Leyland-MCW Olympic
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The Leyland-MCW Olympic was an underfloor-engined single-deck bus manufactured for at least eighteen countries from 1949 to 1971. 3,564 Olympics were built at four factories (three in the UK, one in South Africa) from 1949 to 1971, with 1,299 Olympics (36%) built as right hand drive and 2,265 (64%) as left hand drive. It was a very durable heavy-duty bus which ran in arduous conditions for longer periods than ever envisaged by its designers.


History

In 1948, the first post-war
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
were held in
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. At the same time,
Leyland Motors Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1 ...
were working on a horizontally orientated version of their recently announced O.600 9.8-litre diesel engine. Leyland were not new to this design concept, the pre-war 8.6-litre engine was used in horizontal orientation for the London Transport TF-class Tiger FEC single-deckers and the sole Leyland Panda but, like the contemporary work of
Tilling-Stevens Tilling-Stevens was a British manufacturer of buses and other commercial vehicles, based in Maidstone, Kent. Originally established in 1897, it became a specialist in petrol-electric vehicles. It continued as an independent manufacturer until ...
and a slightly later prototype from AEC, such designs were put into abeyance to further the war effort. Initially, the O.600H engine was sold to Scandanvian bus makers,
Scania-Vabis Scania AB is a major Swedish manufacturer headquartered in Södertälje, focusing on commercial vehicles—specifically heavy lorries, trucks and buses. It also manufactures diesel engines for heavy vehicles as well as marine and general indus ...
of Sweden and
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of Norway but, in exhibiting it at the 1948 Commercial Motor show at the
Earls Court Exhibition Centre Earls Court Exhibition Centre was a major international exhibition and events venue just west of central London. At its peak it is said to have generated a £2 billion turnover for the economy. It replaced exhibition and entertainment grounds, ...
, Leyland made clear it would soon be available on the home market. In 1948, Leyland and the MCW sales organisation concluded a twenty-year agreement that they would exclusively collaborate on integral designs and favour one another with body-on-chassis business. Their idea was that an under-frame comprising durable Leyland engines and other mechanical units would be permanently attached to a similarly heavy-duty body structure. This idea became the Leyland-MCW Olympic and was built over three series from 1949.


Description

A body frame comprising welded steel tube longitudinals, uprights and diagonals to the waistrail: with heavy duty stress-panels and aluminium upper frame sections riveted thereupon was constructed to a joint design by either Weymann or Metro-Cammell in England or by the MCW group's South African subsidiary Bus Bodies (South Africa) in
Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...
; this was permanently attached to a Leyland under-frame, not drivable unless bodied. To this under-frame, Leyland attached all running units comprising radiator, engine, axles, suspension, steering, gearbox, brakes, controls etc. Once under-frame and body were permanently married up, the frame would be clad in aircraft-grade aluminium and finished. The original idea was to offer a bus to one of three specifications: home market, right-hand drive export or left-hand drive export. It would be a stronger bus than any built before. It would be a standard bus for all world markets.Jack p.208


Series One

The components in the Olympic under-frame, to be built at Leyland Motors'
Farington Farington is a village and civil parish in the South Ribble local government district of Lancashire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 6,674. History The parish was part of Preston Rural District throughout ...
works, were mainly as in the
Tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus '' Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on u ...
PS2 and
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PD2, except that the radiator was a fabricated unit designed to fit behind the front axle and below the passenger floor, the rear axle was a new spiral-bevel unit. The variants of the Olympic were as follows: Factories producing the superstructure were planned as follows: *W = Weymanns *M = Metropolitan-Cammell **All Metro-Cammell bus production was at Elmdon until 1969, when market contraction both for buses and railway carriages led the board of then parent Laird Group to sell the factory and relocate bus building back at the
Washwood Heath Washwood Heath is a ward in Birmingham, within the formal district of Hodge Hill, roughly two miles north-east of Birmingham city centre, England. Washwood Heath covers the areas of Birmingham that lie between Nechells, Bordesley Green, Stechf ...
'A shop' where the Midland Carriage Works had built its first bus body in 1924. Among the last vehicles built at Elmdon were the two prototype Metro Scania single deckers. The final 115 Olympic EL3A/41 coaches for Cuba were built at Washwood Heath. *B = Bus Builders (South Africa) Options for the HR, following a relaxation of UK dimensional rules in 1950 included greater, nominal 30 ft (9.2m), length, with the same wheelbase, with which models were coded HR44 (for 44 seats) and optional widths, the new UK maximum being 8 ft thus later HR series Olympics had designations such as HR44/90/S if to the previous width or EL44/96/S if 8 ft wide. The HR44 can be distinguished from the HR40 by a slightly longer rear overhang and a flatter panel above the side windows allowing for sign-painted advertisements. Although in the published production records the width suffixes are not used and the relationship between the type number and seats fitted soon becomes very tenuous indeed.


Series Two

Leyland announced the Royal Tiger Worldmaster (RT series) in 1954 as the replacement for the Royal Tiger and from about 18 months later the units from it became standard in EL and ER Olympics, around 1956 the series 2 Olympic was announced, this used Worldmaster units, in particular the O.680H diesel engine and the Pneumocylic gearbox and the body styling was revised. Designations were now EL2 or ER2 (home market sales were dropped in 1953). Lengths and wheelbases were quoted as follows: *Ex2/40 (18 ft wheelbase, 33 ft overall length) *Ex2/44 (20 ft wheelbase, 35 ft overall length)


Production and sales


Home market

A radio celebrity at the time of the Olympic's launch was Professor CEM Joad, whose catchphrase on the BBC programme The Brains Trust was: "It all depends what you mean by…" In the case of the HR series Olympic it really did all depend what you meant by home as of the 92 'home' models built in the British Isles 2 were exported (one each to Trinidad and New Zealand) and a further 31 'home' models were built by the South African subsidiary and they exported 11 of them to Rhodesia. The use of British Isles here is deliberate as 8 'home' Olympics were purchased by the
Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...
Road Services, and like the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man is not part of the UK. Four Leyland-owned prototypes/demonstrators were constructed at Metro-Cammell's
Elmdon :''See also, Elmdon, West Midlands.'' Elmdon is a village in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, near the boundary with Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. The hilly topography of the area differentiates it from countryside to the north, w ...
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
works in 1948-9 and registered in 1950-1 with Birmingham Marks KOC233-4, 241-2, these formed 4% of the total production for use in the British Isles. The other 96% were built by Weymann who was meant to supply all of the home market vehicles and none for export but nevertheless exported the two mentioned earlier and provided a fifth Leyland Demonstrator in RPA771. The four KOC registered buses all eventually ended up in service with the Welsh independent Llynfi Motor Services of
Maesteg Maesteg is a town and community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2011, Maesteg had a population of 20,612. The English translation of Mae ...
who furnished most of their fleet requirement by buying demonstrators cheaply from major bus manufacturers. RPA771 was purchased by Sheffield Transport for the wholly council-owned A fleet. The lion's share of 'home' Olympic sales (58%) were to BET group companies. Including the New Zealand and Trinidad buses and the demonstrators the percentage shares were as follows (of 92 buses so rounding errors have occurred): *
Ribble Motor Services Ribble Motor Services was a large regional bus operator in the North West England based in Preston. History Ribble Motor Services commenced operating in 1919, and grew to be the largest operator in the region, with a territory stretching f ...
30 (33%) *
Western Welsh Western Welsh was a Welsh bus operating company, based in Cardiff covering South Wales and the northern parts of the West Country. Formed in 1920, it was nationalised when the BET Group sold their bus interests to the Transport Holding Company i ...
10 (11%) *Yorkshire Woollen 10 (11%) * North Western 2(2%) *James 1 (1%)
Red & White Services Red & White Services was a bus company operating in south east Wales and Gloucestershire, England between 1929 and 1978. Red & White evolved into Red & White United Transport Ltd, formed in 1937, which owned bus and road freight companies in ...
had 2 and its subsidiary United Welsh Services had one, these were ordered before the Red & White Group sold its bus interests to the
British Transport Commission The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the se ...
but delivered afterwards so that the state-sector bought 3% of 'home' Olympics. The eight sold to the Isle of Man account for 8%. Municipal buyers were: *Birmingham 5 (5%) *Sheffield 4 (4%) *
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
1 (1%) *Stockton 1 (1%) - This was the last 'home market' Olympic registered and the only one registered in 1952 although the model was offered on home markets for a further year. The remaining ten buses went to independents: *
John Fishwick & Sons John Fishwick & Sons was a bus company based in Leyland, Lancashire. History The company was formed in 1907 when John Fishwick moved from Wales to Leyland looking for business. He started with a steam propelled wagon from the local Leyland Mo ...
, Leyland, 8 (8%) *Jennings, Ashen, 1 (1%) *King Alfred,
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1 (1%) Already the Leyland-MCW idea of a totally standard bus had been stymied by the width and length changes, and the corporation fleets (whose General Managers and Transport Committee Chairmen were always trying to establish individuality for the sake of civic pride) further muddied the waters, Birmingham's five HR40s sat 36, Edinburgh's sole HR44 had only thirty two seats and an open rear-platform entrance as on contemporary double deckers (and most of the rest of Edinburgh's small single deck fleet). The Stockton bus had front and rear doors and 42 seats. Some of the independent and BET fleets also went for non-standard seating plans, two of Fishwick's and the Jennings bus sat 40 in coach seats whilst Yorkshire Woollen District's second five had 42 bus seats. Still it was nothing to what began to happen elsewhere in the Olympic's complicated production schedule. Weymann-bodied HR Olympic production ceased in 1951, the Royal Tiger was more to the home market's taste, as (even more so) would be the forthcoming
Leyland Tiger Cub The Leyland Tiger Cub (coded as PSUC1) was a lightweight underfloor-engined chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1952 and 1970. History The Leyland Tiger Cub was launched in 1952. Most were built as 44-45 seat buses, with a smaller number ...
. Weymanns did however build all 60
Leyland-MCW Olympian The Leyland-MCW Olympian was an integral single-deck bus built by Weymann Coachbuilders of Addlestone for the Metro Cammell Weymann group using Leyland Tiger Cub mechanical units. British Electric Traction subsidiary Western Welsh Omnibus Co ...
s and did finishing and inspection work on MCW-built Olympics until its closure in 1966.


Vehicles built in South Africa

Bus Builders (South Africa) of Port Elizabeth, a subsidiary of MCW, assembled 31 Olympics to HR44 pattern in 1951-5. 11 were sold to two operators in Rhodesia, Of the remaining 20 domestic sales 12 went to municipals and eight to independents. Eleven of the South African buses sat 44 and nine sat 45. An illustration in The Leyland Bus shows a South African HR44 differed from the Weymann built version in having full-depth sliding windows and having the emergency exit relocated from the rear face of the bus to the offside, thus having two, rather than three rear windows. Of the Rhodesian examples the seven for Salisbury United were 45 seaters and the four for Thatcher Hobson of Broken Hill were 56 seaters, (presumably 3+2 and not intended for those with paler skins) these last four were delivered in 1955, but like the rest of the 20 later South African HR Olympics they had 52xxxx numbers, suggesting completion of running units at Farington during 1952, the first 11 of the South African HR44s had 50xxxx numbers. There was one apparent demonstrator, Leyland chassis 504432 whose destiny is unrecorded in the sales lists. 521964 is ascribed to Cape Town but unregistered and without fleet number, maybe it was a set of spare components (Australian municipals did the same). A perhaps pivotal early sale though was of 'chassis' 504812 which went to PUTCO, Johannesburg, part of United Transport, the Red & White Group's colonial arm: Salisbury United were another member of the United Transport group, United Transport later gradually passed into the ownership of
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. PUTCO became the second largest customer for ER series Olympics, taking 174. From 1951 to 1958, Bus Bodies (South Africa) built 81 ER44 Olympics; none were exported from South Africa. Minimum seating capacity was 45 and the maximum was 67. Municipal users were Bloemfontein (2), Cape Town (8), Durban (15), Port Elizabeth (2) and Pretoria (1). The BET-owned PUTCO bought 32 and independents took fourteen, there were also four examples without initial registrations, presumably demonstrators or dealer stock. From 1957 to 1971, 479 ER2s were produced at Port Elizabeth, post 1969 models were coded ER2A because they had the BLMC rationalised Pneumocyclic gearbox. Again the maximum seating capacity was 67. Apart from four sold to Salisbury United in Rhodesia, during 1961 all of the Port Elizabeth built ER2s were for South African consumption. The largest customer was PUTCO who had taken both of the two series one options, their 174 accounted for 36% of all Port Elizabeth-built ER2 sales, next largest was Pretoria Municipal who took 132 (28%), customers for 87 (18%) are not listed, South African Railways took 30 (6%), Large Cape Town independents Bay Transport (28) and Greyhound (20) accounted for a further 10% whilst Benoni were the other local authority customer taking four.


South African Special

In the Leyland Bus book Doug Jack makes mention of a model built only by Bus Builders, this variant was known as the SA2. Eighty of these were built for South African Railways (SAR) in the 1960s. SAR, operating buses in difficult terrain and often at altitude, required very high power outputs for the time and wanted more than the 200 bhp available from the Leyland O.680H, presumably the 15.2 litre Leyland-Albion O.900H was not suitable for the application, or had ceased production, as the SA2 Olympic featured a 220 bhp Cummins engine coupled to Twin-Disc torque-converter transmission. Some of these were 6x4 versions with non-reactive rear suspension as on Leyland-group goods models of the time.


Right hand drive export models from Birmingham

From 1949 to 1970 the Elmdon lines were building Olympics by the hundred. The majority of these were left hand drive, and at the beginning of the type's production life Metro-Cammell also had major commitments to London Transport for RTL and RF bodies, as well as their base load business with Birmingham and other corporation fleets and with the BET group. As a result, from 1950 to 1957 only 58 ER44 Olympics were built, the one built in 1950 was an unseated development vehicle for Leyland. The other 57, built between 1953 and 1957 were B44D examples for
Jamaica Omnibus Service The Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS), operated a municipal bus service for the Kingston Metropolitan Area, from 1953 until it was wound up in 1983. Pre JOS In June 1898, the existing mule car service in Kingston was phased out and a transition to ...
(JOS) of
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, they were the only customer for the ER2 to be served from the UK, buying 270 ER2/44 to B44D layout and 19 shorter ER2/34 (presumably to 18 ft wheelbase and 33 ft overall length) also with dual doors and seating 36 between 1958 and 1966, they also took 150 ER3 from 1966 to 1969, 5 were to shorter length ER3/41 spec and from the middle of 1968 the rationalised gearbox was fitted, the last models being ER3A/44. JOS gave class codes to their buses in the 1950s, the 1953 batch of ER2s were class C as were the first ten 1955 buses, subsequent ER44s were class G which also applied to ER2/44s, this suggests a break point of mid-1955 for the adoption of Worldmaster units within Olympic production. Jamaica Omnibus Service purchased 496 Olympics sold and had 15% of overall production.


ELs from Birmingham

All EL series Olympics were built at Metro-Cammell. The rarest variant was the EL36, production totalled 31. One was exported to Teheran in 1951 (together with an EL40) as a demonstrator and as Doug Jack relates this prompted the
Shah of Iran This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes around 671 BCE until the deposition of th ...
's Police Force to purchase thirty EL36s for police transport. These were built and delivered in 1953. Total production of the EL40 was 182 (discounting four dismantled for spares) over the years 1949-52. Highest quoted seating capacity was for the EL40 was B40F. The largest sales were to South America; Fifty went to Montevideo municipal AMDET, and 26 to Montevideo-based independent CUTCSA; The municipalities of Buenos Aires and Córdoba in Argentina took 35 and 31 respectively, the next largest batch was of 12 for a Belgian dealer. Share of production by territory was as follows: Uruguay 41% (77) Argentina 38% (69) Canada 9% (17) Belgium 7% (12), Four for an Istanbul independent accounted for two percent and the rest were single vehicles for Iran and Israel and a Leyland test vehicle. Iran looked to be a promising market and the EL40 demonstrator was sold to the Teheran municipality but at about the same time they also commissioned a report from the London Transport consultancy department, after that report they standardised on AEC chassis and Park Royal bodies. Some of the examples for Canada, including the four for Guelph had "torque-converter transmission of US origin". (GM Turbo-Hydramatic perhaps?) Total production of the EL44 was 82, less 2 which were dismantled for spares, 6 of the 80 were kept by Leyland. Maximum quoted seating was B44D. Deliveries stretched from April 1951 to May 1960, the only major customer was CUTCSA who took 63; that sole Uruguayan order accounted for 78% of output, next were the six remaining in the UK, then Madrid Corporation's four (Madrid at the time also took Worldmasters and PD3 Titans with MCW bodies), two for Argentina, two for Cuba whilst one each went to Costa Rica, Turkey and Poland. EL2 production was 1382 built at Birmingham from 1960 to 1967. Three (the last built) for the Dominican Republic are quoted as B45D whilst the buses for Buenos Aires had three doors and 44 seats. The major customer for the EL2 was Cuba which took 993 from 1960 to 1966, next largest was Buenos Aires with 242, then CUTCSA with 100, owners are unknown for two and three were sold to the government of the Dominican Republic. The first owner of the other 42 was Leyland Motors acting as insurer for the loss of the Magdeburg (see later), of those 42, 14 were lost at sea, 9 of the 28 salvaged went to an Australian operator
Westbus Westbus was an Australian bus and coach operator that operated bus services in Western Sydney from 1955 until October 2013. Founded by the Bosnjak family, it later became a subsidiary of National Express and later ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (now ...
, two to a British coach firm but the destinations of most of the remaining 17 are unknown. 72% of this the most successful variant went to Cuba, 18% to Argentina and 7% to Uruguay. EL3 Production ran between 1966 and 1970; production of 497 went to two customers 60% to Istanbul and 40% to Cuba. The later Cuban examples were type EL3A with rationalised gearbox.


Cuban buses

When
obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...
writers looked for examples of the salesmanship of
Lord Stokes Donald Gresham Stokes, Baron Stokes (22 March 1914 – 21 July 2008) was an English industrialist. He was the head of British Leyland Motor Corporation, British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC) from 1968 to 1975. Life and career Stokes ...
upon his death in 2008, it was his sale of 1,192 Olympics to the government of
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
that was most frequently mentioned. The Olympic was a standard type there until well into the 1990s and it is believed some are still running. 33% of all Olympic output went to Cuba, some as 44-seat dual door buses, the rest as 41-seat express coaches. Two of them are still running in factories carrying workers to the sugarcane fields; although they are in very bad shape and have been repaired so many times, they are still doing service with original engine and transmission. There are still some parts cannibalized from the more than one thousand buses that arrived in Cuba from England between 1960 and 1970.


Buses meant for Cuba that went elsewhere

Not all of the buses meant for Cuba made it however; there were two shipping incidents. Firstly in 1960 a batch of 18 from an order of 200 were being unloaded at
Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
docks when a French ammunition ship '' MV La Coubre'' in a nearby berth exploded. All 18 were damaged, but nine were repairable in Cuba, the rest being shipped back to MCW for repairs. Leyland lent one of these buses to
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
who were anxious to try 11m single deck buses, following
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
's lead with their BUT/Burlingham trolleybuses two years earlier. This led Edinburgh to become the launch customer a year later for the
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 ...
PSU3. In October 1964, the East German ship ''MV Magdeburg'' with 42 Olympics onboard bound for Cuba sank in the
River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
after colliding with the ''MV Yamashiro Maru''. In the ensuing salvage operation 28 were removed and brought to land while the wreck was refloated and taken under tow to
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, with 14 buses still in the hold. During a storm in the
Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
, the ''Magdeburg'' had to be cast adrift and sank for a second and final time. The remaining 28 Olympics were all sold, some (doubtless) for spares and scrap, some for non-psv uses; one was converted by Tiverton Coachbuilders to transport racing cars for the Tyrell team, (Most other racing car-teams of the time used Worldmasters or Leopards, although Gulf used an
AEC Regal VI The AEC Regal VI was an underfloor-engined single-decker bus chassis manufactured by AEC in the 1960s. It was unveiled at the 1960 Commercial Motor Show and was intended to be a purely export chassis. It was an updated version of the underflo ...
and Lotus an
AEC Swift The AEC Swift was a rear-engined step entrance single-decker bus chassis manufactured by AEC between 1964 and 1980. The chassis design was closely related to the Leyland Panther. It was available in and lengths, with an AEC AH505 or AH691 e ...
.) other salvaged Olympics became furniture vans, Jack states 'at least one' was used as such in Europe. Some that were deck cargo were salvaged and sold. Australian operator
Westbus Westbus was an Australian bus and coach operator that operated bus services in Western Sydney from 1955 until October 2013. Founded by the Bosnjak family, it later became a subsidiary of National Express and later ComfortDelGro Cabcharge (now ...
purchased nine, two were used for parts, one placed in service with its MCW body while six were rebodied by
CVI CVI may refer to: Ancient history & culture * 106 in Roman numerals *Cvi, a verbal formation in classical Sanskrit connected with the Devi and Vrkis feminines Geography *Cape Verde Islands, UNDP code Medical conditions * Cerebrovascular in ...
. Two of the salvaged Cuban Olympics were purchased by
Smith Smith may refer to: People * Metalsmith, or simply smith, a craftsman fashioning tools or works of art out of various metals * Smith (given name) * Smith (surname), a family name originating in England, Scotland and Ireland ** List of people wi ...
of
Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...
who had underframes built into a pair of
Van Hool Van Hool NV () is a Belgian family-owned coachbuilder and manufacturer of buses, coaches, trolleybuses, and trailers. Most of the buses and coaches are built entirely by Van Hool, with engines and axles sourced from Caterpillar, Cummins, ...
coaches registered CEK587-8D which retained left hand drive and were used on the European sections of Smith's coach tours, only returning to Wigan in the off-season.


South America

The Olympic was sold to two South American countries,
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
and
Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
. Sales to Argentina amounted to 313. Of these all but 34 went to the Buenos Aires Municipality, most to a triple-entrance 44-seat design. The Olympic was popular in Montevideo, with 240 entering service in the 1950s and 1960s. 50 of these were new to the Montevideo local authority, most of which passed to major independent and the other customer CUTCSA on privatisation. Some of the 240 were still in use as late as 2001 including a 1951 EL40 in use as a driver trainer.


Turkey

Only 5 early Olympics were sold in Turkey and Leyland sales personnel discovered resistance to a name of Greek origin. So, the 300 B36D vehicles sold to the Istanbul municipal bus fleet in 1968/9 were named Leyland-MCW Levend, a word meaning a crack soldier.


Other destinations

UK sales (and Leyland retained vehicles) account for 101 Olympics (3%), including one non-psv. The rest of the world figure of 127 (4%) breaks down into: Iran 32, not known (includes at least 1 non-psv) 18; Canada 17; Rhodesia 15; shipwreck 14; Belgium 12; Australia 9; Spain 4; Dominican Republic 3, and one each to Costa Rica, Israel, New Zealand, Poland and Trinidad.


Variants


Olympian

The
Leyland-MCW Olympian The Leyland-MCW Olympian was an integral single-deck bus built by Weymann Coachbuilders of Addlestone for the Metro Cammell Weymann group using Leyland Tiger Cub mechanical units. British Electric Traction subsidiary Western Welsh Omnibus Co ...
, built from 1953 to 1957, was based on the Olympic superstructure, suitably lightened, and carried units from the
Leyland Tiger Cub The Leyland Tiger Cub (coded as PSUC1) was a lightweight underfloor-engined chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1952 and 1970. History The Leyland Tiger Cub was launched in 1952. Most were built as 44-45 seat buses, with a smaller number ...
. 60 were built, all but one were right hand drive, the other being sold to the Chinese government.


Olympic Mark X

This was designed for a Canadian Motor Show in 1965. It had a restyled front entry centre exit body to 40 ft by 8 ft 6in dimensions with a long (22 ft) wheelbase and was the only rear-engined Olympic, having a vertical Leyland O.680 transversely mounted under the rear bench seat. Transmission was by a 90° gear train into a Spicer 'Torquematic' torque converter then into a modified Worldmaster style rear axle. It had a very comprehensive heating and ventilation system and an insulated body. Unlike other Olympics it had all-round air suspension. It demonstrated with the Toronto Transit Commission as #507 and a number of other Canadian operators (Burley Bus Lines and Chambly Transport). It was exhibited by the British Pavilion at Montreal Expo 67 but was not continued with although its driveline layout inspired the
MCW Metrobus The MCW Metrobus is a two and three-axle double-decker bus manufactured by Metro Cammell Weymann (MCW) between 1977 and 1989, with over 4,000 built. The original MkI was superseded by the MkII which had a symmetrical windscreen with an arched ...
.


Preservation

The much decayed remains of former King Alfred HR40 JAA908 were repatriated to the UK from dereliction in the Irish Republic in 1990 and Friends of King Alfred Buses announced one of the most ambitious and thorough going restoration attempts ever seen in the bus preservation movement which resulted in this magnificent bus being available to ride on at their Winchester running Day on 1 January 2013. One other HR40 Olympic is preserved. Isle of Man Road Services MMN302 and also one HR44 SPU985 New to Jennings of Ashen. In South America, Uruguay has a restored Olympic that belongs to CUTCSA.


References


Citations


Books & magazines

*Smith (ed) ''Buses Annual 1964'' London 1963 *Kaye, ''British Buses Since 1945'', London 1968 *Jack, ''The Leyland Bus Mark 2'', Glossop 1984 *Booth (ed) ''Classic Bus'', Edinburgh, passim 1992–2005 *Stenning (ed)'' Classic Bus'', London, passim 2005-10 *Lamb (ed)'' Bus & Coach Preservation'', Portsmouth August 2007, December 2008 {{Leyland buses, state=collapsed
Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
Vehicles introduced in 1949