Why Lothian had two Olympians numbered 770 but no 888

摘要

Gavin Booth's encyclopaedic knowledge of matters bus is at its most comprehensive in describing the vehicles of his home city of Edinburgh, as he does adeptly in this self-published colour album. This is the story of the 430 Leyland and Volvo Olympians that Lothian Region Transport bought new between 1982 and 1997, plus a further nine acquired secondhand in 2002 when it bought the Guide Friday sightseeing tour business in the city. A story related in batch-by-batch chapters accompanied by high quality photographs taken mainly by the author, as well as some rather fine drawings by Calum Melrose. As he explains, the Olympian represented the culmination of over 40 years of evolving double-deck purchasing by Lothian and Edinburgh Corporation before it. These last step-entrance vehicles followed 446 front-engined Leyland Titan PD2s and PD3s bought between 1952 and 1966, and 588 rear-engined Leyland Atlanteans from 1965 to 1981.