Leyland Gets Sel-m. Export Order for 750 Buses
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I N the face of competition from 26 manufacturers from all over the world, Leyland Motors, Ltd., has obtained a £4m. order for 750 underfloor-engined passenger vehicles from the Argentine. Out of this total, 450 will be Royal Tiger chassis and the remainder Leyland-M.C.W. Olympic chassisless single-deckers.
Metropolitan Cammell Weymann Motor Bodies, Ltd., will also build 200 single-deck bodies for the Royal Tiger chassis, a further 100 being supplied by Saunders-Roe (Anglesey), Ltd. Locally built bodies will be provided for the remaining 150 chassis, which will be shipped to Argentina for completion.
Most of the buses will be placed in service in Buenos Aires and will replace vehicles being taken out of service. Other buses will be operated in the interior of the Argentine, where transport services have been taken over by municipalities or provincial authorities.
All the vehicles will be 40-seaters with standing room for 22 passengers. Separate entrances and exits will be provided in the right-hand side of the body, with an emergency exit on the driver's side. All will have a wheelbase of 17 ft. 6 ins, but the Olympic chassis less models will be 31 ft. 8 ins. long and 8 ft. wide, whilst the Royal Tigers will be 32 ft. 2 ins, long and 7 ft. 11 ins. wide.
With the exception of those to be completed by Saunders-Roe, all the vehicles will have 11.00 by 22.00 lowpressure tyres. The Saunders-Roe models will have 11.00 by 20.00 lyres.
Before the contract was ratified by the President of the Argentine Republic, last week, an engineer of the Argentine Ministry of Transport visited a number of commercial-vehicle manufacturers in Britain and on the Continent. It is believed thdt tenders for the contract were submitted by manufacturers in the United States, Austria, Japan, Holland, France, Italy and Germany.
The replacement of existing rolling stock in the Buenos Aires transport system is part of a plan instituted by the President to modernize the system.
Rapid Delivery Rapid delivery is one of the features of the contract, and it was for this reason that production of the bodies was spread between the two bodybuilders. The vehicles will be finished in aluminium with a blue waist-band.
It was only just over a year ago that Leyland Motors, Ltd., received the nowfamous order for 620 buses for Cuba. This was signed on June 21, 1950, and was stated to be worth 10m. dollars.
With the new order. Leyland Motors, Ltd., has in a year received overseas contracts for 1,370 buses, worth Vim.