Leyland Tiger

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The name Leyland Tiger refers to two different bus models from the British manufacturer Leyland Motors .

Tiger TS / TF / PS

Leyland Tiger PS1 built by Park Royal

The first Leyland Tiger was built from 1927 until the early 1950s. The Tiger was derived from the Titan double-decker bus (TD1). He was the successor to the Leyland Lion . The Tiger was one of the most widespread buses in Great Britain before and immediately after the war and its typical appearance shaped the image of British roads.

The Tiger was a chassis with a front engine. The chassis was provided with superstructures by various bodywork companies . Typical of British buses of the time was the one-sided driver's cab, which was pulled forward almost to the level of the radiator grille. On the one hand, it offered the driver a good all-round view and, on the other hand, easy access to the engine. Most Tigers were fitted with a 7.6 ft wide body because 8 foot wide buses required a special permit restricted to certain streets. From the mid-1930s onwards, so-called multi-purpose bodies came into fashion, which allowed them to be used as a regular bus service during the working week and on express connections and as an excursion bus at weekends. In the seating capacity and comfort they found a middle ground between the standard bus, in English as bus called, and the more luxurious coach , the English coach called. In small numbers of tigers was built as an open excursion. The buses built after the war were given a modern-looking forward control arm structure, while some older buses were fitted with modern structures.

Some of the superstructures were manufactured by Leyland at the Beadle subsidiary , and all-metal superstructures were also available from 1934. Other superstructures came from Alexander , Brush , Crossley , Dickson , Duple , Egerton (wood-planked), Gurney Nutting , Park Royal , Harrington , Short Bros and Weymann , among others . Cab bodies came from Harrington and Burlingham .

The series was named TS ( T strength S ingle deck (monoplane)), the first model was the TS1. It was limited to 27 feet and 6 inches long superstructures, which met the size restrictions for two-axle buses at the time. Initially, a gasoline engine with a displacement of 6.8 l was used. The shortened version intended for superstructures with a length of 26 feet was called TS2 . The TS4 was again intended for 27 feet 6 inches long superstructures, but received a gasoline engine with a displacement of 7.6 liters. It appeared in 1932.

For the TS6, the engine was enlarged to 8.6 l displacement from 1934. Since the length for two-axle buses was limited to 27 feet 6 inches at the time, Leyland built the three-axle version TS6T with a length of 30 feet. Originally built with an 8.4 liter petroleum engine, in 1940 they were converted to a diesel engine with the same displacement. The guy wasn't a huge hit though , only two buses were built for Southdown . The bus configuration with 40 seats came from Short Bros .

A new, lighter chassis was developed in 1937 under the name Cheetah . Design features of this chassis were adopted for the Titan and the Tiger . Due to the lower weight, a smaller motor could be used again. The buses had the type designation TD4 and TS7 . Originally built with a 7.6 l petrol engine, some operators converted to 8.6 l diesel engines from the early 1940s. There was also a three-axle version of the TS7, 30 feet long, now with an 8.6 liter petrol engine and referred to as the TS7T . This type was not a great success either , Southdown only took two copies and later converted them to diesel engines. In 1937 , Leyland developed a chassis with an underfloor motor based on the chassis of the TS7 . This new design made it possible to fully utilize the maximum length for the seats on a level floor. However, the floor of the passenger compartment was relatively high compared to modern buses and could only be reached via steps. A pneumatically assisted manual gearbox from AEC was installed together with the 6.8-liter diesel engine from Leyland . The 87 underground buses used by London Transport after thorough testing of the FEC prototype from 1939 were given the type designation TF there . The bodies of 75 buses were built by Chiswick , a subsidiary of London Transport . Twelve buses originally intended for private operators were fitted with Park Royal bodies . These buses had skylights, an opening roof and a radio. Initially, the TF suffered from a lack of trained repair staff. Some of the buses were destroyed in the war, the remaining ones fell victim to the fleet adjustment in the early 1950s.

The TS8 , built from 1937, differed from its predecessor in that it was powered by a diesel engine with a displacement of 8.6 l. One reason for the failure of the three-axle buses was the fact that the gain in seats was disproportionate to the increased price. The Walter Alexander Coachbuilders solved the problem of increasing the seating capacity by pulling out the front wall of the passenger compartment, limiting the length of the space for the driver's seat and covering the part of the engine that now protruded into the passenger compartment with a panel. This made space for an additional row of seats. The buses of this series, built from 1939 onwards, with a capacity of 39 seats, were given the type designation TS8S .

In 1941, Leyland was ordered by the British government to end production of all chassis for buses and to switch to the production of armaments. However, the company received permission to assemble buses from existing components. These buses were given the type designation TS11 . A total of 22 TS11 were built.

In 1945 the PS1 was introduced, which again had many components in common with the double-decker model built at the same time, now the Titan TD1 . The Tigers built for London Transport were given the type designation TD. Depending on the structure, the capacity was around 30 to 35 seats. Originally equipped with a gasoline engine, diesel engines were available for all Leyland from the end of 1933 . A diesel engine with a displacement of 7.4 l was used in the PS1 ; the standard was an unsynchronized four-speed gearbox. This engine was also offered for retrofitting the chassis built before the war. Buses built after the Second World War with the O.600 diesel engine with 9.8 l displacement bore the type designation PS2 . They also received a four-speed synchronized transmission. Both designs were 7 feet 6 inches wide, like the pre-war models. But since 1950 the width restriction for omnibuses was raised without exceptions to 8 feet with a maximum length of 30 feet, Leyland launched the longer model PS3 . After another increase, the company produced the PS4 for 32 foot long structures. The individual types differ again in the design of the frame for buses and coaches (/ 1 or / 2) and a synchronized four-speed gearbox (/ 5).

Buses that were built for export, one was O for O verseas preceded in the type designation, from the PS2 was so z. B. the OPS2 . Left-hand drive buses, which were available for all export models, were preceded by an L again . The buses were delivered to Leyland in Lancashire , partly as complete vehicles, partly as chassis with an engine. After another increase in the permitted dimensions, the company produced the PS4 for 32-foot structures.

  • OPS1 (export version of the PS1): 8.6-liter engine, 8 feet wide, 17 feet 6 inches wheelbase for 27 feet 6 inches long bodies
  • OPS1 / 1: like OPS1, but chassis for coaches with pulled down frame ends
  • OPS2 (export version PS2): O.600 engine with 9.8 liter displacement, 8 feet wide, 17 feet 6 inches wheelbase for 27 feet 6 inches long bodies
  • OPS2 / 1: Line bus version of the OPS2
  • OPS2 / 3: Coach version of the OPS2
  • OPS3: like OPS2, 8 feet wide, but with a 19 foot wheelbase for 30 foot long bodies
  • OPS4: like OPS2, 8 feet wide, but with a 21 foot 6 inch wheelbase for 32 foot long bodies
  • OPS4 / 1: Line bus version of the OPS4
  • OPS4 / 2: Coach version Version of the OPS4
  • OPS4 / 5: like OPS4 with pneumatically assisted gear

The AEC shelf from AEC was a comparable model . The Tiger remained in service with many British operators until the early 1960s and was replaced by more modern types with an underfloor engine, which could offer more seats for the same length. The successor to the Tiger was the Leyland Royal Tiger , which was derived from the PS1, but had an underfloor engine.

  • Leyland Tiger TS8 with Park Royal body , built in 1937

  • Leyland Tiger TS8 built in 1938, converted in 1958 to a front handlebar body from Beadle

  • Leyland Tiger PS2 with front handlebar body from Burlingham , built in 1949

  • Leyland Tiger TF with body from Chiswick , built in 1937

Tiger B43

Leyland Tiger coach with body by Alexander

The Leyland Tiger , built from 1979 to 1993 with the type designation B43, was the successor to the Leyland Leopard . As with the Leopard , the engine was centrally located under the floor. Coach and bus bodies from various manufacturers were placed on the chassis manufactured by Leyland. The tiger arose in a situation of fierce competition. Volvo had gained market share with its successful B58 model and began developing the successor B10M at the same time as Leyland . The deregulation of British bus transport in the 1980s led to changes in the number of passengers, initially in local and then in urban transport. The market for small and light buses almost completely collapsed due to a lack of demand. On the other hand, the frequently used double-decker buses were too big for the small number of passengers, so that a need for relatively heavy buses with large seating capacity developed.

Originally, the Tiger was only available with the Leyland TL11 engine , which developed up to 245 bhp. The predecessor Leopard was already offered with only one engine. Leyland was able to sell a large number of the Leopard in Scotland , but lost market share there to the Seddon Pennine VII , which was equipped with a six-cylinder Gardner engine. With the Tiger , Leyland initially stuck to company policy. The Dennis Dorchester , available from 1983 , also got a Gardner engine and had the potential to develop into a serious competitor to the Tiger . When the Scottish Bus Group was considering purchasing the Dennis Dorchester instead of the Tiger , the company began offering the Gardner 6HLX engine for the Tiger from 1984 onwards . To do this, the chassis had to be revised because the Gardner engine was much larger. The challenge of Dennis was indeed successfully repulsed, but for the Tigers with Gardner -Motor there was outside Scotland only a limited market. From 1987 the Tiger was available with the Cummins L10. Previous attempts by Cummins to penetrate the British bus market had been unsuccessful; the company's engines were only used in the Daimler Roadliner, which is known to be unreliable . Meanwhile, however, the situation had changed. The development of diesel engines became more and more expensive, not least because of the stricter environmental protection regulations, and Leyland was no longer one of the world market leaders in the bus sector. Therefore, outsourcing was the only way to get a modern engine for the chassis produced. The Cummins engine was modified several times from 1988 onwards. As a rule, an automatic transmission from ZF was used with this engine instead of the Leyland Hydracyclic transmission. After the takeover of Leyland by Volvo , engines from Volvo's own THD100 series were installed from 1898 . The engines from Gardner and Leyland were no longer available, only the equipment with the Cummins engine was offered as an option.

Like the leopard , the tiger was also equipped with bodies as a line bus. Such chassis had a throttled engine and leaf springs instead of the air suspension of the coaches. The Scottish Bus Group acquired a number of these buses with the 6HLXCT engine of Gardner and the TS-building Alexander . Smaller, independent operators were also interested in the bus version. The superstructures came from Alexander ( T-type and P-type ), Plaxton and East Lancs , Wadham Stringer and Reeve Burgess . The superstructures of East Lancs were partly conversions on the chassis of existing buses, Reeve Burgess built a number of shortened Tigers .

The tiger was also very popular in Northern Ireland . Ulsterbus and Citybus ( Metro from February 2005) purchased a total of 747 buses between 1983 and 1993. In 2007 576 of them were still in use, in January 2010 still 157. Of these buses, seven were N-types , which were used as tow trucks together with seven other buses, and 150 Q-types , 10 of them with a body by Wright Endeavor . In the course of a fleet modernization, only buses with Volvo engines remained in service. The body of the buses was made by Alexander's branch in Belfast , first the N-type from 1983 to 1990, then the Q-type . Ulsterbus buses were motorized with the TL11 from Leyland, while Citybus preferred the TRB6LXB from Gardner . From 1993 buses with Volvo engines were purchased.

In Australia and New Zealand , the delighted Tiger great popularity. The largest customer on this continent was Ventura in Melbourne , which purchased 70 units between 1984 and 1987. Except for one bus, which was body-built by Pressed Metal Corporation ( PMC ) in Adelaide , they all received a body from PMCn in Sydney . Some tigers are still in use in Australia today.

The bus division of Leyland was bought by manager Ian McKinnon in January 1987. This initially had no effect on the production of the Tiger . In 1988, however, the business was taken over by Volvo , which had a comparable model with the BM10 on offer. This made the two most built buses in the UK under the Volvo umbrella . As the Tiger had earned a good reputation, Volvo initially continued production, but took it off the market in 1991 after sales had plummeted. As early as 1990, Volvo tried to open up the touring coach market for the Tiger . A total of forty chassis received a corresponding body from Plaxton . Twenty-five of these buses were awarded the Plaxton 321 -Aufbau, which after the takeover of duple Coach Builders by Plaxton from the duple 320 had been developed. Nevertheless, the sales figures developed unsatisfactorily. While Volvo sold around 20,000 BM10 between 1988 and 1991 , only 3,500 Tiger chassis were sold in the same period . The Tiger's main customer , Shearings , switched to the BM10 in 1991 , which ultimately led to the Tiger being discontinued in the same year. The Farington factory, where the Tiger was built, was closed.

In total, over 4700 Tigers were built, a relatively large number of which are still in use today.

  • Leyland Tiger coach with Supreme body from Plaxton

  • Leyland Tiger coach with Paramount body from Plaxton

  • Leyland Tiger coach with Paramount body from Plaxton

  • Leyland Tiger coach with laser body from Duple

  • Leyland Tiger bus with N-type body by Alexander , used by Ulsterbus

  • Leyland Tiger city bus with Q-type body by Alexander and Volvo engine, used by Ulsterbus

  • Leyland Tiger public service bus with Hyline body from East Lancs

TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 / TRBLXB / TRCL10 / TR2R
Surname construction time number of pieces annotation
TRCTL11 1979-1980 6th Coach 46–55 seats, bodies by Duple, Plaxton and Van Hool , TL11 engine
TRCTL11 1981-1982 236 Coach 46–59 seats, superstructures mainly from Duple, Plaxton and Eastern Coach Works , TL11 engine
TRCTL11 1982-1983 263 Coach 46–59 seats, superstructures mainly from Duple, Plaxton and Eastern Coach Works , TL11 engine
TRCTL11 1982-1983 386 Coach 46–59 seats, bus with up to 69 seats, superstructures mainly from Duple, Plaxton, Eastern Coach Works and Alexander, TL11 engine
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 1983-1984 478 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, TL11 engine
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 1983-1984 287 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, TL11 engine
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 / TRBLXB 1984-1986 424 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, including seven three-axle vehicles, TL11 and 6HLX engines
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 / TRBLXB 1984-1986 305 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, TL11 and 6HLX engines
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 / TRBLXB 1985-1987 515 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, TL11 and 6HLX engines
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 / TRBLXB 1986-1987 250 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, TL11 and 6HLX engines
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 / TRCL10 1987-1988 95 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, TL11 and L10 engines
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 / TRBLXB / TRCL10 1987-1989 500 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, TL11 6HLX and L10 engines
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 / TRBLXB / TRCL10 / TR2R 1988-1991 500 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, TL11 6HLX, L10 and Volvo engines
TRBTL11 / TRCTL11 / TRBLXB / TRCL10 / TR2R 1988-1991 500 Coach, city bus and multi-purpose bus, TL11 6HLX, L10 and Volvo engines

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London TD class Leyland Tiger (English)
  2. ↑ Bus Lists on the Web - Register (worldwide) (English) ( Memento of the original dated February 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.buslistsontheweb.co.uk
  3. ↑ Made in Preston website with information about Leyland buses
  4. ^ A b Doug Jack: Beyond Reality . Venture Publications, 1994, ISBN 1898432023 , p. 90.
  5. ^ Irish Transport Trust
  6. ↑ Ulsterbus & Citybus Leyland Tiger

Web links

Commons : Leyland Tiger (front-engined)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

(Tiger TS / TF / PS)

Commons : Leyland Tiger  - collection of images, videos and audio files

(Tiger B15)