Stagecoach East Midland Olympians

This article was originally published in the Transpire News Sheet No. 145 (17th March 2000). It’s re-published here (with a few alterations, corrections and updates) to coincide with the withdrawal of the Chesterfield Olympians.

The original was typed on a Brother word processor and photocopied for submission; how times change!

The first batch of Olympians entered service with East Midland Motor Services, then part of the National bus Company, in 1981. These were standard NBC buses with Eastern Coach Works bodies and Gardner engines. Fleet numbers started a new series at 301; the first in service were 301 & 302 on August 20th 1981. By 1986, there were 36 of the type; five of the C- registered buses (326-330; C326-330 HWJ) had dual-purpose seating. When new they were painted in a green and white livery similar to that used by London Country on its Green Line coaches. After withdrawal, No. 329 was re-acquired by Stagecoach with the takeover of Renown Cavendish in Eastbourne.

With the exception of No. 313, which was deroofed when it hit a low bridge in Mansfield on January 28th 1999, all were still in service in the year 2000.

East Midland Motor Services was taken over by Stagecoach Holdings Ltd in April 1989. The first East Midland bus to receive Stagecoach corporate livery was No. 329, entering service on May 28th 1989.

The first new Stagecoach Olympians were delivered in 1989. There were seven of these (337-343; G337-343 KKW). These were bodied by Alexander; like all Leyland Olympians bought new by Stagecoach they had Gardner engines.

August 1990 saw the arrival of one of the Stagecoach “Megadekka” three-axle Olympians from Magicbus, Glasgow. This became East Midland fleet number 1 (F110 NES). With 110 seats, it’s still Britain’s biggest bus! It didn’t stop long as East Midland didn’t get the capacity for it; in 1992 it passed to United Counties.

More recently, after withdrawal by United Counties, the Megadekka has been preserved by Brian Souter and will be joining the Scottish Bus Museum collection at Lathalmond.

There were three of these three-axle Olympians in the Stagecoach fleet; the other two had always been with Stagecoach Cumberland, new in 1989. They were allocated fleet numbers 201 & 202 (F201/202 FHH). I saw one on the way back from the Transpire visit to the Fleetwood Tram Sunday in 1997; Neville Whitmore suggests it may have been on hire to Ribble for working the Manchester-Blackburn-Lancaster route.

Further Olympians were delivered in 1990 (344-348; H344-348 SWA), with a further five coming in 1991 (349-353; J349-353 XET). The J-registered buses could be distinguished by their curved windscreens and flip-dot nearside / rear number displays.

After standardising on long-wheelbase Olympians, Stagecoach switched to standard length buses in 1992. The most obvious difference between long and short wheelbase Olympians is that long ones have an extra half window in the middle.

East Midland got ten of these (354-363; K354-363 DWJ). The first five were bodied by Northern Counties when Stagecoach transferred a body order originally placed with Leyland, the rest by Alexander. Like all the previous Olympians they had Gardner engines, the last for the East Midland fleet. They were also their last new Leyland buses.

337 and 338 went to Fife Scottish in 1992 and another Olympian arrived from United Counties in October. This bus was allocated fleet number 337 and had Alexander bodywork which was originally dual door. This bus was new to Northern Scottish in early 1987, originally registered D378 XRS. It was re-registered GSO 8V while in Scotland, using a registration originally on a Leyland National 2. An unusual feature of the replacement 337 was its distinctive blue covered seats. I found at least four others from this batch still running with United Counties in 2004.

In 1988, Volvo took over Leyland Bus and the Olympian was the only Leyland model retained. East Midland had some of the first Volvo Olympians, entering service in 1993. These started a new fleet number series (101-109; K101-107 JWJ, L108/109 LHL). These buses had Northern Counties bodies and Volvo engines. The final two of this batch entered service after the August registration change.

The only other K-registered Volvo Olympians were four for Western National (then part of the Badgerline Group, yet to merge with GRT Holdings to create FirstGroup!).

Stagecoach bought Grimsby Cleethorpes Transport in 1993. Although most of the acquired buses were Daimler Fleetlines and Dennis Dominators, there were four Olympians in the fleet (71-74; A71-74 GEE). These had ECW bodies and Leyland engines. 71 & 72 looked identical to the East Midland 301-336 batch, but 73 & 74 had dual door bodies similar to the London Transport L class Olympians.

Stagecoach took over Chesterfield Transport in 1995. There were only two Olympians in their fleet; both had been acquired from South Yorkshire Transport in 1987. They were also SYT’s only two Olympians and were originally built for the West Yorkshire PTE to their standard specification. These were new in 1982, with Roe bodies and Gardner engines. In the Chesterfield Transport fleet they had been numbered 161 / 162 (and originally 101 / 102); under Stagecoach ownership they became 299 / 300 (TWF 201/202Y). Distinguishing features of these two buses were the flat windscreens, sliding vent windows (rather than hoppers) and the back-to-back seats over the rear axle.

The largest single batch of Olympians were the 15 delivered to Grimsby Cleethorpes in late 1995 (130-144; N130-144 AET). These were again short wheelbase, but this time with Cummins engines and Alexander bodies. They were transferred to East Midland in 1999. The Cummins engine was no longer offered in the Olympian after 1996.

In late 1996, 14 new Olympians arrived at Chesterfield (145/146/148-154,156-160; P145/146/148-154/156-158 KWJ, P159/160 KAK). These were long wheelbase Volvo engined buses. There was never a No. 147 or 155. This was due to the DVLA withholding the number 147 (it has snooker connotations); while no P155 registrations were ever issued due to its possible misuse.

East Midland’s last nine new Olympians were delivered in 1998 (161-169; S161-169 RET). These differed in having split-step entrances and a new design of side route display, featuring the destination as well as the number. 161 visited Showbus 1998 when brand new, where I sat in the driver’s seat of this bus.

During 1999, the Olympian’s days were numbered. The 10000th entered service with Dublin Bus that year; others included First CentreWest, Delaine of Bourne and Blue Bus of Horwich. The last Olympians of all were delivered to Yorkshire Coastliner in the year 2000.

Volvo replaced the Olympian with the B7TL and B9TL low floor double deckers.

I would like to thank Neville Whitmore for his assistance with the preparation of this article.

Dan Sellers

First five photographs taken by Colin Sellers with captions by Dan Sellers

The "Chesterfield in bloom" livery I always referred to as the "Mystery Machine"! 135 was painted in the blue, green and orange "Mystery Machine" livery in summer 2005 to promote Chesterfield's entry in a national "Britain in Bloom" event.

ABOVE & BELOW: 135 was then painted in the all-over cream livery to promote the Chesterfield Market Festival in October 2005.

It retained this livery in 2006 when it received the dates for that year's event.

16495 (originally 145 - I always thought the national fleet number series never suited this particular batch of buses as several were numbered out of sequence) was taken in York in 2005 while on a Stagecoach staff trip.

The following 8 photographs are provided by Liam Haslam:

The following photographs were taken by Oliver Foreman who also wrote the comments based on his experiences working at Stagecoach Mansfield depot.