Albion Aberdonian
Encyclopedia
The Albion Aberdonian was an underfloor-engined bus designed and built by Albion Motors
between 1957 and 1960, it was introduced as a longer derivative of the Albion Nimbus
.
The Aberdonian, development code "Nimbus-Six", was designed to be the lightest full-size underfloor-engined bus available. Bodied examples would weigh half a ton less than the similarly powered Leyland Tiger Cub
. Launch was at the 1957 Scottish Motor Show at the Kelvin Hall
where an Alexander bodied coach demonstrator in Edinburgh Corporation livery weighing less than five tons unladen was shown. It was the fourth Albion bus designed with an underfloor engine, the third type manufactured, the second after the Leyland takeover and the second named Albion bus chassis not to have a name beginning with V.
An Aberdonian is a native of Aberdeen and within Scotland Aberdonians are traditionally considered miserly. As the current editor of Buses put it this was a bus designed to sip rather than gulp fuel.
The power unit on launch was a Leyland O350H 97 bhp 5.76-litre four-stroke direct-injection six-cylinder diesel, mounted horizontally in mid-wheelbase driving through a unit-mounted Albion clutch and constant mesh gearbox to an overhead-worm rear axle derived from that fitted to the FT and PF series lorries. The radiator was mounted behind the front axle and was inclined to allow a larger surface area without intrusion into the saloon. Braking was vacuum-assisted hydraulic with an engine-driven vacuum exhauster. The fuel tank was a 35 gallon cylindrical unit transversely mounted between the frame members aft of the rear axle. The engine was fitted with an oil-bath air cleaner and a centrifugal oil filter.
In the manufacturer's brochure the Aberdonian was quoted as only a 42 seater bus and 39 seater coach when practical UK maxima for 30 ft (9.1 m) & 8 ft (2.4 m) bodies were 45 and 43 respectively. This must have been because of the chassis 8.5 ton GVW although the chassis had a meagre dry weight of 2934 kg (6,468 lb) and with lightweight bodies 45 bus seats or 41 coach seats were fitted to most UK examples and the Ceylon examples sat as many as 54, probably through use of 3+2 seating.
The choice of vehicles on the front cover of the brochure was itself of interest. The Western SMT
coach (KCS713) pictured uppermost is shown with London on the blind, but it was unlikely ever to have gone that far south. At the time when the picture was posed by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders
near Stirling Castle
, Western's Glasgow-London run was the province of toilet-equipped Guy Arab UFs and LUFs and by the release date of the brochure they had ordered their first Leyland Leopard
s for this route.
The lower picture is of a Weymann
-bodied bus for North Western Road Car, the picture being taken near the coachbuilder's factory in Addlestone
Surrey.
The Leyland-group nomenclature of the period can be confusing, as several systems were operating at once in different product lines and different markets. For the type code MR11L, the mnemonic MR indicated a Claymore-type frame, 11 meant it was the heaviest Claymore-type vehicle and the L meant long wheelbase although only a 16 in 4 in (4.98 m) wheelbase was available. Although note intriguingly that some completely knocked down (ckd) chassis for Indonesia were given as MR11N and some Australian chassis were given the Sp suffix, which suggests non-standard equipment sanctioned at Scotstoun, Leyland or Chorley.
(1).The East Yorkshire bus had a Park Royal
body, the other BET fleets had Weymann although PMT also took Willowbrook bodies.
The major purchaser in the UK was the Ulster Transport Authority
with 57 (following on from narrow Tiger Cubs), all bodied as 41-seat buses by the operator on Alexander frames.
Independent Venture of Consett, County Durham
had 17, a mixture of 45-seat bus and 41-seat dual-purpose with Willowbrook coachwork, one of which had been an unregistered demonstrator. Charlie's Cars of Bournemouth were the largest private sector operators of the coach with 2 Harrington
Wayfarers and 6 Cavaliers. Smith of Wigan (6) and Gardiner, Spennymoor, County Durham (4) had Plaxton
batches. Yeates bodied one C41F Europa coach VMW441 for an independent in Wiltshire. there were three other Harrington Wayfarers (all the Harrington coaches were C41F) and six other Plaxton coaches, XWR195 of Hollings, Askern being the only centre-entrance coach built, like all but one of the Plaxton coaches it also sat 41, the exception being UGD877 to C37F plan for Cotter of Glasgow, a high class touring outfit who at the time provided Glasgow Celtic F.C.
with their team coach. There were seven Plaxton Highway buses seating 41-45, two for Armstrong of Ebchester, County Durham; three to Welsh operators LCW, Llandeilio, Thomas Bros, Llangadog and Williams, Blayna; the other two went to Pepper of Thurnscoe in the West Riding of Yorkshire and Hudson of Horncastle in the Lincolnshire Wolds.
In the municipal sector Manchester Corporation had six buses with Seddon bodies, Southend four Weymann buses whilst Edinburgh bought an Alexander-bodied bus to go with the show coach which was registered in Glasgow as an Albion demonstrator.
Other than that Willowbrook registered DP41F demonstrator RNR558 and Burlingham built a B45F bus on chassis 82506E, which worked for the Northern Ireland Hospitals Board, registered WZ886.
There were three Aberdonians not bodied as buses. WGA904 was a mobile electrical-products showroom built on chassis 82025E in 1958/9 by John Limond Coahbuilders of Ayr. It featured Duple 'butterfly-front' coach components to the specification of the South of Scotland Electricity Board. It was said to return 20.6 miles per gallon. One other Aberonian chassis 82525K registered XYF2 went to a motor racing team in London as a coachbuilt (coachbuilder unknown) car transporter and a third chassis 82521A was bodied as a furniture van (registration as well as coachbuilder not currently known) to Lancashire furniture maker Eastham, Thornton.
The exports included 100 to Ceylon in one extended batch and others to Australia
, Indonesia
and Mauritius
. Weymann bodied the Ceylon buses and the Australian, Mauritius and Indonesian vehicles received locally built coachwork. Many chassis for Australia, some for Ceylon and all for Indonesia were exported as ckd kits.
Production ceased in 1960. Total production of the MR11L Aberdonian was 471. Some Indonesian buses are given as MR11N and two Australian buses as MR11LSp.
Albion Motors
Albion Automotive of Scotstoun, Glasgow is a former Scottish automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturer, currently involved in the manufacture and supply of Automotive component systems....
between 1957 and 1960, it was introduced as a longer derivative of the Albion Nimbus
Albion Nimbus
The Albion Nimbus was an underfloor-engined, ultra-lightweight midibus or coach chassis, with a four-cylinder horizontal diesel engine and a gross vehicle weight of six tons. It was happiest on light rural bus duties and private hires. Operators who used it on heavy-duty bus routes found it...
.
The Aberdonian, development code "Nimbus-Six", was designed to be the lightest full-size underfloor-engined bus available. Bodied examples would weigh half a ton less than the similarly powered Leyland Tiger Cub
Leyland Tiger Cub
The Leyland Tiger Cub was a lightweight underfloor-engined chassis built by Leyland Motors between 1951 and 1970, most as 44-45 seat buses, with a smaller number as coaches...
. Launch was at the 1957 Scottish Motor Show at the Kelvin Hall
Kelvin Hall
The Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Scotland, is a mixed-use arts and sports venue that opened as an exhibition centre in 1927. It has been a music hall, indoor arena and barrage balloon factory, and is currently home to the Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena and from 1987 to 2010, Glasgow's Museum of...
where an Alexander bodied coach demonstrator in Edinburgh Corporation livery weighing less than five tons unladen was shown. It was the fourth Albion bus designed with an underfloor engine, the third type manufactured, the second after the Leyland takeover and the second named Albion bus chassis not to have a name beginning with V.
An Aberdonian is a native of Aberdeen and within Scotland Aberdonians are traditionally considered miserly. As the current editor of Buses put it this was a bus designed to sip rather than gulp fuel.
Chassis features
The frame comprised lightweight longitudinal channel and tubular cross-members. It was straight over the axles with a dropped section forward of the front axle to provide a lower entrance. A drop frame for a luggage boot was optional at the rear. Special steels were used to keep weight down.The power unit on launch was a Leyland O350H 97 bhp 5.76-litre four-stroke direct-injection six-cylinder diesel, mounted horizontally in mid-wheelbase driving through a unit-mounted Albion clutch and constant mesh gearbox to an overhead-worm rear axle derived from that fitted to the FT and PF series lorries. The radiator was mounted behind the front axle and was inclined to allow a larger surface area without intrusion into the saloon. Braking was vacuum-assisted hydraulic with an engine-driven vacuum exhauster. The fuel tank was a 35 gallon cylindrical unit transversely mounted between the frame members aft of the rear axle. The engine was fitted with an oil-bath air cleaner and a centrifugal oil filter.
In the manufacturer's brochure the Aberdonian was quoted as only a 42 seater bus and 39 seater coach when practical UK maxima for 30 ft (9.1 m) & 8 ft (2.4 m) bodies were 45 and 43 respectively. This must have been because of the chassis 8.5 ton GVW although the chassis had a meagre dry weight of 2934 kg (6,468 lb) and with lightweight bodies 45 bus seats or 41 coach seats were fitted to most UK examples and the Ceylon examples sat as many as 54, probably through use of 3+2 seating.
The choice of vehicles on the front cover of the brochure was itself of interest. The Western SMT
Western SMT
Western Scottish Motor Traction Co. Limited was a bus operator in south-west Scotland from 1929 to 1985.The company was formed in 1929 by the renaming of Scottish General Transport Co. Ltd, after the British Electric Traction subsidiary formed in 1913 was acquired by the Scottish Motor Traction...
coach (KCS713) pictured uppermost is shown with London on the blind, but it was unlikely ever to have gone that far south. At the time when the picture was posed by Walter Alexander Coachbuilders
Walter Alexander Coachbuilders
Walter Alexander Coachbuilders was a Scottish bus coachbuilder and operater based in Falkirk.-History:Walter Alexander, notice a lack expasion by the Falkirk and District Tramways Company's especially in to Grangemouth which never hdd a tram line. In 1913 Alexander's Motor Service was created to...
near Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep...
, Western's Glasgow-London run was the province of toilet-equipped Guy Arab UFs and LUFs and by the release date of the brochure they had ordered their first Leyland Leopard
Leyland Leopard
The Leyland Leopard was a mid-engined single-deck bus and coach chassis built by Leyland between 1959 and 1982. It was popular with bus and coach operators throughout the British Isles...
s for this route.
The lower picture is of a Weymann
Metro Cammell Weymann
Metro Cammell Weymann was once a major player in transportation manufacturing in the UK and Europe. It was formed in 1932 by Weymann Motor Bodies Ltd and Metro Cammell's bus bodybuilding division to produce bus bodies....
-bodied bus for North Western Road Car, the picture being taken near the coachbuilder's factory in Addlestone
Addlestone
Addlestone is a town in the borough of Runnymede in the county of Surrey, England.Immediate surrounding towns and villages include Weybridge, Ottershaw, Chertsey, and New Haw. It is near Junction 11 of the M25 motorway and is served by Addlestone railway station on the Chertsey Branch Line. It also...
Surrey.
The Leyland-group nomenclature of the period can be confusing, as several systems were operating at once in different product lines and different markets. For the type code MR11L, the mnemonic MR indicated a Claymore-type frame, 11 meant it was the heaviest Claymore-type vehicle and the L meant long wheelbase although only a 16 in 4 in (4.98 m) wheelbase was available. Although note intriguingly that some completely knocked down (ckd) chassis for Indonesia were given as MR11N and some Australian chassis were given the Sp suffix, which suggests non-standard equipment sanctioned at Scotstoun, Leyland or Chorley.
Sales
Western had three of the Scottish Bus Group's twenty-six, all Alexander bodied coaches, one went to SOL, the rest were new to Alexanders, all of these were coach-bodied. North Western had six of the BET group's 46, all of which were buses; the others going to PMT (34), Northern General (5) and East Yorkshire Motor ServicesEast Yorkshire Motor Services
East Yorkshire Motor Services is a large bus and coach operator which operates throughout Kingston upon Hull, the East Riding of Yorkshire, the North Yorkshire coast and the North York Moors. In and around Scarborough, EYMS operates as Scarborough & District Motor Services...
(1).The East Yorkshire bus had a Park Royal
Park Royal Vehicles
Dating its origins back to 1889, Park Royal Vehicles along with its Leeds-based subsidiary Charles H. Roe was one of Britain's leading coachbuilders and bus manufacturers based at Park Royal, west London, UK.-Associated Commercial Vehicles:...
body, the other BET fleets had Weymann although PMT also took Willowbrook bodies.
The major purchaser in the UK was the Ulster Transport Authority
Ulster Transport Authority
The Ulster Transport Authority ran rail and bus transport in Northern Ireland from 1948 until 1966.-Formation and consolidation:The UTA was formed by the Transport Act 1948, which merged the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board and the Belfast and County Down Railway...
with 57 (following on from narrow Tiger Cubs), all bodied as 41-seat buses by the operator on Alexander frames.
Independent Venture of Consett, County Durham
County Durham
County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
had 17, a mixture of 45-seat bus and 41-seat dual-purpose with Willowbrook coachwork, one of which had been an unregistered demonstrator. Charlie's Cars of Bournemouth were the largest private sector operators of the coach with 2 Harrington
Thomas Harrington Ltd
Thomas Harrington & Sons Ltd was a coachbuilder in the county of Sussex from 1897 until 1966, initially at Brighton but from 1930 until the end in a purpose built Art Deco factory at Old Shoreham Road, Hove.-Overview:The company began with the construction of horse-drawn carriages...
Wayfarers and 6 Cavaliers. Smith of Wigan (6) and Gardiner, Spennymoor, County Durham (4) had Plaxton
Plaxton
Plaxton is a builder of bus and coach vehicle bodies based in Scarborough, England.-History:The Plaxton of today is the successor to a business founded in Scarborough in 1907 by Frederick William Plaxton.-Beginnings:...
batches. Yeates bodied one C41F Europa coach VMW441 for an independent in Wiltshire. there were three other Harrington Wayfarers (all the Harrington coaches were C41F) and six other Plaxton coaches, XWR195 of Hollings, Askern being the only centre-entrance coach built, like all but one of the Plaxton coaches it also sat 41, the exception being UGD877 to C37F plan for Cotter of Glasgow, a high class touring outfit who at the time provided Glasgow Celtic F.C.
Celtic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...
with their team coach. There were seven Plaxton Highway buses seating 41-45, two for Armstrong of Ebchester, County Durham; three to Welsh operators LCW, Llandeilio, Thomas Bros, Llangadog and Williams, Blayna; the other two went to Pepper of Thurnscoe in the West Riding of Yorkshire and Hudson of Horncastle in the Lincolnshire Wolds.
In the municipal sector Manchester Corporation had six buses with Seddon bodies, Southend four Weymann buses whilst Edinburgh bought an Alexander-bodied bus to go with the show coach which was registered in Glasgow as an Albion demonstrator.
Other than that Willowbrook registered DP41F demonstrator RNR558 and Burlingham built a B45F bus on chassis 82506E, which worked for the Northern Ireland Hospitals Board, registered WZ886.
There were three Aberdonians not bodied as buses. WGA904 was a mobile electrical-products showroom built on chassis 82025E in 1958/9 by John Limond Coahbuilders of Ayr. It featured Duple 'butterfly-front' coach components to the specification of the South of Scotland Electricity Board. It was said to return 20.6 miles per gallon. One other Aberonian chassis 82525K registered XYF2 went to a motor racing team in London as a coachbuilt (coachbuilder unknown) car transporter and a third chassis 82521A was bodied as a furniture van (registration as well as coachbuilder not currently known) to Lancashire furniture maker Eastham, Thornton.
The exports included 100 to Ceylon in one extended batch and others to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
. Weymann bodied the Ceylon buses and the Australian, Mauritius and Indonesian vehicles received locally built coachwork. Many chassis for Australia, some for Ceylon and all for Indonesia were exported as ckd kits.
Production ceased in 1960. Total production of the MR11L Aberdonian was 471. Some Indonesian buses are given as MR11N and two Australian buses as MR11LSp.
In service
Some operators found the Aberdonian underpowered, the vacuum brakes were not as effective as the air brakes of the Tiger Cub, and the Albion clutch gave problems and was replaced by the Leyland unit fitted to the Tiger Cub. In the final year of production the larger Leyland O375H of 6.15 litres developing 107 bhp became optional. Most of the UK vehicles served a full life with their respective operators but the SOL example and the three Western SMT coaches were transferred to Alexanders when around 5 years old. When Alexanders was split into three, Midland had one Aberdonian, Fife had four and Northern (whose head office was in Aberdeen) had the rest, including the ex-Western coaches.Preservation
Five Aberdonians are preserved including a former Gardiner's Plaxton-bodied 41-seat coach.Sources
- Adams & Milligan, Albion of Scotstoun, Paisley 1999
- Kaye, Buses Since 1945, London 1968
- Albion Motors brochure L680b, November 1959
- Hutchinson, Venture of Consett, Glossop 2003
- Albion Vehicle Preservation Trust
- Booth(ed) Classic Bus 26, Edinburgh November 1996.
- Bus Lists on the Web