Leyland Tiger (front-engined)
Encyclopedia
The Leyland Tiger was a heavyweight half-cab single-decker bus and coach chassis built by Leyland Motors between 1927 and 1968, except the period of World War II
.
The Tiger was always very closely related to the Titan of its time, sharing a ladder type frame dropped in the wheelbase and gently rising in curves over the axles, generally only differing in wheelbase.
exhibition hall in November 1927, it was then unique amongst double deckers in having a light enough frame to run two-axled on pneumatic tyres (two at the front and four at the back) yet carry 52 passengers in a bus of 25ft overall length, with such refinements as a six-cylinder overhead-camshaft petrol engine and an unprecedentedly-low frame. The Tiger TS1 was its single–deck counterpart. The wheelbase was slightly longer at 17ft 6in allowing bodywork up to 27ft 6in long, with up to 35 seats. The first Tiger TS1 (chassis 60001A), bodied by Leyland was loaned in March 1927 to H.M.S. Catherwood Ltd of Belfast, it was purchased by them and, sold to other firms, it worked in Ireland until 1940.
In response to varied demand the TS1 was curtailed to become the TS2, which had the same wheelbase but an overall body length of 26ft and then the TS3 was introduced for the same body length, but with the Titan's 16ft 7in wheelbase. Later the TS8 was revised with a shorter bonnet to become the TS8 (special). SMT and Alexanders especially favoured that type as it could seat 39 rather than 35 in the 27ft 6in maximum length allowed for two-axle single deckers (see later).
The next thoroughly new type was the TS6 from January 1933; this had all the improvements afforded to the contemporary TD3 Titan, including the neater front radiator and bonnet assembly, but the same wheelbase and overall-length as the TS1. For operators requiring 30ft long single–decks a TS6D or TS6T Tiger was made available from 1934, the TS6D was 6x4 and the TS6T 6x2 with only the leading axle in the rear bogie powered. The TS7 and TS8 (and three-axled variants) were similarly derived from the TD4 and TD5 Titans, adopting their features. The suffix c (e.g., TS8c) indicated a torque-converter transmission. The TS9 and TS10 Tigers were never released for sale but the TS11 was equivalent to the TD7 Titan and very few were built, most during World War II, during that war the SMT group
of bus companies in Scotland converted many of their two and three-axle Tigers to Titan specification and fitted double-deck 55-seat bodies to them.
During the 1930s the Leyland 8.6-litre diesel engine became more common in bus and then coach Tigers and by the end of the decade very few operators were taking full-sized Leyland buses or coaches with petrol engines. Leyland did not offer a full-size petrol engine after the war.
In the mid-1930s with Lioness frames exhausted the later full-size Normal-control Leyland-built single decks were called Tigresses, an L prefix was added for left-hand drive versions, such as the large batch of LLTB3 ordered by Riga City Council. 71 of the ordered 90 of which were delivered to Latvia before the outbreak of the Second World War. The only UK customers for Tigresses were exclusive up-market coach-tour firms like Southdown Motor Services who took the LTB3 (equivalent to the TS6) or the LTB5 (equivalent to the TS8).
from 1937 Leyland developed the Tiger FEC, the initials stood for flat-engined coach. The Leyland 8.6-litre engine (with revised sump) was mounted horizontally in mid wheel-base driving through a Wilson fluid-flywheel and an air-operated AEC preselective gearbox. 88 were built and 12 were destroyed during World War Two, the rest serving until 1954-5 as Green Line coaches.
The sole Leyland Panda entered service with Walter Alexander in 1941, it had an underfloor engine, like the FEC, but lacked the forward-entrance of that operator's Gnus, it was bodied by Alexander with 45 seats and a central entrance to a semi-utility outline.
BFU225's engine-design was bored and stroked for use in tanks and it then became the 7.1-litre 100bhp E181 engine used in early post-war Titans and Tigers.
, Royal Tiger, Tiger Cub
and Worldmaster
were launched. That said the Tiger was very reliable, very simple to work upon and very durable and continued to sell in a profitable niche in 'dirt road' markets until the lines were closed in 1968.
Whilst retaining the dimensions of the Titan TD7 and Tiger TS11, the 1945 Titan PD1 and Tiger PS1 were entirely new designs featuring a new E181 7.4-litre engine with pushrod valve operation and a brand new four-speed constant mesh gearbox. The export versions with an O prefix for overseas markets, the OPS1, not only had longer wheelbases (where legally applicable) but were equipped with the pre-war design overhead-camshaft E87 engine, which had the same nominal 100 bhp output but was larger at 8.6 litres. No UK operator took the OPS1 but Potteries Motor Traction took a batch of long-wheelbase OPD1 Titans as single-deckers, later rebodying them as double decks once overall length rules had been relaxed to allow this. When fitted with left-hand drive, the Tiger became the LOPS1, this prefix attaching to all left-hand drive Leyland buses (and Leyland-designed British United Traction trolleybuses) until the mid 1960s when later designs adopted a suffix letter for driving control position.
PS1 buses sold well, customers ranging in size from London Transport (who took two batches totalling 131 buses) through municipal fleets, members of the British Electric Traction
and British Transport Commission
groups through independent regional firms to small independents, although there were competitive chassis from Albion Motors
, Associated Equipment Company, Bristol
, Crossley Motors
, Daimler
, Dennis
, Foden, Guy
, Maudslay
, Thornycroft
and Tilling-Stevens, the Tiger vied with the AEC Regal for market leadership. Outside Great Britain the PS1 also went to Jersey, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
There was only one mass produced derivative of the PS1, this was the coach variant with drop-frame extension for a luggage boot. This was coded PS1/1, and was a very strong seller, forming the major postwar fleet renewals for large UK coach firms such as Southdown Motor Services
, Ribble
, Wallace Arnold
, Grey-Green
and Barton Transport
. Sales of the PS1 only ended in 1950 although it was nominally replaced by the PS2 on the home market from 1948, this gives an idea of the scale of advance orders for this coach. Many coachbuilers worldwide produced bodies on the Tiger PS, as the model was introduced at the all-time peak in demand for new buses and coaches few operators could get the body of their first choice within an acceptable time. Barton got most of its coaches fitted with Duple
bodies but built its own body for its 490 (HVO729), to an American outline with shallow full-depth sliding side glazing. Wallace Arnold bought over a Leeds coachbuilder, Wilks and Meade, in 1942 to get enough bodies reserved for postwar reconstruction. Between 1946 and 1950 Wallace Arnold took 37 PS1, 11 PS2, 34 Bedford OB
, 24 AEC Regals, ten Damiler CVD6 and one Guy Arab, a fairly typical sample of coach-buying preferences at the time. Southdown used six coachbuiilders on its all-Tiger coach fleet. Whilst Ribble refitted its later prewar Tiger coaches (which had previously been petrol-engined) with PS1 running units as well as taking PS1/1s.
The PS2 followed the PD2 Titan in having the 125 bhp 9.8-litre O600 engine and a new synchromesh gearbox. With changes to rules on width and length there were numerous different versions of the home market PS2 based on permutations of width and length, whether built with or without a rear dropped frame and whether reconstructed from short-wheelbase chassis or built new to the longer wheelbase. PS2/1, 3, 5 and 7 had a 17 ft 6 in wheelbase for 27 ft 6 in bodywork. PS2/10, 11, 12, 12A, 13, 13A, 14 and 15 had a longer wheelbase of 18 ft 9 in for 30 ft long coachwork (but see later about the six-wheel PS2/10 and /11). The entire home market Tiger range was vacuum-braked and PS2s for the UK had the synchromesh gearbox only, whilst the Titan PD2 had a number of options including constant-mesh, AEC preselector and Pneumocyclic. The last new PS2 coaches entered service in 1953 with West Riding Automobile Company
, and the last home-market customer for the Tiger PS2 bus was the Burnley, Colne and Nelson Joint Transport Committee, their last arrived in 1955 and put in 20 years and more of work, thus being the last half-cab single deckers on normal service in the UK.
The export range, from 1948 were the OPS2, OPS3 and OPS4. They also featured the O600 engine and synchromesh gearbox as introduced, but air brakes were optional. The OPS2 shared the PS2's 17 ft 6 in wheelbase, although the frames, springs and axles were heavier duty than their home market equivalents, bodies could be as long as 29 ft 3 in where laws permitted, the OPSU3 was introduced at the same time as the OPS2 but had a 19 ft wheelbase for bodies up to 31 ft long. This variant would not have met UK turning circle requirements when the new 30 ft length was legalised in 1950. Córas Iompair Éireann
(CIÉ), the Irish state transport undertaking uniquely took Tigers of both PS2/13 and OPS3 type, these become the last vehicles of over 300 to be numbered in the P series that had started with Dublin United Transport's first Tiger in 1935. Walter Alexander took some OPS2 coaches as well as PS2s but these are believed to have been a frustrated export order. The OPS4, had a 21 ft 6 in wheelbase for a bodied length of 35 ft, Duple produced a batch of fifteen LOPS4/3 with Park Royal metal frames in 1949 for coach operators in Buenos Aires and a single coach to the same outline for Gibraltar motorways. Production of the 'overseas' Tiger concentrated in the 1950s on the OPS4/5 variant with exposed radiator, O680 engine, air brakes and Pneumocyclic gearbox as standard, the final (post 1967) versions were coded OPS4A/15 following updates in the Titan range and a rationalisation of nomenclature and components. The last Tiger OPS4s were delivered to South African fleets in 1970, some of these were still working at the turn of the century.
All three were later converted into Titans, the City coach by Barton Transport
and the two northern Irish vehicles by the Ulster Transport Authority
. The City coach was the sole 8 ft wide PS2/10, the NIRTB/UTA pair were 7 ft 6 in wide, hence PS2/11.
units to pull semi-trailer buses built by DAB
. These were known as "Red Worms" and worked a high capacity route in suburban Copenhagen in company with Leyland-bodied Titan and Northern Counties
-bodied Guy Arab double deckers.
.
, the Indian based joint venture, started producing its own version of the Tiger, which used the axles of the Ashok Leyland Hippo lorry. It could be seen as a group replacement for the Albion Viking (CX/HD series).
or Northern Counties bodies, Yorkshire Woollen District later following suit. Yorkshire Traction also oversaw the rebodying of five PS2s for Stratford Blue Motors, costed refurbishing the chassis at £500 and purchasing the bodies at £3,000 per bus at a time when a complete PD2 would cost over £5,000. Alexander took the running units from its 17 OPS2s in 1961 and fitted them into new Titan PD3 frames, then fitted units from scrapped PS1s into the former OPS2s. When fitted with new Alexander
bodies the recycled double-deckers could only be distinguished from similar new deliveries in that they retained the traditional radiator and bonnet from the Tigers whilst the new buses had full-width bonnets. Ulster Transport Authority also rebodied many of its Tigers in the 1950s, using new Leyland Titan PD2 chassis frames and Metro-Cammell bodyframes completed at UTA's Belfast coachworks. CIE stripped a late batch of OPS3s of their units and purchased new Titan PD3 frames and St Helens Style glassfibre bonnets, and had the vehicles assembled in 1961-62 complete with Park Royal
body frames by a company called Commercial Road Vehicles who were renting part of the former Great Northern Railway (Ireland)
central works in Dundalk. These 'R900' Titans were CIÉ's last front-engine double-deckers, again the R series had started in 1934 with Dublin United Transport.
The last two front-engined Tigers known to have been rebodied were two completed by Vernon Priaulx, then coachbuilder for Guernseybus in 1991/2. After the success of open top RT-type AEC Regent III
on tourist routes on Guernsey two former Jersey Motor Transport Tiger PS1s were purchased. Their Reading of Portsmouth bodies were too decayed to be restored so the first Tiger was rebodied as a single-deck open topper (Southport Corporation had used Ribble PS2s as such in the 1960s) and the second became a 35-seat coach with full-length sunshine roof. Both went to Mac Tours of Edinburgh after Guernseybus closed and are now in the Ensignbus preserved fleet.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The Tiger was always very closely related to the Titan of its time, sharing a ladder type frame dropped in the wheelbase and gently rising in curves over the axles, generally only differing in wheelbase.
Pre-war Leyland Tiger TS series
In conjunction with the original Titan, Leyland Motors offered the same mechanical advances in a single-deck bus or coach chassis, in half-cab form this was called the Tiger, with normal-control derivatives generally being called Tigress. The Tiger from 1927-42 went through derivatives from TS1 to TS11.Origins and prototypes
The Leyland Titan TD1 was unveiled at the Commercial Motor show at London's OlympiaOlympia, London
Olympia is an exhibition centre and conference centre in West Kensington, on the boundary between The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham, London, W14 8UX, England. It opened in the 19th century and was originally known as the National Agricultural Hall.Opened in 1886,...
exhibition hall in November 1927, it was then unique amongst double deckers in having a light enough frame to run two-axled on pneumatic tyres (two at the front and four at the back) yet carry 52 passengers in a bus of 25ft overall length, with such refinements as a six-cylinder overhead-camshaft petrol engine and an unprecedentedly-low frame. The Tiger TS1 was its single–deck counterpart. The wheelbase was slightly longer at 17ft 6in allowing bodywork up to 27ft 6in long, with up to 35 seats. The first Tiger TS1 (chassis 60001A), bodied by Leyland was loaned in March 1927 to H.M.S. Catherwood Ltd of Belfast, it was purchased by them and, sold to other firms, it worked in Ireland until 1940.
Variants
At the time the Tiger was launched there were no rules across Great Britain on a bus or coaches overall dimensions, these depended on what a local council empowered to licence vehicles to an operator would allow.In response to varied demand the TS1 was curtailed to become the TS2, which had the same wheelbase but an overall body length of 26ft and then the TS3 was introduced for the same body length, but with the Titan's 16ft 7in wheelbase. Later the TS8 was revised with a shorter bonnet to become the TS8 (special). SMT and Alexanders especially favoured that type as it could seat 39 rather than 35 in the 27ft 6in maximum length allowed for two-axle single deckers (see later).
Instant success
Not only did the Tiger catch the imagination of British Isles fleet-owners looking for better performance from their buses and coaches it also sold overseas to Sweden, South Africa, India, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina and Australia, the Canadian versions being lengthened to a 19ft wheel-base, for a 30ft body and having the engines uprated to 100bhp, geared to a top speed of 60 mph.Later derivatives
TS4 and TS5 were type-mnemonics given to limited-production interim Tigers with Titan TD2 features.The next thoroughly new type was the TS6 from January 1933; this had all the improvements afforded to the contemporary TD3 Titan, including the neater front radiator and bonnet assembly, but the same wheelbase and overall-length as the TS1. For operators requiring 30ft long single–decks a TS6D or TS6T Tiger was made available from 1934, the TS6D was 6x4 and the TS6T 6x2 with only the leading axle in the rear bogie powered. The TS7 and TS8 (and three-axled variants) were similarly derived from the TD4 and TD5 Titans, adopting their features. The suffix c (e.g., TS8c) indicated a torque-converter transmission. The TS9 and TS10 Tigers were never released for sale but the TS11 was equivalent to the TD7 Titan and very few were built, most during World War II, during that war the SMT group
Scottish Motor Traction
Scottish Motor Traction was founded in Edinburgh in 1905. It operated buses in much of central Scotland. Aside from its traditional bus operations, it operated an air taxi service with a De Havilland Fox Moth between July 18 and October 31, 1932 and for many years owned Dryburgh Abbey Hotel...
of bus companies in Scotland converted many of their two and three-axle Tigers to Titan specification and fitted double-deck 55-seat bodies to them.
During the 1930s the Leyland 8.6-litre diesel engine became more common in bus and then coach Tigers and by the end of the decade very few operators were taking full-sized Leyland buses or coaches with petrol engines. Leyland did not offer a full-size petrol engine after the war.
Tigresses and Lionesses
Very few of the initial Leyland Tigress (TB1) were built; instead Tiger running-units in the existing Leyland Lioness frame produced the Leyland Lioness-Six, model LTB1.In the mid-1930s with Lioness frames exhausted the later full-size Normal-control Leyland-built single decks were called Tigresses, an L prefix was added for left-hand drive versions, such as the large batch of LLTB3 ordered by Riga City Council. 71 of the ordered 90 of which were delivered to Latvia before the outbreak of the Second World War. The only UK customers for Tigresses were exclusive up-market coach-tour firms like Southdown Motor Services who took the LTB3 (equivalent to the TS6) or the LTB5 (equivalent to the TS8).
The FEC
In conjunction with London TransportLondon Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
from 1937 Leyland developed the Tiger FEC, the initials stood for flat-engined coach. The Leyland 8.6-litre engine (with revised sump) was mounted horizontally in mid wheel-base driving through a Wilson fluid-flywheel and an air-operated AEC preselective gearbox. 88 were built and 12 were destroyed during World War Two, the rest serving until 1954-5 as Green Line coaches.
The Gnu and Panda
These were 30 ft single deckers with twin-steering front axles. The Gnu had a front mounted vertical engine and either front or central doors. The TEP1 sold three, two to Scottish operator Walter Alexander who built 41-seat front entrance bus and coach bodies, the first one a 1937 Earls' Court show exhibit. The other one went to City Coach Company of Brentwood Essex, who fitted a centre-door 43-seat Duple body. City had bought large numbers of three-axle Tigers and was the only customer for the TEC2 Gnu, designed for centre-entrance bodywork, and having much more in-common with the Leyland Steer lorry.The sole Leyland Panda entered service with Walter Alexander in 1941, it had an underfloor engine, like the FEC, but lacked the forward-entrance of that operator's Gnus, it was bodied by Alexander with 45 seats and a central entrance to a semi-utility outline.
Enigma, The LS1
BFU225, entered service with the Lincolnshire Road Car Company in early 1941, the operator called it "Leyland light-six prototype model LS1", it had a 6.2-litre push-rod overhead-valve Leyland engine and a radiator shell of Tiger outline but as thin-across as a Lion or Cheetah's radiator shell. It ran with its 35-seat Leyland body until the mid-1950s.BFU225's engine-design was bored and stroked for use in tanks and it then became the 7.1-litre 100bhp E181 engine used in early post-war Titans and Tigers.
Postwar Leyland Tiger PS series
The postwar Leyland Tiger built from 1946–68 sold well at home and overseas. After about 1950 however many customers, especially at home but also in export markets decided they preferred the greater carrying capacity of the underfloor-engined vehicle so Tiger sales reduced as models such as the OlympicLeyland-MCW Olympic
The Leyland-MCW Olympic was a successful underfloor-engined single-deck bus built for at least eighteen countries from 1949 to 1971. 3,564 Olympics were built at four factories from 1949 to 1971, with 1,299 Olympics built as right hand drive and 2,265 as left hand drive...
, Royal Tiger, 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...
and Worldmaster
Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster
The Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster, sometimes simply known as the Leyland Worldmaster, was a mid-underfloor-engined bus chassis built by Leyland between 1954 and 1979.-Description:...
were launched. That said the Tiger was very reliable, very simple to work upon and very durable and continued to sell in a profitable niche in 'dirt road' markets until the lines were closed in 1968.
Whilst retaining the dimensions of the Titan TD7 and Tiger TS11, the 1945 Titan PD1 and Tiger PS1 were entirely new designs featuring a new E181 7.4-litre engine with pushrod valve operation and a brand new four-speed constant mesh gearbox. The export versions with an O prefix for overseas markets, the OPS1, not only had longer wheelbases (where legally applicable) but were equipped with the pre-war design overhead-camshaft E87 engine, which had the same nominal 100 bhp output but was larger at 8.6 litres. No UK operator took the OPS1 but Potteries Motor Traction took a batch of long-wheelbase OPD1 Titans as single-deckers, later rebodying them as double decks once overall length rules had been relaxed to allow this. When fitted with left-hand drive, the Tiger became the LOPS1, this prefix attaching to all left-hand drive Leyland buses (and Leyland-designed British United Traction trolleybuses) until the mid 1960s when later designs adopted a suffix letter for driving control position.
PS1 buses sold well, customers ranging in size from London Transport (who took two batches totalling 131 buses) through municipal fleets, members of the British Electric Traction
British Electric Traction
British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rentokil Initial.- Early history :The company was founded as...
and British Transport Commission
British Transport Commission
The British Transport Commission was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain...
groups through independent regional firms to small independents, although there were competitive chassis from Albion Motors
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....
, Associated Equipment Company, Bristol
Bristol Commercial Vehicles
Bristol Commercial Vehicles was a vehicle manufacturer of in Bristol, England. Most production was of buses but trucks and railbus chassis were also built....
, Crossley Motors
Crossley Motors
Crossley Motors was a British motor vehicle manufacturer based in Manchester, England. They produced approximately 19,000 high quality cars from 1904 until 1938, 5,500 buses from 1926 until 1958 and 21,000 goods and military vehicles from 1914 to 1945.Crossley Brothers, originally...
, Daimler
Daimler Motor Company
The Daimler Motor Company Limited was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H J Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The right to the use of the name Daimler had been purchased simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler Motoren...
, Dennis
Dennis Specialist Vehicles
Dennis Specialist Vehicles is a major British coachbuilder and manufacturer of specialised commercial vehicles based in Guildford, England...
, Foden, Guy
Guy Motors
Guy Motors was a British company based in Fallings Park, Wolverhampton that made cars, lorries, buses, and trolleybuses.-History:Guy Motors Ltd was founded in 1914 by Sydney Guy who had been the Works Manager of nearby Sunbeam. A factory was built on the site at Fallings Park, Wolverhampton...
, Maudslay
Maudslay Motor Company
The Maudslay Motor Company was a British vehicle maker based in Coventry. It was founded in 1902 and continued until 1948 when it was taken over by the Associated Equipment Company and along with Crossley Motors the new group was renamed Associated Commercial Vehicles Ltd.-Early history:The...
, Thornycroft
Thornycroft
Thornycroft was a United Kingdom-based vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977.-History:Thornycroft started out with steam vans and lorries. John Isaac Thornycroft, the naval engineer, built his first steam lorry in 1896...
and Tilling-Stevens, the Tiger vied with the AEC Regal for market leadership. Outside Great Britain the PS1 also went to Jersey, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
There was only one mass produced derivative of the PS1, this was the coach variant with drop-frame extension for a luggage boot. This was coded PS1/1, and was a very strong seller, forming the major postwar fleet renewals for large UK coach firms such as Southdown Motor Services
Southdown Motor Services
Southdown Motor Services Ltd operates bus and coach services in East and West Sussex and parts of Hampshire, in southern England. It was formed in 1915 and had various owners throughout its history, being purchased by the National Bus Company in 1969...
, Ribble
Ribble Motor Services
Ribble Motor Services was a large regional bus operator in the North West of England, based in Preston. The company was started in 1919, and grew to be the largest operator in the region, with a territory stretching from Carlisle to south Lancashire...
, Wallace Arnold
Wallace Arnold
Wallace Arnold was one of the UK's largest holiday motorcoach tour operators. It was founded in 1912 and was named after its founders Wallace Cunningham and Arnold Crowe. By 1980 it operated 290 coaches from its headquarters in Leeds, and owned a subsidiary based in Devon...
, Grey-Green
Grey-Green
Grey-Green was a coach and bus operator in the United Kingdom. It was based in Stamford Hill, and can trace its origins back over a century to the foundation of George Ewer’s horse carriage business in 1885.-History:...
and Barton Transport
Barton Transport
Barton Transport plc was a British bus and coach operator based in Chilwell, Nottinghamshire. It commenced its first service in 1908. Its fleet and operations were sold to Wellglade in 1989, and the combined operations later became Trent Barton...
. Sales of the PS1 only ended in 1950 although it was nominally replaced by the PS2 on the home market from 1948, this gives an idea of the scale of advance orders for this coach. Many coachbuilers worldwide produced bodies on the Tiger PS, as the model was introduced at the all-time peak in demand for new buses and coaches few operators could get the body of their first choice within an acceptable time. Barton got most of its coaches fitted with Duple
Duple Coachbuilders
Duple was best known as a British manufacturer of coach and bus bodywork from 1919 until 1989.-History:Duple Bodies & Motors Ltd was formed in 1919 by Herbert White in Hornsey, London...
bodies but built its own body for its 490 (HVO729), to an American outline with shallow full-depth sliding side glazing. Wallace Arnold bought over a Leeds coachbuilder, Wilks and Meade, in 1942 to get enough bodies reserved for postwar reconstruction. Between 1946 and 1950 Wallace Arnold took 37 PS1, 11 PS2, 34 Bedford OB
Bedford OB
The Bedford OB model was a bus or coach chassis introduced in 1939.The OB has a wheelbase of , and is a semi-forward control model, designed to carry 26 to 29-passenger bodywork....
, 24 AEC Regals, ten Damiler CVD6 and one Guy Arab, a fairly typical sample of coach-buying preferences at the time. Southdown used six coachbuiilders on its all-Tiger coach fleet. Whilst Ribble refitted its later prewar Tiger coaches (which had previously been petrol-engined) with PS1 running units as well as taking PS1/1s.
The PS2 followed the PD2 Titan in having the 125 bhp 9.8-litre O600 engine and a new synchromesh gearbox. With changes to rules on width and length there were numerous different versions of the home market PS2 based on permutations of width and length, whether built with or without a rear dropped frame and whether reconstructed from short-wheelbase chassis or built new to the longer wheelbase. PS2/1, 3, 5 and 7 had a 17 ft 6 in wheelbase for 27 ft 6 in bodywork. PS2/10, 11, 12, 12A, 13, 13A, 14 and 15 had a longer wheelbase of 18 ft 9 in for 30 ft long coachwork (but see later about the six-wheel PS2/10 and /11). The entire home market Tiger range was vacuum-braked and PS2s for the UK had the synchromesh gearbox only, whilst the Titan PD2 had a number of options including constant-mesh, AEC preselector and Pneumocyclic. The last new PS2 coaches entered service in 1953 with West Riding Automobile Company
West Riding Automobile Company
The West Riding Automobile Company, under the fleet name of West Riding, was a bus company that served the Wakefield area of Yorkshire, England from 1923.-Company history:...
, and the last home-market customer for the Tiger PS2 bus was the Burnley, Colne and Nelson Joint Transport Committee, their last arrived in 1955 and put in 20 years and more of work, thus being the last half-cab single deckers on normal service in the UK.
The export range, from 1948 were the OPS2, OPS3 and OPS4. They also featured the O600 engine and synchromesh gearbox as introduced, but air brakes were optional. The OPS2 shared the PS2's 17 ft 6 in wheelbase, although the frames, springs and axles were heavier duty than their home market equivalents, bodies could be as long as 29 ft 3 in where laws permitted, the OPSU3 was introduced at the same time as the OPS2 but had a 19 ft wheelbase for bodies up to 31 ft long. This variant would not have met UK turning circle requirements when the new 30 ft length was legalised in 1950. Córas Iompair Éireann
Córas Iompair Éireann
Córas Iompair Éireann , or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of the Irish state, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport in the Republic of Ireland and, jointly with its Northern Ireland counterpart, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, between the...
(CIÉ), the Irish state transport undertaking uniquely took Tigers of both PS2/13 and OPS3 type, these become the last vehicles of over 300 to be numbered in the P series that had started with Dublin United Transport's first Tiger in 1935. Walter Alexander took some OPS2 coaches as well as PS2s but these are believed to have been a frustrated export order. The OPS4, had a 21 ft 6 in wheelbase for a bodied length of 35 ft, Duple produced a batch of fifteen LOPS4/3 with Park Royal metal frames in 1949 for coach operators in Buenos Aires and a single coach to the same outline for Gibraltar motorways. Production of the 'overseas' Tiger concentrated in the 1950s on the OPS4/5 variant with exposed radiator, O680 engine, air brakes and Pneumocyclic gearbox as standard, the final (post 1967) versions were coded OPS4A/15 following updates in the Titan range and a rationalisation of nomenclature and components. The last Tiger OPS4s were delivered to South African fleets in 1970, some of these were still working at the turn of the century.
Six-wheelers
One Heaver-bodied coach for City Coach Company, Romford and two deck and a half airport coaches bodied by the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board for their own use were built to a twin-steering three-axle specification with the second steering axle, which had 17-inch rather than 21-inch wheels, designed to be readily removed once 30 ft length on two axles was legal. City had pre-war operated the largest fleet of the Leyland Gnu twin-steering single decker, switching to them from conventional six-wheeled Tigers.All three were later converted into Titans, the City coach by Barton Transport
Barton Transport
Barton Transport plc was a British bus and coach operator based in Chilwell, Nottinghamshire. It commenced its first service in 1908. Its fleet and operations were sold to Wellglade in 1989, and the combined operations later became Trent Barton...
and the two northern Irish vehicles by 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...
. The City coach was the sole 8 ft wide PS2/10, the NIRTB/UTA pair were 7 ft 6 in wide, hence PS2/11.
Red Worms
Danish state railways took some shortened PS2s together with BüssingBüssing
Büssing was a German bus and truck manufacturer established by Heinrich Büssing at Braunschweig in 1903. Büssing's first truck was a 2 ton payload machine powered by a 2-cylinder gasoline engine and featuring worm drive...
units to pull semi-trailer buses built by DAB
Danish Automobile Building
Danish Automobile Building was a Danish bus manufacturer based in Silkeborg. It was in existence from 1912 until 2002....
. These were known as "Red Worms" and worked a high capacity route in suburban Copenhagen in company with Leyland-bodied Titan and Northern Counties
Northern Counties
Northern Counties Motor and Engineering Company was a manufacturer of bus bodywork located in Wigan Lane, Wigan, in North West England.-Overview:...
-bodied Guy Arab double deckers.
Israeli Tigresses
Dan and Egged, the two Israeli bus co-operatives, had used normal-control former US military vehicles as buses just after the end of World War II, Leyland's Israeli works at Ashdod therefore persuaded the Farington works to build LOPSU3’s for this market to normal control, they were known as Tigresses after the pre-war LTB bonnetted type, but were recorded as Tigers with no separate model designation. Royal Tigers and Worldmasters followed as did two examples of the PSR1 LionLeyland Lion PSR1
The Leyland Lion, coded as PSR1, is Leyland Motors' first production rear engined single decker. A total of 88 were built between 1960 and 1967, which was low for the time...
.
Indian Tigers
In 1955, although the Comet built in India from 1953 was selling phenomenally well there was a demand for heavier duty single decks. Ashok LeylandAshok Leyland
Ashok Leyland is a commercial vehicle manufacturing company based in Chennai, India. Founded in 1948, the company is one of India's leading manufacturers of commercial vehicles, such as trucks and buses, as well as emergency and military vehicles. Operating six plants, Ashok Leyland also makes...
, the Indian based joint venture, started producing its own version of the Tiger, which used the axles of the Ashok Leyland Hippo lorry. It could be seen as a group replacement for the Albion Viking (CX/HD series).
Rebuilding
The outdated layout of the half-cab single deck and its low seating capacity exercised the minds of a number of operators from the mid 1950s. Barton Transport converted PS1s to 27 ft 6 in long double-deckers and Tiger PS2s, including the former City coach to 30 ft double deckers, the later ones carrying fully fronted Northern Counties double-deck bodies. Yorkshire Traction, in the BET group did systematic conversions of most of their fleet of Tigers from about 1955-63, using Charles H. RoeCharles H. Roe
Charles H. Roe Ltd. was a Yorkshire coachbuilding company. It was for most of its life based at Crossgates Carriage Works, in Leeds.In 1947 it was taken over by Park Royal Vehicles. Two years later, along with its parent, it became part of Associated Commercial Vehicles in 1949, which was merged...
or Northern Counties bodies, Yorkshire Woollen District later following suit. Yorkshire Traction also oversaw the rebodying of five PS2s for Stratford Blue Motors, costed refurbishing the chassis at £500 and purchasing the bodies at £3,000 per bus at a time when a complete PD2 would cost over £5,000. Alexander took the running units from its 17 OPS2s in 1961 and fitted them into new Titan PD3 frames, then fitted units from scrapped PS1s into the former OPS2s. When fitted with new Alexander
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...
bodies the recycled double-deckers could only be distinguished from similar new deliveries in that they retained the traditional radiator and bonnet from the Tigers whilst the new buses had full-width bonnets. Ulster Transport Authority also rebodied many of its Tigers in the 1950s, using new Leyland Titan PD2 chassis frames and Metro-Cammell bodyframes completed at UTA's Belfast coachworks. CIE stripped a late batch of OPS3s of their units and purchased new Titan PD3 frames and St Helens Style glassfibre bonnets, and had the vehicles assembled in 1961-62 complete with 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 frames by a company called Commercial Road Vehicles who were renting part of the former Great Northern Railway (Ireland)
Great Northern Railway (Ireland)
The Great Northern Railway was an Irish gauge railway company in Ireland.The Great Northern was formed in 1876 by a merger of the Irish North Western Railway , Northern Railway of Ireland, and Ulster Railway. The Ulster Railway was the GNRI's oldest constituent, having opened between Belfast and...
central works in Dundalk. These 'R900' Titans were CIÉ's last front-engine double-deckers, again the R series had started in 1934 with Dublin United Transport.
The last two front-engined Tigers known to have been rebodied were two completed by Vernon Priaulx, then coachbuilder for Guernseybus in 1991/2. After the success of open top RT-type AEC Regent III
AEC Regent III RT
The AEC Regent III RT was a variant of the AEC Regent III. It was a double-decker bus produced jointly between AEC and London Transport. It was the standard red London bus during the 1950s.-Prototype:...
on tourist routes on Guernsey two former Jersey Motor Transport Tiger PS1s were purchased. Their Reading of Portsmouth bodies were too decayed to be restored so the first Tiger was rebodied as a single-deck open topper (Southport Corporation had used Ribble PS2s as such in the 1960s) and the second became a 35-seat coach with full-length sunshine roof. Both went to Mac Tours of Edinburgh after Guernseybus closed and are now in the Ensignbus preserved fleet.
Preservation
There are large numbers of PS-type Tigers in preservation, carrying a wide variety of coachwork, some double-deck. Being smaller and more mechanically basic than a more modern bus they are perhaps easier to look after, but bodywork can often be very fragile.In popular culture
Both during their operational life and later Tigers crop up often on screen, one also found itself a major player in Jasper Fforde's 2007 comic novel First Among Sequels.Books
- Townsin, Leylands Since 1945, in Smith (ed), Buses Annual 1964, London 1963
- Kaye, Buses and Trolleybuses Since 1945, London 1968
- Townsin, Duple 70 years of Coachbuilding, Glossop, 1998
- Brown, Buses in Britain The 1970s, Harrow Weald 1999
- Glazier, London Bus File 1955-62, Harrow Weald 1999
- Brown, Half Cab Twilight, Harrow Weald, 2001 pp61–3
- Barber and Davies,Glory Days:Wallace Arnold, Hersham, 2007
- Fforde, First Among Sequels, London, 2007
- Oxley, Barton 100, Attenborough(Notts), 2008
Websites
- Buses on Screen
- Bus Lists on the Web