The London DMS Bus
Prohibited by circumstances from developing its own rear-engined Routemaster (FRM) concept, London Transport instituted comparative trials between contemporary Leyland Atlanteans and Daimler Fleetlines for double-deck one-man-operation.
The latter came out on top, and massive orders followed, the first DMSs entering service on 2 January 1971.
In service, however, problems quickly manifested. Sophisticated safety features served only to burn out gearboxes and gulp fuel.
The passengers, meanwhile, did not appreciate being funnelled through the DMS's recalcitrant automatic fare-collection machinery only to have to stand for lack of seating. Boarding speeds thus slowed to a crawl, to the extent that the savings made by laying off conductors had to be negated by adding more DMSs to converted routes!
Second thoughts caused the ongoing order to be amended to include crew-operated Fleetlines (DMs), noise concerns prompted the development of the B20 'quiet bus' variety, and brave attempts were made to fit the buses into the time-honoured system of overhauling at Aldenham Works, but finally the problems proved too much.
After enormous expenditure, the first DMSs began to be withdrawn before the final RTs came out of service, and between 1979 and 1983 all but the B20s were sold - as is widely known, the DMSs proved perfectly adequate with provincial operators once their London features had been removed.
This book describes the whole history of the Daimler DMS series. The B20 DMSs finally did survive to something approaching a normal lifespan, but the new cheap operators awakening with the onset of tendering made use of the type to undercut LT, and it was not until 1993 that the last DMS operated.
| Autor: | Matthew Wharmby |
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| Szczegóły: | 272 strony, 28 x 21.5 cm, twarda oprawa |
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| Ilustracje: | 200 czarno-białych i kolorowych zdjęć |
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| Wydawca: | Pen & Sword Books Ltd (GB, 2017) |
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| EAN: | 9781783831739 |
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