I remember driving buses like this in service, although we mainly had Leyland Atlantean double deckers, I remember the smell and smoke in the bus yard at 5am with about 200 of these getting started up in the morning!!! You then had to hold the throttle down to fill the air tanks before you could even move the bus. Ah, memories!!!
Kinda weird to drive though , with their floaty suspension and that steering , after passing my test in early 1980 the first bus we had to familiarize on was the national , that's because it handled and steered like no other bus, the steering isn't self centering , and that mated with the somewhat abrupt acceleration coming out of a junction you had to learn to quickly take off the steering that you had put on , having said that I did like them very much because they're fast and good to drive once you got used to them.
@@joebutlersnr7017 interesting I was only 1 year old in 1980 but I did go 2 school in 90s on Leyland Nationals & Leyland Olympians they make a great sound aswell
@@ussvoyager8650 yea Olympians were very good buses to drive , very good handling and acceleration , not a high top speed ,about 45 ish for the semi automatics , but the fully auto voith push buttons were very fast for town buses some could touch 80 mph , they felt heavier than the semi,s and not as wieldy either but still good though , all driver's loved the Olympians.
HUM HUM,!!! what drug are you on, it is a Leyland National not a Dyson Vacuum Cleaner, they whine clatter and knock filling the air with their aroma of badly burnt diesel. One thing a MK 1 National does not doe not do ,is HUM!!.
@@basiltaylor8910 Maybe not the best choice of word, but I hear a hum or a whine. Correct, it's not like a vacuum cleaner. And people get far too worked up over trivial things online.
@@josephd.2725 That is maybe so, as a teenager in the late,70,s early 80,s I rode these beasts when thrashed to an inch of their lives fully loaded on Stroud Depots many steep twisty routes .Standing in Stroud Bus Station in midwinter you could choke on the 510,s fumes and see a cloud of oily blue smoke spew forth from the arse end of a Mk1 National waddling out of Stroud Bus Station Station fully loaded with kids and disgruntled shoppers. That is why I got up so much steam, saying a 510 hums , er keep taking the medication,. To me Boy George,s Culture Club Spandau Ballet and a screaming 510 brings back memories of a world before it went mad!!!
I stand by what I say regarding the 510 ,it clatters, screams and howls filling the air with its perfume of hot metal@@skylined5534,oil, and diesel. Have you ridden a Tesco Margarine Tub ?,yes an Enviro 200, a strimmer engine with a bus body attached, f-----g awful things.
i used to have a old di transit van. it was horrendous to start from cold. smoke all owa. i put a shot of 2 stroke in with the diesel and it totally cured the smokey start up
yep all the ones we had in western australia started up the same,we used to have to ad "no smoke' oil additive to get them over registration pits EVERY year LOL
@@MattWillisVideoProductions2023valid point you make lol. I must have been having a brain glitch day, of course it's a national, no idea why I said Atlantean. Thanks for correcting me. 😊.
There used to be a Green Leyland National parked in the Coach Park in Ludlow a few years ago, it was used for music practice, I'm sure it was that one. Before I drove coaches, I cut my teeth on Leyland vehicles, including Mk1 and Mk2 Nationals. So I was interested in the one in Ludlow.
My early days were mainly Leyland leopard manual 4 speed + Eton rear axle, manual constant mesh 5 speed Bristol RE, Leyland PD3 (Queen Mary) and Bristol VR. Occasionally Leyland Atlantean, and normally at Epson races time, a 6 speed Ford coach, (caused a few heads shut in doors because the doors shut when the clutch was depressed).
didn't they have glow plugs for cold starting? always thought be dam near impossible to get a diesel started on a good frosty morning without glow plugs
Fantastic - Though the job isn't complete! You have to get the air pressure up - Flooring the engine was the preferred method IIRC :) She's in great shape!
We're these layland engines based on the same principle as ee locomotive engines loadsnof fuel to aid compression rather than heat and fire one cylinder at a time?
Says please that the buses pull out I have no problem with this but they always go half the speed limit when they can go the speed limit just done to annoy people and they wonder why people don't let them out and when they do pull out it's right in front of you it's dangerous
