Leyland Atlantean

From 1958 to 1972 some nine-hundred buses were built for Tehran (Iran); the first batches up to 12/1967 were 250 AEC Regent V and the last batches from 1972 to 1974/5 comprised 650 Leyland Atlanteans; making the Shah of Persia PRV's most important overseas buyer.

Here is the Shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi [1919-1980]) - stepping out of one of his new Atlanteans circa 1972 (he is on the platform holding on to the vertical pole). I don't know where this was pictured - it seems it might be an airfield - nor do I know who the man stepping vigorously off the platform is; anyone know?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi
(Image from the Don Matthews collection)

An Atlantean without it's body panels isn't quite so interesting, is it!?

TCH 92 - Leyland Atlantean with Roe H44/34F body GO5145 built October 1960 for Trent; pictured at (probably) the 1960 Earls Court Commercial Motor show.

Registration Number 926MPT Built in April 1964 (Body Nos. B49764-7); for Stockton.

Registration Number CWB340B Built in November 1964 (Body Nos. B51744); for Sheffield.

Registration Number KTD551C Built in January 1965 (Body No. B52907); for Leyland [Demonstrator].

Registration Number JWJ193D Built in February 1966 (Body Nos. B53284-95); for Sheffield.

Registration Number NFT215D Built in May 1966 (Body Nos. B51796-9); for Stockton.

Registration Number CUV2C Built in May 1966 (Body Nos. B52910-59); for L.T.E.

Registration Number TWE114F Built in May 1966 (Body Nos. B55832-47); for Sheffield. One of this series of buses appears in the film "Memories of Trams, Buses & Trolleybuses" on the "PRVdesign Group" page.

Registration Number BWB555H Built in May 1966 (Body Nos. B56868-907); for Sheffield.

Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (Greater Stockholm Transport Board) operated Atlantean double-deckers bodied by Park Royal. Photos © Dick Hallström

Fifty Leyland double-deckers were also delivered in 1967, mostly running on ex-tramway lines in the town centre. They were supposed to have the same seating capacity as a two-car tramway set but on some routes passengers didn't use the upper floor, and on other routes it was vice versa (there were problems with inappropriate activities on the upper deck during evenings & weekends). So, together with forty German Büssing double-deckers, all Leylands were scrapped after only 9 years. Fortunately three Leylands are preserved in running condition; one at the Spårvägsmuseet (Stockholm Transport Museum) and two at the Svenska Spårvägssällskapet (Swedish Tramway Association).

Please visit the Svenska Omnibusföreningen (Swedish Omnibus Association) website where you will find links to photos and descriptions of their preserved buses (in Swedish but the Google toolbar translator largely solves the issue for those like me! Ed.).

Registration Number A74533 Built in October 1967 (Body Nos. B54978-5027); for Stockholm. Click here to see detailed unofficial images of the first of this batch of 50 units, as it was in final production.

Registration Number HVM924P Built in March 1968 (Body Nos. B55359-406); for Manchester.

Registration Number PRJ315G Built in July 1968 (Body Nos. B56823-42); for Salford.

Registration Number WWB214G Built in October 1968 (Body Nos. B55744-73); for Sheffield. One of this series of buses appears in the film "Memories of Trams, Buses & Trolleybuses" on the "PRVdesign Group" page.

Registration Number MTF665G Built in October 1968 (Body No. B55794); for Leyland [Demonstrator]. This bus appears in the film "Memories of Trams, Buses & Trolleybuses" on the "PRVdesign Group" page.

Registration Number JJY634G Built in November 1968 (Body Nos. B56089-112); for Plymouth.

Registration Number PBC113G Built in April 1969 (Body Nos. B56136-45); for Leicester.

Registration Number OCS817H Built in October 1969 (Body No. B56722); for T. E. Docherty.

Registration Number DWB676H Built in April 1970 (Body Nos. B57014-53); for Sheffield.

Registration Number MCO216H Built in May 1970 (Body Nos. B57152-70); for Plymouth.

Registration Number ONF853H Built in September 1970 (Body Nos. B57211-44); for Selnec P.T.E.

Registration Number NDR506J Built March 1971 (Body Nos. B58161-75); for Plymouth.

Registration Number JPL104K Built in April 1972 (Body No. B58337); alongside AEC Reliance JPA169K Built in March 1972 (Body No. B58313); both for London Country Buses and shown here at the PRV works.

Registration Number XJA506L Built in October 1972 (Body Nos. B59723-67); for SELNEC.

Registration Number RTF624M Built in December 1973 (Body Nos. B60592-633); for Ribble.

Registration Number RTF614M Built in January 1974 (Body Nos. B60594); for Ribble.

Registration Number OTY412M Built in March 1974 (Body Nos. B60634-54); for Northern General.

Registration Number VPB123M Built in May 1974 (Body Nos. B60655-7); for London Country.

Registration Number PUF131M Built in May 1974 (Body Nos. B60658-84); for Southdown.

Registration Number GDR208N Built in April 1975 (Body Nos. B60822-36); for Plymouth.

Registration Number JOV629P Built in September 1975 (Body Nos. B60224-323); for West Midlands.

One of the same batch NRN397P (Ribble 1397) built in April 1976 (Body No. B61756) has been undergoing renovation at the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust since 2008. Evidently in a shocking state, the extensive renovation has clearly been arduous as can be witnessed by following the work on the RVPT's forum entries dedicated to the process (see NRN397P in renovation).

Jonathan Cadwallader has kindly sent in photographs that can be seen on the NRN397P page.

Registration Numbers WVM884-9 (5 is missing) built in July 1978 (Body Nos. B61584-703); for Greater Manchester.

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Jeffrey Ornstein sent me a link to a YouTube video of Leyland Atlanteans in New York, USA. PRV built eight of these for the New York City Transit Authority in August 1976. They were body numbers B62061-8 (type H43/29D) and were on Leyland Atlantean chassis type AN68.

Click here for Leyland Atlanteans with PRV Bodywork in New York City

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Registration Number A74501 Built in September 1967 (Body No. B54978); for Stockholm. This is the first of the batch of 50 units for Stockholm of which the official photographs of a sample are found above. The images below are unofficial photographs taken as the first unit was in final production. Click here for a the official photographs of a pre-delivery vehicle.

You may notice, in the monochrome images below, how this bus differs from the bus shown in the official photographs - it is much darker - and it probably wasn't. Stockholm's buses at the time were in a livery of deep red with a cream upper section or stripe. So why the difference in the images?

The images below may have been taken on orthochromatic negative film that, being insensitive to red, rendered red as almost black on a positive print - because the red areas of the negative are unexposed and virtually clear. The panchromatic film, used in the official photographs, being sensitive to red, rendered it as a distinct shade of grey. Note; panchromatic film is less sensitive to green which results in greenery being relatively dark, whilst the opposite is true for orthochromatic film.

However, by the 1930's panchromatic film superseded orthochromatic film and, although much stock remained available for many years, it is unlikely that it was being used in the '60's. So is there another explanation? Well, yes, there is! A cyan filter over the lens would reduce the transmission of red light and thus produce the same result (red showing as black rather than grey) on prints from panchromatic film. However, whilst these photographs are quite good, they are clearly amateur and, in my opinion, it is unlikely that such an otherwise rarely used filter would be employed.

The most likely explanation is that the images are direct prints from colour negatives that tend to be lacking in contrast due to the overall reddish-orange tinge used for colour-masking. Monochrome photographic paper is orthochromatic (insensitive to red and more blue/green sensitive so can be developed in red light) and since colour negatives are colour-reversed with positive red appearing as cyan-green, the red parts, that are cyan-green on the negative, would cause cyan-green light to be shone on the monochrome photographic paper and with the paper being sensitive to blue-green-cyan that part of the image would appear much darker. Ed. [Ok, so maybe they painted the first one black!]

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Registration Number 681KD, Built in February 1964, is a Metro Cammell bodied Atlantean PDR1/1 for Liverpool Corporation; fleet number L681. Jonathan Cadwallader advises that that the images were taken at Liverpool Corporation's Edge Lane Works. "Older, front-engined buses in for overhaul are visible through the windows in at least two of the images." He also suggests the photographs are not of a newly built bus judging by the chassis picture and the internal advertisements displayed on the lower deck. (I agree this is undoubtedly certain as one of the chassis images shows a fair amount of road grime and the tyres are unclean. Ed.)

Jonathan further comments that 681KD was one of 380 broadly similar MCW bodied PDR1/1 Atlanteans bought by Liverpool Corporation. The design was innovative and apparently widely admired, though only Bury and Oldham Corporations ordered similar bodies from Metro-Cammell. The interiors were relatively spartan with quite a lot of bare aluminium panels. The first batch was registered 500 KD - 699KD (with fleet numbers L500 - L699) and were delivered from November 1962 (501KD is preserved by the Merseyside Transport Trust and here it is during Easter 2011).

In July the following year it was decided to order a further 120 and although a contract was eventually placed with Metro-Cammell, five other bodybuilders submitted tenders for the work, including Willowbrook, Strachans, Alexanders and Park Royal. Without a date on the photos of L681 we cannot be certain, but I would speculate that, before submitting their tender, Park Royal sent a photographer to Edge Lane Works to make a record of the sort of finish and appearance that Liverpool Corporation was expecting. By the time that tenders were invited all of the first batch were in service, so L681, being one of the last to be delivered, was selected to be the subject for the photographer

So, that's my theory. Park Royal lost out but the photographs survived in their archive. Of course, it's also possible that Liverpool took the photographs themselves and sent a set to each of the bidding coachbuilders.

Editor: I think Jonathan may well be correct in his analysis of how the photographs came to be in the PRV archives. However these photographs are marked with LTB Director of Research, Chiswick as the copyright holder and that probably doesn't mean that they are actually from their photographer; merely stamped as incoming to that department. I think it most likely that LTB were "looking" at the Atlantean as an OPO vehicle to replace (run alongside) Routemasters, the production of which was in decline by the mid 60's. It's quite likely that LTB were in touch with Liverpool Corporation over this and LTB obtained the images (probably from the Corporation) and passed them to PRV as PRV were their preferred supplier. (Can anyone comment further?)

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