The History

Leyland’s successor to the ‘Atlantean’ double decker was the ‘Olympian’ and it made its debut in 1980. There had been a less than successful attempt by Leyland to develop a double deck version of the Leyland National single decker; suffice to say that the Olympian was a chassis-ed version of this endeavour and that it sold quite well. The original Olympians had air suspension, a vertical transverse engine at the rear, a semi-automatic gearbox and power steering.

Grampian Regional Transport received its first batch of 10 Olympians in 1984 and a second batch of 10 in 1985. Grampian Regional Transport Ltd took delivery of a third and final batch of 10 in 1988. A GRT order for 10 to be delivered in 1986 was cancelled and replaced by the order for 5 single deck Leyland Tigers (see GRT 55).

All these Olympians had Alexander of Falkirk “RH” type bodywork which had aluminium body frames and an oil fired hot water saloon heating system. All Aberdeen Olympians bar two of the final batch had dual doors, the two exceptions having a single door and coach seating for 80 passengers.

The Trust has two examples of these vehicles, viz, GRT 121 and GRT Ltd 131.

• GRT 121 was last of the second batch of Olympians delivered in April1985 and came in a special livery for the Aberdeen airport service with “Grampian Scottish” fleet names. This batch had Gardner engines, Voith automatic transmissions and had either 73 or 71 seats; they were Leyland designation ONLXB/1RV. GRT 121 was withdrawn from service in 2008 when it was acquired for preservation.

• GRT Ltd 131 was the last of the last batch of Olympians which arrived in August 1988. This batch had 78 seats, had Cummins L10 engines and ZF automatic transmissions; they were Leyland designation ONCL10/2RZ. 131 came into preservation when it was withdrawn from service in 2012. It was the last double decker taken new into the city’s bus fleet for 12 years.