Peerless Wigan order for Leyland
Page 24
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Smiths-Shearings of Wigan, Britain's biggest coach operator, has placed repeat orders for 42 new vehicles, worth nearly £2 million, with Leyland Bus. The orders consist of 38 Tiger coach chassis with Cummins L10 engines — the biggest single order yet placed for the Cummins-powered Tiger — and four Lynx buses.
Of these, 30 will be fitted with the most powerful LTA10-290 engine rated at 216kW (290hp), and five of these will be fitted with ZF Ecomat fully-automatic gear boxes. The remainder will have manual ZF gearboxes, The remaining eight Tigers will be fitted with 157kW (210hp) L10 power units and ZF automatic boxes, and will be used on the company's growing network of local bus services.
The eight 157kW Tigers will be based on the recentlyintroduced drop-frame bus chassis with the repositioned front nearside chassis crossmember. This allows a wider and lower front entry step. The latest order brings the number of Tigers in the Smiths-Shearings fleet to 123.
Smiths-Shearings has also ordered four new Lynx singledeck buses, following its success with the four Lynx it bought last year.
The Workington-built Lynx have 157kW (210hp) Cummins engines and ZF automatic boxes.
The total value of the Smiths-Shearings order — which is expected to be one of the largest single orders for new vehicles placed anywhere in the UK by a coach operator this year — is £1.9 million.