GSC 659X Leyland Atlantean 2007

GSC 659X History

This picture was used to advertise the for sale on a popular internet auction suite

After buying the bus it was driven to the nearby Hillington Bus Museum for assessment after some minor repairs we felt confident enough to drive her back to Edinburgh

The engine bay was very tatty and badly damaged from a rear end collision. The power-pack subframe was badly bent in the collision and has pushed the Gearbox mountings out of alignment and caused them over time to collapse. The engine was very rough, suffering from a serious misfire which was not help by the fact that the air cleaner had been removed adding a massive induction roar to the engine nose and as the Eminox exhaust system had been pulled off the bus in Wales 659 was far from sounding the way I remembered them.

After some small repairs and a couple of bulbs the bus was ready to take home to Edinburgh, my wife even had a go at driving the bus in the yard, she done quite well considering she has still to learn to drive a car!...

A stop at Hearthill to make sure nothing had fallen off!...

At Gifford 659 was washed before heading into the main shed

This rear end shot was taken after replacement bustles had been fitted to the bus as the original ones were badly damaged. The nearside one was taken off GSC 647X

This rear end shot was taken after replacement bustles had been fitted to the bus as the original ones were badly damaged. The offside one was taken off GSC 657X

This shot shows the translator Panel which controls the automatic gears. As you can see two of the four cables have been removed. If you look closely you will see them remains in the background a cable tie holds them back. The two cables wire wired together to convert the bus to semi-auto control.

It is not just the translator panel that had been altered. This shot shows under the back seat where they should have been many more valves and solenoids than I found. It seems that some cost saving measures had been introduced in the last years of the Atlantean’s at Lothian. Both the gear protection system and pressure attenuation system have been removed from the bus.

Like any good challenge it was met head on and after a few phone calls and a the odd field trip I have assembled myself the missing parts ready to bolt into 659. The missing parts along with an EP valve have been mounted to the refurbished base plate so when the time comes it can be bolted in as a finished assembly into the bus.

In this picture you can see the newly re-installed radio controls and the semi-auto gear selector. You can also just make out the Wayfarer II ticket machine and hopper

My father not only ran Shrubhill Works for many years he also drove the buses for a few years. When I got a Wayfare II for 659 he kindly leant me his genuine LRT user manual. If I ever get the ticket machine working I will have a good idea how to use it now

One of my favourite shots as the bus looks almost complete and just as I remembered them. Here we have installed the replacement seat frames that had the vertical poles broken off, we have also installed the ticket issuing equipment, and fitted the period adverts back into the bus. If it were not for the hopper being the wrong colour this picture could have been taken in Longstone!..

Curse those ripped seats!.. again some period adverts. The fares table was the very last one to carry the LRT Lothian name and they had been removed before the last running day. The replacement fares table from 659 last year of service has been installed upstairs and carries the short lived Lothian LRT name on it.

Looks ok here just don’t look under that back seat, well not yet anyway

This picture took some work! It struck me early on that to get 659 just as I remembered her I would have to get as many of the correct period adverts for her saloons. However I did lack one sticker every Atlantean had in the 1990’s, the CCTV notice in the upper saloon. You could see where it had been pulled off but I had no replacement. This ended up causing me some grief. Not to beaten I travelled down to Wales and GSC642X. She was the only bus of the 4 in the yard to retain her CCTV notice and it was not for coming off, so to avoid damaging the sticker I took the whole cove!. I had to do a fair amount of damage to 642 to get the cove out without damaging it or the all important sticker. I decided I would swap 642 cove for the one in 659 and that way get the sticker I wanted I the bus. I ended up using a grinder to cut the old cove out as it had been glued in and I could not afford to damage 659 as I did 642 but in the end I won and 642 cove slid into place and looks ace, finished off with a complaints notice next door and along the saloon the purple tours advert and at the very front the beige Talisman tours Advert

A whole lot of thought had gone into where to stick the interior advert. The upper saloon adverts were the same, The CCVT and the complaints notice had to go on the last cove as you could see that’s was where they were fitted on the bus as no-one had cleaned off the old glue. But the adverts could have gone anywhere. So I studied what photos I have of the batch in there final years and this photo shows why 659 adverts ended up where they did.

And for good measure an enquires advert on the offside. You will also see another sign of the abuse the bus had in Wales, the roads were so bad the solid rivets that held the light units in place have broken away and many of the light tubes were resting on the plastic shades. These have been removed so all the light fitting cam be overhauled.

The late Atlantean’s had a lot of white plastic parts along its front bulkhead. These had been discoloured with years of smoke and dirt so they have been removed for overhaul. You can see some here have be re-installed and look like new

Here you can see the refurbished butler lamp surround and in the background the smoke damaged plastic parts mentioned in the last picture