The Duple Dominant was a design of a
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
(and less commonly bus)
bodywork built by
Duple between 1972 and 1987. It introduced an all-steel structure and replaced the wooden-framed Duple Vega, Viceroy and Vista models.
Chassis
Duple Dominant bodywork was built on different chassis types including:
front engined
*
Albion Viking EVK55CL (export only)
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Bedford SB
The Bedford SB was a front-engined bus chassis manufactured by Bedford in England. It was launched at the 1950 Commercial Motor Show as the replacement for the Bedford OB.
It was the first Bedford vehicle to have a "forward control" design, wit ...
*Bedford VAS
*
Ford R192, R226, R1014, R1114
*
Leyland Cub
The Leyland Cub CU series was a midibus manufactured by Leyland between 1979 and 1987. There was a previous Leyland Cub, the K series built at Leyland's Ham factory between 1931 and 1939.
The Cub was derived from the Terrier truck chassis, an ...
(Dominant Bus only)
*
Mercedes-Benz LPO608
*
Seddon Pennine 6
mid engined
*
AEC Reliance
The AEC Reliance was a mid-underfloor mounted engined single-decker bus and coach chassis manufactured by AEC between 1953 and 1979. The name had previously been used between 1928 and 1931 for another single-decker bus chassis.
History
Two p ...
*
Bedford YMQ, YRQ, YRT, YMT, YNT
*
Bristol LH
The Bristol LH was a single-decker bus chassis built by Bristol Commercial Vehicles (BCV) in Bristol, England. Nearly 2,000 were built between 1967 and 1982 in a variety of sizes and body types, including some as goods vehicles.
Models
The LH de ...
*
DAF MB200
*
Dennis Lancet
The Dennis Lancet was a lightweight underfloor-engined chassis manufactured by Dennis during the 1980s.
The Lancet nameplate was previously carried by a front-engined chassis, and later, in the 1950s and early 1960s, to the underfloor-engined ...
(Dominant Bus only)
*
Leyland Leopard
The Leyland Leopard was a mid-engined single-decker bus and single-decker coach chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1959 and 1982.
History
The Leyland Leopard was introduced in 1959. It was developed from the Leyland Tiger Cub, one of ...
*
Leyland Tiger
The Leyland Tiger, also known as the B43, was a mid-engine design, mid-engined bus and coach (bus), coach chassis manufactured by Leyland Bus, Leyland between 1981 and 1992. This name had previously been used for a front-engined bus built betwe ...
*
Volvo B58
The Volvo B58 was a mid-engined bus chassis manufactured by Volvo in Sweden from 1966 until early 1982. It was succeeded by the B10M.
Operators
In the United Kingdom, it was sold to many major operators including Wallace Arnold and Park's of H ...
*
Volvo B10M
The Volvo B10M was a mid-engined city bus and coach chassis manufactured by Volvo between 1978 and 2003. It succeeded the B58 and was equipped with the same 9.6-litre horizontally mounted Volvo diesel engine mounted under the floor behind the ...
rear engined
*
Dennis Falcon H (Dominant Bus only)
*
Dennis Falcon V (Goldliner only)
Variants
The original Dominant had a
windscreen
The windshield (North American English) or windscreen (Commonwealth English) of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from the elements. Mo ...
(and matching rear windows) of the same height as the side windows. After 1976 it received a new design of grille and was known as the Dominant I. It remained in production throughout the Dominant's production life as a cheaper alternative to the Dominant II and because the deeper windscreens of the later Dominant marks were incompatible with some front-engined chassis. Some Dominant I bodies had Dominant II style rear windows, and/or headlights and front grilles. Special narrow bodies built for use on the Channel Islands retained the pre-1976 style grille until the end of production.
The Dominant II (introduced in 1976) had a deeper windscreen, rectangular headlights, a different grille and a smaller, flat, single piece rear window.
The Dominant III was designed to satisfy a
Scottish Bus Group
The Scottish Bus Group (SBG) was a state-owned group of bus operators covering the whole of mainland Scotland.
The origin of the grouping was the operators owned by and including the Scottish Motor Traction company, which were transferred to ...
requirement for express coaches, and featured shallow,
parallelogram
In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a simple (non- self-intersecting) quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of equa ...
-shaped flat double-glazed side windows similar to those on SBG's previous
Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
M-type coaches. Most Dominant IIIs featured a small Dominant I style windscreen mounted in the lower Dominant II position so as to allow a destination display to be included without breaking the roof line, but others had full-height Dominant II type windscreens. The small high-level windows were designed for SBG's overnight Scotland to London services where quietness was more important than passenger views, but nevertheless some other operators did buy the Dominant III as a touring coach. After being retired from long-distance services many SBG Dominant IIIs were rebuilt with larger Dominant I/II or Dominant IV windows to make them more suitable for general coaching work, and many were given replacement bodies later in life.
The Dominant IV had slightly shallower side windows than those on the Dominant I and II, and these were available with flat glass as an option. Examples were built with all three varieties of windscreen size/position (Dominant I, Dominant II or hybrid Dominant III style). A few Dominant II/IV hybrids were built with stepped window lines, with larger Dominant I/II windows towards the front and shallower Dominant IV windows towards the rear.
Introduction of the Dominant III/IV also heralded the introduction of a new bespoke rear light cluster fitted at a lower level and integrated into the body shape. This was also used on many Goldliners. A lot of these were replaced with other units in later life, probably because they were prone to damage or because spares became difficult to obtain.
Many Dominant bodies were built to a dual-purpose specification featuring bus-type doors and other modifications to make them suitable for
OMO (one-man operation) stage carriage services, and thus eligible for the British Government's "Bus Grant" which
subsidised the cost of new service buses. These were known as the Dominant Express with the appropriate mark number where applicable (e.g. ''Dominant II Express''). Some such bodies were actually furnished as service buses with low-backed bus seats, in which form the model was known as the Dominant E (again with mark number where applicable).
The Dominant E was therefore a coach body fitted out as a bus and is not to be confused with the visually dissimilar Dominant Bus which was a purpose-designed bus body built in relatively small numbers from 1974 to 1987. This employed a similar structure to the coach bodies but with flat sides and small windows positioned lower on the body, amongst other differences.
The Goldliner name was first used in 1975/76 for two non-standard one-off bodies based on the Dominant. The first was a high floor body on an early Bedford YMT built as a demonstrator, while the second was an export body with flat, double-glazed windows on a Volvo B58 chassis for Sweden. The name appeared again in 1982 for the Goldliner II, III and IV, which were
high-floor
High-floor describes the interior flooring of commuter vehicles primarily used in public transport such as trains, light rail cars and other rail vehicles, along with buses and trolleybuses. Interior floor height is generally measured above the ...
versions of the Dominant II, III or IV. All had Dominant II style windscreens, and some coaches not fitted with destination or operator name displays above the windscreen had a stepped roofline behind the cab. As with the Dominant III, many Goldliner IIIs were subsequently rebuilt with larger single-glazed windows or rebodied.
Replacement
In 1983 the new
Duple Laser
The Duple Laser was a design of a coach bodywork built by Duple between 1983 and 1986. It replaced the long-running Duple Dominant body as Duple's standard medium-height coach of the mid 1980s.
Variants
The original Laser was introduced in 198 ...
and high-floor
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
were launched as replacements for the full-sized Dominant coach variants and the Goldliner respectively. The last handful of full-sized Dominant coaches were built for the 1984 season. Due to the small volume of sales it was not worth engineering the Laser for the smaller front-engined Bedford SB and VAS chassis, so Dominant coaches on these chassis continued to be built until 1985. The Dominant Bus remained in production until 1987 when it was replaced by the
Duple 300
The Duple 300 Series were a range of bus and coach bodywork built by Duple between 1985 and 1989. The range comprised the high Duple 300 service bus, the high Duple 320 coach, and the taller high Duple 340 coach. The 320 and 340 coaches we ...
.
Gallery
Image:ALFORD OF COLEFORD, SOMERSET - Flickr - secret coach park.jpg, Duple Dominant bodied Ford R1114
Image:PULHAMS COACHES - Flickr - secret coach park (4).jpg, Duple Dominant I bodied Leyland Leopard. The Dominant I was a facelifted version of the original Dominant with revised front lights and front grille.
Image:G ^ S TRAVEL - Flickr - secret coach park.jpg, Duple Dominant I bodied Bedford VAS.
Image:Tantivy Blue Coach Tours coach 1984 Bedford SB Duple A747 DWP.jpg, Duple Dominant I bodied Bedford SB. This is a narrow (7' 6" rather than the standard 8") body, which retained the original style of front panel.
Image:Lodges Coaches coach 1978 Bedford YMT Duple Dominant YMJ 555S.jpg, Duple Dominant II bodied Bedford YMT. This coach has the early style of Dominant II grille and a raised "Bristol dome" destination/operator name display above the windscreen.
Image:BALDRYS - Flickr - secret coach park.jpg, Duple Dominant II Express on AEC Reliance chassis, showing the wider doorway and bus style two-piece door fitted to Express versions.
Image:CLYDESIDE SCOTTISH - Flickr - secret coach park.jpg, Duple Dominant III bodied Volvo B10M. This vehicle has a smaller Dominant I windscreen mounted at Dominant II level to allow a destination display to be fitted without breaking the roofline, and also has optional individually mounted headlights.
Image:DupleDominant.jpg, Duple Dominant IV bodied Leyland Tiger
The Leyland Tiger, also known as the B43, was a mid-engine design, mid-engined bus and coach (bus), coach chassis manufactured by Leyland Bus, Leyland between 1981 and 1992. This name had previously been used for a front-engined bus built betwe ...
, showing the slightly revised style of grille used from 1981 onwards.
Image:BOSTOCKS Congleton - Flickr - secret coach park.jpg, Duple Dominant II/IV hybrid on Leyland Tiger chassis. This vehicle has optional flat-glass passenger windows.
Image:Delaine_Tiger_1.jpg, Duple Dominant Bus bodied Leyland Tiger
Image:HAPPY DAYS Stafford - Flickr - secret coach park (1).jpg, Duple Goldliner II on Volvo B10M chassis. This is a stepped-roofline version.
Image:MERCERS OF PRESTON - Flickr - secret coach park.jpg, Duple Goldliner IV on Leyland Tiger chassis, with the alternative roof profile incorporating a destination/name display over the windscreen and optional flat glazing.
See also
{{Portal, Buses
*
Plaxton Panorama Elite
The Plaxton Panorama Elite was a successful design of coach bodywork built between 1968 and 1975 by Plaxton of Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. A wide-doorway variant called the Plaxton Elite Express was also built. Collectively, they are common ...
*
Plaxton Supreme
The Plaxton Supreme was a design of coach bodywork built by Plaxton. It was first built, on small chassis only, in 1974, replacing the Plaxton Panorama. On full-sized chassis, it replaced the Panorama Elite in 1975, and was superseded by the ...
*
Caetano Alpha
*
List of buses
Year refers to the first year introduced. A range of years is the period the bus was manufactured.
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Buses of the United Kingdom
Intercity buses
Single-deck buses
Vehicles introduced in 1972