Construction
The Olympian was built as a result of the Leyland Titan (B15), an integral double deck bus which was ordered en masse by London Transport. At the time there was a demand for non-integral vehicles, operators wishing to remain with more established manufacturers. Thus Leyland created the B45 project, which was named Olympian, in 1979. This was in many ways an update of the popular Bristol VR (Bristol Commercial Vehicles merged with Leyland in 1965), with many VR customers choosing Olympians; the bus was also initially built at the former Bristol factory. Later the Olympian also replaced the Leyland Atlantean.
It was available in two lengths, 9.56m and 10.25m. Engines were either the Leyland TL11 unit (an 11.1-litre development of the Leyland O.680), or the ever-popular Gardner 6LXB or 6LXCT. Some later Olympians had Cummins L10 engines; one had a 5LXCT.
For the export market a tri-axle version was built with lengths of 10.4m, 11.32m and 11.95m. This was very popular with operators such as Kowloon Motor Bus. In 1988, Leyland developed an air-conditioned version of the Olympian, with the air conditioner driven by the main engine instead of a separate engine.
Read more about this topic: Leyland Olympian
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