ParkRoyal2100:
gingerfold:
Over the years I have had quite a few photos sent to me by enthusiasts from Australia and New Zealand. Predominantly they have been Leylands and AECs, but I no longer have the AEC photos, but I can post the Leyland photos. With the “bad press” Leyland has had from some contributors on TN some people could be forgiven for thinking that there was never anything any good about British lorries. It’s worth correcting that misunderstanding by reminding some that Leyland was a huge exporter in its time.Quite so, and it wasn’t just lorries - Oz, NZ and SA imported lots of Leyland bus/ coach chassis over the decades, right up until the late 70’s. The Atlantean (rear-engine double decker, usually with an O.680) has been mentioned already (Sydney had a few), but before that were the Leyland Royal Tiger/ Worldmaster (see this for example), not to mention the Leopard (Sydney Urban Transport Corp alone took over 740 0.600 powered single deckers, like [url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/1974_Leyland_Leopard_Bus_-_NSW_State_Transit_(21213595333).jpg/1280px-1974_Leyland_Leopard_Bus_-_NSW_State_Transit_(21213595333).jpgurl this one[/url]). Going back even further, Australia bought the Leyland PD2 (aka the Titan); there’s a few in preservation and one was recently re-imported back to the UK (see transportimages.com/buses/bu … #h12791514).
Come the mid- to late-70’s, however, things started to come apart. NZ wanted the Bristol RE chassis (one of the best British bus chassis ever developed) but Leyland (who by now owned Bristol buses) would only supply the RE with the 0.500 series engine and NZ - reluctantly - had to accept. Perhaps because of this, or perhaps because Leyland was equally as intransigent in Straya, Sydney UTA walked away from Leyland altogether (I’m told that support from Leyland Truck & Bus to its major clients in Oz/ NZ/ SA/ HK/ Singapore had all but evaporated by the mid-70s anyway), and instead went and bought the M-B O.305 - eventually Sydney UTA/ STA (and later, State Transit) became the biggest export market for the O.305 outside Europe, buying well over 1,300 of them (in no small part due to the almost bomb-proof M-B chassis and drivetrain). Other cities in Oz, NZ and SA, and big city fleets in HK and Singapore (all big Leyland buyers) took the O.305 and its step-sister the MAN SL200 in huge numbers, and it’s no surprise that all of these major operators went on to buy the MB O.405, MAN SL202 and … whaddaya know, B9R and B7R Volvos, Scanias, M-B and MAN CNG buses are everywhere in SE Asia, Oz, NZ, SA.
I apologise for rambling on a bit (and probably being inaccurate, I’m not an expert on buses after all), but I think it’s worthwhile that us wagon drivers remember that Leyland’s success (and eventual failure) in global commercial vehicle markets was to a significant extent due to how well its passenger vehicle chassis sold. If big, overseas bus fleet buyers (like Sydney Corp/ UTA/ STA, Hong Kong, Singapore) who’d been loyal to Leyland for years (decades, even) were given the choice of a short straw or no straw at all in the 70’s, is it any surprise that Leyland truck sales in Oz and elsewhere in SE Asia fell over?
Kèep these posts coming they are very interesting , what was it about the Bristol RE chassis that set it apart from the rest. It sounds very Leyland that they wouldnt meet the customers requirements