Vlog 2201 Vintage Sydney Bus Nostalgia Ride In this video we ride a 1970’s Leyland Atlantean Double Decker on a Route 443 from White Bay to QVB #travel #travelvlog #sydneytrainsvlogs Filmed on 24/3/2024
Hi Phil 👋 I enjoyed the ride and have great memories of the Atlantean deckers. They were very controversial, and the subject of a prolonged strike over the introduction of one man buses. The issue was the safety of these buses without a conductor to control loading and to prevent injuries to passengers who were negotiating the stairs. The driver couldn't observe the staircase because it was in the centre of the bus and not directly behind the driver. The driver was also unable to observe the top deck and to fix that problem a "periscope" was installed which allowed the driver to look up and observe the top deck via a "viewer" which was directly in front of the front seat above the driver. The issue of available seating on the top deck was helped by the installation of a passenger counter on the bottom step of the staircase with a tiny counter screen nearby. When a passenger stepped on the bottom step to climb the stairs, the counter would indicate one less seat available upstairs. When a passenger stepped on the top step to go down the stairs and again on the bottom step the counter would indicate an extra seat was available upstairs. This worked well until students decided to play musical steps and eventually the counter stopped working. The periscope also worked well until someone placed an object over the screen or decided to sit on the screen. I hope I haven't bored you with this information.
I saw a leyland atlantean when I stayed at a hotel near Town Hall. It was awesome. I even have a picture on my phone. I guess they do services almost every week.
Thanks, Phil, for the great ride on the Atlantean. They were not in service for all that long, I don't believe. Check out my updated Eastern Suburbs rail video, including the "ghost" station at Woollahra.
The atlantean was released during that period of highway making, intended highways to northern beaches, newcastle via hunters hill, etc never saw this in its lifetime, sign of modern transportation and one man operation, for enviromental and green ban reasons and unions never saw thst day, so quite fitting to have it run the rozelle interchange and anzac bridge as a what would have been metaphorically. I remember catching these buses on a precusor route to the eastern suburbs railway in early 1979 before the esr opened. Jm
I drove a yellow Leyland Atlantean in the early 1970s for a year or two with Tyne and Weir Passenger Transport executive in Newcastle-u-Tyne. Easy to drive. Some good memories.
Phil, I was at QVB the day you were recording it and I saw the double decker bus, I did see a man with a phone/camera just like you, but not sure if it was you.
I don’t think Phil will have the time to do a vlog in WA what s to far away from Sydney but if he v Ee makes a video about the Indian Pacific that might help
The Atlantean stairs were not safe compared with the old Sydney's Leyland, Albion and A.E.C.deckers or the contemporary Daimler Fleetliners used in London during the 1970s. Bad decision making ruined a potentially good bus.😢
