Far from its native United Kingdom, in a New Jersey industrial suburb of New York City, a Leyland Atlantean double decker bus sits and waits in a parking lot on a street of auto repair and accessory shops. How this former staple of the British mass transit system got here, and what will happen to it, are mysteries.
The Atlantean was the first rear engine, front entrance double decker bus introduced in the U.K., debuting the configuration that replaced the famous AEC Routemaster and other front engine double deckers. With over 15,000 produced from 1958 to 1986, the Atlantean was widely used in the U.K. and was exported to Singapore, Australia and other countries. A quirk of history is that the last purchaser of the Atlantean in 1985-86 was the public transportation system of Baghdad, Iraq. The bus system was one of many things that fell apart after the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003, so I never saw one and was not able to include them in my CCs of Baghdad of a year ago.
This open-topped Atlantean apparently has had multiple owners during its at least three decades of existence. The Peter Pan Bus Lines logo is visible on the sides of the upper deck, covered by the reddish orange paint job. It may have begun as a New York City tour bus operated by a major bus company, then moved down the food chain to a smaller independent tour/party bus company (or several) as it aged, and finally come to rest near Jersey City, with the Manhattan skyline visible to its left, beyond the wall that now overshadows it. Is there a second (or third or fourth) life in its future? If anyone has the urge to give it one, you can try calling the number on the wall.
Theres another refugee double decker in Ahuriri Napier though it still has a roof, it does city tours for tourists, Quite a novelty here.
These appear in the US every once in a while, there is a British themed pub down here that has a decrepit one outside along with a beat up black London cab.
What’s the red convertible?
1973 Chevrolet from what I can see, can’t tell if its a Caprice or an Impala.
Ahh, I didn’t notice the black vinyl top. My ’71-’76 meter went off.
I learned to drive a bus in an Atlantean with a horrible semi automatic gearbox.
Since you have mentioned past work as a bus driver, I figured that you would have memories of these buses. Negative memories, apparently!
The semi automatic gearbox was a horrible device,also little thought was given to driver comfort The seat was a cordroy covered piece of plywood and the heater was feeble.They were already old when I drove them,the gearbox tended to jump out of gear and then refuse to engage..They were in regular service until as late as 2010 before being relegated to school services or as substitutes for broken down or damaged buses.
I once refused to drive one as it had a barely working heater in sub zero temperature in December.Another time the gearbox broke leaving me stranded across an access road for airport emergency vehicles..
Sometime back in the late 70s/ early ’80s, the fledgling Global TV Network in Canada, aired ‘On The Buses’. It was shown during prime time here, years after it ran in the UK. Besides the affordable price, perhaps Global was hoping to capitalize on the popularity of Brit humour in Canada at the time. My mom hated the show, but as a teen, I enjoyed seeing the vintage double deckers. Stephen Lewis and Reg Varney were quite entertaining. ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em’ meanwhile, was enjoying somewhat of a cult following in Canada at the time on the same network. This is well after both shows were no longer being produced back home.
It was very popular in late 60s early 70s Britain.I doubt you’d be allowed to write a show like that today with,racism,sexism and homophobia..It was pretty funny though,the movies that followed were no where near as funny
You’re absolutely right… it was off-colour humour for sure… Though many episodes seemed quite plausible. Certainly compared to another popular import at the time, Benny Hill, this was high brow humour!
Is it LHD or RHD?
Memories of coming home from school on the alternative Daimler Fleetline…
“Alternative Daimler Fleetline”? Is that anything like our “short bus”?
Robert.
As a West Side Jersey City resident, where can I find this bus in my area?
IIRC, the bus was in a lot on Route 3, near the bridge across the Hackensack River. The cross-town route may have been a different one, though. It was definitely near a bridge in the northwestern part of Jersey City, and also near a large sign for a diner. I hope that helps you to find it!
There’s a few old double-deckers cruising the streets of Toronto during the summer, pulling tour duty. This looks like one of them – they use both front and rear-engined models.
We rented one of these for our wedding in lieu of a limo. The cost was $900 as I recall. I laughed at that, but my father-in-law insisted, and foot the entire bill.
I have fond memories of the wedding party and many other attendees tooling around town in that beast. The driver was kind enough to take us on an extended tour of the city before we arrived at the reception. What a great day.