ronmccullock
London Transport Leyland Titan buses on parade
Following the launch of the Leyland Titan in June 1977 and production to commence in early 1978 at Park Royal Vehicles Ltd, every thing went quite on the Titan front. A lot of people in the industry thought that the Titan would never be a production reality, the late Alan Townsin summed up the 1977 launch as nothing more than window dressing.
The problem was with the staff at Park Royal who were unhappy about the use of semi skilled staff to assemble the Titan, and that Titan production was to be transferred to AEC in 1979 thus leaving Park Royal to close. Leyland made matters worse in early 1978 by saying that they had formed a consortium of operators to help fund the setting up of Titan production at AEC, this was totally untrue and only anilated the work force at Park Royal even further resulting in a large number of staff leaving, thus slowing Titan production down two one or no Titan built each week.
London Transport had hoped to have sufficient Titans delivered by 24th September 1978 so the Hornchurch depot (RD) could be the first depot to run Titans. London Transport introduced a new code for the Titan as the T class followed by the number, ironically Park Royal also used the T code for the production Titans! Which started with T1 and ended with T280. Only London Transport's first 21 Titans T1 to T21 had the same Park Royal build numbers, T22 was the first Titan for Greater Manchester PTE. The designation for the Titan used the letters TN at the beginning followed by letters and numbers denoting engine type etc. The London Transport Titans used the following designation which were unique TNLXB2RRsp.
London Transport's Titans T1 and T2 were delivered in July 1978, and registered THX 401S and THX 402S, both were used for type training. T3 registered WYV 3T arrived in September and joined T1 and T2 for type training.
Leyland decided to get as much publicity as possible for the first production Titans delivered to London Transport that all three were paraded around Parliament Square before going to the annal London Transport open day held at Syon Park. It was 4th December 1978 before London Transport commenced operating Titan from their Hornchurch depot on the following routes 165, 246, and 252.
Things went from bad to worse for Leyland regarding Titan production, the late Michael Edwards was appointed Chairman of British Leyland in November 1977. Edwards was to oversee slimming BL down by closing loss making factories. In October 1978, BL announced that the AEC factory would close in 1979, thus thwarted the plan to transfer Titan production to AEC. It was decided to bring body on chassis production at Park Royal to an end to make way for full Titan production, sadly the workforce at Park Royal were still unhappy about their pay and use of semi skilled staff, thus Titan production did not improve and only 20 were delivered by the end of 1978.
The production Titan differed from the prototype B15 buses in a few ways including the large Leyland lettering replace with the British Leyland L badge in the middle of the grille and the bright metal trim around the side windows deleted. Unusually Greater Manchester PTE asked that these modifications would not to be fitted to their Titans. The Leyland 501 engine was dropped from the option list and the five-speed Hydracyclic gearbox was offered with semi or fully automatic control and featured an Integral retarder.
This official Leyland publicity photograph shows London Transport's T1,T2 and T3 Titans at Parliament Square on the A3212 road missing from this view is London Transport's K424 which was built for the LGOC in 1920. Notice the message on each of the Titans 'A new Leyland Titan for London Transport' and the destination displays Titan No 1, No 2 and No 3. The wheel hubs of the first three Titans was silver and not body colour. Notice that T2 and T3 are missing the Leyland badge above the Titan badge. T1 was immortalised in 176 scale by EFE.
photograph credit: Leyland Vehicles Ltd/ AEC Photographic Department/Stewart Brown/John Simons
Bibliography:-
Books
Park Royal 1942-1980 Alan Townsin
The Best of British Buses No. 9 Leyland Titans 1945-1984 Alan Townsin
The Leyland Bus Mk2 Doug Jack
The London Titan Matthew Wharmby
Vehicle information:-
London Transport first three Leyland Titan buses fleet numbers T1, T2 and T3
Park Royal production numbers T1, T2 and T3
Vehicle identification TNLXB2RRsp
Seating H44/22D
Engine 10.45-litre Gardner 6LXB diesel engine
Gearbox five-speed Hydracyclic gearbox with the G2 control system
London Transport Leyland Titan buses on parade
Following the launch of the Leyland Titan in June 1977 and production to commence in early 1978 at Park Royal Vehicles Ltd, every thing went quite on the Titan front. A lot of people in the industry thought that the Titan would never be a production reality, the late Alan Townsin summed up the 1977 launch as nothing more than window dressing.
The problem was with the staff at Park Royal who were unhappy about the use of semi skilled staff to assemble the Titan, and that Titan production was to be transferred to AEC in 1979 thus leaving Park Royal to close. Leyland made matters worse in early 1978 by saying that they had formed a consortium of operators to help fund the setting up of Titan production at AEC, this was totally untrue and only anilated the work force at Park Royal even further resulting in a large number of staff leaving, thus slowing Titan production down two one or no Titan built each week.
London Transport had hoped to have sufficient Titans delivered by 24th September 1978 so the Hornchurch depot (RD) could be the first depot to run Titans. London Transport introduced a new code for the Titan as the T class followed by the number, ironically Park Royal also used the T code for the production Titans! Which started with T1 and ended with T280. Only London Transport's first 21 Titans T1 to T21 had the same Park Royal build numbers, T22 was the first Titan for Greater Manchester PTE. The designation for the Titan used the letters TN at the beginning followed by letters and numbers denoting engine type etc. The London Transport Titans used the following designation which were unique TNLXB2RRsp.
London Transport's Titans T1 and T2 were delivered in July 1978, and registered THX 401S and THX 402S, both were used for type training. T3 registered WYV 3T arrived in September and joined T1 and T2 for type training.
Leyland decided to get as much publicity as possible for the first production Titans delivered to London Transport that all three were paraded around Parliament Square before going to the annal London Transport open day held at Syon Park. It was 4th December 1978 before London Transport commenced operating Titan from their Hornchurch depot on the following routes 165, 246, and 252.
Things went from bad to worse for Leyland regarding Titan production, the late Michael Edwards was appointed Chairman of British Leyland in November 1977. Edwards was to oversee slimming BL down by closing loss making factories. In October 1978, BL announced that the AEC factory would close in 1979, thus thwarted the plan to transfer Titan production to AEC. It was decided to bring body on chassis production at Park Royal to an end to make way for full Titan production, sadly the workforce at Park Royal were still unhappy about their pay and use of semi skilled staff, thus Titan production did not improve and only 20 were delivered by the end of 1978.
The production Titan differed from the prototype B15 buses in a few ways including the large Leyland lettering replace with the British Leyland L badge in the middle of the grille and the bright metal trim around the side windows deleted. Unusually Greater Manchester PTE asked that these modifications would not to be fitted to their Titans. The Leyland 501 engine was dropped from the option list and the five-speed Hydracyclic gearbox was offered with semi or fully automatic control and featured an Integral retarder.
This official Leyland publicity photograph shows London Transport's T1,T2 and T3 Titans at Parliament Square on the A3212 road missing from this view is London Transport's K424 which was built for the LGOC in 1920. Notice the message on each of the Titans 'A new Leyland Titan for London Transport' and the destination displays Titan No 1, No 2 and No 3. The wheel hubs of the first three Titans was silver and not body colour. Notice that T2 and T3 are missing the Leyland badge above the Titan badge. T1 was immortalised in 176 scale by EFE.
photograph credit: Leyland Vehicles Ltd/ AEC Photographic Department/Stewart Brown/John Simons
Bibliography:-
Books
Park Royal 1942-1980 Alan Townsin
The Best of British Buses No. 9 Leyland Titans 1945-1984 Alan Townsin
The Leyland Bus Mk2 Doug Jack
The London Titan Matthew Wharmby
Vehicle information:-
London Transport first three Leyland Titan buses fleet numbers T1, T2 and T3
Park Royal production numbers T1, T2 and T3
Vehicle identification TNLXB2RRsp
Seating H44/22D
Engine 10.45-litre Gardner 6LXB diesel engine
Gearbox five-speed Hydracyclic gearbox with the G2 control system