SCOTTISH VINTAGE BUS MUSEUM - ESF 647 W (CH 9399)
The
museum has taken delivery of a bus which, although built in the UK, is unique
to these shores. It is a Leyland Victory with double-deck Alexander body,
developed specifically for the Hong Kong market in the late 1970s. A large
fleet of these was amassed by China Motor Bus and these are now being withdrawn
since the operations were acquired by FirstGroup, and, largely as a result of
the Scottish origins of its bodywork, a representative sample is being shipped
back to be included in the museum's collection thanks to the kind initiative of
Alexanders, FirstGroup and Volvo.
The bus has a Gardner 6LXB engine mounted alongside the driver and Voith automatic transmission, and is sure to be a
crowd-puller - literally - it seats no less than 102!
Comment:
The Victory chassis was actually developed by Guy but after Leyland took over
everything was badged as Leyland even although the
chassis of LV36 was built at the Guy Motors plant at Wolverhampton.
Below
are sisters of our Hong Kong bus - LV83 (left), and LV3 in the new
livery - both in Hong Kong in 1999. (Photos by Eric Mah from 
Hong kong, who visited the museum in 1999.)
