Take a Classic Bus Ride on Leyland Atlantean SCN 268S

[@droge192]

Loved getting these to school in the early 80s (Nuns Moor/Barrack Rd - Blakelaw schhol, on the 32). Although I preferred the thrash from the 2-speed auto Scania 111 Metropolitans, that ran alongside the Atlanteans).

[@Duke2019-o2x]

That bus was a south shields bus back in the day no 4 that went down king george Road to the market

[@TheTransportLens]

Didn't know that 🤔

[@Duke2019-o2x]

@TheTransportLens yeah me and my dad used to travel on it weekly get off at westoe.

[@johnmontgomery9149]

Nice smooth gear changes.

[@jaggass]

Im a big fan of Atlanteans. 0.680's have always sounded the best in Atlanteans due to its fan drive.

[@TheTransportLens]

I have to admit I'm rather fond of them ;)

[@1paultay]

Such an evocative sound

[@TheTransportLens]

Yup - they don't sound like that anymore lol

[@thisiszaphod]

Kudos to the cameraperson, and to the driver - extremely well driven!

[@TheTransportLens]

Thanks :) I don't know who the driver was off the top of my head but I'm sure that they would thank you as well :)

[@meikleriggs]

@@TheTransportLens the driver is Alex Spiller.

[@thisiszaphod]

@Peter Mitchell - thanks 👍

[@stuartkynoch7289]

Can't tell you how many times I rode the #12 doon the toon.

[@droge192]

Two Ball Lonnon - Walker, Via Shields Rd!

[@procta2343]

I have very fond memories of getting on these when I was a kid!! shame not many survive sadly

[@TheTransportLens]

Same here :)

[@marksinthehouse1968]

The dashboard looks great is that a leyland fitting or Alexander,a big fan of Tyne and Wear PTE busways at least kept the livery to a point superb

[@TheTransportLens]

I'll be honest i really don't know which is is...

[@Housephonestimes4]

High gears! Love it!

[@1paultay]

I'm sure the TWPTE SCN-S batch of Atlanteans were all originally fully automatic 5 speed, apart from SCN244S which was 3 speed Voith and based in Newcastle rather than the rest which were in South Shields for the first 10 years, until Busways took over

[@1paultay]

I remember 244 sounded weird and was particularly sluggish

[@1paultay]

I don't know if it is my childhood nostalgia, but it always seemed that Atlanteans always sounded more spirited in the North East

[@jeffdenton1863]

I grew up in South Shields, and can’t remember any of the Busways Atlanteans based there at the time (which would have been the JVK-P, MVK-R, SCN-S and UVK-T batches - this was one of them) ever having a semi-auto box... they were all fully auto when I lived there as far as I can remember.

[@jeffdenton1863]

The South Shields Busways ones certainly did sound pretty spirited... some of them really seemed to shift!!

[@gregsherlock5119]

SCN250S (owned for a while by Lincolnshire RoadCar) was a fully-automatic Atlantean. Gear 'control' (if you could call it that) was a cooker switch with "Forward", "Neutral" and "Reverse". Looked like a TWPTE peculiarity as VCU400T (Leyland Fleetline owned by Lincolnshire independent Enterprise & Silver Dawn) also had one.

[@lucythemoggy1970]

way the bus is bouncing suggest the front shackles are done up too tight

[@Richie92191]

Someone else has mentioned that a couple of times funnily enough

[@jaggass]

What camera are you using to film buses?

[@TheTransportLens]

That video would have been on my old GoPro :)

[@lucythemoggy1970]

front shackle pins too tight causing excessive bouncing

[@TheTransportLens]

afraid my knowledge doesn't extend that far lol

[@michaelbuntine362]

I miss how bouncy and jutttery and the sound of the engines used to be on buses... I never wanted smoother quiter rides.. Just a little bit faster

[@TheTransportLens]

I like the character of the older buses but in all honestly a lot of the ewer buses are just as rattley lol

[@leighnassau1158]

i Always suspected that the long intervals between gear changes on these models were because of double de clutching but this dudes legs arent moving very much so i wonder if it was just a mechanical thing where you had to hold the engine at a certain rpm to make a decent gear change anyone ?

[@TheTransportLens]

I'm afraid I can't answer that one. :(

[@jrnyfan4life]

It's a semi automatic box, and the bus more or less lets you know when to change gear.

[@marcelomenendez1971]

the semi automatic box needs those intervals to dont damage the gearbox

[@DavidThomas-qu8mh]

@@marcelomenendez1971 You're absolutely right. The driver knew exactly how to operate that gearbox - kudos to him.

[@cidertom5140]

It’s to help the gear change as the gearboxes are semi-auto and can be jolting if not paused between gear change due to the power bands inside the gearbox and to help the fluid flywheel and clutch. Not sure about leyland hydracyclic gearbox apart from the gears are like automatic gears where as the semi-autos are a different form to manual gears but very similar.

[@normanschlongdongovic4124]

Beside this i love Albion Viking too

[@HaiderHaider-kk1dz]

ليش السيارات البريطانيه مااله سوق في العراق

[@RadioJonophone]

It's very bouncy.

[@TheTransportLens]

Buses often are..... it can be quite a challange to try and keep the camera still lol

[@lucythemoggy1970]

shackle pins too tight

[@joeritchie7286]

It was like someone was havin a bit of private time somewhere lol

[@alan4391]

That bus is gutless

[@jaggass]

Atlanteans weren't the fastest of buses but it is being driven with pride.

[@colindevine8963]

Changing gear like its going to bite him doesnt help matters. Rev the nuts off it to get it up a hill, then a three second pause to lose all the momentum, wish folk would listen to fully automatic examples to see how Leyland designed the bus to change gear themselves!

[@1paultay]

It was 3 feet longer than most Atlanteans, as were most in the TWPTE fleet

[@1paultay]

@@colindevine8963 This one seems to have been retrofitted with a semi-auto; I'm sure it was fully automatic in its heyday

[@1paultay]

Most of the SCN-S batch were transferred to Slatyford and Byker in the late 80s, all were fully automatic and a lot more spirited than this example. I remember going to test matches at Headingley and Old Trafford in the late 80s with my dad, following slow, trundling low-key Atlanteans through Leeds and Manchester and thinking that our yellow Geordie fully automatic ones had so much more guts and character