(20/5/2018) China Motor Bus LM10 Leyland Olympian 3-axle 11m K481EUX (FW3858) - Fenland BusFest 2018

LM10 made its first public appearance since 2014 at the Fenland BusFest 2018 event, and ran on two round trips on route 341 between Whittlesey and Ramsey.

First registered at the end of 1993, LM10 is one of the last Leyland buses built for Hong Kong, and indeed the very last one for China Motor Bus. It is also the last non air-con bus purchased by CMB. It is interesting to note that the 10 LM-class Olympians are almost identical to Kowloon Motor Bus's S3BL421-470 (nicknamed "Tiger Leyland"), in terms of specifications of both bodywork and chassis, probably because CMB's order was too insignificant.

The LM-class Olympians have 245-horsepower Cummins LT10 engine and ZF Ecomat 4HP500 gearbox, identical to their A/C cousins (LA-class). Therefore, without the A/C unit dragging behind, they were renowned for their speed and power, much like KMB's "Tiger Leylands" on the other side of the harbour.

The successor of CMB's bus network, New World First Bus, which inherited 710 buses (199 of them are A/C buses) from CMB since 1/9/1998, aimed at providing full air-con service at soon as possible. While withdrawing 2-axle buses at a fast pace, NWFB also found some buyers for most of its 3-axle non-A/C buses. The relatively new LM-class Olympians were withdrawn in early 2000 and modified to UK-spec, with single wide front door, 2+2 seating and small sliding windows. They were sold to First Bus in UK, and served in Greater Manchester, Glasgow and finally Great Yarmouth. LM10 was re-numbered as 681, 3001 and eventually 30097. The 10 Olympians were withdrawn between 2009 to 2010, and all except LM10 were scrapped. Since 2011, LM10 has been preserved by its current owner Chris Martin, and was repainted to full CMB livery in 2012. It would however cost too much to rebuild it to the original 2-door layout.

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