Classic Bus Histories Episode IX: Leyland Olympian

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Күн бұрын

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@leylandlynxvlog Ай бұрын

The Lothian one you featured was one of my favourites growing up in Edinburgh, and rare to travel on being the only one with TL11, Hydracyclic and Alexander bodywork. It was one of two such spec in the fleet but the other had been burned in an arson attack, I think before i was born. My other favourites were the coach seated F36xWSC registered ones, especially when they ran in Airline livery. Those were later refurbished in the late 2000s, to match the interior look of the then newest Dennis/Transbus Tridents. I think overall a Cummins/ZF Olympian is my favourite, though the sound of TL11/Hydracyclics was quite relaxing with the "ch" sound as the gear changed.

@Guard_Amos 4 күн бұрын

Who didn't grow up with Olympians? They're my favourite deckers. My village where I grew up. Like now, Is served by 2 operators. Namely First and Arriva. But, as a kid it was Yorkshire Rider and Yorkshire Buses. YR had Roe bodied Olympians with auto gearboxes and YB had ECW bodied Olympians with semi-auto boxes. I enjoyed them the most. To me a proper Oly with always be an ECW bodied machine with semi-auto boxes

@JakeSCOC 4 күн бұрын

@@Guard_Amos Absolutely cracking buses aren't they?

@Guard_Amos 3 күн бұрын

@JakeSCOC cracking indeed. I'm part of transport trust that owns a Northern Counties machine. We've recently returned it to how it entered service. Livery and seating etc etc

@JakeSCOC 3 күн бұрын

@Guard_Amos Oh very nice.

@adamlee3772 Ай бұрын

Interesting video again. I’m still catching up. Thank you for sharing it. SYPTE only had a couple of these and didn’t have them for long. They had been diverted from WYPTE someone has told me in the past. Around South Yorkshire, we mainly saw these in East Midlands, Mexborough and Swinton and Yorkshire Traction fleets. They seemed like a huge improvement in the passenger experience over the Bristol VRs that were the backbone of their fleets.

@JakeSCOC Ай бұрын

@@adamlee3772 Hi Adam. Glad you're enjoying the videos. I didn't realise that South Yorkshire had any of these. That's rather interesting. With all the Dominators around them they must have been very non standard.

@adamlee3772 Ай бұрын

@ when I first arrived back in Rotherham as a lad, I became bit of a bus enthusiast as grandad had worked for the old Rotherham Corporation as a linesman on the trans and trolleybus services. The SYPTE had Daimler Fleetlines back then moving to Leyland Atlanteans, (the 1800 fleet numbers were a particular favourite of mine for some reason), and then they started getting the Dennis Dominator fleet with a few MCW as well. The Olympians were very unusual and I remember someone telling me they only had two but perhaps there were four or five. Very rare, they didn’t last long and someone else has commented that they were sent to National Bus Company in Chesterfield. I think the fleet numbers may have been 501/502 but, as I say, this is all from memory.

@ViatronTumpington 9 ай бұрын

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.

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

Glad you liked it. Always a pleasure.

@adamlee3772 Ай бұрын

@@ViatronTumpington not only Yorkshire Traction running these in the Sheffield Rotherham Doncaster area. East Midlands had a few as well. And even SYPTE had two or three diverted from a cancelled WYPTE order I believe. They didn’t keep them long. Someone told me they ended up in Chesterfield. Btw I lived in Broomhill and then Crookes for a while. Met my oldest friend in The Old Grindstone boozer there. Had many a curry up there.

@wilflewis7384 4 ай бұрын

Brilliant……

@JakeSCOC 4 ай бұрын

@@wilflewis7384 Thank you Wilf

@a11csc 9 ай бұрын

i loved driving these in service

@discogareth 9 ай бұрын

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!

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

There most certainly will.

@fuzzynutter8344 9 ай бұрын

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 9 ай бұрын

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

@VolvoB10L 9 ай бұрын

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

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

@@VolvoB10L I'd love that please! That would be a massive help

@michaelcolllett9082 9 ай бұрын

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

@martinhudson2552 9 ай бұрын

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

@melvy211 8 ай бұрын

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.

@JakeSCOC 6 ай бұрын

@@melvy211 I think 298/299 were Dover buses - or were when I was there in 2000-3. We had 301 at Thanet and I believe it was the only one of the batch there at that time.

@melvy211 6 ай бұрын

@@JakeSCOC oh cool. My Dad was a cleaner down at the old garage around that time, I got taken through the wash in a fair few buses.

@WOLFIE-96B-UK 9 ай бұрын

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!)

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

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

@Captainpubwatch 9 ай бұрын

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

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

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

@dancedecker 9 ай бұрын

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.

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

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

@dancedecker 9 ай бұрын

@@JakeSCOC 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.

@marksinthehouse1968 9 ай бұрын

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 😊😊

@DarrenSaw 9 ай бұрын

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

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

Glad you liked it

@alanbaker2347 9 ай бұрын

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

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

@alanbaker2347 9 ай бұрын

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

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

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

@tpaul2866 9 ай бұрын

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.

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

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

@Colin_Pole 9 ай бұрын

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

@Simon-us1fu 9 ай бұрын

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

@Ju1ian10001 9 ай бұрын

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.

@craigsibley8161 7 ай бұрын

Nice video 👍👍👍

@JakeSCOC 7 ай бұрын

Thanks Craig 👍🏼

@chrisanderson8784 9 ай бұрын

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

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

Beautiful vehicles. Thanks Chris

@russellb1212 9 ай бұрын

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

@StephenAllcroft 5 ай бұрын

United Counties was the third place in the Stagecoach group to run F110NES, it had started work at the Magicbus subsidiary in Glasgow but was then moved to East Midland prior to UCOC.

@DELTIC55007 9 ай бұрын

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

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

Thanks 👍🏼

@NileTI 9 ай бұрын

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!

@JakeSCOC 9 ай бұрын

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

@AaronCable-tf9tt 9 ай бұрын

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

@jasonyu6649 8 ай бұрын

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

@JakeSCOC 8 ай бұрын

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

@carabara3947 9 ай бұрын

Good Stuff Handbrake As Usual British Invention Perfected By Other Countries

@brianwood9913 9 ай бұрын

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

@sameyers2670 9 ай бұрын

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.

@russb2286 9 ай бұрын

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

@dancedecker 9 ай бұрын

And happily, it still survives.

@russb2286 9 ай бұрын

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

@dancedecker 9 ай бұрын

@@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.

@carabara3947 9 ай бұрын

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 9 ай бұрын

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 9 ай бұрын

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 9 ай бұрын

@@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.

@digitalvintage2416 6 ай бұрын

Why do most old buses doesn’t have front bumpers?

@JakeSCOC 6 ай бұрын

@@digitalvintage2416 interesting question. And it would probably save a lot of minor repairs if they did! Nottingham trialled big bumpers during the 70's and 80's but they didn't seem to catch on elsewhere. I'd say it was down to cost.

@digitalvintage2416 6 ай бұрын

@@JakeSCOC thank you for answer! I still wonder cause it seems it’s easier to repair bumper than fender, but without massive bumpers buses really looks better)

@adamlee3772 Ай бұрын

@@JakeSCOC SYPTE had a few Dominators with bumpers and a few Olympians. Bumpers increase the overall length so I suspect it’s to do with getting more interior room length and width wise within the footprint of the bus allowed by regulations? A few inches here and there can soon add up

@dancedecker 9 ай бұрын

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.

@jamesfrench7299 9 ай бұрын

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.

@geoffbuck6890 3 ай бұрын

No, it was a Leyland drop centre axle.

@jamesfrench7299 3 ай бұрын

@@geoffbuck6890 doesn't mean they didn't use AEC axle hubs. Leyland used components from their aquired manufacturers on a lot of their badged products.

@geoffbuck6890 3 ай бұрын

@@jamesfrench7299 If I remember hub configurations were defined by wheel standards and as an old Leyland Motors product planner we tended to try to use in-house products rather than those of acquired companies in order to maximise in-house products. We did however use Albion axle and gearbox products, had strong Self Changing Gear connections, and used Alford and Alder units. We tended to utilise AEC’s excellent engine design and development capabilities, and they developed the Leyland Marathon.

@jamesfrench7299 3 ай бұрын

@@geoffbuck6890 I used to ride in Leyland Super Vikings which were evidently an updated Albion Viking going by the same hub reduction axle design as the earlier Vikings I saw. I was told the TL11 had heads based on the AEC 505 heads. Tigers I caught even made a similar hum as the engine wound down as the Swift 505s I rode only a year earlier. They were a major improvement in smooth running over the O680 it was a development of. I remain convinced the Leyland drop axle used AEC axle shafts.

@geoffbuck6890 3 ай бұрын

@@jamesfrench7299 As a self-confessed ‘bus wanker’ and old Leyland Motors employee, I love these ‘chats’. I’m pretty sure the OE680 derived TL11 didn’t have 505 heads. The 680/TL11 was 680cu in capacity with two heads each covering three cylinders. The AV505 was 505cu in and had a single head covering all 6 cylinders. As to the drop-centre axle, all I remember was it was a dedicated Leyland Motors product and would have been surprised that axle shafts were made at Southall and shipped to Leyland when we made so many at Leyland - but stranger things happened I guess. Also I can’t think that AEC ever made a low floor decker requiring a dropcentre axle - any thoughts?

@johnmontgomery9149 9 ай бұрын

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

@وليدالقيسي-ض3ش 5 ай бұрын

لماذا لم ترسل لايلاند أولمبي نموذج وتبيع للعراق منه مالسبب

@Stevenspielburger 9 ай бұрын

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

@MartinIbert 5 ай бұрын

12 metres is a perfectly normal length for a bus. That's not "huge", that's just normal in much of the world.

@JakeSCOC 5 ай бұрын

@@MartinIbert A 12m double decker is still pretty rare in the UK for service buses used on bus routes. Next to a normal length bus they do look a lot bigger.

@MartinIbert 5 ай бұрын

@@JakeSCOC You mean yours look a lot smaller next to a normal bus. 🙂 Anything less than 11 metres for a transit bus I would consider "unusually short". Our (Berlin) current fleet of double-decker buses, which were built in the UK by ADL, are 13.8 metres long.