Leyland National Bus

Manufacturer	Leyland Motors
Class	Commercial vehicle
type	bus
Production period	1971-1985
engine	Diesel engine in the rear
power	119 kW
length	10.3 or 11.3 m
width	2,5 m
height	with roof attachment 3.3 m
Perm. total weight	8,800 kg

The Leyland National is a bus model of the British commercial vehicle manufacturer Leyland Motors .Produced from 1971 to 1985.

History

The Leyland National was built in large quantities with over 7000 made. The National originated as a joint project of the British nationalized transportation industry,the National Bus Company (NBC) and British Leyland . The bus was developed to cover the buses previously produced by Leyland - the AEC Swift , the Bristol RE , the Daimler Fleetline , the Daimler Roadliner and the Leyland Pantherto. The National is a self-supporting regular service bus, in which, unlike the UK practice of the past, chassis and bodywork came from one manufacturer. With integral buses, the design and manufacture of the frame and superstructure has now been optimized, resulting in a lighter vehicle and easier production. Later derived from the National was produced between 1978 and 1984 double-decker bus Leyland Titan (B15) .

The bus had a rear-mounted diesel engine . All parts of the body were optimized for easy production and easy interchangeability of the individual parts. Some operators, such as London Transport , procured two-door models, while most other bus companies used the UK-wide version with only a front double door.

The bus was both 10.3 and 11.3 m in length. The shorter version can be recognized by the narrower windows. Until 1978, all buses had a characteristic attachment on the back of the roof, which housed the heating system. The heated air was led at roof level into the interior of the passenger compartment. The essay initially had the length of a compartment and gave the bus a more American look. From 1974, the essay was shortened. In 1978, a simplified model came on the market with the 10351B / 1R . The interior was changed, the attachment for the heating was eliminated, it was now in the subsoil, the heated air was led under the seats in the passenger compartment. The reduced weight lowered the operating costs. London Country procured a large number of these buses, which were taken over by other operators following the destruction of London Country .

The National Mk I series had the 8.51- liter O.510 Leyland six-cylinder diesel engine , located below the rear of the cab . In this engine, the cylinder heads could not be removed. For all work on the valves, therefore, had the camshaftremoved and the pistons are pulled out of the cylinders to get access via the cubic capacity from the inside. This complicated procedure made maintenance and repair expensive. The engine also suffered from high fuel consumption and was extremely sooty, especially when poorly maintained. Some companies therefore looked for ways out and tentatively converted to engines from other manufacturers. The engine of the 10351B / 1R was throttled in performance, which should reduce the heavy soot.

The National 2 was introduced in 1979. It differed from its predecessor by the front mounted radiator - it was 30 cm longer - and optionally available engines.The National 2 got initially the Leyland O.680, later the developed from this engine L11. The O.680 was then no longer offered.

The operator Eastern Counties had tentatively installed the 6HLXB from Gardner in several accident vehicles . This six-cylinder diesel engine had proven itself and gradually some National were converted to this engine. Gardner sued Leyland because the company did not offer the engine as an option. As a result, Leyland offered from 1982 the 6HLXB and later the 6HLXCT as an option for original equipment.

The bus soon became a familiar sight on British roads. In addition to the subsidiaries of the National Bus Company , the subsidiaries of the Scottish Transport Group , London Transport , SELNEC , Greater Manchester Transport , British Airwaysand other companies also purchased the bus.After a few years of use of the buses and as a result of the Transport Act 1980 and 1985 , respectively , which led to the deregulation of the first, then the inner city bus transport, the enterprises modernized the existing buses. Often engines of DAF or Volvo were installed. The modular design facilitated repair and modernization, often a bus could be brought back into circulation within 24 hours.

Export buses were also offered at 10.3 meters or 11.3 meters in length. In addition, there was a series of so-called hybrids with 10.9 m length. These buses had up to the rear axle, the wide windows of the long version, behind the narrow windows of the short buses.The design was easy to switch to left-hand-drive buses, so that also received a significant number of orders from the European mainland and other countries with legal traffic. Nevertheless, the National was not particularly successful on the export markets. The largest order of 450 buses went to Caracas in 1975/76 . About 125 buses were 1972-1974 to Kingston at the Jamaica Omnibus Services delivered, a subsidiary of British Electric Traction company , 40 more buses to Trinidad and Tobagofor the local National Bus Company .

Some buses were sold to the Netherlands . There, after a short time, the windshields were exchanged for the purpose of avoiding reflections from the interior against the usual version of multi-part flat windows. A few buses also went to Oslo and Dijon .

In Canberra , ACTION buses ran a fleet of seventy nationals , all delivered between November 1974 and October 1975. Sixteen buses were delivered entirely from England, 54 completed in Australia. The last ones were decommissioned in the early 1990s. Seven buses were procured by the Transportation Department of the Brisbane City Council . Delivered in 1975, they were singled out in 1985. The Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board also procured 1975 ten buses. 

The Metropolitan Transport Trust (MTT) now Metro Tasmania in Tasmania procured a total of 63 nationals between 1975 and 1976 for use in the capital Hobart . This was only the short version with 10.3 m length, a bus was rejected by the purchaser and replaced by a hybrid.

In total more than 7000 nationals were produced. The bus model was replaced by the Leyland Lynx , but after its production 1060 still nationally manufactured. The last major operator to use these buses was Chase Bus Services of Chasetown, Staffordshire , who ceased operations in April 2007. Some Nationals are still in use with smaller operators, but only two national remained with the O.510 engine. The production site in Workington is now closed and serves as a depot for the logistics company Stobart Group .

With parts of the national developed the Danish subsidiary Leyland DAB in Aabenraa a hinged bus with underfloor engine in the front end, which thus received a higher floor than the biaxial national with rear engine.