Daimler Fleetline

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Daimler Fleetline

The Daimler Fleetline (known as the Leyland Fleetline from c.1975) was a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis built between 1960 and 1973 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, and from 1973 until 1980 in Farington, Lancashire, England. However, the last complete vehicle did not enter service until 1982. It was superseded by the Leyland Olympian.

The Fleetline was the second rear-engined chassis to be launched, following Leyland's introduction of the Atlantean in 1958. From the outset, the Fleetline had a drop-centre rear axle fitted as standard, enabling low-height bodywork to be fitted without necessitating an inconvenient seating layout in part of the upper deck, as was the case with early Atlanteans. Leyland responded by offering a drop-centre rear axle as an option on the Atlantean, but after the two companies came under common ownership in 1968, the low-height Atlantean option was discontinued.

Initially, the Fleetline was fitted with a Gardner engine as standard (Leyland engines were later an option), whereas Leyland only offered engines of its own manufacture in the Atlantean. Some operators favoured the Gardner engine and perceived this to be an additional advantage of the Fleetline.

The Daimler/Leyland Fleetline was built mainly for the UK market, but a number of Fleetlines had been exported to Portugal, South Africa and Hong Kong.

1 United Kingdom
- 1.1 Unusual Fleetlines
2 Hong Kong
3 Designations
4 Trivia
5 See also

[edit] United Kingdom

London Transport was the largest British Fleetline operator, whose DMS and DM classes totalled 2646 examples, in addition to the earlier XF (eXperimental Fleetline) class of eight buses. The DMS/DM proved popular secondhand purchases for operators throughout Britain during the 1980s, especially in the aftermath of bus deregulation. In London, the Fleetline's successors were the Leyland Titan and MCW Metrobus.

Second in fleet size was Birmingham Corporation and its successor West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive with well over 1000 buses, including the first single-deck Fleetlines in 1965. Other constituent municipal fleets also contributed Fleetlines to the WMPTE Fleetline fleet to boost the number to over 2100.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive purchased over 500 Fleetlines in addition to a similar number inherited from its constituents (although even in such numbers they were still outnumbered by Atlanteans).

Other English PTEs, plus many fleets in the municipal, BET Group, Scottish Bus Group and independent sectors purchased Fleetlines.

[edit] Unusual Fleetlines

Walsall Corporation specified some non-standard short-wheelbase Fleetlines, the first of which, 1 UDH, had its entrance behind the front axle; later deliveries had a narrow entrance in the usual position. 1 UDH had Northern Counties bodywork with wrap-around windscreens on both decks, similar to that specified by Barton Transport on AEC Regents and a Dennis Loline.

Several operators purchased single-deck Fleetlines (Birmingham was the first, in 1965).

[edit] Hong Kong

China Motor Bus (CMB) introduced 336 Fleetlines between 1972 and 1980, and Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) also introduced 450 between 1974 and 1979, these Fleetlines were mainly deployed to Cross-Harbour Tunnel routes. CMB adopted the word "Jumbo" (originated from "Jumbo Jet", which was the nickname of the Boeing 747) to describe the large capacity of its Fleetlines, so in Hong Kong, the Fleetlines were commonly known as the "Jumbo" (Traditional Chinese: 珍寶).

In 1980s both CMB and KMB purchased ex-London Transport DMS/DM-class Fleetlines. Citybus and Argos Bus, operators of non-franchised routes and private hire services in Hong Kong, also purchased secondhand Fleetlines (including ex-London Transport DMS/DM-class Fleetlines).

Many of the Daimler/Leyland Fleetlines in Hong Kong were delivered to China for further service after being withdrawn in 1980s/1990s.

[edit] Designations

Daimler Fleetline chassis designations started with the letters CR, of which the C is variously reported to stand for Coventry or Commercial, and the R stands for Rear-engined. For single-deckers this became SR (although not on the earliest examples which were referred to with the standard CR).

This was followed by a code to indicate the engine fitted: D6 (Daimler 6-cylinder, prototypes only); G6 (Gardner 6-cylinder, more often than not this was expanded to the more specific G6LW, G6LX or G6LXB); L6 (Leyland 6-cylinder); C6 (Cummins 6-cylinder). The standard length of the Fleetline was 30' but lengths of 33' and 36' were also available, which were sometimes (though not consistently) identified by a suffix of -33 or -36 (sometimes with an oblique stroke in place of the hyphen).

Later Leyland Fleetline chassis designations were different: FE for Fleetline, followed by 30 or 33 (length in feet); A (if applicable) for automatic transmission; G for Gardner or L for Leyland engine; R for Right-hand drive.

[edit] Trivia

The first and last Fleetlines built were both destroyed by fire. Former demonstrator 7000 HP, which had passed to Blue Bus Services (Tailby & George) of Willington and later to Derby Borough Transport, was destroyed in a fire at the Willington depot on 5 January 1976. The last-built chassis, former South Notts ECW-bodied SCH 117X, was destroyed in a fire at the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre on 21 February 2007 after it had been bought for preservation.
In late 1990s Guangzhou Cityview Bus Installation Co., Ltd. rebuilt some of the ex-Hong Kong Daimler/Leyland Fleetlines in China with provision of new bodies, these Fleetlines became known as the "Eagle Fleetline" (Traditional Chinese: 巨鷹珍寶; Simplified Chinese: 巨鹰珍宝). A number of the "Eagle Fleetlines" were sold for service in Shenzhen, as of early 2007 some of them were still in service. Images of "Eagle Fleetline" (Traditional Chinese)