History:
With agreement being reached
with the Unions for the use of one man operated double decks a
new standard type was actively sought. Following earlier operations
of the XF and XA types, which were the then two most popular double
decks being built, the Fleetline and Atlantean, the decision was
made to purchase Fleetlines. One of the advantages with the Fleetline
was that its Gardner engine was less prone to overheating, something
that LT was very mindful of with rear engined buses.
The first vehicles were bodied
by Park Royal and entered service at Shepherds Bush replacing
Routemasters. The next much larger batch (1600) was spilt between
Park Royal and Metro Cammel Weymann and many of these also received
Leyland engines due to industrial action at Gardners.
Later Leyland versions were
‘quietened’ to reduce the noise level and these took
the Leyland code of B20 such as our DMS2646 which was numerically
the last ever DMS built.
London Transport however did
not get on well with the DMS with many suffering mechanical problems
throughout their lives. Much of this was attributed to the centre
door electrics as well as the slow loading using the automatic
ticketing equipment. For these reasons LT decided on an early
withdrawal of this class and by 1979 they were departing the streets.
Ensignbus took the opportunity to buy 2000 of these vehicles and
indeed it was this class that really put Ensign on the map in
terms of dealing as the numbers were enormous and the timescale
in which to take them and sell them on fairly short. By 1983 almost
all but the B20’s had been withdrawn and Ensign had found
no problem in shifting them once the problems that had dogged
LT had been ironed out.
Withdrawn DMS worked all over
the UK and indeed the world, operators like West Midlands PTE,
Western SMT, Southend Transport, Midland Red to name a few as
well as international operators like China Motor Bus who took
nearly 400 for use in Hong Kong, where the conditions and loadings
were far harsher than in London but where the buses coped admirably,
proving there was little wrong with the design.
Another big use for them was
sightseeing duties, where a number of operators used them on London
Sightseeing duties, some have even lasted into 2005, some 35 years
after the first ones entered service. The same is true abroad
where some still run on tour duties particularly in places such
as Canada.
All in all the DMS has proved
itself but perhaps will never be seen as being a success in its
home city, however for Ensign they are iconic and our collection
would not be complete with out some examples. We also own DMS33
which is an open top and the oldest one still in service and is
in our commercial hire fleet.
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