1956 LEYLAND (ERT1/1) ROYAL TIGER WORLDMASTER

Vehicle Background:
While the chassis and mechanical components are British, the body design of these single deck buses closely resemble the style of American buses of the 1950's and 1960's. Various Hollywood movies and TV series made at that time, depicted similar style vehicles in street scenes. These bodies were known as "standees" and they allowed standing passengers to look out through the small fixed windows above the opening windows of those for seated passengers.

In 1953 and 1954, the Department of Government Transport took delivery of 50 Leyland OPSU1/1 Royal Tigers and 50 AEC Regal IV buses. Owing to the success of these vehicles, it was decided to order another 250 chassis from the same suppliers in the U.K. Thus was born the standard bus design of the 1950's. 125 chassis designated ERT1/1 Worldmaster were built in 1956 by Leyland Motors Ltd. Cycle Components Manufacturing Company (C.C.M.C.) of Guildford, Sydney, constructed the bodies in the period 1957 and 1958. The fleet and registration numbers were in the 2902 to 3131 series. Concurrently, AEC filled an order for 125 Regal IV chassis. Identical bus bodies were produced by Commonwealth Engineering Co, of Granville, Sydney. The A.E.C. vehicles were given registration and fleet numbers in the 2882 to 3126 range. Our exhibit No. 3131, was the very last of 350 buses to be built to this standard design.

To complete the abandonment of the tramway system and to enable the withdrawal of the last of the pre World War II buses, a third batch of 388 chassis was ordered, 206 from Leyland Motors Ltd. and 182 from A.E.C. The Department's drawing office prepared a new and improved design which featured larger sliding windows for standing passengers and corresponding smaller ones for seated travellers. The new design also included two destination displays, the top being the main destination and the bottom being for route details. The front route number was also repositioned close to the nearside. The buses were delivered and placed into service in the 1959 to 1961 period. These vehicles were given registration and fleet numbers in the 3132 to 3519 series. The Association's AEC Regal IV 3197 is representative of the later batch.

3131 was completed early in 1959 and entered service at Enfield depot. Later it operated in other parts of Sydney and for various periods was allocated to Brookvale, Willoughby, North Sydney, Burwood, Kingsgrove and Tempe depots. The bus was withdrawn in 1983 and acquired for preservation later in that year.

SPECIFICATION

ENGINE: Six cylinder Leyland diesel (680 C.I.D.), horizontally mounted mid way along the chassis under the floor. 150 B.H.P. @ 2000 R.P.M.

TRANSMISSION: Four speed air operated pneumocyclic gearbox and worm drive differential.

BRAKES: Air operated foot brake and mechanical hand brake.