It is the Olympian which topped the sale amongst the trio. In fact,
it is also the best selling double decker of its time.
Throughout its 20 year production life between 1980 to 1999, some
10268 Olympians were manufactured (4855 Leylands + 5413 Volvos).
Excluding the 3870(?) examples which were exported (HK: 2497,
Singapore: 600, Ireland: 640, Greece: 20, USA: 11, demonstrators: 2),
there are 6398 examples sold in Britain alone.
What Ensign means is at the time M450 was shipped, parts for the
Metrobus is more readily available because they were being withdrawn
from London and Birmingham (two of its main haunts) en-masse.
At the time though, only the very early examples of Olympians were
starting to come out of service, its parts are, relatively, spare. At the
end of its production life, just over 3000 Metrobuses were built, with
almost 500 were exported to HK.
The Dominator, as said, is the worst seller of the trio. Just 1107
were throughout its 18 years of production (not counting its 3-axle
sister Dragon/Condor), including 47 export examples. Astonishingly,
Dennis actually sold more Dragons (1326) to KMB ALONE...
The reason of the non-sell of the Dominator is, partly, because of
its relatively obsolete design. The chassis, for a start, is based on
the Bristol VRT. When modern competing products, like the Metrobus,
and later, the Olympian, come along, it becomes no match to either
of them. The Dominator did well in its first 3 years of its production,
but the Metrobus competed with it heavily. When the Olympian went
into production in 1980, it virtually blew the Dominator out completely.
[ref=107658]NV58[/ref] 在 2005-1-18 03:41 AM 發表:
Throughout its 20 year production life between 1980 to 1999, some
10268 Olympians were manufactured (4855 Leylands + 5413 Volvos).
Excluding the 3870(?) examples which were exported (HK: 2497,
Singapore: 600, Ireland: 640, Greece: 20, USA: 11, demonstrators: 2),
there are 6398 examples sold in Britain alone.
...
The Dominator, as said, is the worst seller of the trio. Just 1107
were throughout its 18 years of production (not counting its 3-axle
sister Dragon/Condor), including 47 export examples. Astonishingly,
Dennis actually sold more Dragons (1326) to KMB ALONE...
For the total production number of Olympian, I get another number as follows:
Built in Bristol: 1,004 (B45.01-09, ON1-995)
Built in Workington (1983-86, 1990-93): 2,723 (ON1001-2645, 20001-21080)
*Built in Farrington: around 1,854 (ON10001-11857)
*Total Volvo Olympians: 4,749 (025001-029749)
Total Olympians built: around 10,330...#:-/
(*: There may be some chassis numbers not allocated to any chassis)
The number of Olympian exported to Singapore
should be 401 (Leyland)+571 (Volvo)= 972, including 3 which was back to UK.
And the total number of 2-axle Dominator built is 1007, not 1107
(chassis number 101-1107, including a chassis
which was rebuilt as trolleybus DTA1401/101).
For the total production number of Olympian, I get another number as follows:
Built in Bristol: 1,004 (B45.01-09, ON1-995)
Built in Workington (1983-86, 1990-93): 2,723 (ON1001-2645, 20001-2 ...
That is interesting, the number I got is from the BUSES focus Autumn 2000 issue
(the 20th ann. of Olympian). Their breakdown is as follow:
