Leyland OPD2 2186

Soon after the end of World War II a total of 845 double deck chassis were ordered from three United Kingdom manufacturers, namely Leyland Motors of Leyland in Lancashire, Associated Equipment Company of Southall in London and Albion Motors of Scotstoun, Glasgow, Scotland. The buses when completed all had locally built bodies and were placed into service between 1946 and 1954.

Leyland Motors Ltd. secured orders for 90 Leyland OPD1-1s chassis with four speed constant mesh gearboxes. The company then supplied 203 OPD2-1s equipped with synchromesh gearboxes and finally it supplied 50 that were fitted with “Wilson” preselective four speed gear boxes which in essence made them semi automatic. These 50 were the last front engined rear platform buses to be used in Australian and the Powerhouse Museum has in its collection the very last one No 2769.

Bus 2186 was one of the 203 built for the then Department of Road Transport and Tramways (now State Transit Authority). These buses with the four speed manual gear boxes were commonly known in Sydney as the “Synchros” while in Newcastle they were looked upon as the sports jobs due to their lively performance characteristics. The Leyland Motors Company of Leyland in England used a Chassis numbering system whereby the first two numerals represented the year of manufacture, whilst the last four numbers indicated the number built up to that point in the calendar year. Bus 2186 has the chassis No 470785 meaning that it was manufactured in 1947 and was the 785th built to the day of its completion in that year. After the Second World War the Leyland Company was in large scale manufacturing for its home market as well as for other countries far and wide throughout the world.

2186 while having a British chassis and engine and other mechanical components, had a locally built body. This phenomenon applied then and still does up to the present time as nearly all chassis and engines are presently supplied from Europe, the United States or Japan. Commonwealth Engineering Co, of Granville in Sydney built the double decker bus body and this was completed in 23 November 1948, however it and 15 or 16 others did not enter service until 5 April 1949. Generally speaking buses were stockpiled until there were sufficient numbers on hand to completely replace a major tram route or series of them.

The bus on completion was placed in the pool at Kingsgrove Bus depot. This meant that it was in reserve for use if and when required. 2186 possibly did see occasional use but officially it was not allocated to a bus depot for normal service. On 5 April 1949 the vehicle was sent to Burwood Depot for general service but in July 1949 it was returned to the pool at Kingsgrove. Eventually in November 1949 the bus was transferred to Newcastle where it remained for almost all its working life before being returned to Burwood in April 1969 to see out its twilight years. It was finally withdrawn from Government service in September 1971. In Newcastle it operated over all the government bus routes to places as far a field as Swansea, Caves Beach and Catherine Hill Bay in the South. The bus also served the eastern side of Lake Macquarie to suburbs such as Belmont, Valentine, Speers Point and Warners Bay. In the west it served Mayfield, Wallsend and the intermediate suburbs of Cardiff, Charlestown, Kotara, Adamstown, Lambton and Jesmond. 2186 also operated to the coastal suburbs of Merewether, Dudley and Redhead and finally it operated to the industrial hubs at the B.H.P. Steelworks, and the shipping ports situated on the Hunter River at Carrington and Newcastle and of course the City CBD.  

In December 1971 the bus was sold from the Chullora Bus Workshops to the bus operator R. Hawkins of Gunnedah in North Western New South Wales. It was registered there as country MO-035. In January 1973 the bus along with others owned by the Company were bought out by Hope of Gunnedah and the bus was retained in service by the new owner until 22 July 1990. The bus was used primarily as a School bus in Gunnedah and in total served over 40 years as a public passenger carrying bus. It was one of the very last buses of its type to remain in service.

During its first life with the Government it received full body and mechanical overhauls on five occasions at the Hamilton Depot, Newcastle Bus Workshops. These were in January 1952, July 1954, May 1957, June 1960 and June 1965.

All the 203 buses were fitted from new with canvas concertina doors at the front of the vehicle and seated 59 passengers with up to 14 allowed to stand. In 1962 the doors were bolted up to prevent them from being used. Safety reasons had dictated this as there had been accidents involving school children. The canvas doors were then removed at the next scheduled body overhaul. All the Leyland OPD2-1 vehicles and about half of the OPD1-1s had their doors taken out. In those that the door was removed a seat for two persons was installed and these then became 61 seat vehicles.

The Museum acquired the bus on 22 July 1990 for preservation in a condition where it required another refurbishment. This had not been undertaken when an approach was made by State Transit to acquire this and similar bus 2033 for use on special charter work from their Willoughby Depot. They were sold on 22 June 1992. The buses were then sent to Pressed Metal Corporation at Revesby for body overhauls and when completed Willoughby carried out the necessary mechanical work. 2186 was registered as m/o 8554 in September 1993. When a change of management at the depot decided that the bus was no longer considered part of its functional role, it was withdrawn in 1997 and immediately donated to the Museum.

Specifications:

Engine: Six cylinder Leyland 0.600 diesel engine of 9.8 litres displacement, bore 4.8", stroke 5.5", 125 B.H.P. @ 1800 R.P.M.

Transmission: 4 speed synchromesh and a worm drive differential

Brakes: Vacuum operated foot brake and a mechanical hand brake

Body: Commonwealth Engineering

Status:

Operational.