| Leyland Olympian | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | Leyland |
| Production | 1980–1993 |
| Assembly | |
| Body and chassis | |
| Doors | 1, 2 or 3 |
| Floor type | Step entrance |
| Powertrain | |
| Engine | |
| Transmission |
|
| Dimensions | |
| Length |
|
| Width | 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) |
| Height | 4.2 m (13 ft 9 in) 4.4 m (14 ft 5 in) |
| Chronology | |
| Predecessor | |
| Successor | Volvo Olympian |
TheLeyland Olympian is a 2-axle and 3-axledouble-decker bus chassis that was manufactured byLeyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the lastLeyland bus model in production.
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The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear as theLeyland Titan integral double deck bus which was ordered in large numbers byLondon Transport. At the time there was a demand for non-integral vehicles, because operators wished to have the chassis bodied by other manufacturers. Thus Leyland created theB45 project, which was named Olympian, in 1979. This was in many ways an update of the popularBristol VRT (Bristol Commercial Vehicles merged with Leyland in 1965), with many VR customers choosing Olympians. Later the Olympian also replaced theLeyland Atlantean.
The Olympian was unveiled at the 1980 Commercial Motor Show.[1] It was available in two lengths, 9.56m and 10.25m. The engine was either the Leyland TL11 unit (a development of the Leyland O.680: both were of 11.1 litre capacity) or theGardner 6LXB or 6LXCT. Some later Olympians hadCumminsL10 engines. One Olympian had a 5LXCT.
For the export market a three-axle version was built with lengths of 10.4m, 11.32m and 11.95m. This was very popular with operators such asKowloon Motor Bus. In 1988, Leyland developed anair-conditioned version of the Olympian, with the refrigerant compressor driven by the main engine instead of a separate engine.
Between 1979 and 1981, nine demonstrators were built, before the first production Olympian entered service withRibble Motor Services in August 1981.[2]
The Olympian was initially manufactured at the formerBristol factory inBrislington with the first thousand completed here. In 1983, production transferred to Leyland'sFarington andWorkington plants. The last was completed forSingapore Bus Service in March 1994.
The Leyland Olympian was built with a wide variety of body types:
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The Leyland Olympian was highly popular in theUnited Kingdom, with orders from operators both before and afterprivatisation. It was purchased by manyNational Bus Company subsidiaries.
AlthoughLondon Buses primarily purchased theLeyland Titan, in 1984 it took delivery of three Olympians.[3] Between 1987 and 1992, a further 350 Olympians were purchased. The last were withdrawn in 2005, although some were converted toopen top buses and remained in use withThe Original Tour.[4]London Country purchased 102.[5]
Lothian Buses purchased over 200, but all were withdrawn by 2009.[6]
South Wales Transport ordered 7 of these in 1985 registered C901-C907 FCY.[clarification needed] These remained in service with First Cymru until 2005.
The last remaining Leyland Olympians in regular revenue-earning service were withdrawn byRotala-ownedPreston Bus in December 2016.[7] Both the Leyland Olympian and itsVolvo successor were withdrawn by public service operators ahead of a 1 January 2017 deadline set by the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000 (PSVAR), which mandated that all public double-decker buses in the United Kingdom had a step-free entrance and at least one wheelchair space available.[8]
The state-owned Urban Transport Company (Greek:Επιχείρηση Αστικών Συγκοινωνιών [el], ΕΑΣ) ofAthens received 20 Leyland Olympians in 1983, with one being a demonstrator model delivered to the operator for trials in 1982.[9] These were all withdrawn by 1 October 1994; one of them is preserved.
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Between 1981 and 1993,Kowloon Motor Bus purchased 906 Olympians, with all but four havingAlexander bodywork.[10][11] Some were later repatriated to theUnited Kingdom, including 22 converted toopen top configuration byThe Big Bus Company.
China Motor Bus purchased 37 Olympians between 1981 and 1993.[12][13] All 35 three-axle Olympians passed toNew World First Bus, with the entire batch of ten non-air-conditioned buses being sold toFirstGroup who repatriated them to the United Kingdom for use at theirEast Counties,Glasgow,Manchester andPMT subsidiaries.
Citybus purchased 294 new Leyland Olympians including 2-axle Olympians (#7, #12, #14, #15, #17, #18).[14] In 1990, the Citybus fleet numbering system was changed to remove the prefixes. In the early to mid 1990s, selected 2-axle Leyland Olympians were converted to open-top for use on private hire services, complementing the operator'sAEC Routemasters, however these were withdrawn gradually after 2001. #7 was the last 2-axle Leyland Olympian in Hong Kong, where it was retired in 2009 and eventually scrapped. In 2003, 54 were repatriated to the United Kingdom to operate express services forMegabus.
All Hong Kong franchised Olympians had been withdrawn by October 2011. The non-franchised, open-topped, air-conditioned double deckers and private hire buses were withdrawn by 2015 due to their non-compliance with Hong Kong's emission regulations. Citybus #391 was the last Leyland Olympian to ever run in Hong Kong.[citation needed]
Dublin Bus purchased a total of 175 Alexander-bodied Leyland Olympians from 1990 until the end of Leyland production in 1993, these being the first double-deckers to be built at Alexander'sBelfast plant since 1975.[15] The Leyland Olympians were classed as the 'RH' type in Dublin Bus fleet. Dublin Bus started to phase out Leyland Olympians beginning in December 2003 and completed in December 2006, they were not repainted into yellow/blue livery.[16][17]
In 1984, anEastern Coach Works bodied left hand drive Olympian was sent to the United States as a demonstrator. It was used as a shuttle bus atExpo 86 inVancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It then entered service onGray Line tours inVictoria. It was later sold toBrampton Transit.
Grosvenor Coach Lines (Gray Line) ofSan Francisco received 10 Eastern Coach Works bodied three-axle Leyland Olympians in 1986 for sightseeing purposes.[18][19] Seven were later transferred toNew York City and the other three toSeattle. After a period in store, the three Seattle units were repowered withDetroit Diesel engines inLos Angeles and returned to Gray Line duties in San Francisco in 2015.[20]
Singapore Bus Services (SBS) received a single Leyland Olympian B45 for evaluation in 1981. It was exhibited at the 1980 Commercial Motor Show in the UK and was described as a "Far Eastern" prototype. It had a 3+2 transverse seating arrangement unseen in Singapore but common in Hong Kong then with a seating capacity of 97, but was eventually refitted to the standard 2+2 transverse seating arrangement before export. When registered, it bore a unique demonstration livery with the company's 1978 corporate logo not unlike aLeyland Leopard demonstrator also with SBS then. It was deployed on route 162 until its withdrawal in late 1982. It was subsequently repatriated to the UK where it worked withCity of Oxford Motor Services afterwards.[21]
Satisfied with the trial, SBS ordered 200 Leyland Olympian 2-Axles fitted with Alexander R type bodywork of which they were SBS's last Leyland engine buses. Registered between 1986 and 1988, these Olympians were deployed toToa Payoh,Ang Mo Kio andJurong bus depots. In the late 1990s, they were massively redeployed to serve routes mainly in the industrial and suburban regions as most routes plying downtown were transitioning to a fully air-conditioned fleet. At the same time, some of these buses had 3 pairs of seats removed on the offside to create a standee area, while others were refitted with Allison transmission and new seat upholsterers. When SBS was renamed as SBS Transit in late 2001, none of these units received the SBS Transit livery as they were nearing the end of their statutory lifespan. All Olympians were withdrawn between 2001 and 2003.
In 1992, SBS ordered another 200 Leyland Olympians, all of which were fitted with the then all new Walter Alexander Royale bodywork. Registered between 1993 and 1994, they were Singapore's first air-conditioned and tri-axle double deck buses and hence dubbed the "Superbus" owing to their length at the time. They were also the last Leylands to be built globally. Originally deployed to all SBS depots islandwide, they were consolidated into Ang Mo Kio, Braddell Bus Park, and Soon Lee bus depots in the mid 2000s. Unlike their 2-axle body counterparts and Volvo Olympians, none of these Olympians received a standee area on the off-side as the air-conditioning filter was right above the seats. Withdrawal of these buses began in 2010, and the last Olympians were retired in April 2013.
SBS9168S, the last Leyland Olympian built, was repatriated to England in 2013 and is currently preserved by Dave Rogers and re-registered as L888 SBS.[22]
In 1988, Leyland was purchased byVolvo, who only continued with the Olympian andLynx due to the vast number of outstanding orders. More buses also went toDublin Bus,London Transport,China Motor Bus andHong Kong Citybus.
The completion of the final orders from a fire-strickenStrathclyde Buses,[23][24]Dublin Bus,China Motor Bus,Citybus andSingapore Bus Services saw the discontinuation of the Leyland Olympian, with the last delivered toSingapore Bus Services and the plant inWorkington closed in 1993.[25]
The Leyland Olympian was superseded by theVolvo Olympian, with the existing chassis retained and a Volvo TD102KF engine replacing the Gardner engine option.[26][27] The Volvo Olympian remained in production until 2000.
Media related toLeyland Olympian at Wikimedia Commons Media related toLeyland Olympian (3-axle) at Wikimedia Commons