A Mystery Rear-engined Chassis (Torque 49)

Plenty of thoughts on this one, and the plot thickens!  The general consensus is that the chassis is Atlantean.  Connected and via Malcolm Margetts, Harold Rushton has taken trouble to contact Tom Crook who worked for Dr Mueller, responsible at the time for the production of the Atlantean prototypes.  He says that the chassis was one of two bodied by MCW and exhibited at the 1956 Commercial Vehicle Show. One, the green and cream 281 ATC, was on the Leyland stand, and the other, painted white, was shown in the demonstration park.  It had been previously thought that these were of integral construction, but Tom was able to describe the chassis in some detail.

 The independent front suspension and the rear axle were carried over from the earlier rear entrance Lowloader prototypes STF90 and XTC684.  The rear suspension used overslung leaf springs shackled at the front in conjunction with lower radius rods to form a Watt’s linkage.  Transmission was via a centrifugal clutch through a pneumocyclic gearbox and angle drive to the drop centre rear axle.  Tom has recollection of the combined heating and cooling system which was not of Leyland design.

The subsequent history of the two vehicles is somewhat unclear and Tom thinks they were simply parked up after the show and no further work was done.  The Research Department was wound down over the next year and Tom was transferred to the main Drawing Office.   Dr Mueller returned to Germany to a senior position with Daimler-Benz.  Harold adds that he saw both prototypes parked up during 1963/4.  The white prototype was in the yard and looked to have taken root, it was in rough condition with the remaining spares stacked inside.  281 ATC was in much better condition and still a runner although staff were banned from driving it.

BUT – Here’s a problem! – There is an illustration used in ‘The Leyland Bus’ by Doug Jack, which shows what is said to be (and probably is) the prototype Atlantean chassis, fitted with a platform type sub-frame.  Now compare this picture with another view of our mystery chassis – the offside frame member behind the driver is completely different, there is a second mounting for controls to the left of the steering column, the batteries, fuel tank and engine air cleaner are in different positions, and it has tubular cross-members – it is clearly not the same chassis!        

Malcolm Wilford, however, suggests that the mystery chassis may be no.551373, model LFSD1, (Low Floor SD? or possibly, Lowloader, Front Suspension Development ?) - whatever that was?!  Our pictures are dated November 1955, almost a year before the Commercial Motor Show.  We are clearly not there yet, so we’ll keep this one open for further suggestions in the next issue.  Did the white Atlantean have a different chassis/underframe from 281 ATC or were they both the same?   Did anyone see it in the Demonstration Park at the Show – Does anybody have a photograph of it – surely someone took a picture?   Please let us have your further thoughts.

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