like they did for the VR, as I've never seen one? Or was the highbridge equivalent produced by Roe, which from the front looks similar to a Titan.

[@routeman680]

Yes ECW produced lots of full height (over 14 ft) bodies on the Olympian, e.g. for London (11:53 in the video) and Lothian. Easy way to tell: on the low height version the lower and upper deck windows are equal height. On the full height version the lower deck windows are higher (deeper) than the upper deck windows.

[@fuzzynutter8344]

@@routeman680 Thanks for the reply! I since went looking at some photos and could see what you were describing. For years, I thought ECW only did lower bodies on the Olympian.

[@russb2286]

Preston corporation had a olympian built in 1984. Ecw bodywork. TL11 engine. A33MRN. Used as demonstrator for leyland vehicles at first.

[@dancedecker]

And happily, it still survives.

[@russb2286]

@@dancedecker Any idea were it is????

[@dancedecker]

@@russb2286 Yes, a mate of mine has it. Not been out for a few years and from memory, which could be wrong, I seem to recall it was in either Cheshire or Staffordshire. Say Stoke or somewhere there. But it's just an educated guess.

[@Stevenspielburger]

Used to like these as a passenger, but they kept "losing" gesrs.

[@petersmith4455]

hi, why they were called leylands i don't know, half of them had Gardner engines, so what part was a genuine leyland ?

[@Ju1ian10001]

Chassis, gerabox, axle and brakes were leyland, you could have leyland engines, and of course Gardners.