1980 Leyland Atlantean 11.1 litre 6 cylinder diesel Update 13/12/10

[macturbo]

Before anyone starts, Ive already had all the cliff richard, butler, blakey, on the buses jokes etc Please, if ya dont like it theres always someone else threads to look through to keeps yourself amused. Ive already flack from my mates I had the chance to buy this 1980 Leyland Atlantean double decker 86 seater in November 2009. It had been sat in a field for nearly 5 years when I agreed to buy it. The bus was new to the Tyne and Wear PTE which became Busways travel services then later stagecoach. My dad used to drive for Busways and actually drove this bus in service regulary so we sort of have history with it and thought it would be nice to bring it back to Newcastle and restore it otherwise it was going for scrap. Buses of 30 years old or more can be driven on a normal car licence for private use aslong as you dont carry more than 8 passengers. I have this bus insured for £152 a year fully comp for any driver over 25 and under 70 with an agreed value aswell. Road tax is reclassified to PLG so costs around £200 a year instead of PCV £500 a year. The bus last operated in scotland on school runs and when withdrawn was bought by the old fella I bought it from. He drove it to Bury st Edmonds and parked it up where it sat for 5 years. We had lots of vaults to fix before deciding to drive the bus back to the North east. Took a team of 5 of us around 20 hours to get it ready for the long drive. I ended up having to have it towed just over 200 miles home from Cambridge services Poblem being the bus has been left in a field for 5 years and me being me thought it would be a good idea to go down whack a set of trade plates on it and drive it 260 miles back to Newcastle. The chassis and body are totally mint as it did worry me driving all that way to find a rotten chassis especially as it had weeds and alsorts growing up around it. We fitted new batteries, new PAS fluids etc, an airfilter box as it was missing, new fan belts and then when we went to fit new alternator belts we found it had the wrong alternator fitted and it had broke the mount off it aswell. So we are stick in the middle of know where with a fucked bus and 260 miles from home. I ended up wedging a geet big screwdriver inbetween the bracket and alternator to keep the tension on the belt and we left it runnign all afternoon to so how it would cope with the vibrations coming the engine and after a test run it proved to be alright. Then we find that none of the exterior lighting would work nor would the washers or wipers. We bodged a wire from the wiper motor to cab light switch to get that working. Next we find that sidelights would work for about 3 secs and blow the fuse, this was down to a severerly corroded terminal for the o/s/r lights. Took us ages to cut it out and wire it back up with out a test meter and all the wires being black!! 5am next morning we decide its ready to drive off and find we have lost all gears!! This was down to a dodgy connection on the fuse box as the whole fusebox is damp from being left in field for so long. We fixed that then drive off and it drove very well even though the PAS wouldnt work, we managed 30 miles before fuelling up which set me back £160 to find 20 miles down the road we could smell rubber burning. Pulls into Cambrdige services just as the high temp light came and we found the alternator belt had shredded. Alternator belt also drives the waterpump. Not a problem we still have another 3 new belts to use up till I noticed the Alternator had swung round with the bracket being broken and main cable had arked out on the main air outlet pipe so the bus would build its air up but as soon as you pressed the brakes the air would drop off. Rang the breakdown firm who sent a service van out 1st. Couldnt fix it where it was so it had to be recovered. They picked it up the monday lunchtime and took it to there depot where it sat overnight before being transfered onto a American style lhd v8 diesel wrecker. Im just waiting for the bill now as the breakdown cover only covers upto 1K so anything anything over that I have to pay myself. They reckon the bill to atleast £1200+VAT . Only consilation is the bus still has a full tank of fuel anyway. Heres a few pics of her in service: /\ /\ /\ Thats the way im going to run the bus this coming season complete with the yellow vinyls and destination blinds. The following year we are going to put it back to Busways colours Ive managed to track down a brand new set of foglights for the front, £150 later but will make the front end I reckon. Ive got her up and running again and replaced the airpipe andf alternator brackets. If anyone can help im after the following parts for her: Front king pin axle kit Exhaust tail pipe PAS pump Cheers guys.

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[Minirotty]

Now thats a project

[RSNUT!]

seriously... why??? u must have a hole burning in your pocket!

[mercury grey minter]

Great project.If i ever win the lottery i,m deffo getting a ROUTEMASTER.

[macturbo]

Originally Posted by RSNUT!

seriously... why??? u must have a hole burning in your pocket!

Its not as expensive as you may think mate.
The bus was less than 1K to buy with no tax or mot.
Its not like it will be on the road everyday and is better than most other deckers for fuel economy, mind it only does 50 mph on a good day!

Originally Posted by mercury grey minter

Great project.If i ever win the lottery i,m deffo getting a ROUTEMASTER.

Routemasters are silly money now!
You could buy a couple escos's for the price of a decent example!
A friend of mine has 1, he bought it straight out of service through a 3rd party on he only paid 4K for it a couple of years back.
Now the same bus worth about 25-30K!!

[timrud]

Sweet project!

I used to love buses when I was a kid. The bus company even threw me a birthday party when I was 9

Deffo look better in the busways colours!!

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Mike C]

My old man wants to collect buses. I'll have to show him this.

[Dangerous Malcolm..]

That's mad, but cool............. I like it!

[Twins]

Will keep an eye on this ,even the recovery firm operates old skool stuff aswell

[Mr S1]

What a cool project !

[orionmojo]

Originally Posted by Twins

Will keep an eye on this ,even the recovery firm operates old skool stuff aswell

you'll find that alot of wreckers are alot older than the trucks they're recovering lol. i'm not exactly sure why, the only reason i can think of is they dont get used daily, so aren't as knackered.

[Gary F]

Wtf

You keeping it at VanHee then mate?
Do you know who owns the other two buses there?

[bigchez]

Wicked! How big is the turbo? Bet you spool something mmahoooooosive with an engine that big!

[macturbo]

Originally Posted by milkman

Wtf

You keeping it at VanHee then mate?
Do you know who owns the other two buses there?

Yeah its kept at vanhee in Felling.
Theres 3 other other buses parked next to mine now all owned by a friend of mine.
Theres also a ex london metrobus in there now aswell which has been converted into an 8 berth motorhome for the owners disabled son.

Originally Posted by bigchez

Wicked! How big is the turbo? Bet you spool something mmahoooooosive with an engine that big!

What turbo

[Gary F]

Originally Posted by macturbo

Yeah its kept at vanhee in Felling.
Theres 3 other other buses parked next to mine now all owned by a friend of mine.
Theres also a ex london metrobus in there now aswell which has been converted into an 8 berth motorhome for the owners disabled son.


What turbo

Yeah I used to store my car in a container there, I hope you don't want to use your bus mind as the bloke who runs the storage part turns up as he please's, and doesn't turn up when you've already arranged it with him

[macturbo]

Originally Posted by milkman

the bloke who runs the storage part turns up as he please's, and doesn't turn up when you've already arranged it with him

You on abut Neil?
There is about another 10 or so deckers to gon in there very soon.
We have already had issues with access so he has agreed to us having a fob to let ourselves if we get more deckers in there so only time will tell. Worst case I will pull it out and take it elsewhere. My old decker I had ws at Tyne tuneel storage but they let anyne in. Strangers were walking in off the street and tampering with buses, parts going missing so I wont go back there.
Its easy money for Neil, we each pay £50 a month.

[as355f1]

try coopers in annitsford newcastle for ya spare parts, i am sure they have one parked out the back

[andy escos]

ha ha now thats a project

[jammerrs]

thats one bigggggggg engine

how much does the bus roughly weigh?

[macturbo]

Originally Posted by jammerrs

thats one bigggggggg engine

how much does the bus roughly weigh?

Its just shy of 10 ton matey

[mercury grey minter]

Routemasters are silly money now!
You could buy a couple escos's for the price of a decent example!
A friend of mine has 1, he bought it straight out of service through a 3rd party on he only paid 4K for it a couple of years back.
Now the same bus worth about 25-30K!![/quote]


Saw a really nice 1966 one for sale in classic truck&bus mag last week for £13000.
Storing it would be a problem hence i need the lottery win.

[macturbo]

[/quote]Saw a really nice 1966 one for sale in classic truck&bus mag last week for £13000.
Storing it would be a problem hence i need the lottery win.[/quote]

Could you PM me the details on that one please mate. 13K, me mate will take his arm for it!!
Storage aint bad though, I only pay £50 a month for indoor secure storage.

[m4tt274]

how many miles it done from new.
this is really cool

[macturbo]

Originally Posted by m4tt274

how many miles it done from new.
this is really cool

Haha cheers mate.
The bus doesnt have mileage on it, just a speedohead so im not sure.
Its thought to have done maybe 1.5 million miles give or take a hundred thousand miles going off average mileage a service bus would do per year.

[baz walton]

Originally Posted by macturbo

Theres also a ex london metrobus in there now aswell which has been converted into an 8 berth motorhome for the owners disabled son

As soon as I saw this thread I remember spending time reading the story and seeing the pics of that bus that was converted for the family. It is a cracking conversion. I was going to try and find the link to it in case you hadnt seen it, but obviously if it's parked next to yours, you have

If you have the link to it, put it up, i'm sure others on here would appreciate what your friend did.

[macturbo]

Originally Posted by baz walton

As soon as I saw this thread I remember spending time reading the story and seeing the pics of that bus that was converted for the family. It is a cracking conversion. I was going to try and find the link to it in case you hadnt seen it, but obviously if it's parked next to yours, you have

If you have the link to it, put it up, i'm sure others on here would appreciate what your friend did.

You have a good point there mate:
http://www.double-decker.org/index.html
Well worth looking through

[m4tt274]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIN2nh-p0TI&NR=1

they were a good old decker

[botters]

wicked project mate

[macturbo]

Originally Posted by m4tt274

they were a good old decker

My old bus is on there mate.
I had a yellow decker I bought from South Wales last April but it needed s hit load of work doing to it. I sold it on and bought the blue decker instead.

This is my old bus the day we picked it up from Howells coaches of Bargoed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta1Ec...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgnH8...eature=related

This last vid is of the other deckers they had left. We robbed them of parts for spares for my bus.
The scrapman took the shells and powerpacks away afterwards.
They were all ex tyneside deckers. I only paid £600 for my yellow bus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uufnC...eature=related

[Zetecfiesta]

thats mental, proper project!

[mercury grey minter]

Saw a really nice 1966 one for sale in classic truck&bus mag last week for £13000.
Storing it would be a problem hence i need the lottery win.[/quote]

Could you PM me the details on that one please mate. 13K, me mate will take his arm for it!!
Storage aint bad though, I only pay £50 a month for indoor secure storage.[/quote]


Will have look tomorrow in Sainsburys.Read it while waiting for the missus .It says it,s one of the last 10 to come out of service.

[Rs(555)]

nice one

[ajamesc]

thats one hell of a prodject you have their lol i work for basingstoke commercials we are daf but have worked on a few old buses and coaches good luck with it u will need it lol

[Gary F]

Originally Posted by macturbo

You on abut Neil?
There is about another 10 or so deckers to gon in there very soon.
We have already had issues with access so he has agreed to us having a fob to let ourselves if we get more deckers in there so only time will tell. Worst case I will pull it out and take it elsewhere. My old decker I had ws at Tyne tuneel storage but they let anyne in. Strangers were walking in off the street and tampering with buses, parts going missing so I wont go back there.
Its easy money for Neil, we each pay £50 a month.

£50 a month and you's are getting fobs? I was paying £100 and couldn't even get to my car

[timrud]

Any updates?

[Deerhunter]

nice one

[Glenn.]

Now thats what i call a mad project.Nice one mate.

[macturbo]

Sort of yes, lol.
Ive been to Barnsley eariler this week to the bus scrapyards.
Ive ordered a front axle, PAS pump fan shaft and a set of batteries
The king pins are very badly worn and we suspect its worn the axle aswell so the plan is to buy a 2nd hand axle which doesnt have any play in the kingpins and overhaul that and fit it to the bus.
New exhaust arrived yesterday along with a set of lumy destination numbers which it would have fitted when it was ran in is later years as a magicbus.
Heres some photos from the scrapyard though:

[m4tt274]

wow. look at those, would love to go their just to look around. yes call me sad lol

[capricougar]

theres a bus scrap yard at annfield plain,co durham,