Cambus Limited Leyland Olympian/Alexander RL-Type
Britain’s biggest bus……
As a young, brash, upcoming company Stagecoach was not adverse to making a statement or two. It has already ordered Van Hool Astromegas and Neoplan Skyliners for its coaching operations, which if branded as Super Stagecoach. These high profile coaches highlighted that this company was here to stay.
However with the company rapidly expanding into running buses it too wanted to make a statement. It had standardised on Alexander-bodied Olympians to update the double-deck content of its new subsidiaries. Alexander also had a thriving export business supplying tri-axle Olympians to Hong Kong. So the two came together and Stagecoach ordered three such tri-axle buses.
When new one of the buses was allocated to Stagecoach’s Magicbus subsidiary in Glasgow and used on a school contract. The registration of F110NES made reference to the 110 seats on the bus, which was laid out in a three plus two configuration.
When new, it carried fleetnumber 1 and Megadekka branding before moving to the East Midland fleet in 1990. It was then transferred to United Counties at Bedford in 1992, where it was numbered 600 until the national system was introduced when it became 14000 in 2003, and was repainted into the ‘beach ball’ livery style by 2008. Its high seating capacity — with 3+2 layout — was put to good use for more than ten years at Bedford where it was allocated to a busy peak time working, as well as seeing regular use on other services. It became part of the heritage fleet in September 2011 after the paintshop at Bedford restored it to its original striped livery and staff at Peterborough applied original-style Megadekka and ‘Britain’s Biggest Bus!’ decals manufactured from photographs as no original drawings were available.
Ir was then entered preservation and became part of the Stagecoach Heritage Collection. However with the break-up of that collection following the sale of Stagecoach to a German Investment Company, former Stagecoach owner and founder Sir Brian Souter bought the bus for his own private collection. This bus now resides at the safety of the Scottish Bus Museum at Lathalmond, where the collection is kept.
Cambus Limited Leyland Olympian/Alexander RL-Type
Britain’s biggest bus……
As a young, brash, upcoming company Stagecoach was not adverse to making a statement or two. It has already ordered Van Hool Astromegas and Neoplan Skyliners for its coaching operations, which if branded as Super Stagecoach. These high profile coaches highlighted that this company was here to stay.
However with the company rapidly expanding into running buses it too wanted to make a statement. It had standardised on Alexander-bodied Olympians to update the double-deck content of its new subsidiaries. Alexander also had a thriving export business supplying tri-axle Olympians to Hong Kong. So the two came together and Stagecoach ordered three such tri-axle buses.
When new one of the buses was allocated to Stagecoach’s Magicbus subsidiary in Glasgow and used on a school contract. The registration of F110NES made reference to the 110 seats on the bus, which was laid out in a three plus two configuration.
When new, it carried fleetnumber 1 and Megadekka branding before moving to the East Midland fleet in 1990. It was then transferred to United Counties at Bedford in 1992, where it was numbered 600 until the national system was introduced when it became 14000 in 2003, and was repainted into the ‘beach ball’ livery style by 2008. Its high seating capacity — with 3+2 layout — was put to good use for more than ten years at Bedford where it was allocated to a busy peak time working, as well as seeing regular use on other services. It became part of the heritage fleet in September 2011 after the paintshop at Bedford restored it to its original striped livery and staff at Peterborough applied original-style Megadekka and ‘Britain’s Biggest Bus!’ decals manufactured from photographs as no original drawings were available.
Ir was then entered preservation and became part of the Stagecoach Heritage Collection. However with the break-up of that collection following the sale of Stagecoach to a German Investment Company, former Stagecoach owner and founder Sir Brian Souter bought the bus for his own private collection. This bus now resides at the safety of the Scottish Bus Museum at Lathalmond, where the collection is kept.