Leyland Atlantean ACT 540L No 72. Delaine Heritage Trust Museum Open & Running Day Lets Hop Aboard

Delaines Bus Museum Open Day & Bus Running Day 26th April 2025
Leyland Atlantean ACT 150L New to Delaine in March 1973.
Withdrawn from service in December 2000 and preserved by the company and joined the Delaine Heritage Fleet for use on special duties. In December 2015 became part of the Delaine Heritage Trust Collection.
The last new Leyland Double Decker to enter the Delaine Fleet and part of a batch of five identical Northern Counties bodied Leyland Atlanteans in a consortium with fellow independents Whippet of Fenstanton and OK Motor Services of Bishop Auckland. They were the first examples of the new Leyland AN68 extended 10.3m chassis, with a seating for 82 made them the largest capacity vehicles in the country at that time. ACT 150L (72) spent its entire working life with the company and remained the flagship of the the Double Decker fleet until the introduction of the company's first Olympian's in February 1995.

As an ex OK Motors Services Bishop Auckland employee when I hopped aboard and saw the drivers seat and looked across into the lower saloon and the seating arrangement and moquette colour and design ( if you can tell me the design name or pattern number in the comments ) it brought back memories of jumping in the cab to carry out a duty. OK had took delivery of XUP 147,148,149L and from talking with Anthony Delaine-Smith all 5 vehicles were made to OK specifications including seating and front double leaf door controls, seperate front, rear and both leaf options. This Delaine vehicle (72) is still as it left the factory such as air gearshift change and door control position, as OK fleet had electric gear change on the steering column on the left (blanking plate in the video) and the door control on the right. I wonder if OK adapted this conversion later to address drivers complaints and accommodate one man operation and money trays and ticket machine equipment ? Maybe there was a aluminium circle patch plate cover in the drivers cab beside the drivers seat... unsure ?. Anyway as soon as we set off and those creaks and rattles and clunks soon brought memories back.


Anyway left this video a bit longer than normal on the road section so we can all remember the creaks and the groans and rattles from the font leaf spring suspension and a bit rough around the edges with editing.
All sights and sounds recorded on the day from this bus.
Edited to be respectful to driver and passengers on board.
Hold tight please !!
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Best part for me making these videos is to rekindle old thoughts and memories and create talking points in the comments section, love reading them all.
Catch you all on the next one ....................