Cornwall Bus Preservation Society

Details

Registration: 

A754 VAF

Fleet No.: 

34754

Fleet No.: 

1807

Fleet No.: 

1754

Date acquired: 

Thu, 01/10/2009

We have now successfully acquired from First Devon & Cornwall, former Western National 'Bristol' LeylandLeyland Bus was a British bus manufacturer. It emerged from the Rover Group (formerly British Leyland) as a management buyout of the bus business. It was subsequently acquired by Volvo Buses in 1988 and the name finally disappeared in 1993 OlympianLeyland Olympian was a double-decker bus built by British Leyland/Leyland Bus in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1993., A754 VAF in Barbie 2 livery and displaying fleet number 34754.

This represents a very important 'save' for the CBPG as it is the last vehicle from the initial batch of 8 first introduced in Plymouth in November 1983 to come out of service in Cornwall. Unfortunately sister vehicles, 34751/2/5 (A751/2/5 VAF) have not been so lucky and have been scrapped. However, 34753(A753 VAF) with Cornwall Fire and Rescue lives on as does 34750 (A750 VAF) as an 'open-topper' stored in North Devon.

This OlympianModels of double decker bus built by Leyland and Volvo: * Leyland Olympian * Volvo Olympian * Volvo Olympian (low-floor), also known as Volvo B9TL  has a GardnerL. Gardner and Sons Ltd was a well-known British builder of diesel engines for stationary, marine, road and rail applications.
The company was founded in Hulme, Manchester, England in 1868 and started building engines around 1895, ceasing engine production in the mid 1990s. diesel engine as per the specification in 1983 and not a CumminsCummins Inc.is a corporation of complementary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service diesel and natural gas engines and related technologies. as was later used and is built on one of the last chassis's to emerge from the Bristol factory before closure.

Originally numbered 1807, she is fitted with high back coach seats, as were all of the batch and was based at the Laira depot in Plymouth. From quite early on they were all painted green and white and wore the Western National version of 'CitybusLivery used on Plymouth City Buses' livery for use on the Plymouth Joint Services network. In 1986, the Olympians ran into Cornwall when they carried National Express livery on service X1 Plymouth to Penzance. A picture of our Olympian in this livery can be found in 'Royal Blue Days' by Colin Morris. Eventually, the Olympians were transferred to Cornwall except for 1809/10(A756/7 VAF) which were transferred to another First Group area. During this time, renumbering took place and 1807 became 1754 before First's individual numbering system was adopted when she finally became 34754. Proving to be very popular with enthusiasts, 34754 may receive a livery change in 2011!