Classic Bus Histories Episode 1: Leyland Atlantean.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- Hello!
This is the first episode in a new series where we take a look at the history of a classic bus design. This first one is about the grandfather of the rear engine double decker bus, the Leyland Atlantean.
Please share your memories of Leyland Atlanteans in the comments below. Also what bus would me to cover next?
If you enjoy it please like, share and subscribe.
#vintagebus #history #ukbuses #busvideo #britishleyland #leylandatlantean
At Go Ahead Northern, we had AN68s with bodywork by ECW, Roe, Alexander and MCW. All of them good looking buses.
@5:32 "Midgets at the back of the bus, please."
Used to work on a few Atlanteans in a Glasgow bus garage. Quite good fun at the time.
It was said at the time that our older Atlanteans were being bought up by a scrapper, the engines stripped and sent to Singapore, where they were used in inshore fishing craft. Those old Gardener / Leyland engines were bulletproof and went on forever.
At approx. 13:34 you show Ribble's NRN397P, I bought this bus from Edwards in Pontpridd and took it back to N.Ireland with the aim of restoring it. Life got it in the way and eventually I sold it to a local car dealer who used it as a mobile sign for his business. It was then brought back to England where it was restored back to it's original Ribble livery that you can see here.
How does it feel now to see her fully restored? Do you regret selling her? A couple of buses I've let go over the years I must admit I regret now.
Hi Jake, yes the guys did a great job getting her to her former glory. No I don't regret selling it, if anything I regret buying it as it was the start of a whole downward spiral in my life and much too long a story to tell but I am glad it was spotted , bought and brought back to where it belongs. I'll always be a bus lover and I really enjoyed driving it while I had it, thanks for your interest!@@JakeSCOC
Thanks for a great video.
A friend of mine bought a 70s Atlantean at an auction. He spent around three years turning it into a motorhome. It was extremely impressive and eventually sold it to an American family, they paid to ship it over, reworked it a little, ending up with a sensational RV.
Glad you liked it. They're lovely buses.
When I was a kid I always liked the different sounds different buses made. In Hull there was a mix of atlantean, MCW and Bristol. Now all buses sound very similar or silent.
Great video Jake
@@kevinmcaleer28 Thanks Kevin
I used to Atlantean - Standerwick / Ribble / Scout express services from London to Blackburn in the 60s . Loved it and they are a large part of my coaching memories. There are 2 books that I'd recommend: Living in the Outside Lane which is by an ex Ribble driver : Paul Kirkham and Standerwick & Scout by Peter and Judith Deegan. Both are available and brought back some great memories. As a kid, top deck at the front, the M1 was awesome as we used to overtake everything in sight, loos and refreshments. A brilliant experience pulling into Birminghams Digbeth and Knutsford and seeing the other Standerwicks heading to Keswick, Blackpool and Colne. So Atlanteans were Leyland, Leyland was Lancashire, Lancashire was Blackburn and that was so many deep memories.
That sounds amazing. They're stunning vehicles.
Thanks for the video. Old memories came back of visiting my Dad at work at East Lancashire Coach Builders in Blackburn in the 70's
Glad you liked it. You must have some lovely memories of the old bodyworks?
Bournemouth Council ran Atlanteans on their routes. I drove for Wilts and Dorset, based in Poole, and passed my test in a Bristol VR. Love the gear selector! A little toggle thingy with no clutch!
Semi auto box is a lovely thing to drive isn't it? I love VRs but I think the Atlanteans had the edge over the VRs.
That was very interesting looking forward to more bus histories
For me Eastern Nationals Leyland Nationals are my school memories and then the Lynx hope you cover these at some point
Glad you liked it. Yes the National will be coming up soon.
Stockholm, Sweden bought 200 Panthers and 50 Atlanteans with Park Royal coachwork in 1967.
And very handsome looking buses they were too. I believe the Atlanteans had roof mounted exhausts like 281ATC.
@@JakeSCOC Yes, they had, and the Panthers as well!
Brisbane had the biggest fleet of Panthers in the world, 300 of which had ZF 2 HP500 autos. The remaining 30 had mono change semi automatics. They were the first full automatic buses in Australia.
Delivered in batches 1967 - 1970 as tram replacements.
@@jamesfrench7299
Will check that! Stockholm Panthers had ZF2HP45.
@@railmaster.7752 that could be what the Brisbane Panthers got. The 2 HP 500 was the 2 speed from the late 70s. I presumed it was the same in the late 60s. Brisbane ordered about 100 Volvo B59s in 1978 with ZF 2 HP 500 with a body based on the one the Panthers got.
Brilliant 😍
Thanks. Glad you liked it
I conducted on LA1 in 1966 for glasgow corporation from Gartcraig garage.I then became a driver for Scottish Bus Group
and drove quite a few Leylands.I eventually went back to the GGPTE and drove many types of Atlanteans for them.
Conducting on the first Atlantean is a brilliant claim to fame. Did you prefer the Atlanteans to the old front engine deckers like the Titan?
Yes,they were much easier to drive most of them.The older Leyland "back enders" as we used to call them most had pretty heavy steering and by the time you had done a
few runs you certainly could feel the strain on your back,shoulders and arms.I found your video well worth the watching by the way.Thanks
@@johndouglas2264 thanks for sharing your memories. Glad you liked it.
Yes Vince,You are so right.With it's flat front i think it was quite unique.I don't remember
seeing any others when i was conducting that looked the same.It was not long before
the more rounded fronts came into service
you might have know my uncle Pat Doyle he was a driver in Gartcraig till it closed and he moved down to Parkhead his fav LA,s where the 1300,s. Sadly to say i followed him into the bus industry but that where the similarities end i detested the LA,s with a passion. I am a Alexander MCW man
Fascinating and thank you.
Glad you liked it.
Thanks , this was a good video ! I used to be overly obsessed with buses but due to marriage this all got boxed away, however upon seeing your video I feel inclined to fetch all these boxes of bus stuff from the loft 😊
Glad you liked it and hopefully it will rekindle your passion for buses.
I grew up in South London (Croydon) and Atlanteans were a common sight on the London Country fleet and they survived well into the privatised era with the two-tone green and red London & Country livery appearing on many of them on the 409 and 405 routes in the 90s when I was at college in Coulsdon. You're right, LT didn't use them, but the Fleetline then the Titan and Olympian gradually replaced the RM over the 1980s and they worked LT routes when LC ran them on tender. When I was a child, we'd travel from our home off Whitehorse Road on a RM, route 68, to Dulwich (changing at Camberwell onto the 185 which was a Titan) to see my nan and grandad, and I remember my mum telling me that the 68 was changing to a one-man bus some time in the 80s. When we moved to east Croydon, the RMs were already gone; the 197 was contracted to London Country which used a mixture of Atlanteans and Olympians, while single-deckers (back then, Leyland Nationals and the coaches on the 725/6) ruled on the Lower Addiscombe Road corridor because of the low bridge. I suspect RMs were hung onto in London because they were convenient for most passengers; they were hop on and off and so they were much quicker than everyone having to queue up to pay. Fleetlines originally had self-service turnstiles, but these were taken out of use. I never saw Bristol VRs except when I was on holiday in Devon -- I never knew what they were and wondered why they were different from our buses.
Happy days and lovely memories of bus travel in a classic era.
We were excited seeing the modern Atlanteans around Sydney for the first time back in the 60's. Beat the old fashioned looking Dennis buses which had served Sydney and suburbs so faithfully for so many years. It was as if the Sydney transport system was growing up. We also saw the advent of double decker trains, built locally for our suburban train network. Both sensible moves. In the meantime, while the Atlanteans were slowly being introduced the old Dennis's were still plodding along before being retired. We still had single decker buses on the job for not so busy hours.
Ahh...memories.
@@brianmorris8045 they must have looked very futuristic for their time (the Atlanteans).
Great video…..my early memories of them was in Liverpool pierhead & Woodside In Birkenhead, when we were on summer hols at my grandparents on the Wirral, “ from the IOM🇮🇲” ….I think Merseyside ordered all theres with the 64mph back axle…..given the speed they used to drive them at….👍👌😂🇮🇲
Thanks Andy. There's a few videos on here and they're flying in those Liverpool Atlanteans!
A very informative and forensic look into one of the longest lasting and staple bus types. Nice work Sir!!!!
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.
Really like the mini documentary and others you have done. Like vintage buses, they had more style and character. The Atlantean was a radical design but still looked 50's, very nice. LT's 50 XA's were very smart, shame they didn't stick with them and were very short lived, as short lived as the MD Metro-Scania. FHF 451 in Wallasey livery is very smart too. Wondered why they were called AN 68, you answered that and yes it does seem the AN68 was the product of evolution perfected. All interesting stuff.
Glad you're enjoying the series. Yes the AN68 was perfection and such a lovely drive.
Great vid by the way, Jake. Looking forward to your later bus vids. My attitude was the bus got us to where we wanted to go, and if an older bus had my bus run number on it...I boarded it, didn't care how old the bus was, as long as it wasn't too crowded.
Thank you. I'm glad you liked the video.
Thank you for an interesting video - I note that various comments have been made regarding dates of entry into service for the first production Atlanteans and just wanted to add a little into the mix - according to the book, Glasgow's Buses by Stuart Little, LA1 entered service on 15th December 1958 at Ibrox Garage on Service 4. Wallasey's No. 1 has been recorded as the first into municipal service, the date being 7 days earlier on 8th December 1958, beating LA1 by a week. For years I had presumed this to be the end of the story, however some time ago I purchased a book about James of Ammanford by Vernon Morgan and in it he states that their RTH637 entered service on Thursday 4th December 1958, so it would appear that James were the first to put a production Atlantean into service.
Glad you liked it. That's muddied the waters even more! I wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of it all?
Very interesting video 👍
Thanks Martin.
bring em back
Would be nice wouldn't it?
Definitely, !!! they were popular in Australia, there was so many spare parts dumped in the old bays and filled in with concrete, and what was left went to the bus museum and China to be melted down 😠
Hi i'm viatron from Sheffield, when I'd played back this bus video on the development of the leyland atlantean & I'd noticed something wasn't right about it subjecting I can see the vision but without no sound on the original soundtrack when played back through my headphones via it was very silent throughout the video playback. & i'm very sorry I'd couldn't listen to the sound on it. So please will you look into it & see there's something had gone seriously wrong with the audio sound of this bus video & simply put it right straight away via all your other followers said's the same when you look on the audio side of your bus video so we all can look in both sound & vision. Thank you for your co-operation to putting this very serious blunder finally right. From David Viatron Esquire of crookes in Sheffield.
Hope it works for you now.
Excellent video! Looking forward to seeing what’s next.
My home town of Sheffield had Atlanteans (and fleetlines) with a mixture of bodies. - Roe, Alexander, ECW, Park Royal.
And Metro Cammell/Weymann.
Thanks. Glad you liked it. One of the finest Atlanteans I drove was a former South Yorkshire bus. Voith gearbox and a Telma retarder on the dash board. Was such a smooth drive.
@@stevenpaulgoulding oh yes! Forgot about them 🙎🏻
@@unclenolly3207 I also forgot to include East Lancs/Neepsend and Marshall.
Edinburgh only had one long wheelbase Atlantean,no.900 JSC900E, which iirc was the 1967 lwb prototype. Their fleet were all 9.6m swb variants.
I hope your do an AEC Swift edition. I grew up catching them and rate them a smooth and comfortable and great sounding.
It's certainly on my list James. I absolutely love the Swifts - especially VJG187J!
Just come across this series. Hope you do a video about the national, interesting.
Glad you liked it. Yes the National is next in this series.
Having checked my research, Wallasey number 1 was the 1st Atlantean into revenue-earning service followed by the Glasgow Atlantean, so that needs to be clarified
Each year in the Sixties I travelled on a "Gay Hostess" Atlantean luxury bus from Manchester to Glasgow (X30) to holiday at Wanlockhead. The bus was very comfortable with courier serving drinks on the way.
Not only London, but Brum went the Fleetline route, after trying 10 of each in 1961. Eventually Brum (via WMPTE) had 2100 Fleetlines, including 24 Marshall bodied single deckers.
I think probably they had to go for the more locally built bus - especially after the row when Coventry ordered a small batch of Atlanteans and the press got hold of the story.
Really brought back memories of growing up in the 80's and 90's. Accrington and Blackburn Transport had lots of them. From the picture you posted of the single deck variant i'm sure Accrington/Hyndburn Transport had some of them amongst their single deck fleet. Majority were Dennis's (some still operating in Malta I think) but there were also Leyland's which looked very similar to that picture.
Glad you liked it. Didn't they have the Atlantean Sprints? Those East Lancs single decker rebodies.
@jakeyb2003 just looked at a pictue and yes I do remember several of them knocking about, Pretty sure Pilkingtons (Pilky Bus) had them too.
I seem to remember Edinburgh Corporation / Lothian having a single extra-long Atlantean, but maybe my mind is playing tricks as I can't find it online!
Could you be thinking of the 1966 prototype?
Atlantean no.900 JSC900E, the 1967 prototype long wheelbase Atlantean, was the only lwb one for Edinburgh.
It is a common myth that Glasgow had the largest Leyland Atlantean fleet Not quite so they ran neck and neck with Merseyside PTE, and come the AN68 version Ribble had a further 100 or so based in the Merseyside area, where 1000 of the type ran until early Atlanteans started to be withdrawn. However by the end of production Greater Manchester PTE had over a thousand In service after the Fleetline ceased production in 1981. Deregulation saw huge culls in the PTE fleets and Merseybus was to own the largest Atlantean fleet, mostly the AN68 type along with North Western (ex Ribble). Some were to see over 20 years service due to the cost of replacing an ageing but large fleet. 42 years of Leyland Atlantean operation in Merseyside ended in 2001 when Arriva ran the last of the type on routes serving Wallasey where the first Atlanteans ran .
Good article but it's a pity that Liverpool L501 doesn't figure nor Manchester's 1001 Thanks anyway!
.
Remember them well in Australia 👍
I liked the D and E reg BOAC vehicles, many found a new life with Movie mobile canteen facilities companies
Very classy looking vehicles.
The first Portsmouth Corporation Transport (CPPTD to be exact) Atlanteans which debuted in 1962, the body was made by Weymann and looked just like that Wallasey bus you featured. I am of the opinion, that the drop ventilator windows in the front upper deck were installed after the bus took a clout- some had them others did not but that may be me having a flight of fancy. I seem to remember they bounced around quite a bit.
I think one of the open top early Atlanteans is preserved?
@@JakeSCOC I don't know- but I was at Epsom Downs for The Oaks about 1999 and there was one there- not an open topper- it may have been 236 from memory of the reg number. I saw one of those Leyland Titan TD5 open toppers there as well. It was fun walking around and looking at the buses. We came in an open top RM that was hired from a company called Obsolete Fleet- we went for about three years until we got a new boss who wanted to do something "different" which I seem to recall, was in fact "nothing".
Loved the noise and thrash of CPPTD's as a teenager. Looks like 262 in Winchester? Shame on the losing of 305 and 306.
Yes I've always liked the Pompey ones too. We had one at New Cross back in the late 90's as a canteen bus. Such a shame more didn't survive. Yes this is certainly 262 but at Ryde on the Isle of Wight.
I unedstood that wallasey no1,was first into service.? 6:12
The best looking ones were the LCT Jumbo's aka Tommy Lord Box.
It’s a shame you didn’t mention the Devon General version open topper which had a removable roof. Many a journey I had in Torquay on these and a superb example which as MC of the atrentham gardens show I rode in on the top dec with microphones in hand introducing and welcoming everyone to the show. Lord Howe is a beautifully restored bus
They're certainly beautiful buses. The livery enhanced their appearance.
How was the Atlantean in the UK. In South Africa, Cape Town Tramways, Johannesburg Transport and Pretoria had fleets. Not but trouble. Mainly transmission. Retired early.
Majority of ours were ok but then fleets that had Atlanteans for many years learned their weaknesses and learned how to deal with them - also I guess having the manufacturer in this country meant parts and support was better
Great video Jake, despite the dissenters.👍
Thanks Michael. Can't please everyone I guess. Someone always knows better...
As a school kid I rode Ribble Atlanteans a lot but preferred the single deck Fishwick buses because the drivers drove them faster!
National next I reckon and about 4 times a long if possible
Definitely going to do the National in this series.
Ironic that the "Atlantean" was never used in Atlanta - I'm not sure if they were buying GMC New Looks or the Flxible equivalent but I'm fairly certain there were no foreign buses.
I’m absolutely shocked that you can do a video on the Leyland Atlantean and not mention the Liverpool Corporation or the Merseyside PTE who placed huge orders for them… The only time Merseyside was mentioned was very briefly at the very end!!😮😮
There's so many worthy operators of the Atlantean it is genuinely hard to fit them all in. I could have spent more time mentioning Edinburgh/Lothian, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle too. It's the only trouble with such a successful bus.
@@JakeSCOC yeah, you have a good point and one of the reasons I was highlighting it is because I’m from Liverpool and remember our Walter Alexander-bodied Atlanteans very well… We were the 3rd largest Atlantean operator after Glasgow and Manchester and we have some very historic Atlanteans for Liverpool preserved too, including E2, L501 and 1236🙂
I remember the estlanks atlanteans in warrngton cam out in late 70s thay lasted till july 2001 when the last few waire reired and replaced by mashal capital dennis darts thay started to get retired in 1998
Leyland atlanten
WHY...Did you use TVS ident?
Part of my childhood. I grew up in TVS land.
My childhood memories growing up in Leeds I had my own description of the Atlanteans and Fleetlines. But I was only a child. I called Atlanteans Ooorrrring busses and fleetlines humming busses. Obviously these were the PDR variety and Gardner GX engined fleetlines. But I disagree on one point. West Midlands went all in for Fleetlines and after the Halifax Trials so did Halifax and Calderdale. The routemaster came first but the Fleetlines climbed better than the Atlanteans at the time so better for the hillier pennine regions. This was repeated on the other side of the pennies too. Halifax, Huddersfield, Rochdale and Oldham took mostly fleetlines, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Salford etc took mostly Atlanteans.
Both the Fleetline and Atlantean are cracking buses. Yes the Midlands, Birmingham and Coventry especially were Daimler territory although I believe Coventry took a small batch of Atlanteans which caused political uproar with them being the manufacturering home of Daimler.
Sorry but Oldham took Atlanteans. They didn't have many fleetlines if not any at all.
Preston corporation had plenty of an68s
What was the exact date for fys 998 entering service?
Not sure of the exact date but both entered service in December 1958
The Atlantean caused strikes and many breakdowns in N.S.W.
How come?
00:25 that’s Woodnesborough Church
Well spotted!
Not enough info regarding engines
I'm hoping to do a separate video at some point all about older bus engines.
P is for post war I believe
I’m looking for a Tyne and Wear late 70s Atlantean if anyone had one
Unfortunately it seems like a lot of Tyne and Wear/Northern General stuff doesn't seem to have survived.
Do the owners of LA1 have any documents to show to prove when it actually entered public service? The discussion between LA1 or Wallasey No1 being the first would be settled if they do. I know the owners of Wallasey No1 have documented proof as they showed it in a recent Video.th-cam.com/video/K_1kYoA2Cv8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=wvxW9BUYugFikL40
This would be interesting.
@@JakeSCOC I've tried both searching online & in books about the Atlantean. In regards to LA1 they all just say it entered service in December 1958, but don't give a precise date. It would be helpful if someone could show documented proof of the exact day it went into service. The Wallasey No1 owners can show proof when it entered service.
Fuckin borin
Miss those days , nice video 👍
Thanks Ron