Post by RTCW2 on Apr 6, 2003 13:40:22 GMT -5
London Central, the last operator of the Leyland Titan in the capital, is now down to four examples following withdrawals. T 963 and 980 soldier on at Peckham (routes 63 and 381) and Camberwell have T 1000 and 1005 (usually as crew buses on the 12).
I always thought the Titan was underappreciated by London Transport - I was amazed when sales of the class began in late 1992, with perfectly serviceable ten-year-old examples often passing at a song into the fleets of the very same small operators that would use them to undercut the old London Buses Limited on tender bids. Elsewhere the Titan is still operating in some strength in Liverpool, where the former MTL Merseybus took over two hundred second-hand. Titans can also be seen with numerous small operators.
The Leyland Titan was the last London bus to be designed largely by London Transport, and to a certain extent this meant that some of its more complex features rendered it unsaleable outside the capital, like the Routemaster before it. Over 1979 and 1980 Ts replaced DMSs in east London before deliveries ground to a halt due to wranglings at Leyland concerning the already planned closure of Park Royal Coachworks, who bodied the first 250 Ts. After a year's impasse (which MCW profited from with an extra 100 of their competing Metrobus ordered), production got going at Workington and orders continued until 1984 when the Titan model was cancelled. London Transport took 1125, but sales outside London numbered less than a hundred. West Midlands (5) and GMPTE (15) cancelled large orders after realising how long they would take to be delivered. Reading Transport, however, liked theirs and took ten more in 1983.
After the replacement of DMSs and Metropolitans in south-east London (1982-1983), most of 1984's final order for Titans was allocated to Routemaster-operated routes in preparation for their OPO conversion in 1985. Thereafter the class settled down, but a surplus of Titans developed as tendering losses began to bite into LBL's operations. Ts thus broke new ground in North London with their use at Chalk Farm, Muswell Hill and later Finchley garages. Westlink in far-off Surrey won the 131 in 1990 and specified Titans, spreading the type further. DMS replacement was completed in 1992 by allocating Titans to Brixton, Thornton Heath and Croydon garages in south London.
Upon privatisation of the LBL subsidiaries in 1994, the remaining Ts fell between London Central, Stagecoach East London and Stagecoach Selkent. The latter two commenced fleet replacement immediately, cascading Titans around the country, while the removal of the type from London Central was not started until Ls had been got rid of first. The last Ts ran from Stagecoach in October 2001, leaving a small number at London Central where they continued to provide spare support to routes that had already been converted to to newer types, and thus to today, where the remaining four can't have long left at all.
LOTS members will have read my article on the Leyland Titan in London Bus Magazine issue 115, and I hope to write a book on the type in the future. The Titans are and were excellent buses, and I'll miss them!
[glow=red,2,300]T 980 (A980 SYE) has been a Peckham bus all its life since delivery in March 1984. After nineteen years' service it displays the full range of Titan modifications such as removal of the foglights and replacement of the opening front windows at the upper deck. In 2000 it even received a partial repaint into the current London Central livery complete with Go-Ahead group logo. The bus is seen in the Old Kent Road on 1st December 2000.[/glow]
[glow=red,2,300]Fellow 1984 delivery T 1005 (A605 THV) has worked from only two garages, and the first of those (Walworth) was for only a year. In its final years at Camberwell it has seen a lot more use on RML-operated route 12, helped by the fitment of a dot-matrix destination blind. Ignore the incorrectly set 'PAY DRIVER' board in this Trafalgar Square view of 15th May 2002 - the conductor can be seen standing at the front![/glow]
www.londonbuspage.com
I always thought the Titan was underappreciated by London Transport - I was amazed when sales of the class began in late 1992, with perfectly serviceable ten-year-old examples often passing at a song into the fleets of the very same small operators that would use them to undercut the old London Buses Limited on tender bids. Elsewhere the Titan is still operating in some strength in Liverpool, where the former MTL Merseybus took over two hundred second-hand. Titans can also be seen with numerous small operators.
The Leyland Titan was the last London bus to be designed largely by London Transport, and to a certain extent this meant that some of its more complex features rendered it unsaleable outside the capital, like the Routemaster before it. Over 1979 and 1980 Ts replaced DMSs in east London before deliveries ground to a halt due to wranglings at Leyland concerning the already planned closure of Park Royal Coachworks, who bodied the first 250 Ts. After a year's impasse (which MCW profited from with an extra 100 of their competing Metrobus ordered), production got going at Workington and orders continued until 1984 when the Titan model was cancelled. London Transport took 1125, but sales outside London numbered less than a hundred. West Midlands (5) and GMPTE (15) cancelled large orders after realising how long they would take to be delivered. Reading Transport, however, liked theirs and took ten more in 1983.
After the replacement of DMSs and Metropolitans in south-east London (1982-1983), most of 1984's final order for Titans was allocated to Routemaster-operated routes in preparation for their OPO conversion in 1985. Thereafter the class settled down, but a surplus of Titans developed as tendering losses began to bite into LBL's operations. Ts thus broke new ground in North London with their use at Chalk Farm, Muswell Hill and later Finchley garages. Westlink in far-off Surrey won the 131 in 1990 and specified Titans, spreading the type further. DMS replacement was completed in 1992 by allocating Titans to Brixton, Thornton Heath and Croydon garages in south London.
Upon privatisation of the LBL subsidiaries in 1994, the remaining Ts fell between London Central, Stagecoach East London and Stagecoach Selkent. The latter two commenced fleet replacement immediately, cascading Titans around the country, while the removal of the type from London Central was not started until Ls had been got rid of first. The last Ts ran from Stagecoach in October 2001, leaving a small number at London Central where they continued to provide spare support to routes that had already been converted to to newer types, and thus to today, where the remaining four can't have long left at all.
LOTS members will have read my article on the Leyland Titan in London Bus Magazine issue 115, and I hope to write a book on the type in the future. The Titans are and were excellent buses, and I'll miss them!
[glow=red,2,300]T 980 (A980 SYE) has been a Peckham bus all its life since delivery in March 1984. After nineteen years' service it displays the full range of Titan modifications such as removal of the foglights and replacement of the opening front windows at the upper deck. In 2000 it even received a partial repaint into the current London Central livery complete with Go-Ahead group logo. The bus is seen in the Old Kent Road on 1st December 2000.[/glow]
[glow=red,2,300]Fellow 1984 delivery T 1005 (A605 THV) has worked from only two garages, and the first of those (Walworth) was for only a year. In its final years at Camberwell it has seen a lot more use on RML-operated route 12, helped by the fitment of a dot-matrix destination blind. Ignore the incorrectly set 'PAY DRIVER' board in this Trafalgar Square view of 15th May 2002 - the conductor can be seen standing at the front![/glow]
www.londonbuspage.com
