The Classic Irish Buses website

Ulsterbus 1989 - 2006

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By 1989, Ulsterbus had placed close to 400 Leyland Tigers into service, but the upcoming sale of Leyland Bus to Volvo was to have an effect on future orders. From 1300 onwards, all chassis were supplied with Volvo engines, and gradually sales to other operators dwindled away to nothing, Shearings being the final British customer for the type. The final chassis of all went to Citybus, although Ulsterbus can claim the very last one to enter service, number 1500 in August 1993. By a strange co-incidence, some 66 years earlier in 1927, HMS Catherwood in Belfast had placed the very first ever Leyland Tiger into service, so Ulster based bus companies have the distinction of the first and last Leyland Tigers to enter service anywhere. Vehicles numbered from 1340 onwards were supplied with a new Alexander Q type body (apart from Wrights bodied 1408 to 1432).

Alongside these new Tigers came a small batch of secondhand examples, mostly from the above meantioned Shearings with both Van Hool and Plaxton bodies. A further example, new to the Ministry of Defence, brought the sole example of Wadham Stringer coachwork to the fleet. Breaking the N and Q type thread briefly were sixteen Alexander TE coaches in 1990, visually similar to 40 owned by Bus Eireann, but differing by being built in Mallusk and having Leyland engines, whereas the Bus Eireann ones were Scottish built with Cummins engines.

The year 2006 saw the withdrawal of the first of the Leyland Tiger buses, the coaches having been disposed of some years earlier. Included among the first withdrawals were prototype 340 (sold for preservation) and Gardner powered 370. Replacement lowfloor buses entering the Citybus fleet allowed the transfer of most of their Volvo engined Tigers to Ulsterbus for further service.

1989

904 was one of 12 ex Sheffield and District ECW bodied Leyland AN68s acquired in 1989. It was converted to opentop and fitted with a wheelchair lift in 1993, and allocated to Newcastle, the first double decker there for many years.

1990

Seen at the ITT rally in 1986 was ex Ulsterbus 1334, which had been converted for non-PSV use by the Red Cross in Belfast.

1991

1992

1993

1995

1996

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2004

2005

2006

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