The model -
the two versions of this model were announced at the end of April 2008.
One version is on route 6 to Lai Chi Kok whilst the second is on route
112 to North Point.
The bus
- as
built, the bus was initially a demonstrator. However, the bus went to
KMB in Hong Kong in 1982 for evaluation and after a few
months was bought by them and remained in the fleet for many years. At
the time, it was the highest capacity bus built by ECW
seating 104 passengers. This was later surpassed by another
Olympian demonstrator destined for Saudi Arabia but on a
two axle 11m left hand drive Olympian chassis with three
doors (similar to the KMB example) and a separate compartment in
the lower deck for the exclusive use of women and
children with a seating capacity of 108(!).
3BL1
(as it became known) was, in fact, one of two 12m
tri-axle chassis that was to be fitted with ECW
bodywork for Hong Kong, the second supposedly being
destined for CMB. Its seems CMB wasn't interested as they
were fitted with a Leyland engine as opposed to the preferred
Gardner so it was never shipped. This particular vehicle stayed with
Leyland and was subsequently extensively rebuilt as
a tri-axle coach and delivered to Citybus as its C51 in 1985. This
being the first Olympian in the Citybus fleet and delivered with
two new build buses to be used on the service to Shenzhen. My
thanks to Keith Wood for providing the above information which has been
extracted from both Mike Davis' 'Hong Kong Buses Volume 2 - Kowloon
Motor Bus' and 'ECW 1965-1987'. |