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Leyland OPS2/1 31 Seater - 2599
Engine
Six cylinder Leyland 0.600, bore 4.8", stroke 5.5", developing 125 brake horsepower.
Transmission
Four speed Wilson pre-selector gearbox to a worm drive differential.
Brakes
Air operated footbrake and a mechanical hand brake to the rear wheels.
During a decline in patronage in the early 1950s, the Department of Road Transport & Tramways designed a small single deck bus, to be driver-only operated, to be used on lightly trafficked routes and to replace the last of the pre-war single deck half-cab buses and war-time Austerity buses still in service.
These new buses carried 54 people - 23 standing and 31 seated and were dubbed the 31-seaters.
All were bodied by Commonwealth Engineering, Granville. Between 1951 and 1954, 120 31-seaters were built on Leyland OPS2/1, AEC Regal III and Daimler CVG6 chassis.
2599 is one of the batch of 50 31-seaters bodied on Leyland OPS2/1 chassis (of the remaining 70, 50 were AEC Regal IIIs and 20 were Daimler CVG6s). This Leyland order was particuarly unusual as the specifications required the chassis be delivered with pre-selector transmissions and air brakes - these were not standard Leyland offerings for their front engined vehicles.
2599 entered service on 19th September 1952 and spent its working life out of Kingsgrove and Burwood depots in Sydney. It was retired in October 1975 having covered 480,793 miles and acquired for preservation soon after. It has been restored to 1950s condition including 44" destination boxes at the front and rear.
Following a period of time out of service for repairs, the bus returned to operational service in mid-2015.
