The Leyland Cub CU series was a

midibus A midibus is a classification of single-decker minibuses which are generally larger than a traditional minibus but smaller than a full-size single decker and can be anywhere between and long. While used in many parts of the world, the mi ...

manufactured by Leyland between 1979 and 1987. There was a previous Leyland Cub, the K series built at Leyland's

Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut of pork, cut that has been food preservation, preserved by wet or dry Curing (food preservation), curing, with or without smoking (cooking), smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. Lo ...

factory between 1931 and 1939. The Cub was derived from the Terrier truck chassis, and was originally built at Leyland's Scottish plant in

Bathgate Bathgate ( sco, Bathket or , gd, Both Chèit) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Armadale, Blackburn, Linlithgow, Livingston, West Calder and Whitburn. Situated sout ...

.''Buses Yearbook 2009'' (Ian Allan Publishing, 2008). It was available in three variants - CU335, CU385 and CU435, the number in each indicating the

wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...

length in

centimetre 330px, Different lengths as in respect to the Electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the Metre and its deriveds scales. The Microwave are in-between 1 meter to 1 millimeter. A centimetre (international spelling) or centimeter (American spellin ...

s. It was usually fitted with Leyland's 5.7-litre 6.98NV engine, though the derated 6.98DV was also an option. Most Cubs were built for local authorities and the welfare sector, and thus carried bodywork by

Wadham Stringer Wadham Stringer was an English ambulance and bus manufacturer. History Wadham Stringer was formed when Wadham merged with Stringer Motors in 1968. It was a distributor for Morris cars and British Leyland commercial vehicles. It also was an Aus ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

Reeve Burgess Reeve Burgess was a bus body manufacturer based in Pilsley, North East Derbyshire in the United Kingdom. It was a subsidiary of Plaxton from 1980 until its closure in 1991. History The original company known as Harry Reeve was founded in Bridg ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. However, Lothian Region Transport took 18 CU435s with

Duple Dominant The Duple Dominant was a design of a coach (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 ...

bodies in 1981, while the

West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE) at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yor ...

bought 15 with

Optare Switch Mobility (originally called Optare) is an English bus manufacturer based in Sherburn-in-Elmet, North Yorkshire. It is a subsidiary of Indian company Ashok Leyland. The company would be responsible for the EV operations of the group with ...

bodies in 1986. There were also four Reeve Burgess-bodied Cubs for

Southdown Motor Services Southdown Motors Services Ltd (although this was the legal name of the company (until 1992) it was normally referred to as Southdown Motor Services) was a bus and coach operator in East and West Sussex and parts of Hampshire, in southern Engl ...

in 1983/84, and two for the

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive was the public body responsible for public transport in Greater Manchester between 1974 and 2011, when it became part of Transport for Greater Manchester. SELNEC PTE Until 1969, the conurbati ...

in 1985, originally used for services in

Wythenshawe Wythenshawe () is a district of the city of Manchester, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Cheshire, Wythenshawe was transferred in 1931 to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and were first based in

Northenden Northenden is a suburb of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 14,771 at the 2011 census. It lies on the south side of the River Mersey, west of Stockport and south of Manchester city centre, bounded by Didsbury t ...

(NN). The Cub was superseded in 1987 by another truck-derived

, the

Leyland Swift The Leyland Swift was a midibus chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1987 and 1990 as a successor to the Leyland Cub. It shared many components with the Roadrunner light truck but with the engine relocated to behind the front axle which was ...

.Leyland's Swift bus debut
''

Commercial Motor ''Commercial Motor'' is a weekly magazine serving the road transport industry in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1905 by Edmund Dangerfield, it is notable for having been "the first journal to be devoted exclusively to the commercial vehicle eng ...

'' 25 April 1987 Surviving vehicles include one WYPTE example and one GMPTE example, as well as a number of non-PSV examples which are mostly used as campers. The preserved WYPTE vehicle appeared in an episode of '' Vera'' taking miners to a colliery in a 1980s flashback scene.

References

External links

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Flickr gallery
{{Leyland buses, state=collapsed Cub Midibuses Vehicles introduced in 1979