by Bill Godwin
Page 39
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One engine drives 45 buses.
Hope for Neoplan artics
THE ANNOUNCEMENT that a second assembly plant has been opened in the United States by Neoplan — only 12 months after production began at Lamar, Colorado — provides further confirmation of the remarkable success of this German bus builder in the hotly contested American bus market.
The new facility, at Montgomeryville, near Philadelphia, is designed to ease pressure on the Lamar works, which has full order books and tight delivery schedules for over 1,300 city buses built to the US ADB (Advanced Design Bus) standard.
Another activity at Montgomeryville is concerned with the completion and trim of the first batch of 45 articulated buses which are being built at the Pilsting works, in Bavaria. This, the second largest of all Neoplan manufacturing facilities in Germany, is currently turning out articulated vehicles of integral construction which have been ordered by the City of Atlanta.
Framing and interior and exterior panelling are completed in Germany and although axles and running gear are fitted, engines and transmissions are only installed on arrival in the US.
Because of the need to test run the assembled vehicles before they are moved by rail to the port of Hamburg, a single power pack is held at the Pilsting works and this is used in turn for each vehicle completed.
The VoV-type windscreen is also fitted in Germany but side windows are glazed at the Pennsylvania plant.
One of the many interesting features of this bus design, which combines European experience with US requirements, is the adaptation of the British-made Hope AntiJack Knife device to the Jost turntable between front and rear section of the rear-engined vehicle.
By casting its net wider, Neoplan has been able to compensate for a sharp decline in the domestic bus market. The US venture has been the main contributor to the maker's good midi-bus for city and suburban operation intended for routes where full-size vehicles are becoming uneconomic.
The Neoplan SLK 82 is 7.6m long (24ft 11 in) and is powered by a Mercedes-Benz diesel engine of 130 or 168 bhp. Available in two or three (I) door versions, the new model can carry up to 42 passengers. A PUSHER-TYPE articulated bus for service in the United States under construction in the Misting, Germany, plant of Neoplan. Vehicles are fitted with interior and exterior panelling but are shipped without power units, glazing and seats.
fortune — with 27 per cent of all psv orders placed in 1981 — but the changing needs of European operators are not being neglected.
At the end of November a presentation at Stuttgart revealed the prototype of a new