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The Chorley
Archives
(Torque
33)
Two
rooms adjacent to the Chorley repair shop, latterly
an area for storage, were used to house documents
relating to the Leyland spares operation in post-war
times up until the mid-eighties. Before this
building was cleared for demolition, the BCVM were
allowed to remove items of interest from the archive
store. Among the mainstream papers such as chassis
build sheets, sales orders etc. were what can only
be described as “miscellaneous papers,” small
collections of documents that throw light on minor
matters which with the passage of time become of
great interest. For instance, Starting Handles.
These Leyland Lions in the Crosville fleet
(Nos.E7 and D32) have the starting handle found on
all pre-war Leylands, whether diesel or petrol
powered. Post-war buses and trucks were different.
(J.Nickels’ collection)
You probably cannot recall a post-war Leyland with a
starting handle, but such were made available on the
first post-war production vehicles. A list has been
found of the units produced: it must be assumed that
S.H.1 to S.H.53 were previously supplied for pre-war
models.
S.H.54
“Titan” TD.9 (later ammended to PD.1) 3/45
S.H.55
“Interim Beaver”
1/46
S.H.56
“Titan” O.P.D.1
7/45
S.H.56/1
“Tiger” O.P.S.1
3/46
S.H.57 Octopus, Hippo, Steer,
Beaver 8/45
S.H.59 Overseas
Beaver 5/46
S.H.59/1 for Order
No.27099 11/49
S.H.60 O.600 passenger
engine 5/46
S.H.60/1 O.600 passenger engine,
Wellington Depot 11/46
S.H.60/2 BEWAC, Order
No.27285 1/49
S.H.60/3
(details not given)
11/50
S.H.61
7.4 oil for B.M.M.O.Co.
1/47
S.H.62 Left-hand
“Octopus”
11/49
S.H.63
7.4 oil for Ansair Pty.
3/50
S.H.64
“Octopus” 24.O/4
-??-
Firstly, we must remember that these post-war units
were not really intended for starting, but for
turning the engine over in the workshop. 54-55
relate to vehicles powered by the 7.4 litre engine,
on which a decompression lever was fitted, and 56
and 56/1 are for vehicles fitted with the 8.6 litre
pre-war unit (that engine was still manufactured and
re-manufactured by Leyland until the fifties.) 57,59
and 60 all relate to chassis powered by the 9.8
litre engine. On this, the means of decompression
was situated on the top of the engine and could only
be reached after the cylinder head cover had been
removed. The starting handle, therefore, was solely
for use to turn over the engine when it was being
attended to.
Look at the illustration above and you can see the
cover in the radiator’s external grille which can be
removed to expose the shaft on the engine. Similarly
the post war goods vehicles had a more obvious oval
shaped hole at the bottom of the front grille.
The most interesting entries are 61 and 63 for
engines installed in chassis which were not of
Leyland manufacture. 61 was special to Midland Red (BMMO),
which had constructed 50 petrol engined chassis
fitted with English Electric coach bodies in 1937,
Nos.1968-2017, (CHA
950-999), forming the ‘SLR’ class. These were
re-engined with E.181 7.4 litre Leyland engines in
1947, and continued in service with Midland Red
until 1955, after which many saw further service in
other fleets.
63 was a unit supplied along with engines to Ansair
of Australia. This was an aviation compay with a
factory near Melbourne which built some integral
buses in the 1950s and 1960s, and installed engines
of various makes in their product. The Ansair
“Transette” was a rear engined transit model with a
front entrance and approx. thirty seats, and there
was an Ansair-Flxible “Clipper” built under American
licence. Petrol and oil driven engines of various
makes were used including American Ford V8, the
Perkins P6, the Bedford 300 and the Leyland E.181.
Notes:
BEWAC overleaf is
the British West Africa Corporation.
Differences between
each S.H. unit are minimal.
Thanks to N.D.Steele
and A.Pritchard for extra information.
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