A busman’s Anorak

I might be an Anorak! Sixty-one years ago I was a 22-year-old bus driver for East Midland Motor Services. We had a varied fleet which included some Leyland Tiger Cub single-deckers. Great to drive, they had a Leyland 350 engine which was not the most powerful but had a heavy flywheel to compensate and gave it a bit more punch. When changing up to a higher gear it took ages for the revs to die, so an Eaton two-speed axle was fitted.

Now fast-forward 35 years and I heard that a friend of a friend had bought an old bus. I contacted him and went along to see what he’d bought. Guess what? To my delight, it was a Leyland Tiger Cub. I sat in the driver’s seat and immediately saw that he’d fitted a two-speed axle control off an old lorry onto the gear lever. So out of place!

“Why have you put that on?” I asked. “Well,” he replied, “when it was delivered I found that it was stuck in low range with no visible switch, so I spent ages on my back underneath the bus wiring in this switch.” “This is the control,” said I, pointing to a switch on an arm on the steering column just above the driver’s left knee. “Up for the high range and down for the low range, no in between.” Simple. “Well, forget me!”... or I think that’s what he said!

Anoraks might just be the answer to many a prayer. I rest my case.