June 2006

Don Bates
Leyland Lions
Report - Frank Long

Don Bates (our guest speaker) and his mate came from Horsforth, so I arranged to meet them at Greengates to guide them to our venue. Arriving at the Hotel we then caused quite a stir by carrying a coffin-like wooden box (probably nearly six feet in length) which contained a large scale model of a Leyland Lion. I regret to say there were only eleven members present but amongst their midst was our great friend Barry Boyd, so pleasing to see him.

Don brought his own Epidiascope and lots of photographs of different Lion types which illustrated Don’s talk on the production of the vehicles and the various purchasers of the type. There were many variations of the chassis (and bodywork) for different towns and cities. One variation was a lower chassis for London operation.

He also mentioned that there were 46 grease points which the driver was supposed to service in addition to the usual oil and water top-ups. Ribble experienced problems with the model variation they specified including such things as the prop shaft keys shearing, noisy gearboxes and problems with the magneto.

York wanted the seats narrower and Bradford wanted window stops fitted to prevent the openers being wound down to the bottom for what the Corporation described as “safety reasons”.

Production started in 1926 with a total of 455 being built that year, followed by 684 in 1927 and 1548 in 1928 – the latter year saw the Leyland Tiger come in to production. The build cost of a Lion was given as £1,170.00 and the completed vehicle cost its operator around £1,420.00.

It was a good night thanks to a very knowledgeable presenter and his mate Chris. A lot of interest was shown and many questions were answered.