|
|
|
|
|
Below are a selection of views of buses that have left the Isle of Man Transport fleet, or were previously on the bus photo gallery page |
|
Isle of Man Transport 3 (EMN 203U) one of a batch of ECW bodied Leyland Olympians acquired from Stagecoach Selkent, via Ensign (dealer), Purfleet, but new to London Buses in 1985 as their L80 (C80 CHM), is seen at Douglas railway yard |
Following a change of management and managerial styles in
1999, the emphasis was changed to include a greater
percentage of double-deck vehicles in the fleet, which
resulted in the withdrawal and sale of all the single-deck
fleet apart from eleven low-floor Marshall bodied Dennis
Dart SLF's. In view of a high requirement of large capacity
vehicles to fulfill the Island's school bus requirements,
the pursuance of a single-deck policy was eminently
questionable, and had already witnessed numerous youthful
single deck buses being placed in storage as being surplus
to operational requirements. Pictured at Douglas railway
yard is Dart 24 (DMN 24R) showing the fictitious
destination '22 Manx Express'. Route 22 is a Douglas town
route, the Manx Express runs over only Island trunk routes.
This was one of the eleven retained and has since been
renumbered 34
Before the arrival of the low-floor deliveries, the last
double deckers IoMT bought new arrived in 1989-1990
consisting of 13 Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians,
delivered in three batches. From the middle batch, totaling
two buses, came 66 (BMN 66P), seen at Douglas railway
yard complete with a retro-fitted electronic destination,
the only Olympian so attired.
It was twelve years after the formation of the Island's
nationalised bus undertaking that delivery of new
double-deck buses occurred, with the arrival of six
all-Leyland Olympians in 1988. The bodywork was some of the
first built after Leyland resumed bus body construction
following over thirty years absence from this market, and
was not without some teething troubles, which resulted in
each of the batch being returned to Workington for
attention, in some cases more than once. Just two of the
batch survive having notched up twenty years service with
Isle of Man Transport, including 87 (BMN 87G), seen
parked at the rear of Ramsey garage. This bus spent over two
years out of use following severe front-end accident damage,
which was expertly repaired by IOMT's staff at Homefield
garage.
