| The model
- this new casting was first unveiled in August 2000, at the Hong Kong
Bus Exhibition, organised by 80M Bus Model Shop. It was eventually released,
in Hong Kong, in April 2001. This Hong Kong only release came with a CD,
which is bi-lingual, and is a very comprehensive piece of work. Most of
the major events in the history of Citybus are covered, how it started,
going to China, air-con buses, the breakfast route, Routemasters in China,
franchised buses, airport, etc etc. Information on fleet purchasing policies
and fleet livery are included, along with video clips of buses to the airport,
Stanley and Kennedy Town. The UK version (OM45402)
comes in standard OOC packaging and without the CD.
The bus
- Citybus ordered one 12-metre air-conditioned double-decker from MAN in
1997. In December of that year, the bus entered service as fleet number
2500 and with a registration of HN 1013. The model of the bus is 24.350
NL-DD, and is fitted with an Australian Volgren CR221LD body. It was the
first time that that Volgren had designed and built a double-deck body.
The frontal design is similar to the Alexander 'R' one, as requested by
Citybus. The bus is powered by an 11,967cc, 350hp MAN D2866LOH engine with
ZF 5HP600 transmission. The air-conditioning was supplied by Nippondenso.
Although Citybus placed an order for a further
batch of MAN 24.310s, with Berkhof and Volgren bodies, this order was subsequently
cancelled owing to Hong Kong's Transport Department imposition of a fleet
quota on all franchised bus operators in Hong Kong. These buses were eventually
purchased by KMB and became their AMN class - AMN7 being the subject of
Corgi model OM45201. |
