Ashok Motors in India licensed to produce Leyland buses in 1955(and renamed itself Ashok Leyland) and is now the 3rd largest manufacturer of buses and 10th largest manufacturer of trucks in the world. It now exports its products across the globe including to Britain. It also now fully owns Optare, another bus manufacturer in the UK, which was also a "descendant" of Leyland Buses.
Ashok saran died in plane crash. The leyland company was headed by Sir ashok's wife. She trusted the Indian engineers and British engineers in developing the company. Today ashok leyland exports buses and truck all over the globe.
Saturday morning here in Alberta, a Coffee and meditation time with Ruairidh. You never fail to deliver concise content, no drama just watchable, educational and professional content. Thank you for everything you do, at lot of other TH-camrs could learn a lot from you. I would like to see you do the evolution of Ambulances in the UK.
My school life was blighted by the Olympian as it was the bus that often shuttled me home after school. Which was bad enough until it got to a steep hill between my home town and the school that made it slow to a literal crawl. Walking was actually faster. And don't get me started on the Pacer units I had for college travel. But I do miss them weirdly.
I get it, my school buses were Bristol VR's and Leyland National 1's (never forget the scream from the rear left handside rradiator cooling fan as they accelerate away from the bus stop) and having to ride on DMU's, Pacers and Sprinters to commute for work.
For all their faults, the Pacer saved many regional railway lines from closure at a time when passenger numbers were falling. They were cheap to build, cheap to operate, and became more reliable than the alternatives available. I live on a line that nearly closed twice, the Pacers saved the line. Fast forward and there are now plans to increase capacity on the line, newer higher capacity trains are now unable to handle the increased passenger numbers due to a strech of single track on the route, doubling the track would increase the capacity. Had it not been for the Pacer this line would have already been lost.
Got my PCV licence in a Leyland National full length semi-auto, lovely to drive once you got used to it and that engine was the sound of many people's childhood.
My father was a Ribble bus driver and I lived in Leyland as a child when production was going. If you come into Leyland a certain way there is a tank next to one of the roundabouts. It's all fascinating stuff.
When I was young I wanted to grow up to be a bus driver. Was in love with the Leyland Atantean. Marvelling at its stump pulling torque. The engine was barely idling while the scenery out the windows whizzez past. That little gated gear lever of the Leyland pneumocyclic gearbox? I only saw something like that in a Ferrari later and I thought the Italians copied it.
@@batuksri it was only a ten minute drive around some streets and wish I could have another drive. Boy it was different to the Mercedes and MAN buses I was driving for a living. They make you lazy.
Me too: I wanted to be a bus driver when I was a child. I told my children that when I was a child, I thought astronauts were “okay”, but I thought bus drivers were the coolest people on the planet!
The Wilson pneumatic gearbox was very common in The Netherlands. It was used by DAF on their MB200 buses for almost 20 years. Before that, Leyland was one of the bigger suppliers of public transport buses. In fact the DAF bus was inspired by an almost identical model with a Leyland o680 engine. I'm not sure, but i think the DAF 1160 dkdl engine was based on that, too.
The 450 Leyland-National buses exported to Caracas, Venezuela were use by the Metrobus system, which is a public transit system in the Venezuelan capital, consisting of 24 routes (20 urban and 4 suburban routes). For more than 30 years, "Los Autobuses Britanicos" as local got to called them, connected the far-flung communities of Los Teques, Guarenas, Guatire and San Antonio de Los Altos with the Caracas Metro. Basically acting as a feeder bus system to the underground. Many of them ran on urban routes, as well as special events routes. These buses were so robust that many of them are still on the road today, although no longer part of the Caracas Metrobus system. Maybe one day, one of those buses can be repatriated to the UK and put on display in a transport museum in the city where it was built. in its original Caracas Metrobus colors, to show future generations that these buses traveled the world.
Such an interesting video, thanks a lot. Leyland company also had some USSR connections. Soviet government acquired 50 to 70 of Leyland buses back in early 20's. The YaTB-3 doubledecker trolley was also heavily influenced by Leyland-based British trolleybuses.
There was also the case of two heavy duty Scammell lorries being bought by the Soviets. This was expected to be the beginning of a large order but it all went very quiet - it was suspected that they were dismantled and certain features reverse engineered in the USSR.
@@thomasfrancis5747 to be honest I don't know about any Scamell-influenced Soviet lorry. We actually never had such a bright specs of lorries - there have been ~4 basic model w/some add-ons for specific duty purpose.
In NSW we had a lot of Leyland Post war era built buses Royal Tiger Worldmasters, Titan OPD-2's, Atlanteans, but the most numerous of all and even by world standards in terms of units built was The Leyland Leopard PSU-3/2R bus. a total of 232 MK I and 512 MKII Leopards totalling 744 units built. Though the bodies were built locally with Pressed Metal Corporation building the majority with the remainder built by Smithfield Bus & Coach works and a small number built at Chullora Workshops on Smithfield Frames. Having said that the Worldmasters as well as the other two mentioned earlier had bodies built locally between Commonwealth Engineering, Clyde Engineering and The Cycle Components Manufacturing Company later renamed Custom Coaches.
Adelaide made the best use of the Worldmaster chassis with their 8'6" overwidth tram replacement buses with the very stylish looking three door Lawton bodywork. The NSW government ran the world's biggest single fleet of Leyland Leopards with their 745 including their prototype with in house body. Israel had the most Worldmasters with 3000 units, many built there.
@@jamesfrench7299 Thankfully both prototypes or each nicknamed "Mr Whippy" have been preserved The first 3520 being preserved at The Sydney Bus Museum. But you are right about Adelaide making the best use of The Leyland Worldmaster chassis. It's a shame that some had their body length shaved of by a few millimetres so they could be sent to interstate private operators once their time with The MTT/STA of Adelaide was over.
@@DKS225 I think you meant the width getting shaved off. They looked better painted in some of the various private operator's colours than the original all over silver. I'm thankful I got to see a few around Sydney growing up.
@@jamesfrench7299 Yes that thank you for correcting that mistake. That said i only remember riding The MK II Leopards the ones still in service that were gradually replaced by the then new Mercedes 0305's of The MK I-MK IV type. Personally i remember only seeing and riding The MK II onward. Then came The MK V with the new Mercedes 0405 Chassis that saw the last of The Leopards withdrawn in 1989.
@@DKS225 sure. Thanks for confirming that's what you meant. The other prototype evaluation bus was Mrs Whippy an AEC Reliance 590. Would have been interesting if the DGT kept with their practice of ordering AEC underfloors alongside Leyland's and we saw some AEC Reliances with the same body as the Leopards.
I remember the three axle trolley buses in Glasgow (twin axles at the rear) which were known as the silent deaths. 🏴 Great to see all those clips in and around Glasgow, Ruairidh… my home town 🏴🏴
Interesting, even tho I was born long after the Leyland National went out of service, I still think it’s one of the best looking and most iconic buses ever produced. There’s just something about it’s design that just clicks
Leyland came up with the overall shape, Giovanni Michelotti did the finishing touches after Donald Stokes wasn't happy with the looks the in house stylist had done. A real team effort led to it's smart looks. The roof pod really set off it's futuristic and stylish appearance.
Don't forget their agricultural tractors too. Used a Leyland tractor at a hospital, to delivery the food trolleys to the outlying hospital wards. It is a psychiatric hospital.
@@ldnwholesale8552 Don't be nasty now. Give respect to our mind troubled. 🙃😁👍 Always got snowed in did St. David's Carmarthen asylum, hence the tractor. Genius thinking! 👍
I used to drive Leyland National Mk 1 and 2 in the late 1980's. The Mk 1 had a distinctive engine sound and in my opinion a slick gearbox with a stubby gear change lever. Those buses were my favorite to drive and a such I really enjoyed driving them.
@@Ayrshore🇯🇲🇯🇲 here . We got Leyland Olympic buses during from the early 50s - late 60s . They sent Leyland Nationals from the 1st batch to replace the Olympics & they were nothing but problems when j.o.s got them . The Olympics ran circles around them with reliability The Nationals had look going on for it but the Olympics got strength & reliability over it . J.O.S ended operating the good old Olympics till they closed 1983 & some Olympics went on till late 90s with other bus Companies.
We still use a couple of the old Leylands here in Caracas for training of newer drivers. The beasts will live on for a good few more years until they replace them with something else.
The local bus manufactor DAB in Silkeborg, Denmark used Leyland from 1953 up to when Leyland went bust in the early 80’s. Swiched to Volvo after that. Were hugely popular in Denmark.
I still struggle today understanding how designers of 1940's and 50's England gave us arguably some of the most elegant, and beautiful aircraft of our times and yet everyone of their ground based designs looked like utter horror.
SBS9168S was part of a batch of 200 3 axle olympians sold to Singapore and the first ever air conditioned double decker bus. It was the only one of the batch not to be scrapped because Dave Rogers bought it from SBS Transit before scrapping, and it returned to his private collection in the UK under the L888SBS plate.
SBS9168S was the last Leyland Olympian ever built, not the first AC double-decker. The first successful* air-conditioned double-decker was probably Citybus Hong Kong's Leyland Olympian C51 (registered 1985), using the inefficient independently-engined air conditioner layout. (Coincidentally, C51 is also preserved by Dave Rogers) The first successful air-conditioned double-decker with its AC powered by the bus engine was KMB's AL1 (registered 1988, shown at 35:08 ). (This prototype has been preserved by KMB) * There were various unsuccessful trials, the earliest trial in Hong Kong dates back to 1980 with a Dennis Jubilant.
@@Mattoropael the first ac double decker in Singapore Technically the first ac buses in Singapore were two Isuzu demonstrators for the Singapore traction company in 1962, although by the 1970s they had been disabled and converted to non ac Ac was only properly introduced in Singapore public buses from 1984 onwards
Leyland and Bedford (and Ford to a certain extent) dominated the bus market in Australia for years, then along come Merecedes Benz and MAN, and then Volvo-BM with Scania and it was bye-bye to Leyland and Bedford. Then came the Japanese with Hino and now it's the Chinese with Yutong, I remember Deanes at North Ryde NSW had Leyland Nationals and the Met in Melbourne too I think. Great video and very informative, well presented thank you.😉
An awful lot of research has gone into the making of this video, on which you are to be commended. Most of my bus journeys as a young person in Manchester were made on Leyland buses, most of which were manufactured not that long after the 2nd world war. The PD1, PD2 and PD3 models featuring prominently. However, in North Manchester, where I lived, it was fairly clear that the PD1s in particular were underpowered and struggled to get up some of the many hills there with a full rush hour load.All, I have to say, were outclassed by the Rochdale Corporation AECs which were both less noisy and also able to make light of the hills.
My father and two brothers, plus several brothers in law, worked at Leyland and Pilling Lane, Chorley, from 1950s into 1980 - a major employer in Lancashire with good apprenticeship schemes. A good video, as usual. Note Hough was pronounced "Huff."
I'd strongly recommend a visit to the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland. It's housed in part of the company's old works. It's a great day out for lovers of stuff like this.
My favourite Leyland bus of all time was the Royal Tiger Worldmaster chassis . The pneumocyclic gearshift was a real treat to drive . PA Melbourne Australia
The Class 143 were based at Heaton depot in Newcastle but worked service across the north-east and across to Carlisle. As for the Class 144 they even operated the Middlesbrough to Whitby services, a long way by rail from West Yorkshire.
@@Eric_Hunt194 yes they were, but one day I was surprised to see one at Grosmont instead of a Class 142 as the Class 143s had been sent the south west and south Wales.
Few Leyland Trolleys in New Zealand are still in one piece and I managed to grab a photo from my Father in 2011 of one preserved in MOTAT in Auckland. One in Christchurch up until the demise of overhead wires in Wellington continued to run 100% on its own electricity technically in service instead of preserved trolley lines. A few leylands up until the late 2010s were converted to diesel and still ran in Wellington on bus hires. These diesel buses are now preserved and restored in Dunedin. Plenty of trolley buses technically preserved in NZ just with different hearts. Furthermore, at least 8-10 leylands are still continuing to transport passengers. Technically, during Public Holidays in Dunedin where most leylands reside the weekend is ran by preserved buses meaning the Leylands technically are still on route service during XMAS and Easter. These buses primarily work cruise ship passenger shuttles & charters where needed. Many leylands from the 60s and 70s have been running on active continuous company work up until the 2010s then preserved in NZ. Stagecoach & local operators are credited to keeping many of these buses going 10-15 years longer than intended thus allowing preservations societies to take them into safe hands. Very old fleet of buses in the 2000s on Urban Routes some as old as the 60s although rebodied and modified.
The Leyland Leopard and Leyland Atlantean are the buses of my youth. In fact, it still makes me smile that the Bus Stop symbol used in the UK looks like an Alexander bodied Leopard.
I’ve driven both the Leyland Olympian and the Volvo both I found very nice to drive only the Volvo feeling a bit more solid but still comfortable from a drivers point of view all the best 😊😊
The Leyland - Daf merger in the 70's was a organic and very logical one. Daf just a chassis and trailer builder used from the start Leyland engines and drivetrains for their trucks and busses and became one of their biggest customers/partner. After WW2 trucks and coaches were in high demand for civil and military NATO use acros Europe. When the prewar AEC and austerity build 1950's Crossley busses had to be replaced several Dutch coach builders used the Daf chassis / Leyland engine-drivetrain. And they were build in the thousands! Lots of those super tough build public transport busses were exported to cuba after 30 years of daily operation and are still in use in Cuba and the oldest are now 50+ years in service! The monocoque coach for busses killed of lots of coach builders in Europe who used bus chassis. Chassis builders came late to the party and could'n't compete. After the bankrupcy of Leyland-Daf the Daf Bus part was sold to VDL a specialised sheetmaterial-hull-shell manufacturer. The 6 cilinder Leyland bus engine has evolved and has even reached the Euro 6 emission standards! Leyland genes are so still in modern busses.
Growing up in Dunedin NZ in the 50s--mid 60s, my hilly suburb...one of many... was served by Leyland trolley busses...on what had originally been a cable car line. In Dunedin trolley buses are/were perfect for steepish roads being quick, quiet and powerful,,, being stopped only by poles jumping off the wire .and snow in winter. In their wisdom, the DCC got rid of these wonderful, drably coloured machines sometime after 1975 to be replaced byyyy ..noisy if more flexible diesels..... the excellent but allowed to decay tram system had gone by 1954. Auckland had green two tone trolley buses.. .It's only 2 or 2 years since the Wellington city council stopped the excellent inner city--hill and harbour trolley bus routes...another city with famously narrow and steep streets in places.. and the buses were only a very few years old. So, it's completely diesel or unsatisfactory hybrids now, some borrowed from Auckland.... I made sure I had a ride, out to the gorgeous art-deco Roxy pictures ( cinema) in the harbour-side suburb of Miramar on the second last day of service.
As an Indonesian who interested in buses and trucks, especially the old one, which came before 2010s, I found this really superb and informating. Because, as far as I know, the Leyland Buses Ltd. goes on its own, but the fact it was acquired by Volvo was unheard by many. Leyland did come to Indonesia. The Atlantean and the Olympic, which is part of financial help in the 1970s and early 1980s. All double-decker bus. Unfortunately, not all of them survived, because the spare parts are not enough for hundreds of buses to be used more than 10 years. In fact, by the start of 1990s, some of them are out of service, replaced by Mercedes Benz with their successful OF 1113 front-engine chassis, OH 1113 and OH 1518 rear-engine chassis and they all scrap in the late 1990s following the Economic Crisis of 1997-1998. And yet, the British are very genious, I think. The Atlantean and the Olympic for instance, is iconic and timeless even though it was build in 1970s and the mechanicals are, I should say, ahead of its time. But, because of mismanagement, they not in production anymore. The trucks, we, Indonesian, never have Leyland trucks, but our cash-strapped marque, Perkasa, build trucks that using Leyland RoadTrain cab, of course it is license from Leyland-DAF, because Perkasa came to life in 1996 and it went bankrupt in 2002 because of Economic Crisis of 1997-1998 and the government scandal, which was lobbied by foreign manufacturer that already had manufacturing facilities in Indonesia so as to not gaining competition, mostly because Perkasa is more powerful. The Perkasa had license-built Steyr WD612 which developed around 240hp and its is more powerful than the competitors, which having 180ps (JIS), 180hp, 190ps (JIS) ,210hp, and 220ps (JIS) at its most powerful. The lobby later conclude that Perkasa declared bankrupt by emitting that it has financial problem, in fact, there is financial problem but it is not as heavy as the reported.
Very well put regards Leyland's products. Thank you. I did read somewhere a long time ago that Jakarta got some Atlanteans. Manilla in the Philippines got a small batch. Like you mentioned, parts supply is vital to keep these machines in daily use. Glad you got to experience them.
@@jamesfrench7299 Your welcome, sir. Actually, I didn't experiencing them, because I born in 2003, long way after the Leylands scrapped. I know that we have British-built busses, which is the Leyland Atlantean, Leyland Olympic, Volvo-Ailsa B55, and even Routemaster, I think, because of the remaining documentation. The photos and videos of the 1970s and 1980s. It is a shame they're all scrapped. The remaining one is photos and videos. I wish in the future, I, or somebody else, would buy one or two of the Atlantean, Olympic, and Volvo-Ailsa B55 in order to brings people that there were those British-built busses that was the back bone of major Indonesian cities (Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Medan, Palembang, Makassar) that also helped the economy and education for many peoples. Lots of south-east asian countries have had British-built busses. Singapore did, Malaysia did, and Philippines also did. As far as I know, they were all scrapped, replaced by Germans, Japanese, and Chinese. In fact, the triple-axle variant of Volvo-Ailsa B55 for export outside of Britain is only 2, one unit goes to Hong-Kong and the other one to Indonesia. The Hong-Kong one, survived. Whereas the Indonesian one, scrapped.
@@getomarjayashi4955 I suggest you get yourself to Sydney and visit the Sydney Bus Museum. They have running days at different times in the calendar. They have a Routemaster as well as long retired Sydney Atlanteans and front engined British double deckers as well as single deckers from AEC and Leyland plus some more modern buses preserved. Australia day January,, 26th they run deckers through the city in a circuit most of the day until about 4pm. You NEED to come down here to see the collection.
I swear theres been some systematic removal of all records of electric vehicles being used before 1990's, i had no clue there was an electric bus network in London and other large cities!
(19:04) the Leyland single decker bus face looks a lot like our american Flxible new look fishbowl inner city bus. The Flxible model was used here in the 1960s thru the early 1980s. They were very popular here like the National was in the U.K.
I have driven various Leyland buses. I gained my licence with Devon General in Torquay in 1979. I have driven the Leyland Lynx. They were very long! The Atlantean. Single door. The Leyland National single door. Also the Leyland Leopold coach. I also drove various other buses in my time with Devon General including old Bristol half-cabs, the VR (beautiful to drive), the FLF Lodekka (amazing bus! 5 gears! Crash gear box. No synchromesh or power assistance.) I later moved to London and have worked for London Transport with whom I drove the LS (London Transport's Leyland National and two door!), the Titan and, of course, the classic Routemaster. Since 1994 I have driven the Olympian, late 80s version (G reg) and early 90s version (J reg). The G reg version was an animal! I have also, in London, driven the Volvo B6 (Another beautiful bus to drive!), the Dennis Dart (fun and, if converted, would make a great motorhome.), the Mercedes articulated bus (probably the best bus which I have ever driven. A true drivers bus and, don't believe all the nonsense about the reasons for their withdrawal, an excellent bus for London especially on high capacity routes.) I'm currently driving the so-calle New Routemaster which, in my humble opinion, is a pile of junk. Simply put, it's Boris's vanity project and was put into service too early. It has various issues which, given time, could have been rectified. Anyway, I really love your presentation. Tons of fantastic archive video. Huge thanks.
Remember a bus chassis going down the M4 outside London, no body on it at all, about 1971. Memory stuck with me - fella there driving it with his goggles on, remarkable!
Anybody from Preston/Leyland area can tell you a multitude of stories about what happened. I know a dozen, everybody's dad, grandad, uncle, neighbour worked there. Here's one, my mate worked at Leyland paints next door, a fork lift pulls up to the fence on the Leyland motors side with an engine in a crate, the Leyland paints forklift comes out to meet it and takes the crate from over the fence. Brand new engine for one of the Paint's wagons no money changed hands. I could go on.
Watched from Old Harbour Jamaica and I remember the days when Leyland set the standard for every trucks and buses inported into Jamaica and my dad owned a few of those buses himself.
Watched this XLNT Documentary from N.Y. Grew up in JAMAICA and remember quite well when the LEYLAND NATIONALS arrived in JAMAICA which as the Narrator stated, was run by the JAMAICA OMNIBUS SERVICE...Very nice and fast, they were badly maintained and had problems going up steep hills and as a result, I doubt if there are any left in running condition...pity... Still great memories of riding in them...
@@peterwhite1831Same here . My father used to work with J.O.S Bus Company & .they prefer the older L,A,& G Olympic buses with the mid-engine layout Those Olympics were wicked around corners & the more loaded they were ,the better they perform . I've seen on several occasions L & G buses swinging around Harbour view & 3 mile Roundabout's 14:30 at the same speed coming up the str8 till the top of the wheels gone up under the bodies !!.The L,A,& G buses remains the best & strongest set of buses ever came to Jamaica . Theres a few surviving j.o.s buses around in the countryside used as houses .
When I went to middle school and high school in the mid 1980s used to have to take a bus to get home. Over those 5 to 6 years I travelled on a mixture of Bristol LH, Bristol VR (with the locally produced Eastern Coach Works bodies), Leyland National and Leyland National 2s operated by Eastern Counties out of Lowestoft. I was always struck by the design of both versions of the National. They seemed so modern. My favourite is the National Mk1 with the short heater pod on the roof and the infamous Leyland 510 "headless wonder" engine. Those buses had such a unique engine sound when above idle. Later, I found out that the National was styled by Giovanni Michelloti who to me, as a Triumph Cars fan and previous owner, is one of the greats there with Guigiaro & Gandini.
Driven quite a few of these Leyland buses over the last 40 years. Remember driving the Leyland Lynx and it was a flyer !. Also driven the Atlanteans and Olympians, Nationals and Cubs. Some good footage there from the 80s
Wonderful documentary. We built the best buses and coaches in the world and now we are inmporting chassis from China. My all time favourite bus was the 1953 Leyland PD1 with Alexander coachwork of course! Some of these were still operating until the late 60s.
I actually live in Leyland, my house is on the old body shop, all my family worked at bus and truck. I must say it’s a bit depressing that it’s all gone but also very proud of our great town’s heritage….. but it wasn’t just the motors. Leyland was an industrial freak.
1:52 Not to nitpick, but, as a Leylander, I have to point out Hough Lane is pronounced "Huff Lane", not "How Lane". It really is just a nitpick though - this is an amzingly thorough and well-researched video. Thank you! 🙇
I spent a year or so driving yellow Leyland Atlantean buses for Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive out of Byker Depot in the early 1970's. (After all what else can you do after getting a Master of Science degree from Newcastle Uni?😂). Easy to drive, the rectangular footprint and forward driving position meant you could see every corner of the bus and easily put it through a gap with only a couple of centimetres to spare. Quite enjoyable to drive unless you got an older one with no power steering - so many mini roundabouts in Newcastle, so quite a work out! Going over High Level Bridge was tricky. So narrow you had to pull the mirrors in, in case you met a lorry coming the other way with wide mirrors! There you go, some useless 50-year old information. It was quite an education in the university of life. At least as useful as the University of Newcastle!
Remember the A bus,L bus ?. This was the 1st true modern looking bus to come to Jamaica with large route display & wrap around windshield & 4 headlights . It's considered the best looking bus ever went to Jamaica .the G bus & the short version ,the A bus the F bus,aka Patty Pan . The J bus & the shorter C bus ,the short version of the J ,the Local assembled M bus ,There's also the R bus.This was the only non - Leyland bus with one door j.o.s operated . It came to replace the legendary Patty Pan & died leaving it .
Leyland used to make not just buses and trolley-buses but also they made a bus like train that was nicknamed “Pacers”. As it was a bus fitted with rail wheels that went on railway tracks and were used in the North of England, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Merseyside, Wales and Southwest England. Which I think GWR still has those Pacer trains.
They also made the Dolomite Sprint/the Austin Princess som of the best cars from them in the70's. And yet they we're much more reliable than Lancia's at that time
Interesting/informative/entertaining. Excellent photography picture 📷 of the early Leyland vehicles. Along with motion photography of the cars/buses/trucks. Enabling viewers to better understand what the orator was describing.
This article doesn’t mention the very important closed market for Leyland vehicles in all the British colonies. Especially South Asia , Malaya etc. which sustained Leyland for many years. No closed markets and no more Leyland though the name Ashok Leyland is very common in India
There is of course a lot more to it than this, I was involved as my father was a senior bus operator and I was later to be an engineering student with Leyland at the Leyland plant. The National was a bit of a disaster but could be rectified as we did later but the real problem was the OH500 series engines with fixed cylinder heads, I could do a 35 minute programme about this disaster, Leyland Management wanted to only make this lemon when the 0680 series was well respected indeed even today DAF1160 engines are made from the 680 Leyland design, I fitted quite a few into Leyland chassis, the 500 meanwhile was a good one if it made 100,000 miles. In the truck it was an even bigger disaster although the Roadtrain was a better truck the then 680 derived replacement the TL11 was a very economical unit it sort of fell apart all too readily, but the real killer was the management attitude, I was there when the Leyland sales Director said to a significant customer "where will you go" well the response was the rise of Dennis, MCW, Volvo, DAF, Scania and others so not quite right in the summary. It was not the market that faikled it was management not listening to the customer!
I agree entirely with your comments here on the Leyland 500 'Headless Wonder' engine. My experiences with this engine go back to the mid 1970's when I was an apprentice HGV mechanic at a Leyland Trucks dealership in Birmingham. Here at the dealership we became besieged with 500 engine failures, from Leyland Truck models such as the Buffalo and Bison range. They were a nightmare to diagnose/ strip down and successfully rectify, due to their complexity of a one piece head and block; that required an overhead crane to lift-off the entire engine block from its crankcase, together with the 6 Pistons & Connecting rods (split at their big ends) still attached within the block. We then had to send out the engine block for repair if it required new liners or valves. This practice choked-up our workshops and created terrible relations with owner-operators, due to vehicle downtimes. The irony here was that I believe the design of this OHC fixed head engine was superb and well advanced. When running correctly, the engine was powerful, revved freely, ticked-over beautifully and gave the most distinctive 'crackle' sound when running. It was also easy and straightforward to service; no fan belts, valve clearances or oil leaks to worry about (the engine components were sealed with ‘Elastomar’ a 2-part sealant) thus no gaskets were used. However it would appear that little if any quality control or 'proofing'/suitable long term testing was carried out beforehand. The other issue here I believe was that the engine was only of a 6 cylinder, 8 litre capacity. We had these engines that were turbochaged / intercooled and installed into 32 ton tractor units and 6 wheel tippers etc. which were absolutely abused and thrashed to death by right-footed Neanderthals! At least with the Leyland Bus chassis’ the 500 engines stood a chance as they were subjected to less loads, mistreatment and abuse. Managerial short-sightedness disaster at Leyland, obviously…..
The prototype Pacers such as LEV-1 were not built on redundant freight chassises but on the HSFV1 chassis (HSFV standing for high speed freight vehicle).
There are so many false 'facts' about Pacers now. Like them being old bus bodies. Urgh. Even the freight chassis thing was just the starting point. If people think you can put a bus body on a wagon and have a self propelled passenger train they're welcome to knock one up and see how it works out 😂 (Edited for spelling - it's best to be literate when being pedantic!) 😂😂
@@kevfrombutterley yes, too many falsehoods have gone on to become facts just by being requited time after time. One of the biggest is that the RAF's 4-engined bomber fleet of WW2 was limited to a 100ft wingspan because of this was just under the opening size of the hangar doors. This is untrue for several reasons including that a hangar with an opening of 120ft was already in use with the RAF when the specifcication for the medium and heavy bombers were issued in 1936 and also because these specifications called for worldwide operation with most maintenance to be conduct outside. The real reason for the span limitation was the strength of a typical man. It was considered that an aircraft with a 100ft wingspan was the limit for a single pilot without powered controls. However, the lie has become truth.
Back in 1991 after I left the army I was a mechanic working on Leyland Nationals, Atlantians, Olympians, Tigers, and Lynxs (loved the Lynx personally). That was for the Bee Line bus company in High Wycombe, which became Wycombe Bus Company.
There was ANOTHER Leyland car too - The (probably 1920s or 30s) Trojan. I know this being a kid growing up in Leyland every year we'd see the (white) Trojan which made an annual appearance at the Leyland show as Leyland Motors owned it. [We used to climb the 25 / 30 foot high drainpipes to play on the Motor's factory roofs sometimes too]. You'd frequently see bus & lorry chasis being driven around and out of town with the driver 'sheltered' behind a few bits of plywood sheeting - No screen, just Motorcycle goggles. It was 'common knowledge' that in the 60s one of the staff had nicked an entire new prototype Gas Turbine engine by carrying the bits out in his duffel bag to the point and had a near complete engine assembled in his shed - Caught only because one of the sharper lads on gate security noticed he was staggering under the weight of part of a crankshaft. It was said it wasn't industrial espionage but enthusiasm. Some versions said he was sacked other that he was put on the research team. Apocrophal tale or fact I dunno ........... It was long ago and if true probably kept off the record.
Aha...a very quick shot of the one-off four-wheel-leading London trolleybus (that one I did not see). London Transport had many Leyland Cubs as their service vehicles for 'buses and trolleybuses. I recall, in Franco's Spain, many Leyland Lorries - 'El Camion Inglesi Leyland'.
This is kind of the same problem that Chrysler had in the US, their Truck division was very profitable in the 1960's and 70's with growing sales ever year over year. However, the Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth car divisions were very inconsistent and constantly building the wrong car at the wrong time! UGH
Leyland buses were very popular in Yugoslavia. Story of Leyland products started at the beginning of 1950s where a loads of Leyland Titan PD1 made by various British bus bodymakers were imported from United Kingdom 2nd hand. Also many of trucks were imported as new to Yugoslavia. It continued with import of chassis of some front engine buses and also imported 2nd hand Leyland buses, which were rebodied completely, or partially (added passenger doors on the right). It continued in 1960s, when 150 units of Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster LERT 1/1 buses were imported brand new from United Kindgom (MCW body) with Leyland O 680 H (150 HP), left hand drive. Buses were very reliable and they were far above dometic urban bus competition that was mostly front engine based (FAP 5GVF-ST bodied by various Yugoslavian bus budymakers), although Karoserija Ljubljana bodied the only Yugoslav bus body dsienged FAP bus with horizontal engine at the time-FAP MOS 55, but production of that bus ceased by Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster arrival, same could be said about FAP GUF-ST (licence of Österreichische Saurerwerke GUF-ST) which also had horizontal engine, it was no wonder, because FAP (Fabrika automobila Priboj) had bought licence for buses and trucks from mentioned Vienna based company from 1953 till 1963. Since FAMOS (Fabrika motora Sarajevo) didnt managed to buy licence for more powerful Österreichische Saurerwerke engines (FAMOS produced engines for FAP), I can assume that they didnt have enough money to produce more powerful engines after they bought licence to buy 180 BHP diesel engines (FAMOS 3F which was mounted on FAP 7GV3F built under licence from same model from Österreichische Saurerwerke), and many Yugoslav transporting companies demanded more powerful trucks (FAP 7GV3F was produced in insufficient numbers, because of the ammount of parts that werent made in Yugoslavia which made those trucks not that affordable), FAP approached Leyland and asked about licence, Leyland demanded that Yugoslavia must buy atleast 150 buses from UK, FAP lobbied to Yugoslav authoroties with success and after MCW bodied Leyland Worldmaster buses had arrived, Leyland allowed FAP to buy Leyland PO 680 engine which produced 204 HP, engine of choice for than upcoming FAP 18 B made truck out of tools and machines imported from Brescia, Italy that were used for OM (Officine Meccaniche) Super Orione trucks which FAP intented to assemble, but gave up on that idea. Among other competition at that time were front engine ALFA (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili) Romeo 1000 AU with 163 HP (bodied by Goša, Smederevska Palanka and also Avtomontaža, Ljubljana), also TAM (Tovarna avtomobilov in motorjev) entered urban and suburban bus market with TAM AS 3500 M (body was made by Autokaroserija, Novi Sad), suburban version TAM A 3500 P (body was made by TAM, not sure it went onto serial production), but bus of brand based in Maribor had 125 HP Deutz licenced air cooled rear engine. FAMOS was granted to make Leyland engines for FAP bus and trucks, but IMR (Industrija motora Rakovica) complained and FAMOS was taken by Court and it resulted in Leyland engines production delays. After years of negotiations, aguments, fights, Yugoslavian Court proposed settlement between FAMOS and IMR (which was accpeted by both parties) in which IMR produced smaller and less powerful Leyland diesel engines and make some parts (for its use and FAMOS), whereas FAMOS will produce more powerful diesel engines. Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster LERT 1/1 was bodied in Yugoslavia (according to my sources) by Autokaroserija-Zagreb, Autokaroserija-Novi Sad (both werent connected in any way), Ikarus-Zemun, Vaso Miskin Crni-Sarajevo and 11. oktomvri-Skopje. Majority of Leyland Worldmaster buses were bodied by Autokaroserija, Novi Sad, because it had longest production span (up until 1976.). FAP and Leyland were suppose to sign an Agreement which could see production of Leyland based buses and trucks, FAP G 100 S 15 (bodied by Ikarus, Zemun) used many Leyland components, including O 680 H which produced 150 HP (same as Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster). FAMOS and IMR very slow implemetation of Leyland diesel engines during the 1960s, coupled with FAMOS and IMR court battle which lasted for years forced FAP to cancel plans for further cooperation and agreement with Leyland at the end of 1960s and they found strategic partner in Daimler-Benz. The rest, as they say is a history (FAP assembled LP, LPS, NG and SK trucks in various forms, while they obtained licence also for O 302 (bodied by Autokaroserija-Zagreb and 11. oktomvri-Skopje), O 303 (bodied by Autokaroserija-Zagreb (later renamed to TAZ (Tvornica autobusa Zagreb) and 11. oktomvri-Skopje) and O 317 K buses (bodied by 11. oktomvri-Skopje). Its then partner FAMOS also made some Mercedes-Benz diesel engines under licence for use in Mercedes-Benz buses and trucks, as well in some FAP buses and trucks.
THANKS RUAIRIDH Any chance at looking at Midland Red bus company? They were a bus company that made their own buses and coaches. From what remember, the coaches were crazy powerful!
Lots of happy memories watching this, I was working for National Express back in 80, fabulous coach fleet consisting of Leyland leopard engine and tiger's, a fabulous engine burning up and down our motorway network, and they never messed a beat
The only thing I can spot that is missing relates to the agricultural machinery side after the Aveling-Barford purchase. I know products were built in Scotland and when that ceased the range was assembled in Gainsborough in the Marshall's factory (Marshall's were a long established company that at one point had been bought by the Aveling group).
Not quite right. TW Ward sold Marshalls to British Leyland who merged it with Aveling Barford as the Specialist Products Division producing crawler tractors, rollers and other construction equipment. FWIW some Aveling Barford derived technology is apparently still in production, eg ST Kinetics in Singapore.
I grew up with Leyland National buses everywhere in Hobart Tasmania in the 1980s, run by the governments MTT. In the same yellow colour as in this video. They didnt have a very good reputation with drivers or mechanics by around 1990 when they were being replaced with Volvos. I had no idea Leyland and Volvo were related.
The Leyland Roadtrain truck. So named because you went by road and came home on the train. And then there's the time a company I worked for had a Sherpa (or whatever they were calling them at the time) on an evaluation trial and got a unanimous 'If you buy those you can have my resignation' from all the drivers. Definitely not a fan even if it hadn't been for their part in the execrable Pacer trains. The Leyland DAF 95 was a beast and a joy to drive though. I have to give them that.
The Sherpas were horrible vans. I used to drive one as a multi-drop deliver van back in the mid 90s. No power steering, a rotten gearbox that had a tendency to jam into gears, brakes that didn't work in the rain and an engine so underpowered that you dreaded leaving the 30mph speed limit and heading out into the countryside. I remember stepping up from a Sherpa 400 to a Leyland Daf 7.5t (we called them the big vans) in the late 90s and the difference being night and day. The 7.5 tonners were great motors to drive and had none of the deficiencies of the Sherpas.
@@raithrover1976 The one we had on test was terrible in pretty much every way and it was like driving a van from the 1970s. 'Primitive' would probably be the best word. The real clincher for me was the fact that at 6'2" tall my eye line was above the level of the top of the door which meant A) I had to bend my head down to get a good view at junctions and B) I cracked my head on the door-frame getting in or out. We got an Iveco Daily fleet in the end and they were by a very large margin the best medium vans I've even driven. I can't think of anything bad to say about them.
@@AnthonyHandcockyes, I agree although the Bedford CF had a low Windscreen top line that made you stoop if you were over 6ft tall. When you got out of them we used to call it the ‘CF lean’!!.
I'm from the USA but I was living in London in 1970. The thing that struck me the most was how they hung on to the past so hard. I had previously lived in Japan for a few months an it was very much the opposite, in many respects. The Japanese also liked traditional things but new designs & methods seemed to be the norm. I took a trip from Tokyo to Nara & Kyoto riding the New Tokido Express train. Fast, very comfortable, clean modern transport 1965! I have been watching how the British are now attempting something similar, so is California with both looking like they may never succeed. 50+ years behind the Japanese!
I was a apprentice at Leyland motors leyland from 1969 to 1980 as they where developing the 500 fixed head engine and spending millions on new factory's and tooling when they began to install the engine it was the biggest disaster ever hundreds of trucks parked in fields broke down that's what killed leyland
I agree entirely with your comments here on the Leyland 500 'Headless Wonder' engine. My experiences with this engine go back to the mid 1970's when I was an apprentice HGV mechanic at a Leyland Trucks dealership in Birmingham. Here at the dealership we became besieged with 500 engine failures, from Leyland Truck models such as the Buffalo and Bison range. They were a nightmare to diagnose/ strip down and successfully rectify, due to their complexity of a one piece head and block; that required an overhead crane to lift-off the entire engine block from its crankcase, together with the 6 Pistons & Connecting rods (split at their big ends) still attached within the block. We then had to send out the engine block for repair if it required new liners or valves. This practice choked-up our workshops and created terrible relations with owner-operators, due to vehicle downtimes. The irony here was that I believe the design of this OHC fixed head engine was superb and well advanced. When running correctly, the engine was powerful, revved freely, ticked-over beautifully and gave the most distinctive 'crackle' sound when running. It was also easy and straightforward to service; no fan belts, valve clearances or oil leaks to worry about (the engine components were sealed with ‘Elastomar’ a 2-part sealant) thus no gaskets were used. However it would appear that little if any quality control or 'proofing'/suitable long term testing was carried out beforehand. The other issue here I believe was that the engine was only of a 6 cylinder, 8 litre capacity. We had these engines that were turbochaged / intercooled and installed into 32 ton tractor units and 6 wheel tippers etc. which were absolutely abused and thrashed to death by right-footed Neanderthals! At least with the Leyland Bus chassis’ the 500 engines stood a chance as they were subjected to less loads, mistreatment and abuse. Managerial short-sightedness disaster at Leyland, obviously…..
👍Thanks for an interesting video 26:17 I remember waiting in bus queues at the 1980s. The second hand and poorly maintained buses and mini buses from the new deregulated companies were noisy and often spewed out fumes and smoke to the discomfort of pedestrians. I wonder how many lives were lost due to the consequential increase in pollution from that cost cutting exercise.🤔
Leyland seemed to try really hard from the 50's up until the 70's to create proper products. But time and again, it seems the management and bureaucracy managed to destroy the end products. I have seen enough videos how 'Morris Marina is the worst production car ever' - I would like to see a video explaining what drove British car manufacturing to this very strange space and to its ultimate disappearance. Was it the awful effect of Word War II that somehow affected Britain? It doesn't seem likely as the absolutely destroyed Germany managed to rise up and the absolutely financially destroyed Finland managed to rise up. Also, this documentary paints quite a rosy picture what comes to Leyland trucks and busses. Back in the 50's to now - Scania, Volvo and other Europeans were more successful than Leyland. This documentary gives information on the effects for Leyland and not the reasons - especially compared to other manufactures. The fall of the British car manufacturing is quite singular as nothing has failed really that spectacularly in the European industrial history. This 'happening' would need a video of its own. After watching the whole short documentary it came clear to me that the reason for Leyland's demise is the same reason as for why British companies still struggle - insular thinking, creating products for an insular market. And British products just are not of good quality on the whole back then and to this day. It's so odd that in 2023 the top 10 industries in Britain are all within Britain such as a super market chain, an Insurance company etc. I apologise for my straightforward marks. As a Nordic I usually say/write how I see the facts. No ill intent meant.
The 1945onwards catastrophe was the result of Zionists Sidney Webb and Herbert Morrison destroying the UK (and world-wide) Labour and Co-operative Movement from the inside. That history is yet to be written.
This channel recently covered the even more spectacular collapse of the British motorcycle industry. I would argue that the collapse of the German motorcycle industry in the years between 1955-69 also meets the criteria of a spectacular fall. NSU were the World’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer in 1955 but by the end of the next decade they were making cars instead of motorcycles and BMW Motorrad were on their knees. This story isn’t well documented in the UK, perhaps because the German motorcycle industry mainly served its home market and manufactured small utility rather than large performance mochines. But fundamentally the issue was that people were becoming richer and wanted the comfort of four wheels rather than two. This same factor is not usually given the significance it should in relation to the collapse of the British (actually English) motorcycle industry. Some of us joke that the Luftwaffe didn’t do a very good enough job of bombing us leaving the UK with too many old factories going into the post-war. The old Triumph motorcycle factory was of course destroyed when Coventry was bombed and a new factory at nearby Meriden didn’t stop the company eventually failing almost 40 years later. The decline of British manufacturing can be attributed to multiple factors including arrogance from being on the winning side of world wars twice, over-reliance on closed markets within the British Commonwealth and Empire, the British class system, very little co-operation between Management and Trades Unions, too much emphasis on short term returns on investment rather than long term thinking and too much power being held by Accountants rather than Engineers. Whilst I would argue that our high end products match the quality of any country, as someone who spent a lifetime in Manufacturing Quality Assurance (with many Nordic customers) I’d agree that our quality levels unfortunately too often don’t match our innovation and design 🇬🇧
This subject has been covered quite a lot already but much is down to incompetent management unable to relate to its workforce. After WW2 a lot of western European manufacturing capacity was destroyed and rebuilt with modern equipment, eg via the Marshall Plan, but the UK struggled on with worn out plant and practices.
That is just an excuse. Although British industry had some bomb damage, it was nothing like what the other European countries suffered. The Marshall Plan was a Godsend for Europe amd the UK particularly because 26% of Marshall Plan money went to the UK, more than to any other country. The difference was that Britain, instead of investing it in industry, infrastructure and communications, as others did, used a lot of it to prop up Sterling and to support huge armed forces in the overseas bases of the Empire. And we have failed to invest ever since. I heard that old excuse of worn out machinery from my school days, but the facts suggest otherwise.
@@thomasfrancis5747 The UK was the single biggest recipient of Marshal Aid, and the war years had seen a vast influx of American made machine tools. Admittedly Britain struggled with a defence budget that was just over 10% of GNP following the war and until the sweeping cuts made by Healy and the East of Suez retreat, but the lions share of blame has to placed on the shoulders of management. Sadly the poor quality of management in the UK, when faced with competition, is still a factor in our national woes.
We had 60s and 70s crosville Leyland gardner buses in North West when I was a kid. Great machines really. The later ones had an interesting gear changing lever, quite small really.
Just a slight correction, New Plymouth (NZ) never had Leyland Trolleybuses, all 4 they brought were Crossley TSD models, same as Wellington 1-10 and built with a body similar to the Wellington buses
I drove Leyland Panthers in Perth W.A.from '93,purchased with "armstrong" steering because aussies were tough enough to not need power steering. Demisting was poor,and air cond non existant. Summer running with full loading was a weight loss workout for drivers,carrying water bottles was a survival necessisity. In the late 60s/70 Leyland sent several diesel 4 x 4 trucks for evaluation by the Australian Defence Forces,but was supposedly diesel injection was to complicated for combat trucks and petrol Internationals were bought instead.
26:23 I remember waiting in bus queues in the 1980s for buses operated by various deregulated bus companies.The poorly maintained second hand buses and mini buses were noisy and uncomfortable and often spewed out excessive diesel fumes and smoke to the discomfort of pedestrians. I wonder how many lives were lost due to the increase in city pollution of that cst cutting exercise. 🤔
At least 1 of the Australian delivered Lynx buses still existed (and was in service with a Sydney operator) in 2000, I was unfortunate enough to drive the piece of crap a short distance one shift 😂. The post 83 Tigers with air ride suspension were a way better vehicle not only to drive but for passennger comfort hence why the Lynx failed to sell over here, I drove heaps of Tigers as well as some Nationals and earlier Leopards and have to say the Tigers were my favourite out of all Leyland buses. Some additional information: The final batch of Leyland Tigers were not fitted with bodies until 1990, a former employer of mine had 2 of the final batch fitted with PMC Australia PMC 160 semi coach bodies.
As someone who has a life-time's history of using every conceivable manufacturer of buses, Leyland was the single nightmare that comes to my recollections, of constantly being told "to get off the bus - it's broken down". I could write a book on my bus travels. If nationalisation was the world's 'salvation' then everything would be nationalised, and everywhere.
My childhood and youth were spent on buses or more accurately, waiting on buses. As soon as a bank would lend me money for a car, I bought one and I've seldom seen a bus since. Positively traumatised by buses. Their service is far improved these days, and rationally, I should use them, but I cannot bring myself to suffer them again.
Back in the 80's at SW Gas driving Bedford TK / TL 7.5t trucks. They paid for my HGV1, lessons & test in a DAF. For years drove Leyland T45 Articulated Cruisers, they were horrible but reliable. Best times was in the 90's driving rental MB, MAN and specially Scania & Volvo trucks. The Swedish trucks were head n shoulders above the rest. Specially the Volvo Globetrotter 6x4 was a beast hauling steel gas main pipe.
I think the last time I was on a Leyland bus must of been 1994, from Canterbury courtesy of Stagecoach. I remember the iconic design of the single decker versions.
I used to crew a Leyland National bus, THX189S, but then we were forced to get rid of it. It's still around, slowly rotting away, and the few online pictures of it are really sad to see.
You wonder had Leyland survived as a bus manufacturer, could they have been the company that built the New Routemaster for Transport of London by the early 2010's besides Wrightbus?
They wouldn't hav been able to last that long as they came out in the early70's. Credit where credit's due they did last 4decades so pretty good going for British Leyland
One final thing. The Alien franchise famously has Wayland Yutani, a corporate merger between a British and Japanese firm operating in deep space The original intention was for Wayland to be Leyland. As becomes obvious as soon as you consider the rugged and industrial nature of the vehicles operated.
Leyland Buses back in those days were so popular across the UK. Even Leyland built the first ever Pacer train that is a bus but it runs on rails (Class 142, Class 143 and Class 144).
They built the bodies for the prototypes and Classes 141 and 142. The 143 and 144 bodies weren't built by Leyland although they did have Leyland TL11 engines.
Ashok Motors in India licensed to produce Leyland buses in 1955(and renamed itself Ashok Leyland) and is now the 3rd largest manufacturer of buses and 10th largest manufacturer of trucks in the world. It now exports its products across the globe including to Britain. It also now fully owns Optare, another bus manufacturer in the UK, which was also a "descendant" of Leyland Buses.
Ashok saran died in plane crash. The leyland company was headed by Sir ashok's wife. She trusted the Indian engineers and British engineers in developing the company. Today ashok leyland exports buses and truck all over the globe.
Ironic how India can make it profitable but Brits cannot.
Still AL gave us shitty buses
Atleast we get good buses now
@@Internet_Spy Work ethic has a lot to do with it, I believe.
@@Internet_Spy brits won’t work a 18 hour day for about 12p that’s probably why 🤦🏻♂️
Growing up travelling with Leyland bus everyday in Hong Kong in 90s.
A very memorable times, thanks for your video
I still travel in Ashok Leyland bus in india 2024 model😂
Saturday morning here in Alberta, a Coffee and meditation time with Ruairidh. You never fail to deliver concise content, no drama just watchable, educational and professional content.
Thank you for everything you do, at lot of other TH-camrs could learn a lot from you.
I would like to see you do the evolution of Ambulances in the UK.
Quite agree. His output, variety and quality are always very watchable, no ads just interesting content.
My school life was blighted by the Olympian as it was the bus that often shuttled me home after school. Which was bad enough until it got to a steep hill between my home town and the school that made it slow to a literal crawl. Walking was actually faster. And don't get me started on the Pacer units I had for college travel. But I do miss them weirdly.
I get it, my school buses were Bristol VR's and Leyland National 1's (never forget the scream from the rear left handside rradiator cooling fan as they accelerate away from the bus stop) and having to ride on DMU's, Pacers and Sprinters to commute for work.
For all their faults, the Pacer saved many regional railway lines from closure at a time when passenger numbers were falling. They were cheap to build, cheap to operate, and became more reliable than the alternatives available. I live on a line that nearly closed twice, the Pacers saved the line. Fast forward and there are now plans to increase capacity on the line, newer higher capacity trains are now unable to handle the increased passenger numbers due to a strech of single track on the route, doubling the track would increase the capacity. Had it not been for the Pacer this line would have already been lost.
@@stevehill4615I remember the Bristol VR's/they we're built to last as well
Yep the stink of cigarettes, clutch and exhaust on the crawl up out of Radstock towards Bath. Remember it well.
2nd class ride Is better than a 1st class walk😊
Got my PCV licence in a Leyland National full length semi-auto, lovely to drive once you got used to it and that engine was the sound of many people's childhood.
My father was a Ribble bus driver and I lived in Leyland as a child when production was going. If you come into Leyland a certain way there is a tank next to one of the roundabouts. It's all fascinating stuff.
Xxx😅
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Dggg
When I was young I wanted to grow up to be a bus driver.
Was in love with the Leyland Atantean.
Marvelling at its stump pulling torque.
The engine was barely idling while the scenery out the windows whizzez past.
That little gated gear lever of the Leyland pneumocyclic gearbox?
I only saw something like that in a Ferrari later and I thought the Italians copied it.
I had a drive of a Leopard once and only had to tap the accelerator lightly to drive away. It had so much muscle.
@@jamesfrench7299 How I envy you!
I did get a bus driving license when I grew up but sadly no more Leyland around.
Drove a Volvo B10.
@@batuksri it was only a ten minute drive around some streets and wish I could have another drive.
Boy it was different to the Mercedes and MAN buses I was driving for a living. They make you lazy.
Me too: I wanted to be a bus driver when I was a child.
I told my children that when I was a child, I thought astronauts were “okay”, but I thought bus drivers were the coolest people on the planet!
The Wilson pneumatic gearbox was very common in The Netherlands. It was used by DAF on their MB200 buses for almost 20 years. Before that, Leyland was one of the bigger suppliers of public transport buses. In fact the DAF bus was inspired by an almost identical model with a Leyland o680 engine. I'm not sure, but i think the DAF 1160 dkdl engine was based on that, too.
The 450 Leyland-National buses exported to Caracas, Venezuela were use by the Metrobus system, which is a public transit system in the Venezuelan capital, consisting of 24 routes (20 urban and 4 suburban routes).
For more than 30 years, "Los Autobuses Britanicos" as local got to called them, connected the far-flung communities of Los Teques, Guarenas, Guatire and San Antonio de Los Altos with the Caracas Metro. Basically acting as a feeder bus system to the underground.
Many of them ran on urban routes, as well as special events routes. These buses were so robust that many of them are still on the road today, although no longer part of the Caracas Metrobus system.
Maybe one day, one of those buses can be repatriated to the UK and put on display in a transport museum in the city where it was built. in its original Caracas Metrobus colors, to show future generations that these buses traveled the world.
My Father worked at the Workington Bus plant for 20 years now at 80 years old he still talks about his great times working at the factory
Remember going on a tour there, from college at Workington be about 1975/76 ish
Such an interesting video, thanks a lot. Leyland company also had some USSR connections. Soviet government acquired 50 to 70 of Leyland buses back in early 20's. The YaTB-3 doubledecker trolley was also heavily influenced by Leyland-based British trolleybuses.
There was also the case of two heavy duty Scammell lorries being bought by the Soviets. This was expected to be the beginning of a large order but it all went very quiet - it was suspected that they were dismantled and certain features reverse engineered in the USSR.
@@thomasfrancis5747 to be honest I don't know about any Scamell-influenced Soviet lorry. We actually never had such a bright specs of lorries - there have been ~4 basic model w/some add-ons for specific duty purpose.
They should have known what they would do with them. How naive can you be?
In NSW we had a lot of Leyland Post war era built buses Royal Tiger Worldmasters, Titan OPD-2's, Atlanteans, but the most numerous of all and even by world standards in terms of units built was The Leyland Leopard PSU-3/2R bus. a total of 232 MK I and 512 MKII Leopards totalling 744 units built. Though the bodies were built locally with Pressed Metal Corporation building the majority with the remainder built by Smithfield Bus & Coach works and a small number built at Chullora Workshops on Smithfield Frames. Having said that the Worldmasters as well as the other two mentioned earlier had bodies built locally between Commonwealth Engineering, Clyde Engineering and The Cycle Components Manufacturing Company later renamed Custom Coaches.
Adelaide made the best use of the Worldmaster chassis with their 8'6" overwidth tram replacement buses with the very stylish looking three door Lawton bodywork.
The NSW government ran the world's biggest single fleet of Leyland Leopards with their 745 including their prototype with in house body.
Israel had the most Worldmasters with 3000 units, many built there.
@@jamesfrench7299 Thankfully both prototypes or each nicknamed "Mr Whippy" have been preserved The first 3520 being preserved at The Sydney Bus Museum. But you are right about Adelaide making the best use of The Leyland Worldmaster chassis. It's a shame that some had their body length shaved of by a few millimetres so they could be sent to interstate private operators once their time with The MTT/STA of Adelaide was over.
@@DKS225 I think you meant the width getting shaved off.
They looked better painted in some of the various private operator's colours than the original all over silver. I'm thankful I got to see a few around Sydney growing up.
@@jamesfrench7299 Yes that thank you for correcting that mistake. That said i only remember riding The MK II Leopards the ones still in service that were gradually replaced by the then new Mercedes 0305's of The MK I-MK IV type. Personally i remember only seeing and riding The MK II onward. Then came The MK V with the new Mercedes 0405 Chassis that saw the last of The Leopards withdrawn in 1989.
@@DKS225 sure. Thanks for confirming that's what you meant.
The other prototype evaluation bus was Mrs Whippy an AEC Reliance 590. Would have been interesting if the DGT kept with their practice of ordering AEC underfloors alongside Leyland's and we saw some AEC Reliances with the same body as the Leopards.
I remember the three axle trolley buses in Glasgow (twin axles at the rear) which were known as the silent deaths. 🏴
Great to see all those clips in and around Glasgow, Ruairidh… my home town 🏴🏴
Interesting, even tho I was born long after the Leyland National went out of service, I still think it’s one of the best looking and most iconic buses ever produced. There’s just something about it’s design that just clicks
They simply got a diffrent service
there was a coach company in scotland that ran them right up until 2017!
Great looking vehicles but rough starting engines if memory serves me well.
Leyland came up with the overall shape, Giovanni Michelotti did the finishing touches after Donald Stokes wasn't happy with the looks the in house stylist had done.
A real team effort led to it's smart looks. The roof pod really set off it's futuristic and stylish appearance.
@@jamesfrench7299 if I may ask, what was the raised part in the roof near the back for?
Don't forget their agricultural tractors too. Used a Leyland tractor at a hospital, to delivery the food trolleys to the outlying hospital wards. It is a psychiatric hospital.
Very apt, a Leyland tractor in an asylum.Some of those may have been sent to the wall by Leyland vehicles
@@ldnwholesale8552 Don't be nasty now. Give respect to our mind troubled. 🙃😁👍 Always got snowed in did St. David's Carmarthen asylum, hence the tractor. Genius thinking! 👍
I used to drive Leyland National Mk 1 and 2 in the late 1980's. The Mk 1 had a distinctive engine sound and in my opinion a slick gearbox with a stubby gear change lever. Those buses were my favorite to drive and a such I really enjoyed driving them.
Horrible to work on though - my local bus company simple threw away the awful Leyland engine and fitted a Gardner 6XLB.
@@Ayrshore🇯🇲🇯🇲 here . We got Leyland Olympic buses during from the early 50s - late 60s . They sent Leyland Nationals from the 1st batch to replace the Olympics & they were nothing but problems when j.o.s got them . The Olympics ran circles around them with reliability The Nationals had look going on for it but the Olympics got strength & reliability over it . J.O.S ended operating the good old Olympics till they closed 1983 & some Olympics went on till late 90s with other bus Companies.
The Olympics were better than this bus .
We still use a couple of the old Leylands here in Caracas for training of newer drivers. The beasts will live on for a good few more years until they replace them with something else.
The local bus manufactor DAB in Silkeborg, Denmark used Leyland from 1953 up to when Leyland went bust in the early 80’s. Swiched to Volvo after that. Were hugely popular in Denmark.
I still struggle today understanding how designers of 1940's and 50's England gave us arguably some of the most elegant, and beautiful aircraft of our times and yet everyone of their ground based designs looked like utter horror.
SBS9168S was part of a batch of 200 3 axle olympians sold to Singapore and the first ever air conditioned double decker bus.
It was the only one of the batch not to be scrapped because Dave Rogers bought it from SBS Transit before scrapping, and it returned to his private collection in the UK under the L888SBS plate.
How cool!
SBS9168S was the last Leyland Olympian ever built, not the first AC double-decker.
The first successful* air-conditioned double-decker was probably Citybus Hong Kong's Leyland Olympian C51 (registered 1985), using the inefficient independently-engined air conditioner layout. (Coincidentally, C51 is also preserved by Dave Rogers)
The first successful air-conditioned double-decker with its AC powered by the bus engine was KMB's AL1 (registered 1988, shown at 35:08 ). (This prototype has been preserved by KMB)
* There were various unsuccessful trials, the earliest trial in Hong Kong dates back to 1980 with a Dennis Jubilant.
@@Mattoropael the first ac double decker in Singapore
Technically the first ac buses in Singapore were two Isuzu demonstrators for the Singapore traction company in 1962, although by the 1970s they had been disabled and converted to non ac
Ac was only properly introduced in Singapore public buses from 1984 onwards
Leyland and Bedford (and Ford to a certain extent) dominated the bus market in Australia for years, then along come Merecedes Benz and MAN, and then Volvo-BM with Scania and it was bye-bye to Leyland and Bedford. Then came the Japanese with Hino and now it's the Chinese with Yutong, I remember Deanes at North Ryde NSW had Leyland Nationals and the Met in Melbourne too I think. Great video and very informative, well presented thank you.😉
This is such a good documentary and your speaking style makes it even more enjoyable. Keep em coming brother!
An awful lot of research has gone into the making of this video, on which you are to be commended. Most of my bus journeys as a young person in Manchester were made on Leyland buses, most of which were manufactured not that long after the 2nd world war. The PD1, PD2 and PD3 models featuring prominently. However, in North Manchester, where I lived, it was fairly clear that the PD1s in particular were underpowered and struggled to get up some of the many hills there with a full rush hour load.All, I have to say, were outclassed by the Rochdale Corporation AECs which were both less noisy and also able to make light of the hills.
My father and two brothers, plus several brothers in law, worked at Leyland and Pilling Lane, Chorley, from 1950s into 1980 - a major employer in Lancashire with good apprenticeship schemes.
A good video, as usual.
Note Hough was pronounced "Huff."
My dad worked at Pilling Lane, Chorley until his retirement in 1979. I remember going to the Children's Christmas Parties in Leyland.
I'd strongly recommend a visit to the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland. It's housed in part of the company's old works. It's a great day out for lovers of stuff like this.
Yes, it's a great place. The day I went, there was a Classic Car show too.
My favourite Leyland bus of all time was the Royal Tiger Worldmaster chassis . The pneumocyclic gearshift was a real treat to drive . PA Melbourne Australia
Fascinating research and really well put together !
Well done and keep ‘em comin’!
JCHK
The Class 143 were based at Heaton depot in Newcastle but worked service across the north-east and across to Carlisle. As for the Class 144 they even operated the Middlesbrough to Whitby services, a long way by rail from West Yorkshire.
They were always based out of Neville Hill depot in Leeds though. Their use to Whitby was infrequent and sporadic at best.
@@Eric_Hunt194 yes they were, but one day I was surprised to see one at Grosmont instead of a Class 142 as the Class 143s had been sent the south west and south Wales.
Few Leyland Trolleys in New Zealand are still in one piece and I managed to grab a photo from my Father in 2011 of one preserved in MOTAT in Auckland. One in Christchurch up until the demise of overhead wires in Wellington continued to run 100% on its own electricity technically in service instead of preserved trolley lines.
A few leylands up until the late 2010s were converted to diesel and still ran in Wellington on bus hires. These diesel buses are now preserved and restored in Dunedin. Plenty of trolley buses technically preserved in NZ just with different hearts. Furthermore, at least 8-10 leylands are still continuing to transport passengers. Technically, during Public Holidays in Dunedin where most leylands reside the weekend is ran by preserved buses meaning the Leylands technically are still on route service during XMAS and Easter. These buses primarily work cruise ship passenger shuttles & charters where needed.
Many leylands from the 60s and 70s have been running on active continuous company work up until the 2010s then preserved in NZ. Stagecoach & local operators are credited to keeping many of these buses going 10-15 years longer than intended thus allowing preservations societies to take them into safe hands. Very old fleet of buses in the 2000s on Urban Routes some as old as the 60s although rebodied and modified.
The Leyland Leopard and Leyland Atlantean are the buses of my youth. In fact, it still makes me smile that the Bus Stop symbol used in the UK looks like an Alexander bodied Leopard.
Yes, it does. My local bus company used Bristol REs to complement the Leopards and REs exclusively in the city centre.
I’ve driven both the Leyland Olympian and the Volvo both I found very nice to drive only the Volvo feeling a bit more solid but still comfortable from a drivers point of view all the best
😊😊
That was the last bus that they built was the Leyland Volvo came out in the early90's i beleave
The Leyland - Daf merger in the 70's was a organic and very logical one.
Daf just a chassis and trailer builder used from the start Leyland engines and drivetrains for their trucks and busses and became one of their biggest customers/partner.
After WW2 trucks and coaches were in high demand for civil and military NATO use acros Europe.
When the prewar AEC and austerity build 1950's Crossley busses had to be replaced several Dutch coach builders used the Daf chassis / Leyland engine-drivetrain.
And they were build in the thousands!
Lots of those super tough build public transport busses were exported to cuba after 30 years of daily operation and are still in use in Cuba and the oldest are now 50+ years in service!
The monocoque coach for busses killed of lots of coach builders in Europe who used bus chassis. Chassis builders came late to the party and could'n't compete.
After the bankrupcy of Leyland-Daf the Daf Bus part was sold to VDL a specialised sheetmaterial-hull-shell manufacturer.
The 6 cilinder Leyland bus engine has evolved and has even reached the Euro 6 emission standards!
Leyland genes are so still in modern busses.
Bring back trolley buses for town buses everywhere!
Trams better.
@@johncourtneidge
They need iron tracks - the costs of copper overhead wires is bad enough. 👍😁
Growing up in Dunedin NZ in the 50s--mid 60s, my hilly suburb...one of many... was served by Leyland trolley busses...on what had originally been a cable car line. In Dunedin trolley buses are/were perfect for steepish roads being quick, quiet and powerful,,, being stopped only by poles jumping off the wire .and snow in winter.
In their wisdom, the DCC got rid of these wonderful, drably coloured machines sometime after 1975 to be replaced byyyy ..noisy if more flexible diesels..... the excellent but allowed to decay tram system had gone by 1954.
Auckland had green two tone trolley buses..
.It's only 2 or 2 years since the Wellington city council stopped the excellent inner city--hill and harbour trolley bus routes...another city with famously narrow and steep streets in places.. and the buses were only a very few years old. So, it's completely diesel or unsatisfactory hybrids now, some borrowed from Auckland.... I made sure I had a ride, out to the gorgeous art-deco Roxy pictures ( cinema) in the harbour-side suburb of Miramar on the second last day of service.
As an Indonesian who interested in buses and trucks, especially the old one, which came before 2010s, I found this really superb and informating. Because, as far as I know, the Leyland Buses Ltd. goes on its own, but the fact it was acquired by Volvo was unheard by many.
Leyland did come to Indonesia. The Atlantean and the Olympic, which is part of financial help in the 1970s and early 1980s. All double-decker bus. Unfortunately, not all of them survived, because the spare parts are not enough for hundreds of buses to be used more than 10 years. In fact, by the start of 1990s, some of them are out of service, replaced by Mercedes Benz with their successful OF 1113 front-engine chassis, OH 1113 and OH 1518 rear-engine chassis and they all scrap in the late 1990s following the Economic Crisis of 1997-1998.
And yet, the British are very genious, I think. The Atlantean and the Olympic for instance, is iconic and timeless even though it was build in 1970s and the mechanicals are, I should say, ahead of its time. But, because of mismanagement, they not in production anymore.
The trucks, we, Indonesian, never have Leyland trucks, but our cash-strapped marque, Perkasa, build trucks that using Leyland RoadTrain cab, of course it is license from Leyland-DAF, because Perkasa came to life in 1996 and it went bankrupt in 2002 because of Economic Crisis of 1997-1998 and the government scandal, which was lobbied by foreign manufacturer that already had manufacturing facilities in Indonesia so as to not gaining competition, mostly because Perkasa is more powerful. The Perkasa had license-built Steyr WD612 which developed around 240hp and its is more powerful than the competitors, which having 180ps (JIS), 180hp, 190ps (JIS) ,210hp, and 220ps (JIS) at its most powerful. The lobby later conclude that Perkasa declared bankrupt by emitting that it has financial problem, in fact, there is financial problem but it is not as heavy as the reported.
Very well put regards Leyland's products. Thank you.
I did read somewhere a long time ago that Jakarta got some Atlanteans. Manilla in the Philippines got a small batch.
Like you mentioned, parts supply is vital to keep these machines in daily use.
Glad you got to experience them.
@@jamesfrench7299 Your welcome, sir.
Actually, I didn't experiencing them, because I born in 2003, long way after the Leylands scrapped.
I know that we have British-built busses, which is the Leyland Atlantean, Leyland Olympic, Volvo-Ailsa B55, and even Routemaster, I think, because of the remaining documentation. The photos and videos of the 1970s and 1980s. It is a shame they're all scrapped. The remaining one is photos and videos.
I wish in the future, I, or somebody else, would buy one or two of the Atlantean, Olympic, and Volvo-Ailsa B55 in order to brings people that there were those British-built busses that was the back bone of major Indonesian cities (Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Medan, Palembang, Makassar) that also helped the economy and education for many peoples.
Lots of south-east asian countries have had British-built busses. Singapore did, Malaysia did, and Philippines also did. As far as I know, they were all scrapped, replaced by Germans, Japanese, and Chinese.
In fact, the triple-axle variant of Volvo-Ailsa B55 for export outside of Britain is only 2, one unit goes to Hong-Kong and the other one to Indonesia. The Hong-Kong one, survived. Whereas the Indonesian one, scrapped.
@@getomarjayashi4955 I suggest you get yourself to Sydney and visit the Sydney Bus Museum. They have running days at different times in the calendar. They have a Routemaster as well as long retired Sydney Atlanteans and front engined British double deckers as well as single deckers from AEC and Leyland plus some more modern buses preserved. Australia day January,, 26th they run deckers through the city in a circuit most of the day until about 4pm. You NEED to come down here to see the collection.
I swear theres been some systematic removal of all records of electric vehicles being used before 1990's, i had no clue there was an electric bus network in London and other large cities!
Trolley buses are well known in the areas they operated in my experience. Most were replaced by modern technology in the 50s or 60s.
No it's just that people have forgotten them.
(19:04) the Leyland single decker bus face looks a lot like our american Flxible new look fishbowl inner city bus. The Flxible model was used here in the 1960s thru the early 1980s. They were very popular here like the National was in the U.K.
Good example of an interesting video! Factual, informative, interesting. No ridiculous background music either. Really enjoyed this!
I have driven various Leyland buses.
I gained my licence with Devon General in Torquay in 1979.
I have driven the Leyland Lynx. They were very long!
The Atlantean. Single door.
The Leyland National single door.
Also the Leyland Leopold coach.
I also drove various other buses in my time with Devon General including old Bristol half-cabs, the VR (beautiful to drive), the FLF Lodekka (amazing bus! 5 gears! Crash gear box. No synchromesh or power assistance.)
I later moved to London and have worked for London Transport with whom I drove the LS (London Transport's Leyland National and two door!), the Titan and, of course, the classic Routemaster.
Since 1994 I have driven the Olympian, late 80s version (G reg) and early 90s version (J reg). The G reg version was an animal!
I have also, in London, driven the Volvo B6 (Another beautiful bus to drive!), the Dennis Dart (fun and, if converted, would make a great motorhome.), the Mercedes articulated bus (probably the best bus which I have ever driven. A true drivers bus and, don't believe all the nonsense about the reasons for their withdrawal, an excellent bus for London especially on high capacity routes.)
I'm currently driving the so-calle New Routemaster which, in my humble opinion, is a pile of junk. Simply put, it's Boris's vanity project and was put into service too early. It has various issues which, given time, could have been rectified.
Anyway, I really love your presentation.
Tons of fantastic archive video.
Huge thanks.
Remember a bus chassis going down the M4 outside London, no body on it at all, about 1971. Memory stuck with me - fella there driving it with his goggles on, remarkable!
That used to be the standard way of delivery bus chassis to the companies that were going to fit bus bodies onto them. Amazing.
Anybody from Preston/Leyland area can tell you a multitude of stories about what happened. I know a dozen, everybody's dad, grandad, uncle, neighbour worked there. Here's one, my mate worked at Leyland paints next door, a fork lift pulls up to the fence on the Leyland motors side with an engine in a crate, the Leyland paints forklift comes out to meet it and takes the crate from over the fence. Brand new engine for one of the Paint's wagons no money changed hands. I could go on.
Watched from Old Harbour Jamaica and I remember the days when Leyland set the standard for every trucks and buses inported into Jamaica and my dad owned a few of those buses himself.
Watched this XLNT Documentary from N.Y.
Grew up in JAMAICA and remember quite well when the LEYLAND NATIONALS arrived in JAMAICA which as the Narrator stated, was run by the JAMAICA OMNIBUS SERVICE...Very nice and fast, they were badly maintained and had problems going up steep hills and as a result, I doubt if there are any left in running condition...pity...
Still great memories of riding in them...
@@peterwhite1831Same here . My father used to work with J.O.S Bus Company & .they prefer the older L,A,& G Olympic buses with the mid-engine layout Those Olympics were wicked around corners & the more loaded they were ,the better they perform . I've seen on several occasions L & G buses swinging around Harbour view & 3 mile Roundabout's 14:30 at the same speed coming up the str8 till the top of the wheels gone up under the bodies !!.The L,A,& G buses remains the best & strongest set of buses ever came to Jamaica . Theres a few surviving j.o.s buses around in the countryside used as houses .
When I went to middle school and high school in the mid 1980s used to have to take a bus to get home. Over those 5 to 6 years I travelled on a mixture of Bristol LH, Bristol VR (with the locally produced Eastern Coach Works bodies), Leyland National and Leyland National 2s operated by Eastern Counties out of Lowestoft. I was always struck by the design of both versions of the National. They seemed so modern. My favourite is the National Mk1 with the short heater pod on the roof and the infamous Leyland 510 "headless wonder" engine. Those buses had such a unique engine sound when above idle. Later, I found out that the National was styled by Giovanni Michelloti who to me, as a Triumph Cars fan and previous owner, is one of the greats there with Guigiaro & Gandini.
The designer, Michelotti, died in 1980 after developing lung cancer from working with plaster-of-paris on his model cars.
Driven quite a few of these Leyland buses over the last 40 years. Remember driving the Leyland Lynx and it was a flyer !. Also driven the Atlanteans and Olympians, Nationals and Cubs. Some good footage there from the 80s
Wonderful documentary. We built the best buses and coaches in the world and now we are inmporting chassis from China. My all time favourite bus was the 1953 Leyland PD1 with Alexander coachwork of course! Some of these were still operating until the late 60s.
Fascinating as always, thank you.
Thank you Ruairidh, what an amazing documentary!
I actually live in Leyland, my house is on the old body shop, all my family worked at bus and truck. I must say it’s a bit depressing that it’s all gone but also very proud of our great town’s heritage….. but it wasn’t just the motors. Leyland was an industrial freak.
1:52 Not to nitpick, but, as a Leylander, I have to point out Hough Lane is pronounced "Huff Lane", not "How Lane". It really is just a nitpick though - this is an amzingly thorough and well-researched video. Thank you! 🙇
I spent a year or so driving yellow Leyland Atlantean buses for Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive out of Byker Depot in the early 1970's. (After all what else can you do after getting a Master of Science degree from Newcastle Uni?😂). Easy to drive, the rectangular footprint and forward driving position meant you could see every corner of the bus and easily put it through a gap with only a couple of centimetres to spare. Quite enjoyable to drive unless you got an older one with no power steering - so many mini roundabouts in Newcastle, so quite a work out! Going over High Level Bridge was tricky. So narrow you had to pull the mirrors in, in case you met a lorry coming the other way with wide mirrors! There you go, some useless 50-year old information. It was quite an education in the university of life. At least as useful as the University of Newcastle!
Love riding the Leyland buses in the 70s in Kingston, Jamaica.
Remember the A bus,L bus ?. This was the 1st true modern looking bus to come to Jamaica with large route display & wrap around windshield & 4 headlights . It's considered the best looking bus ever went to Jamaica .the G bus & the short version ,the A bus the F bus,aka Patty Pan . The J bus & the shorter C bus ,the short version of the J ,the Local assembled M bus ,There's also the R bus.This was the only non - Leyland bus with one door j.o.s operated . It came to replace the legendary Patty Pan & died leaving it .
Leyland used to make not just buses and trolley-buses but also they made a bus like train that was nicknamed “Pacers”. As it was a bus fitted with rail wheels that went on railway tracks and were used in the North of England, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Merseyside, Wales and Southwest England. Which I think GWR still has those Pacer trains.
They talked about that in the video.
Indeed 😄
They also made the Dolomite Sprint/the Austin Princess som of the best cars from them in the70's. And yet they we're much more reliable than Lancia's at that time
Interesting/informative/entertaining. Excellent photography picture 📷 of the early Leyland vehicles. Along with motion photography of the cars/buses/trucks. Enabling viewers to better understand what the orator was describing.
This article doesn’t mention the very important closed market for Leyland vehicles in all the British colonies. Especially South Asia , Malaya etc. which sustained Leyland for many years. No closed markets and no more Leyland though the name Ashok Leyland is very common in India
There is of course a lot more to it than this, I was involved as my father was a senior bus operator and I was later to be an engineering student with Leyland at the Leyland plant. The National was a bit of a disaster but could be rectified as we did later but the real problem was the OH500 series engines with fixed cylinder heads, I could do a 35 minute programme about this disaster, Leyland Management wanted to only make this lemon when the 0680 series was well respected indeed even today DAF1160 engines are made from the 680 Leyland design, I fitted quite a few into Leyland chassis, the 500 meanwhile was a good one if it made 100,000 miles. In the truck it was an even bigger disaster although the Roadtrain was a better truck the then 680 derived replacement the TL11 was a very economical unit it sort of fell apart all too readily, but the real killer was the management attitude, I was there when the Leyland sales Director said to a significant customer "where will you go" well the response was the rise of Dennis, MCW, Volvo, DAF, Scania and others so not quite right in the summary. It was not the market that faikled it was management not listening to the customer!
I agree entirely with your comments here on the Leyland 500 'Headless Wonder' engine. My experiences with this engine go back to the mid 1970's when I was an apprentice HGV mechanic at a Leyland Trucks dealership in Birmingham. Here at the dealership we became besieged with 500 engine failures, from Leyland Truck models such as the Buffalo and Bison range. They were a nightmare to diagnose/ strip down and successfully rectify, due to their complexity of a one piece head and block; that required an overhead crane to lift-off the entire engine block from its crankcase, together with the 6 Pistons & Connecting rods (split at their big ends) still attached within the block.
We then had to send out the engine block for repair if it required new liners or valves. This practice choked-up our workshops and created terrible relations with owner-operators, due to vehicle downtimes.
The irony here was that I believe the design of this OHC fixed head engine was superb and well advanced. When running correctly, the engine was powerful, revved freely, ticked-over beautifully and gave the most distinctive 'crackle' sound when running. It was also easy and straightforward to service; no fan belts, valve clearances or oil leaks to worry about (the engine components were sealed with ‘Elastomar’ a 2-part sealant) thus no gaskets were used.
However it would appear that little if any quality control or 'proofing'/suitable long term testing was carried out beforehand.
The other issue here I believe was that the engine was only of a 6 cylinder, 8 litre capacity. We had these engines that were turbochaged / intercooled and installed into 32 ton tractor units and 6 wheel tippers etc. which were absolutely abused and thrashed to death by right-footed Neanderthals! At least with the Leyland Bus chassis’ the 500 engines stood a chance as they were subjected to less loads, mistreatment and abuse. Managerial short-sightedness disaster at Leyland, obviously…..
A great video many thanks. I travelled thousands of miles on their buses over the years.
Seeing a steam powered lawn mower in action would be incredible.
"Jimmy, did you mow the lawn today like I told ya to do ? "
"Sorry, Dad. We ran out of coal. "
The prototype Pacers such as LEV-1 were not built on redundant freight chassises but on the HSFV1 chassis (HSFV standing for high speed freight vehicle).
There are so many false 'facts' about Pacers now. Like them being old bus bodies. Urgh. Even the freight chassis thing was just the starting point. If people think you can put a bus body on a wagon and have a self propelled passenger train they're welcome to knock one up and see how it works out 😂
(Edited for spelling - it's best to be literate when being pedantic!) 😂😂
@@kevfrombutterley yes, too many falsehoods have gone on to become facts just by being requited time after time. One of the biggest is that the RAF's 4-engined bomber fleet of WW2 was limited to a 100ft wingspan because of this was just under the opening size of the hangar doors. This is untrue for several reasons including that a hangar with an opening of 120ft was already in use with the RAF when the specifcication for the medium and heavy bombers were issued in 1936 and also because these specifications called for worldwide operation with most maintenance to be conduct outside. The real reason for the span limitation was the strength of a typical man. It was considered that an aircraft with a 100ft wingspan was the limit for a single pilot without powered controls. However, the lie has become truth.
I remember the big bulky Leyland army trucks which we,re fantastic
Back in 1991 after I left the army I was a mechanic working on Leyland Nationals, Atlantians, Olympians, Tigers, and Lynxs (loved the Lynx personally). That was for the Bee Line bus company in High Wycombe, which became Wycombe Bus Company.
There was ANOTHER Leyland car too - The (probably 1920s or 30s) Trojan.
I know this being a kid growing up in Leyland every year we'd see the (white) Trojan which made an annual appearance at the Leyland show as Leyland Motors owned it.
[We used to climb the 25 / 30 foot high drainpipes to play on the Motor's factory roofs sometimes too].
You'd frequently see bus & lorry chasis being driven around and out of town with the driver 'sheltered' behind a few bits of plywood sheeting - No screen, just Motorcycle goggles.
It was 'common knowledge' that in the 60s one of the staff had nicked an entire new prototype Gas Turbine engine by carrying the bits out in his duffel bag to the point and had a near complete engine assembled in his shed - Caught only because one of the sharper lads on gate security noticed he was staggering under the weight of part of a crankshaft.
It was said it wasn't industrial espionage but enthusiasm. Some versions said he was sacked other that he was put on the research team.
Apocrophal tale or fact I dunno ........... It was long ago and if true probably kept off the record.
25:47 lol at the random photo of St. Goarshausen, taken from the Loreley
How did that slip in there?
Aha...a very quick shot of the one-off four-wheel-leading London trolleybus (that one I did not see). London Transport had many Leyland Cubs as their service vehicles for 'buses and trolleybuses. I recall, in Franco's Spain, many Leyland Lorries - 'El Camion Inglesi Leyland'.
Although I thought this may possibly be a rather 'nerdy' subject, I really enjoyed the video......thanks
This is kind of the same problem that Chrysler had in the US, their Truck division was very profitable in the 1960's and 70's with growing sales ever year over year. However, the Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth car divisions were very inconsistent and constantly building the wrong car at the wrong time! UGH
Could you perhaps create a video on the Ford Focus? It'd be rather fitting given it's 25th anniversary this year and that it's an iconic car.
Might as well do the Fiesta as well.
Since last i looked Focus gonna end production soon..
It's true. The Focus will be missed but it's legacy will not be forgotten.
@@nicholasjones9705I was gutted when they we,re getting rid of the mondeo
Leyland buses were very popular in Yugoslavia. Story of Leyland products started at the beginning of 1950s where a loads of Leyland Titan PD1 made by various British bus bodymakers were imported from United Kingdom 2nd hand. Also many of trucks were imported as new to Yugoslavia. It continued with import of chassis of some front engine buses and also imported 2nd hand Leyland buses, which were rebodied completely, or partially (added passenger doors on the right). It continued in 1960s, when 150 units of Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster LERT 1/1 buses were imported brand new from United Kindgom (MCW body) with Leyland O 680 H (150 HP), left hand drive. Buses were very reliable and they were far above dometic urban bus competition that was mostly front engine based (FAP 5GVF-ST bodied by various Yugoslavian bus budymakers), although Karoserija Ljubljana bodied the only Yugoslav bus body dsienged FAP bus with horizontal engine at the time-FAP MOS 55, but production of that bus ceased by Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster arrival, same could be said about FAP GUF-ST (licence of Österreichische Saurerwerke GUF-ST) which also had horizontal engine, it was no wonder, because FAP (Fabrika automobila Priboj) had bought licence for buses and trucks from mentioned Vienna based company from 1953 till 1963. Since FAMOS (Fabrika motora Sarajevo) didnt managed to buy licence for more powerful Österreichische Saurerwerke engines (FAMOS produced engines for FAP), I can assume that they didnt have enough money to produce more powerful engines after they bought licence to buy 180 BHP diesel engines (FAMOS 3F which was mounted on FAP 7GV3F built under licence from same model from Österreichische Saurerwerke), and many Yugoslav transporting companies demanded more powerful trucks (FAP 7GV3F was produced in insufficient numbers, because of the ammount of parts that werent made in Yugoslavia which made those trucks not that affordable), FAP approached Leyland and asked about licence, Leyland demanded that Yugoslavia must buy atleast 150 buses from UK, FAP lobbied to Yugoslav authoroties with success and after MCW bodied Leyland Worldmaster buses had arrived, Leyland allowed FAP to buy Leyland PO 680 engine which produced 204 HP, engine of choice for than upcoming FAP 18 B made truck out of tools and machines imported from Brescia, Italy that were used for OM (Officine Meccaniche) Super Orione trucks which FAP intented to assemble, but gave up on that idea. Among other competition at that time were front engine ALFA (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili) Romeo 1000 AU with 163 HP (bodied by Goša, Smederevska Palanka and also Avtomontaža, Ljubljana), also TAM (Tovarna avtomobilov in motorjev) entered urban and suburban bus market with TAM AS 3500 M (body was made by Autokaroserija, Novi Sad), suburban version TAM A 3500 P (body was made by TAM, not sure it went onto serial production), but bus of brand based in Maribor had 125 HP Deutz licenced air cooled rear engine. FAMOS was granted to make Leyland engines for FAP bus and trucks, but IMR (Industrija motora Rakovica) complained and FAMOS was taken by Court and it resulted in Leyland engines production delays. After years of negotiations, aguments, fights, Yugoslavian Court proposed settlement between FAMOS and IMR (which was accpeted by both parties) in which IMR produced smaller and less powerful Leyland diesel engines and make some parts (for its use and FAMOS), whereas FAMOS will produce more powerful diesel engines. Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster LERT 1/1 was bodied in Yugoslavia (according to my sources) by Autokaroserija-Zagreb, Autokaroserija-Novi Sad (both werent connected in any way), Ikarus-Zemun, Vaso Miskin Crni-Sarajevo and 11. oktomvri-Skopje. Majority of Leyland Worldmaster buses were bodied by Autokaroserija, Novi Sad, because it had longest production span (up until 1976.). FAP and Leyland were suppose to sign an Agreement which could see production of Leyland based buses and trucks, FAP G 100 S 15 (bodied by Ikarus, Zemun) used many Leyland components, including O 680 H which produced 150 HP (same as Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster). FAMOS and IMR very slow implemetation of Leyland diesel engines during the 1960s, coupled with FAMOS and IMR court battle which lasted for years forced FAP to cancel plans for further cooperation and agreement with Leyland at the end of 1960s and they found strategic partner in Daimler-Benz. The rest, as they say is a history (FAP assembled LP, LPS, NG and SK trucks in various forms, while they obtained licence also for O 302 (bodied by Autokaroserija-Zagreb and 11. oktomvri-Skopje), O 303 (bodied by Autokaroserija-Zagreb (later renamed to TAZ (Tvornica autobusa Zagreb) and 11. oktomvri-Skopje) and O 317 K buses (bodied by 11. oktomvri-Skopje). Its then partner FAMOS also made some Mercedes-Benz diesel engines under licence for use in Mercedes-Benz buses and trucks, as well in some FAP buses and trucks.
THANKS RUAIRIDH
Any chance at looking at Midland Red bus company? They were a bus company that made their own buses and coaches. From what remember, the coaches were crazy powerful!
Yes, incredible buses, and luxury motorway coches to London,way above others in terms of engineered product.
And the legendary D9 double-deckers. A seriously good bus.
All our yesterdays - Thank you for this .
Superb video as always Ruairidh, outstanding job. Have you done a video covering Scammell yet?
Lots of happy memories watching this, I was working for National Express back in 80, fabulous coach fleet consisting of Leyland leopard engine and tiger's, a fabulous engine burning up and down our motorway network, and they never messed a beat
The only thing I can spot that is missing relates to the agricultural machinery side after the Aveling-Barford purchase. I know products were built in Scotland and when that ceased the range was assembled in Gainsborough in the Marshall's factory (Marshall's were a long established company that at one point had been bought by the Aveling group).
Not quite right. TW Ward sold Marshalls to British Leyland who merged it with Aveling Barford as the Specialist Products Division producing crawler tractors, rollers and other construction equipment. FWIW some Aveling Barford derived technology is apparently still in production, eg ST Kinetics in Singapore.
great tie-up there with Leyland building trains
I grew up with Leyland National buses everywhere in Hobart Tasmania in the 1980s, run by the governments MTT. In the same yellow colour as in this video. They didnt have a very good reputation with drivers or mechanics by around 1990 when they were being replaced with Volvos. I had no idea Leyland and Volvo were related.
Well the nationals we'reant retired per-sae
@@True_NOONIn the Noughties they we're still technically using them for public transport just not as much
The Leyland Roadtrain truck. So named because you went by road and came home on the train.
And then there's the time a company I worked for had a Sherpa (or whatever they were calling them at the time) on an evaluation trial and got a unanimous 'If you buy those you can have my resignation' from all the drivers.
Definitely not a fan even if it hadn't been for their part in the execrable Pacer trains. The Leyland DAF 95 was a beast and a joy to drive though. I have to give them that.
The Sherpas were horrible vans. I used to drive one as a multi-drop deliver van back in the mid 90s. No power steering, a rotten gearbox that had a tendency to jam into gears, brakes that didn't work in the rain and an engine so underpowered that you dreaded leaving the 30mph speed limit and heading out into the countryside. I remember stepping up from a Sherpa 400 to a Leyland Daf 7.5t (we called them the big vans) in the late 90s and the difference being night and day. The 7.5 tonners were great motors to drive and had none of the deficiencies of the Sherpas.
@@raithrover1976 The one we had on test was terrible in pretty much every way and it was like driving a van from the 1970s. 'Primitive' would probably be the best word.
The real clincher for me was the fact that at 6'2" tall my eye line was above the level of the top of the door which meant A) I had to bend my head down to get a good view at junctions and B) I cracked my head on the door-frame getting in or out.
We got an Iveco Daily fleet in the end and they were by a very large margin the best medium vans I've even driven. I can't think of anything bad to say about them.
@@AnthonyHandcockyes, I agree although the Bedford CF had a low Windscreen top line that made you stoop if you were over 6ft tall. When you got out of them we used to call it the ‘CF lean’!!.
I did like watching the London Transport's AEC 'Q' class buses between 36:05 and 36:16!
I'm from the USA but I was living in London in 1970. The thing that struck me the most was how they hung on to the past so hard. I had previously lived in Japan for a few months an it was very much the opposite, in many respects. The Japanese also liked traditional things but new designs & methods seemed to be the norm. I took a trip from Tokyo to Nara & Kyoto riding the New Tokido Express train. Fast, very comfortable, clean modern transport 1965! I have been watching how the British are now attempting something similar, so is California with both looking like they may never succeed. 50+ years behind the Japanese!
I was a apprentice at Leyland motors leyland from 1969 to 1980 as they where developing the 500 fixed head engine and spending millions on new factory's and tooling when they began to install the engine it was the biggest disaster ever hundreds of trucks parked in fields broke down that's what killed leyland
I agree entirely with your comments here on the Leyland 500 'Headless Wonder' engine. My experiences with this engine go back to the mid 1970's when I was an apprentice HGV mechanic at a Leyland Trucks dealership in Birmingham. Here at the dealership we became besieged with 500 engine failures, from Leyland Truck models such as the Buffalo and Bison range. They were a nightmare to diagnose/ strip down and successfully rectify, due to their complexity of a one piece head and block; that required an overhead crane to lift-off the entire engine block from its crankcase, together with the 6 Pistons & Connecting rods (split at their big ends) still attached within the block.
We then had to send out the engine block for repair if it required new liners or valves. This practice choked-up our workshops and created terrible relations with owner-operators, due to vehicle downtimes.
The irony here was that I believe the design of this OHC fixed head engine was superb and well advanced. When running correctly, the engine was powerful, revved freely, ticked-over beautifully and gave the most distinctive 'crackle' sound when running. It was also easy and straightforward to service; no fan belts, valve clearances or oil leaks to worry about (the engine components were sealed with ‘Elastomar’ a 2-part sealant) thus no gaskets were used.
However it would appear that little if any quality control or 'proofing'/suitable long term testing was carried out beforehand.
The other issue here I believe was that the engine was only of a 6 cylinder, 8 litre capacity. We had these engines that were turbochaged / intercooled and installed into 32 ton tractor units and 6 wheel tippers etc. which were absolutely abused and thrashed to death by right-footed Neanderthals! At least with the Leyland Bus chassis’ the 500 engines stood a chance as they were subjected to less loads, mistreatment and abuse. Managerial short-sightedness disaster at Leyland, obviously…..
👍Thanks for an interesting video
26:17 I remember waiting in bus queues at the 1980s. The second hand and poorly maintained buses and mini buses from the new deregulated companies were noisy and often spewed out fumes and smoke to the discomfort of pedestrians.
I wonder how many lives were lost due to the consequential increase in pollution from that cost cutting exercise.🤔
At 36:00, where is that? Those Christmas-y decorations are quite lovely.
Leyland seemed to try really hard from the 50's up until the 70's to create proper products. But time and again, it seems the management and bureaucracy managed to destroy the end products. I have seen enough videos how 'Morris Marina is the worst production car ever' - I would like to see a video explaining what drove British car manufacturing to this very strange space and to its ultimate disappearance.
Was it the awful effect of Word War II that somehow affected Britain? It doesn't seem likely as the absolutely destroyed Germany managed to rise up and the absolutely financially destroyed Finland managed to rise up.
Also, this documentary paints quite a rosy picture what comes to Leyland trucks and busses. Back in the 50's to now - Scania, Volvo and other Europeans were more successful than Leyland.
This documentary gives information on the effects for Leyland and not the reasons - especially compared to other manufactures. The fall of the British car manufacturing is quite singular as nothing has failed really that spectacularly in the European industrial history. This 'happening' would need a video of its own.
After watching the whole short documentary it came clear to me that the reason for Leyland's demise is the same reason as for why British companies still struggle - insular thinking, creating products for an insular market. And British products just are not of good quality on the whole back then and to this day. It's so odd that in 2023 the top 10 industries in Britain are all within Britain such as a super market chain, an Insurance company etc.
I apologise for my straightforward marks. As a Nordic I usually say/write how I see the facts. No ill intent meant.
The 1945onwards catastrophe was the result of Zionists Sidney Webb and Herbert Morrison destroying the UK (and world-wide) Labour and Co-operative Movement from the inside.
That history is yet to be written.
This channel recently covered the even more spectacular collapse of the British motorcycle industry. I would argue that the collapse of the German motorcycle industry in the years between 1955-69 also meets the criteria of a spectacular fall. NSU were the World’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer in 1955 but by the end of the next decade they were making cars instead of motorcycles and BMW Motorrad were on their knees. This story isn’t well documented in the UK, perhaps because the German motorcycle industry mainly served its home market and manufactured small utility rather than large performance mochines. But fundamentally the issue was that people were becoming richer and wanted the comfort of four wheels rather than two. This same factor is not usually given the significance it should in relation to the collapse of the British (actually English) motorcycle industry.
Some of us joke that the Luftwaffe didn’t do a very good enough job of bombing us leaving the UK with too many old factories going into the post-war. The old Triumph motorcycle factory was of course destroyed when Coventry was bombed and a new factory at nearby Meriden didn’t stop the company eventually failing almost 40 years later.
The decline of British manufacturing can be attributed to multiple factors including arrogance from being on the winning side of world wars twice, over-reliance on closed markets within the British Commonwealth and Empire, the British class system, very little co-operation between Management and Trades Unions, too much emphasis on short term returns on investment rather than long term thinking and too much power being held by Accountants rather than Engineers.
Whilst I would argue that our high end products match the quality of any country, as someone who spent a lifetime in Manufacturing Quality Assurance (with many Nordic customers) I’d agree that our quality levels unfortunately too often don’t match our innovation and design 🇬🇧
This subject has been covered quite a lot already but much is down to incompetent management unable to relate to its workforce. After WW2 a lot of western European manufacturing capacity was destroyed and rebuilt with modern equipment, eg via the Marshall Plan, but the UK struggled on with worn out plant and practices.
That is just an excuse. Although British industry had some bomb damage, it was nothing like what the other European countries suffered. The Marshall Plan was a Godsend for Europe amd the UK particularly because 26% of Marshall Plan money went to the UK, more than to any other country.
The difference was that Britain, instead of investing it in industry, infrastructure and communications, as others did, used a lot of it to prop up Sterling and to support huge armed forces in the overseas bases of the Empire. And we have failed to invest ever since.
I heard that old excuse of worn out machinery from my school days, but the facts suggest otherwise.
@@thomasfrancis5747 The UK was the single biggest recipient of Marshal Aid, and the war years had seen a vast influx of American made machine tools. Admittedly Britain struggled with a defence budget that was just over 10% of GNP following the war and until the sweeping cuts made by Healy and the East of Suez retreat, but the lions share of blame has to placed on the shoulders of management. Sadly the poor quality of management in the UK, when faced with competition, is still a factor in our national woes.
They didn't really collapse, they rebranded and became Weyland-Yutani.
‘Building Better Worlds’
Some nice old footage of Glasgow there. Takes us back! 🐈
1:08, the "early Diesel Powered Lawnmowers" seems a bit unlikely pre 1900, or was this maybe a hot hot bulb 'semi Diesel'?
Very good video. Research and putting it together must have taken ages. Liked the inclusion of the Scammell Crusader.
We had 60s and 70s crosville Leyland gardner buses in North West when I was a kid. Great machines really. The later ones had an interesting gear changing lever, quite small really.
Just a slight correction, New Plymouth (NZ) never had Leyland Trolleybuses, all 4 they brought were Crossley TSD models, same as Wellington 1-10 and built with a body similar to the Wellington buses
I drove Leyland Panthers in Perth W.A.from '93,purchased with "armstrong" steering because aussies were tough enough to not need power steering. Demisting was poor,and air cond non existant.
Summer running with full loading was a weight loss workout for drivers,carrying water bottles was a survival necessisity.
In the late 60s/70 Leyland sent several diesel 4 x 4 trucks for evaluation by the Australian Defence Forces,but was supposedly diesel injection was to complicated for combat trucks and petrol Internationals were bought instead.
You only touched the topic of Leyland trucks at the beginning? Will there be a separate presentation of Leyland trucks later?
Nice to see the footage of Glasgow
26:23 I remember waiting in bus queues in the 1980s for buses operated by various deregulated bus companies.The poorly maintained second hand buses and mini buses were noisy and uncomfortable and often spewed out excessive diesel fumes and smoke to the discomfort of pedestrians.
I wonder how many lives were lost due to the increase in city pollution of that cst cutting exercise. 🤔
Thanks for another Brill video mate !
At least 1 of the Australian delivered Lynx buses still existed (and was in service with a Sydney operator) in 2000, I was unfortunate enough to drive the piece of crap a short distance one shift 😂.
The post 83 Tigers with air ride suspension were a way better vehicle not only to drive but for passennger comfort hence why the Lynx failed to sell over here, I drove heaps of Tigers as well as some Nationals and earlier Leopards and have to say the Tigers were my favourite out of all Leyland buses.
Some additional information: The final batch of Leyland Tigers were not fitted with bodies until 1990, a former employer of mine had 2 of the final batch fitted with PMC Australia PMC 160 semi coach bodies.
i still leyland emblems on buses in perth among the mercs and some of the leylands not in use with transperth are in private hands as motorhomes
As someone who has a life-time's history of using every conceivable manufacturer of buses, Leyland was the single nightmare that comes to my recollections, of constantly being told "to get off the bus - it's broken down".
I could write a book on my bus travels.
If nationalisation was the world's 'salvation' then everything would be nationalised, and everywhere.
My childhood and youth were spent on buses or more accurately, waiting on buses. As soon as a bank would lend me money for a car, I bought one and I've seldom seen a bus since. Positively traumatised by buses. Their service is far improved these days, and rationally, I should use them, but I cannot bring myself to suffer them again.
Back in the 80's at SW Gas driving Bedford TK / TL 7.5t trucks. They paid for my HGV1, lessons & test in a DAF. For years drove Leyland T45 Articulated Cruisers, they were horrible but reliable. Best times was in the 90's driving rental MB, MAN and specially Scania & Volvo trucks. The Swedish trucks were head n shoulders above the rest. Specially the Volvo Globetrotter 6x4 was a beast hauling steel gas main pipe.
Fascinating, but way too much bus history and not enough truck. Ironic, since only Leyland Trucks remains today, albeit as part of DAF.
I think the last time I was on a Leyland bus must of been 1994, from Canterbury courtesy of Stagecoach. I remember the iconic design of the single decker versions.
I used to crew a Leyland National bus, THX189S, but then we were forced to get rid of it. It's still around, slowly rotting away, and the few online pictures of it are really sad to see.
Excellent video
You wonder had Leyland survived as a bus manufacturer, could they have been the company that built the New Routemaster for Transport of London by the early 2010's besides Wrightbus?
They wouldn't hav been able to last that long as they came out in the early70's. Credit where credit's due they did last 4decades so pretty good going for British Leyland
Thank you Rori dear!
One final thing.
The Alien franchise famously has Wayland Yutani, a corporate merger between a British and Japanese firm operating in deep space
The original intention was for Wayland to be Leyland. As becomes obvious as soon as you consider the rugged and industrial nature of the vehicles operated.
Leyland Buses back in those days were so popular across the UK. Even Leyland built the first ever Pacer train that is a bus but it runs on rails (Class 142, Class 143 and Class 144).
They built the bodies for the prototypes and Classes 141 and 142. The 143 and 144 bodies weren't built by Leyland although they did have Leyland TL11 engines.
Think the original pacer prototype still exists.. the Litteral bus slapped onto a rail wagon.
@@davidty2006 LEV 1 does still exist but a bus slapped on a rail wagon it is not 🤣