Leyland Olympian 11.3m
Photographs are
sorted out in the following sub-pages:
Kowloon-Canton Railway
Corporation Olympians (4 pages)
K16 buses to / fro Hung Hom Station (2 pages)
AL1
- The first air-conditioned Olympian in Kowloon Motor Bus
(1 page)
Interior details of AL1 (1 page)
The last day of operation
of 296X (31 January 2000) (1 page)
Interior details of
Kowloon Motor Bus air-conditioned Olympians
(1 page)
AL118 - a reconstructed
Olympian after fire (1 page)
Kowloon Motor Bus
air-conditioned Olympians with deep windscreens
(3 pages)
AL19 - The Olympian with extra exhaust fans (1 page)
Kowloon Motor Bus
air-conditioned Olympians (10 pages)
S3BL174 - Cityview bodied
KMB non-airconditioned Olympian (1 page)
S3BL470 - the last non-airconditioned
Leyland Olympian in KMB (1 page)
Interior details of a
Kowloon Motor Bus non-airconditioned Olympian
(2 pages)
Kowloon Motor Bus Training Buses (1 page)
Kowloon Motor Bus non-airconditioned
Olympians (54 pages)
Quick access:
S3BL1-100 S3BL101-195
S3BL196-295 S3BL296-370
S3BL371-420 S3BL421-470
Citybus
185 - from new to old
(1 page)
Citybus air-conditioned
Olympians with Ocean Park livery (1 page)
Citybus air-conditioned
Olympians (6 pages)
Interior Details of a refurbished Citybus Olympian (1 page)
Citybus Olympians in original livery (1 page)
The Hong Kong Institute of Education Arts Bus
(1 page)
Citybus
Ex-Taiwan Olympians (1 page)
The last day of operation
of LM3 (FW736) (1 page)
China Motor bus and New
World First Bus non-airconditioned Olympians
(1 page)
Interior details of an
NWFB non-airconditioned Olympian (1 page)
First Pennine ex-China
Motor Bus Olympians (1 page)
China Motor Bus and New
World First Bus air-conditioned Olympians
(4 pages)
Stagecoach Olympians (1 page)
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The 11.3m 3-axled Olympian is tailor-made for Hong Kong. Its history can be traced back to 1985. When Kowloon Motor Bus Company had happy experience with its 12m long buses, it would like to introduce more in different demanding routes, especially those in the New Territories. However, the roads in Hong Kong are not very desirable for those long buses. The company then endorsed initial orders for 11.3m long buses from Leyland, Dennis and Metro-Cammell, since the 3-axled buses has an increase in passenger capacity by 50%.
Leyland was the first manufacturer to reply. It added an auxiliary axle in front of the rear axle of the 9.56m model, so as to increase the length to 11.3m. The first one (ON10022) arrived Hong Kong in 1986, registered as DJ 9765. KMB allocated it fleet number S3BL1. A total of 470 non-airconditioned buses were delivered to the company between 1986 and 1994 All these buses received Alexander R-type bodies and shipped in ckd.
ON3R49C18Z4: KMB and CMB Olympians of the last batch
In this period, China Motor Bus took 10 buses of the latest type in 1993, just before the closure of Leyland Olympian. In early 2000, these buses were converted to single-doored buses and were shipped to First Pennine. They have heaters and fixed glass windows with vents. These buses serve school routes.
Initial interest in air-conditioned three-axle double-decker service buses was expressed by KMB in 1988. The Olympian (AL1, DX 2437), with Walter Alexander bodywork, sliding windows and Nippondenso air-conditioning system, was proved successful. Further orders for 149 were placed in 1989 to 1993. They had similar configurations but fixed windows.
After the successful trials of AL1, Citybus, China Motor Bus, Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation has ordered Olympians in similar air-conditioning configurations. All the Olympians in Citybus have double width single door dual-purpose configuration. Kowloon Motor Bus ordered a total of 150 (including AL1), China Motor Bus took 25, Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation 24 and Citybus 100, including the one destroyed in fire and converted to a 12m bus.
The Citybus Olympians were crucial to the growth of the company. It established the reputation for quality bus services. These buses had 2+2 seating layout, curtains, adjustable air-conditioning vents, overhead parcel racks and headrest. They can be seen on Cross border routes, private hire, contract work, residential coaches routes between new towns in the New Territories and Central. Citybus also deployed some of them to operate the company's first franchised route - 12A between Macdonnell Road and Connaught Road, Central. This was also the first franchised route on Hong Kong operated with air-conditioned buses. Some of these buses have been renovated.
Olympians showed its toughness in accidents. Most of the accidents, if not all, are not due to the performance of the vehicle. Some Citybus Olympians suffered serious frontal damage (usually in radiator cover) in accidents, but neither of them were scrapped in the end and neither passengers nor drivers died.
The most serious accidents involving Olympians happened in March 1993. Although S3BL13 (DK8460) collided head-on with a Dennis Dragon, knocked down several lamp posts, crashed metal barriers separating carriageways and finally ran into a tree, the Alexander R-type body protected the driver well. He only suffered a cut in his hand due to smashed glass. The framework was pretty sound after the accident. To know more about the accident, visit "Dennis Dragon". If you know the exact date of accident, please email me.
There has only been one reported case that the driver of Leyland Olympian was killed in accident over the Pearl River Delta area. It was happened in late February 2000, when Citybus 180 ran into a lorry on Guangzhou-Shenzhen highway.
There are also some fires related to Olympians. All except one was due to cigarette butts. One of the cases happened in early 1990s led to the reconstruction of body of S3BL174. When the bus returned to service in 1995, it had a Guangzhou Cityview bodywork and re-registered as GP7528.
The exceptional case happened in mid 1990s. When AL118 (FF1819, ON20335) was serving Route 1 at night, a fire started and the whole bus was destroyed. The accident report revealed that the battery box under the driver's seat started the fire. The body was later reconstructed by KMB with Alexander R-type kits. But it has been built to new Volvo Olympian standard. In other words, deep windscreens and shallow radiator cover, 2+2 seats with headrest, new Nippondenso air-conditioning plant, yellow Abro handrails, have been fitted to the bus. Although all air-conditioned Volvo Olympians of 2+2 layout have been modified to carry more standees, AL118 has not been modified either.
Other accidents included an overturn of Citybus Olympian after colliding with several private cars on Waterloo Road, and another Citybus Olympian collided overhead cable in Shenzhen, resulted in 2 deaths in the latter accident. in addition, a Citybus Olympian (180) collided with a truck in Guangdong Province in late February 2000 and the driver was killed.
Starting from 2003, large batches of Citybus Olympians are exported back to Great Britain and become intercity buses under different divisions of Stagecoach. Four Kowloon Motor Bus retired buses were exported to a testing field in Beijing for tests of new road barrier designs.
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Page created: 30 June 1999
Last updated: 6 May 2012