Very interesting, the Mk1 Ailsas definitely sound different compared to the Mk2s with their Voith gearboxes. I never travelled on the Mk1s, but I remember seeing them regularly in Highbury Road
Not bad ,but the AN Atlantean is not vocal as the earlier PDR with the screaming 4-speed SCG semi auto box and distinctive steering column mounted long selector lever ,. Yours has the 4 or 5-speed Hydra-cyclic box with the ball change like a National a bit mute on the backing vocals. If you want out an out 680 ear bashing ride 'Cher' EWS753W Mike Ellis,s Bristol VR 680 Leyland ,one of two 680 VR,s on the planet, a right diva ,the only bus with an anti social behaviour order.
British Leyland made two of the most iconic sounds on the road, the howl of the pneumo-cyclic on their buses, and the A-Series first gear whine on the Mini
As well as the clattering 510 in the National and thanks very much to Leyland I have grown fond of it. However a 680 in a Bristol re is rude loud as you like and the exhaust is fantastic to listen too. however I love Gardners too.
Driver is an amateur. Use the park brake. Don't change gears so fast you cause premature wear on epicyclic gearbox brake bands. Drive gently it is not a fire engine. I used to drive these buses in service.
If you pay attention, you’ll see the handbrake is applied at nearly every prolonged traffic light stop. These buses have close ratio gearboxes and low speed diffs, therefore, if your ear is attuned to the engine note, you realise the length of pause required to make nice smooth rev-matched gearchanges is short. The gap between 3rd and 4th gears is smaller than that between 2nd and 3rd or 4th and 5th. All these gearchanges are smoother and putting less wear on the brake bands than most of the fully auto Atlanteans which Strathclyde had! Also the length of pause is shorter when the engine is relatively cool at the beginning of the video, whereas towards the end, it has warmed up somewhat and takes longer to die down, thus the pauses are longer.
Maybe with the hydraulic change we can change faster and it releases and locks in the next band quicker. As a rule i understand from Leyland back in the early 70s we were recommended to select neutral for two seconds. I always blipped the accelerator on change downs like double declutching. I enjoyed the video 😊
The driver is absolutely great IMO. I travelled on many AN68s in service and heard the howls of protest as the driver smashed straight through the gearbox.... I even knew one driver who launched the gearbox into the road behind the bus!! In contrast it was a pleasure to watch this video and see one driven spiritedly but properly 👍
I was on this bus to model rail scotland on Friday. Absolutely fantastic and as I remember them in the late 70s early 80s when I grew up in Glasgow. I've been a driver for lothian for over 20 years and very occasionally got to drive an atlanian, in fact the first bus I drove but there's are fully automatic, so no leyland roar like yours and no power steering. I'm more a train guy but 2 trips on your fantastic bus expertly driven apart from the couple of, excusable, red lights was a total thrill. Would love a shot of this beauty.
A couple of these buses, probably almost identical to the one in the clip, were operated by an East-Manchester firm called Stuarts after being retired by London Country: they were SGA 710N and '711N and had worked previously in the Welwyn area* If you look closely at the clip, the frames are staggered instead of being parallel, perhaps in an attempt to compensate for the lack of body-rigidity that would have been a possible shortcoming of the large 'panoramic' window arrangement on these buses. The window-vents were unusually tiny and were set into the glass instead of being separate from it. *They went for scrap in the early '90s.
The body pillars being staggered was one of the contributing factors to the weak body design - If they had been in line the body frame would have had complete hoops which would have potentially prevented the issue. However the claim that the panoramic windows was the source of the weakness is somewhat debatable - Glasgow did rebuild several Atlanteans - including adjusting the pillar arrangement to make them in line on a couple of examples - but ultimately did less than a dozen in total. The fact that they scrapped several complete batches but retained some others (Some of the oldest Panoramics lasted into the Mid 90's) possibly lends credence to other potential factors - perhaps impure stocks of aluminium which were more brittle - potentially being a cause. Certainly we had LA927 all the way down to the body frame during the restoration and there are absolutely no signs of frame cracking anywhere.
The engine noise is fantastic and I bet it smells good too. Very well driven, these are proper buses before all the euro emissions rubbish came in. I passed my PCV test in an Atlantean, I wish we still had them in service now.
Thanks for the ride! I do feel your pain, about temp traffic lights ( took the piss have they not around where i live), and people braking for fuck all. Both my pet hates on the road.
Some of these Atlanteans were sold to the 'London Country" operation and two of the 'N'-suffix "panoramics" went on from there to my local (small) Manchester bus company (including 'SGA 710N'), being scrapped in the mid-'90s.
It's funny the things that get to you... Those engine sounds transport me back to the 1980s, riding into the city centre with my mum on a number 4 or a 37. Getting all emotional over an old bus...
I know exactly what you mean. I had a drive in a Leyland Atlantean bus for my 50th Birthday at a place near Nottingham. It was on an airfield and they had other things you could do. If you ever get the chance to drive one, I highly recommend it. You don't need a PSV license either, I've not got one. It was brilliant going round some traffic cones (and squashing one or two of them) and then reversing it and listening to it grumble.
I know exactly what u 'mean I used to ride on these with my grandad driving these beautiful old Leyland atlanteans beautiful memories and there beautiful engine notes
@@MultiRetroMan That sounds brilliant! I'd love a go at driving a bus, especially an Atlantean. My kids and I had a wee ride on one recently at the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum, near Dunfermline but sadly they don't do driver days.
@@stevethomas363 Part of the soundtrack to my childhood. We didn't have a car in our family so had to travel everywhere by bus or on foot until I could drive. Atlanteans and Aislas were the buses on my local routes but there was something comforting about getting onto an Atlantean and settling into my favourite seat up the back, next to the engine.
In india Ashok Leyland used to make these buses & the company is still around & sells good in Africa srilanka india nepal Bangladesh & the morning bus i used to take to school sounded pretty much same but the engine was at front & interior was more modern .. they were using similar engines till 2010s
Always loved sitting at the top front n/s of the LAs with my mother as we headed to the Yorkhill children's hospital in Partick in the 80s and 90s and various other places.
It's an Almex E mounted in LA 927 as the Wayfarer's were fitted much later on. Biggest giveaway is that the Wayfarer's were always permanently mounted on the dash whereas the Almex was a removable unit fitted to a motor drive on the cab door.
