Hastings MCW
Although the Atlantean name was registered by Leyland, in the 1954-62 period when Leyland Motors had no in-house bodybuilding capability MCW were favoured by the Lancashire builder both for coachwork and as collaborators with jointly sold and marketed integral Olympic and Olympian single-deckers. As a result MCW called its ‘style’ on the Atlantean, Atlantean. They bodied both the semi-integral 1956 prototypes and the second Lowloader research vehicle in 1954. This entered preservation and was at one time in the British Commercial Vehicle Museum at Leyland, part-restored it then went to a Scottish-based dealer in preservation projects who re-sold it to the Greater Manchester Musuem of Transport.
One of the 1958 show pre-production batch entered service in 1959 with Maidstone and District, whilst another of MCW’s three, for Wallesey Corporation Motors may just have been licenced prior to Glasgow Corporation Transport’s Alexander bodied LA1 (both entered service in December 1958).
Maidstone and District were the first batch buyer, using Atlanteans to replace the Hastings and District trolleybuses, following their absorption of what had previously been a subsidiary. Unlike the Lowloaders and the two 1956 Atlanteans, the chassis version: the PDR1/1; had a straight single reduction back axle, reducing chassis cost which meant that building examples to the 13ft 4in overall height of the prototypes involved some coachwork complexity. What was evolved and presumably designed and registered by Leyland was called a semi-lowbridge layout, whilst the PDR1 prototypes, the Lodekka, Bridgemaster and Loline had central gangways throughout the upper saloon the low height Atlantean had to employ four rows of four-abreast seating at the rear with a sunken nearside gangway, this layout was far from optimal especially as until 1966 all double deckers had to be operated with both a driver and a conductor. Alexander showed drawings of its interpretation at the 1958 show whilst Weymann had two in the metal, the other one for Green of Haverfordwest, a small BET subsidiary, Maidstone & Districts was the last of the four 1958 show buses to be licenced.
Park Royal also was originally contracted to build some buses to this layout but in the end, all but the last two batches, for Fishwick of Leyland and South Yorkshire Motors were built by Weymann, the four 1966 examples by MCW.
As well as being less convenient for rearward passengers on either deck and for the conductor, there was also a significant loss of seating capacity, the 1956 prototypes sat 78, that figure still obtained on the 14ft 6in high production Atlantean, but the lowheight sat 73, three less than a full-length rear-entrance Bridgemaster. Alexander even drew up a version with two rear gangways seating only 71.
Maidstone & District’s DL43 (43DKT), the subject of this view, is a semi-lowbridge example, as is clear by the use of shallow glazing on both decks. M&D mixed highbridge and lowbridge on a route basis at the time, and only ceased doing so when in 1963 it switched from the Atlantean to the Daimler Fleetline, taking them until 1968 with lowheight Northern Counties bodies, one of a number of notable Daimler conquest sales of the time into BET fleets.
I have mentioned the use of spot-colour previously. In this 1959 advert MCW are using not process Cyan but the same shade of blue Passenger Transport were using for their front cover masthead, if they used the same block in Bus & Coach did they use a Yellow Sky? Note also the lines drawn in the sky, alluding to trolleybus replacement. Like the Blackpool advert this one has the MCW headquarters in Vickers House London.
©1959 Metropolitan Cammell Weymann Limited reproduced for purposes of research and scholarship
Hastings MCW
Although the Atlantean name was registered by Leyland, in the 1954-62 period when Leyland Motors had no in-house bodybuilding capability MCW were favoured by the Lancashire builder both for coachwork and as collaborators with jointly sold and marketed integral Olympic and Olympian single-deckers. As a result MCW called its ‘style’ on the Atlantean, Atlantean. They bodied both the semi-integral 1956 prototypes and the second Lowloader research vehicle in 1954. This entered preservation and was at one time in the British Commercial Vehicle Museum at Leyland, part-restored it then went to a Scottish-based dealer in preservation projects who re-sold it to the Greater Manchester Musuem of Transport.
One of the 1958 show pre-production batch entered service in 1959 with Maidstone and District, whilst another of MCW’s three, for Wallesey Corporation Motors may just have been licenced prior to Glasgow Corporation Transport’s Alexander bodied LA1 (both entered service in December 1958).
Maidstone and District were the first batch buyer, using Atlanteans to replace the Hastings and District trolleybuses, following their absorption of what had previously been a subsidiary. Unlike the Lowloaders and the two 1956 Atlanteans, the chassis version: the PDR1/1; had a straight single reduction back axle, reducing chassis cost which meant that building examples to the 13ft 4in overall height of the prototypes involved some coachwork complexity. What was evolved and presumably designed and registered by Leyland was called a semi-lowbridge layout, whilst the PDR1 prototypes, the Lodekka, Bridgemaster and Loline had central gangways throughout the upper saloon the low height Atlantean had to employ four rows of four-abreast seating at the rear with a sunken nearside gangway, this layout was far from optimal especially as until 1966 all double deckers had to be operated with both a driver and a conductor. Alexander showed drawings of its interpretation at the 1958 show whilst Weymann had two in the metal, the other one for Green of Haverfordwest, a small BET subsidiary, Maidstone & Districts was the last of the four 1958 show buses to be licenced.
Park Royal also was originally contracted to build some buses to this layout but in the end, all but the last two batches, for Fishwick of Leyland and South Yorkshire Motors were built by Weymann, the four 1966 examples by MCW.
As well as being less convenient for rearward passengers on either deck and for the conductor, there was also a significant loss of seating capacity, the 1956 prototypes sat 78, that figure still obtained on the 14ft 6in high production Atlantean, but the lowheight sat 73, three less than a full-length rear-entrance Bridgemaster. Alexander even drew up a version with two rear gangways seating only 71.
Maidstone & District’s DL43 (43DKT), the subject of this view, is a semi-lowbridge example, as is clear by the use of shallow glazing on both decks. M&D mixed highbridge and lowbridge on a route basis at the time, and only ceased doing so when in 1963 it switched from the Atlantean to the Daimler Fleetline, taking them until 1968 with lowheight Northern Counties bodies, one of a number of notable Daimler conquest sales of the time into BET fleets.
I have mentioned the use of spot-colour previously. In this 1959 advert MCW are using not process Cyan but the same shade of blue Passenger Transport were using for their front cover masthead, if they used the same block in Bus & Coach did they use a Yellow Sky? Note also the lines drawn in the sky, alluding to trolleybus replacement. Like the Blackpool advert this one has the MCW headquarters in Vickers House London.
©1959 Metropolitan Cammell Weymann Limited reproduced for purposes of research and scholarship