Volvo Ailsa B55
Encyclopedia
The Volvo
Volvo Buses
Volvo Buses is a subsidiary and a business area of the Swedish vehicle maker Volvo, which became an independent division in 1968. It is based in Göteborg....

 Ailsa B55
was a front-engined double-decker bus
Double-decker bus
A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or 'decks'. Global usage of this type of bus is more common in outer touring than in its intra-urban transportion role. Double-decker buses are also commonly found in certain parts of Europe, Asia, and former British colonies and protectorates...

 chassis built in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 by Ailsa, Volvo's British commercial vehicle agency. It was in production from 1973 to 1985, and was a relatively successful alternative to the ubiquitous rear-engined Bristol VR
Bristol VR
The Bristol VR was Bristol's rear-engined bus chassis, designed as a competitor to the Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline.-Development:...

, Leyland Atlantean
Leyland Atlantean
The Leyland Atlantean is a model of double-decker bus built by Leyland in the United Kingdom from 1958 to 1986....

 and Daimler/Leyland Fleetline
Daimler Fleetline
The Daimler Fleetline is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis built between 1960 and 1973 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, and from 1973 until 1980 in Farington, Lancashire, England. However, the last complete vehicle did not enter service until 1983...

 of the period.

The vehicle first appeared at the 1973 Scottish Motor Show, and was well received.

Versions

The chassis was designed with a front mounted engine that still allowed a front entrance position suitable for one-person operation. In this sense there was a common goal with the earlier, unsuccessful, Guy Wulfrunian
Guy Wulfrunian
The Guy Wulfrunian was a front-engine double-decker bus chassis produced by Guy from 1959 to 1965.-History:The Wulfrunian was developed jointly by Guy and the West Riding Automobile Company, and, of 137 vehicles built, 126 went to West Riding...

. The engine was the Volvo TD70, a compact turbocharged unit of 6.7-litres. The rest of the design was relatively simple, with beam axles and leaf springs. A Self-Changing Gears
Self-Changing Gears
Self-Changing Gears was a British company, set up and owned equally by Walter Gordon Wilson and John Davenport Siddeley to develop and exploit the Wilson or pre-selector gearbox...

 semi-automatic gearbox was used.

A prototype lowheight Ailsa, designated B55-20 (instead of the standard B55-10), was built for the Scottish Bus Group
Scottish Bus Group
The Scottish Bus Group was a state-owned Scottish holding company that included a number of bus operators covering the whole of Scotland. The group was formed in 1961 as Scottish Omnibuses Group Ltd, to take control of the British Transport Commission's bus operating subsidiaries in Scotland...

 for operation in the Highlands with Highland Omnibuses. When SBG first looked at the prototype, they ran a mile, thus no more were built. Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

 Borough Transport bought the bus in 1977. It remained a one-off and is now owned by WJC Coaches in Scotland.

In 1977 an improved MkII version appeared, with two transmission options offered - a Self-Changing Gears
Self-Changing Gears
Self-Changing Gears was a British company, set up and owned equally by Walter Gordon Wilson and John Davenport Siddeley to develop and exploit the Wilson or pre-selector gearbox...

 pneumocyclic unit and a Voith D851 with retarder. It was followed in 1980 by a MkIII version, for which the Ailsa name was dropped. This continued to use the Volvo TD70H turbocharged engine, and utilized a Volvo truck rear axle in place of the previous troublesome axle. Air suspension was also an available option.

In 1981, a 3-axle version of Ailsa B55 was developed to meet the demand of 3-axle buses in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

.

Operators

The Ailsa B55 type was particularly popular with the Scottish Bus Group
Scottish Bus Group
The Scottish Bus Group was a state-owned Scottish holding company that included a number of bus operators covering the whole of Scotland. The group was formed in 1961 as Scottish Omnibuses Group Ltd, to take control of the British Transport Commission's bus operating subsidiaries in Scotland...

, as well as Tayside Region and Strathclyde PTE
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport
The Strathclyde Partnership for Transport is a public body which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating regional transport, and especially the public transport system, in the Strathclyde area of western Scotland...

. Significant orders also came from West Midlands PTE
West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive
The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive , sometimes known as Centro, is a local government organisation responsible for certain transport services in the West Midlands county in England....

 and South Yorkshire PTE
South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive
The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive is the Passenger Transport Executive for South Yorkshire in England. It is supervised by the South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority, which consists of representatives from the metropolitan boroughs of Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, and...

 and to a lesser degree Merseyside PTE
Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive
The Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive is the Passenger Transport Executive responsible for the coordination of public transport in the metropolitan county of Merseyside, England...

. Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

 independent operator A1 Service, whose operating area included the Ailsa plant in Irvine, also purchased several of the vehicles new, increasing its fleet where it could through the purchase of used vehicles.

As part of its Alternative Vehicle Evaluation program, London Transport
London Regional Transport
London Regional Transport was the organisation responsible for the public transport network in Greater London, UK from 1984-2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of the organisation was London Transport.The organisation was...

 took delivery of three MkIII vehicles in 1984. The program was intended to evaluate alternative vehicle types for future fleet replacement in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, which at that time was purchasing Leyland Titans
Leyland Titan (B15)
The Leyland Titan was a model of double-decker bus produced by the Leyland Truck & Bus division of British Leyland from 1977 until 1984, almost exclusively for London Transport.-Development:...

 and MCW Metrobus
MCW Metrobus
The MCW Metrobus is a double decker bus model manufactured by MCW from 1977 until 1989, with over 4,000 examples built. The original MkI model was superseded by the MkII model in 1981/1982, although production of the original MkI continued for London Transport until 1985...

es. The most interesting of the three vehicles was fleet number V3. This vehicle maintained the usual front entrance door, but had an additional exit behind the rear axle, and a second staircase adjacent. This had the advantage of improving passenger flow during loading and off-loading at peak times. But, the second staircase created a blind spot for the driver, and the vehicle was restricted to crew operation. The vehicle remained unique, although London Buses
London Buses
London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London that manages bus services within Greater London, UK. Buses are required to carry similar red colour schemes and conform to the same fare scheme...

 rebuilt the rear, removing the doors, but leaving the staircase in place. After a fatal crash on a stormy night in which V3 crashed into a Mini
Mini
The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...

 and turned over on its side, the bus was sold for scrap. V3 was rescued from a scrap dealer by Black Prince of Morley, and extensively rebuilt, still keeping both staircases. Upon closure of Black Prince, this vehicle was purchased by Roger Wright's London Bus Company Ltd. and can now be seen restored to London condition at rallies and running days across Southern England.

No further orders for new B55s were placed by London Transport, but numerous second-hand examples were purchased from South Yorkshire PTE and West Midlands PTE in the late 1980s.

A solitary Ailsa chassis was bodied as a single-deck bus by Marshall for Strathclyde PTE. Later, the same operator created a second single-decker, by converting an Alexander-bodied double-decker, the upper deck of which had been damaged.

A number of 2-axle Ailsa B55 were sold overseas. 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...

 received 320 buses between 1981 and 1985. China Motor Bus
China Motor Bus
China Motor Bus Company Ltd. , often abbreviated as CMB, was the first motor bus company in Hong Kong, and was responsible for the introduction of double-decker buses to Hong Kong Island....

 in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 received eight between 1975 and 1978 (six out of these eight buses were destroyed by fire). One B55 was exported to Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 as a demonstrator for Singapore Bus Services.

A total of three 3-axle Ailsa B55s were built for export, two were sold to China Motor Bus
China Motor Bus
China Motor Bus Company Ltd. , often abbreviated as CMB, was the first motor bus company in Hong Kong, and was responsible for the introduction of double-decker buses to Hong Kong Island....

 as demonstrators, and the third was exported to 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...

.

In all, just over one thousand B55s were built, 890 of them having bodywork by Scottish bodybuilder 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...

. Of the remainder, 64 Ailsas received unusual Vanhool McArdle bodies built in Dublin - 62 buses for the South Yorkshire PTE and 2 for A1 Service, Ayrshire. 4 of these buses survive in preservation, and can be seen on the website of the Sheffield based 388 Group.

The last significant number of Ailsas in service in the UK were operated by Cardiff Bus
Cardiff Bus
Cardiff Bus is the dominant operator of bus services in Cardiff, Wales and the surrounding area, including Barry and Penarth. Its hub is Cardiff central bus station...

, who had 18 in regular service in 2007. They were withdrawn at the end of 2007 and replaced by new Scania double-deckers. However, ten Ailsas remain in service for school work, school contracts and rail replacement with Edwards Coaches
Edwards Coaches
Edwards Coaches is a family-owned coach company based in Llantwit Fardre, near Pontypridd in South Wales.Since 1925, the Edwards family has operated buses and coaches in South Wales. It was founded by George Edwards. Over recent years, the company has expanded by acquiring several smaller local firms...

of South Wales, with all being ex-Cardiff as of August 2010.

There are now around 30 Volvo Ailsas preserved worldwide, with most at home in Scotland.
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