The Classic Irish Buses website

Ulsterbus 1989 to 2011 (by Shane Conway)

Page last updated on 3rd November 2022

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Northern Ireland menu:

Belfast Corporation diesel buses   Belfast Corporation trolleybuses   H M S Catherwood Ltd.   Citybus   Great Northern Railway Lough Swilly   NIRTB 1935 - 39   NIRTB 1940 - 48  

Sureline, Lurgan 1966 - 87   UTA 1948 - 56   UTA 1957 - 61   UTA 1962 - 66   U'bus 1967 - 72   U'bus 1973 - 76   U'bus 1977 - 82   U'bus 1983 - 88   U'bus 1989 - 2012

By 1989, Ulsterbus had placed close to 400 Leyland Tigers into service, but the upcoming sale of Leyland Bus to Volvo was to have an effect on future orders. From 1300 onwards, all chassis were supplied with Volvo engines, and gradually sales to other operators dwindled away to nothing, Shearings being the final British customer for the type. The final chassis of all went to Citybus, although Ulsterbus can claim the very last one to enter service, number 1500 in August 1993. By a strange co-incidence, some 66 years earlier in 1927, H. M. S. Catherwood in Belfast had placed the very first ever Leyland Tiger into service, so Ulster based bus companies have the distinction of the first and last Leyland Tigers to enter service anywhere. Vehicles numbered from 1340 onwards were supplied with a new Alexander Q type body (apart from Wrights bodied 1408 to 1432).

Alongside these new Tigers came a small batch of secondhand examples, mostly from the above mentioned Shearings with both Van Hool and Plaxton bodies. A further example, new to the Ministry of Defence, brought the sole example of Wadham Stringer coachwork to the fleet. Breaking the N and Q type thread briefly were sixteen Alexander TE coaches in 1990, visually similar to 40 owned by Bus Eireann, but differing by being built in Mallusk and having Leyland engines, whereas the Bus Eireann ones were Scottish built with Cummins engines.

The year 2006 saw the withdrawal of the first of the Leyland Tiger buses, the coaches having been disposed of some years earlier. Included among the first withdrawals were prototype 340 (sold for preservation) and Gardner powered 370. Replacement lowfloor buses entering the Citybus fleet allowed the transfer of most of their Volvo engined Tigers to Ulsterbus for further service. Following success with the re-introduction of double deck buses in the Citybus fleet, Ulsterbus subsequently also received several batches, the first being 29 Alexander bodied Volvo B7TLs, being followed by a further 125 Wrights bodied B9TLs. New single deckers have also been bought, replacing all the N type Tigers and several of the Q type ones also, plus the 25 Wrights bodied examples.

Please note that some of the vehicles listed below (from 1989 onwards) are listed as batches, with no individual vehicle details given. These MAY be given further consideration in due course, depending on time available to research them.

1989

904 was one of 12 ex Sheffield and District ECW bodied Leyland AN68s acquired in 1989. It was converted to opentop and fitted with a wheelchair lift in 1993, and allocated to Newcastle, the first double decker there for many years./font>

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1990

Seen at the I. T. T. rally in 1986 was ex Ulsterbus 1334, which had been converted for non-psv use by the Red Cross in Belfast.

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1991

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1992

1993

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1994

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1995

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1996

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1997

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1998

1999

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2000

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2001

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2002

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2003

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2004

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2005

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2006

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2007

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2008

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2009

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2010

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2011

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