The Classic Irish Buses website

by Shane Conway

Site set up February 2001, and last updated on February 7th 2010

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45 years ago, in April 1965, CIE put the first of their C class Leyland Leopards into service. Unlike previous designs of Irish single deck buses, these vehicles featured air suspension, semi-automatic transmission and forced air ventilation. Whereas older buses had been designed and built by the company in Spa Road works, the C class bodyframes were supplied in kit form by Metal Sections Ltd. of Oldbury, and then assembled and completed by CIE. By the end of 1965 a total of 146 of them had entered service, to be followed by a further 114 in 1966. The first 182 were completed as 45 seat buses, followed by eight 41 seat express coaches, after which the length was increased to 11 metres for a batch of 70 vehicles. 20 of these were fitted out as 40 seat touring coaches, 42 as 53 seater buses, and eight 45 seater express coaches. Later on five of the buses were redone for express work, and the tour coaches were converted to 53 seater buses in the early 1970s. In 1968 a further 20 tour coaches were planned, but only ten were built, bringing the final total to 270. A further six examples were placed in service during 1965 with the Ulster Transport Authority. The CIE buses were originally painted in red and cream (buses) or brown and cream (coaches), but later upwards of 80 of the short buses were in the tan livery used on Dublin City buses from 1974 to 1988. A change of front and rear roof domes, plus a lack of replacement fibreglass panels and curved rear corner windows increased the many variations in this class of buses during the 1970s. By the mid 1980s, a need for replacement school buses for rural services meant that several dozen of these Leopards were repainted yellow and white for this work. Others were added to the Dublin Bus driver training school. September 1997, when CS168 became the last known working example in Bus Eireann service, brought to an end over 32 years of continuous service of the type. A large number of them were acquired by various preservationists, thus ensuring their memory lives on. To mark 45 years since their introduction, Classic Irish Buses website is running a year long photo feature on these buses, with a different photo appearing each Sunday.

Previous weekly photos can be found on this page.

Our sixth weekly photo shows C90 outside Busaras while working the Airport service. Donnybrook based C class buses had replaced blue and cream painted U class coaches on this route in 1965, the only regular working by D C S (now Dublin Bus) vehicles from Busaras. Subsequently C71 to C76 were fitted with coach seats for the Airport run, the route transferred to Summerhill garage, and continued as such until about 1980 when Plaxton Elite bodied Leopards took over these duties. C90 was one of 29 C class (C71 to C99) which were new to Dublin City routes, although some of them became rural schoolbuses in the 1980s. Photo copyright David O'Connor.

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What's new?

Welcome to my website, the online home of classic Irish buses and coaches. I'm Shane Conway and my original attempts at setting up this site was to initially record the passing of the last Dublin Bus Bombardier KD class deckers in January 2001. My interest in the topic of this website began with the wonderful (and much missed) CIE bodied Leyland Titans allocated to Clontarf garage on the north side of Dublin Bay in the mid 1960s, mainly those working on routes 31 and 32, which passed within a quarter mile of my then front door.

This site is intended to be as definitive a history as possible of some of the various bus and coach fleets which have graced (or disgraced!) the roads of Ireland in the past. From the 1920s buses which started the replacement of Dublin's trams, up to the recent Volvo Olympians of Dublin Bus, and all the thousands of buses in between, including those of Ulsterbus and their predecessors, Lough Swilly, Belfast Corporation and the various versions of Leylands operated by CIE allover Ireland over many decades, all have their place on this site, in the form of detailed fleet histories. Complementing these pages are some "light reading" travelogue pages of some of the places I've visited since the 1980s, several photo collections, Isle of Man fleet histories, a list of all known Bristols and postwar Leylands in Ireland, features on London's Routemasters, Guide Friday and the 1960s Morris Oxford and Austin Cambridge cars. Finally come a couple of miscellaneous pages where some of our correspondent's pictures can be found.

So, welcome aboard, I hope you will find something of interest as we journey down memory lane and recall Irish and Manx buses of yesteryear. If you like the site, tell others, if there's a mistake, tell me!!! Updates and corrections to the text, additional photo contributions and info on links to any other Irish transport websites are always welcome, even though it may take me a while to actually get round to using them.

Quick links guide to this site

Republic of Ireland buses and coaches:

Northern Ireland buses and coaches:

Chassis list summaries of Irish owned buses and coaches:

Manx buses and coaches:

British and overseas buses and coaches:

Classic cars, trucks and vans:

Thanks to the following people for their contributions:

Dick Gilbert, without whose help this website would not exist.

The various photographers who's work is scattered around this site.

Richard Davis for additional notes on the fate of some Manx buses.

Patrizio Castelli for additional information on buses in Rome

Please note that ALL photos (especially those by other photographers) on this site are strictly copyright, and that the material is considered suitable for viewing by all ages. While every effort has been made to ensure the information listed on the various pages is as correct or accurate as possible, updates or corrections to any mistakes are welcome.

Other Irish (mainly) transport websites

General bus interest

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