Matthew Wharmby - The London Dennis Trident

THE LONDON

DENNIS

TRIDENT

Matthew Wharmby

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

Pen and Sword Transport

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd.

Yorkshire - Philadelphia

Copyright Matthew Wharmby 2021

ISBN 978 1 52678 691 3

eISBN 978 1 52678 692 0

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52678 693 7

The right of Matthew Wharmby to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Designed by Matthew Wharmby

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B etween 1999 and 2006, the majority of London operators took over two thousand Dennis Trident low-floor double-deck buses, to two specified lengths (9.9m and 10.5m), with bodies by Alexander (ALX400), Plaxton (President), East Lancs (Lolyne and Millennium Lolyne). Sales were healthy from the outset and were able to recover quickly when the later consolidation of production under TransBus led nearly to disaster. The organisations new identity again became Alexander Dennis, and Trident production continued until superseded in 2006 by the Enviro400 double-decker.

Reliable and versatile, the Dennis Trident kept level with its immediate competitors, the DAF DB250RS(LF) and Volvo B7TL, though only Volvo was able to match it in numbers purchased in London. Even with todays reduced bus lifespans by comparison with their predecessors, the Trident type managed over twenty years in service in the capital.

Thanks are due as usual to the publishers, to my commissioning editor and to the photographers I have enlisted to fill in pictorial requirements that I couldnt manage myself.

Matthew Wharmby

Walton-on-Thames, September 2020

D ennis never expected to become the United Kingdoms major and dominant bus manufacturer. While the twin evils of deregulation and privatisation were felling large company after large company, including MCW and even the mighty, surely unassailable Leyland, Dennis had lain low, continuing to build its commercials and the odd bus on the side for a small number of regular customers. The ageing but likeable Dominator chassis lasted sixteen years in production, continuing to garner small orders that kept the company in business when everybody else went to the wall. In those uncertain early 1990s Dennis also saw where the wind was blowing in the field of full-size single-deckers, producing the Lance successfully against Volvos and Scanias foreign competition. Eyes were similarly on the ball when the moral shift towards accessibility in the second half of the decade compelled manufacturers to build low-floor buses and make them cost-effective before legislation prohibited the construction of anything else. And then there was the Dart, the bus the industry wanted, and which in its step-entrance and SLF configurations swept everything before it.

The simple but effective Dennis Dominator was a development of the Daimler Fleetline and 1,007 were built for a small number of operators, though the three taken by London Transport didnt spawn further orders. However, Ensignbus, one of LBLs independent competitors and ultimate replacements, took a liking to the Dominator and bought 26 of them in 1990-91. Here at Leyton Station on 9 September 1998 is what by then had become First Capital 264 (H264 KVX). Author

Demand remained for double-deckers, however, particularly in London, and while it worked on a low-floor solution Dennis adapted the Lance chassis to carry a double-deck body as the Arrow. Orders proved small, but the way forward to the Trident was clear. This was originally a three-axle chassis for Hong Kong companies, which required massive capacity and the toughness necessary to carry air-conditioning equipment up and down some particularly treacherous hills.

The early full-size single-deckers accompanied a nationwide drift away from double-deckers in the 1990s due to vandalism and behavioural problems, and London Buses Ltd tentatively followed suit. After 59 Dennis Lances with three different bodybuilders, LBL ordered 39 of the new Lance SLF with Wright bodywork, making much of their low-floor and wheelchair-accessible credentials. Divided between three companies upon privatisation, the LLW class lasted twelve years with the operator to hold them longest, Metroline, and here leaving Edgware bus station on 4 July 1999 is LLW 26 (L26 WLH). Author

The three-cornered race to produce the first low-floor double-decker was thus on, Dennis, DAF and Volvo battling it out for the orders that would secure their respective companies future for the next decade and beyond. DAF may have been first past the post with its DB250RS(LF), but Volvos early hurdle relating to the specification of a longitudinal engine rather than the British markets preferred transverse one set that company back in its development of what became the B7TL. Dennis thus had a clear run, and in 1999 out came the first Trident 2.

The Dennis Arrow was a compromise between the existing single-deck Lance chassis and the capacity afforded by a double-decker. It wasnt perfect; it swayed at speed and the interiors of the East Lancs Pyoneer-bodied examples like Capital Citybus 431 (R431 ULE) were extraordinarily cramped, but its shortcomings identified what could be corrected in the Trident to come. This was one of 28 taken in 1998 for the 76 and 259, which ultimately brought the companys total of Arrows to 54. On 22 April of that year it is laying over at the 76s Northumberland Park terminus of the time when new. Author

Stagecoach

TA and TAS classes

S tagecoachs association with the Dennis Trident was undoubtedly the most significant in London, even though at one point the group had sold them all, only to buy the lot back for a pittance! In fact Stagecoach was to become intimately involved with the manufacture of the type, and its London companies alone ended up with very nearly a thousand units, which it operated for twenty years.