Dennis Dominator
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The Dennis Dominator was Dennis's first rear-engined
double-decker bus A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and there are coaches too for long-distance travel. They app ...
chassis. It was launched in 1977.


History

Dennis Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is some ...
had been absent from the bus manufacturing market since the last Lolines were produced in 1967. The Dominator was described as bespoke, with numerous options. To some extent it was considered a successor to the Daimler/Leyland Fleetline. The Dominator was different from the Fleetline in that the radiator was located at the front instead of the offside of the engine compartment. It was intended to be sold mainly with the Gardner 6LXB engine coupled up to a
Voith DIWA The Voith DIWA automatic transmission was designed by Voith primarily for city-buses and suburban buses. The transmission utilizes a Differential-Wandler (Converter) or DIWA which replaces two gears which would be used on a conventional transmi ...
transmission and a drop-centre rear axle, but hub-reduction rear axle and other engine options including the
Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
Eagle, the
Cummins Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, electric vehicle components, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipmen ...
L10, the turbocharged Gardner 6LXCT and DAF engines were also available.


United Kingdom

The largest British customer of the Dennis Dominator was South Yorkshire PTE, with a total of 318 buses being delivered to the company. These included one
trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
which was built in 1985 for test and evaluation. Many had Rolls-Royce Eagle engines and hub-reduction axles. Most of the SYPTE vehicles received
Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...
RH bodywork, these being delivered from 1981 to 1987, though some were bodied by East Lancs and Northern Counties. The SYPTE Dominators were delivered in phases to replace
Daimler Fleetline The Daimler Fleetline (known as the Leyland Fleetline from circa 1975) is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was built between 1960 and 1983. It was the second of three bus models to have a marque name as well as an alphanumeric ...
s,
Leyland Atlantean The Leyland Atlantean is a predominantly double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland Motors between 1958 and 1986. Only 17 Atlantean chassis were bodied as single deck from new. It pioneered the design of rear-engined, front entrance ...
s, Volvo Ailsa B55s, some of which dated to the early 1970s. The final batch of Dominators delivered to
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
included 20 vehicles fitted with coach seats and were allocated to regionwide express services with distinctive ''Fastline'' branding. The high standard of engineering led to the last Dominators in
South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...
remaining in service in
Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...
until July 2006. The Dominator also appealed to municipal operators such as
Leicester City Transport Leicester Citybus,Companies House extract company no 2000072
who from 1977 to 1989 bought 123, mainly with East Lancs bodies although seven had
Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia *Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria ** Marshall railway station Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Is ...
bodies, all of which were withdrawn from public service by 2005. It was also sold in reasonable numbers to Central Scottish from 1981 with
Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...
low-height RL-type bodywork. Other notable Dominator users included Greater Manchester Transport and its successor
GM Buses GM Buses was a major bus operator serving the ten metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester in North West England. The company was formed in February 1986 by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive prior to deregulation on 26 Oct ...
, all of which had Northern Counties bodywork, Warrington Borough Transport with East Lancs bodies, Merseyside Transport with Willowbrook and Alexander RH bodies, and London Transport, who took three with Northern Counties bodywork for its Alternative Vehicle Evaluation (AVE) programme in the mid-1980s. Production of the Dominator was less consistent after
bus deregulation Bus deregulation in Great Britain involved the abolition of Road Service Licensing for bus services outside of Greater London. It began in 1980 with long-distance bus services and was extended to local bus services in 1986 under the Transport ...
in 1986 with production being sporadic during the 1992–96 period. Eight were built in 1992; three in 1993 for a cancelled Strathclyde Buses order that was later sold to
Mayne Coaches Mayne Coaches was a coach operator that had depots in Manchester and Warrington. Administrators were appointed to the business, following an insolvency notice issued on 14 February 2022. Mayne Coaches now operates under the Orion Travel Group, M ...
; none in 1994 or 1995; and a final four built in 1996, delivered to London & Country with East Lancs bodywork alongside a batch of ten double-deck Dennis Arrows. London Pride Sightseeing were a considerable user for second-hand Dennis Dominators, operating 24 Dominators, all but four converted to
open top bus An open top bus is a bus, usually but not exclusively a double-decker bus, which has been built or modified to operate without a roof. Early buses were constructed without roofs but in more recent times they have only been built for tourist and s ...
es. These were withdrawn in 2005. Some were transferred to
The Original Tour Tootbus London, formerly The Original Tour is a London bus tour operator using open-top double-decker buses. It also holds the franchise to run City Sightseeing's London tour. Based in Wandsworth, it is a subsidiary of RATP Dev. History ...
during the transition in 2001.


Single-deck Dominators

The Dominator was conceived as a competitor to the
Daimler Fleetline The Daimler Fleetline (known as the Leyland Fleetline from circa 1975) is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was built between 1960 and 1983. It was the second of three bus models to have a marque name as well as an alphanumeric ...
and initially customers were generally those who had previously taken double-deck Fleetlines, however the largest component of the all-single deck
Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...
Corporation fleet was the single-deck Fleetline SRG6, the rest of its parc in 1977 consisted of 1967
Daimler Roadliner The Daimler Roadliner was a single-decker bus and coach chassis built by Daimler between 1962 and 1972. Notoriously unreliable, it topped the 1993 poll by readers of ''Classic Bus'' as the worst bus type ever, beating the Guy Wulfrunian into ...
s, new
Leyland Leopard The Leyland Leopard was a mid-engine design, mid-engined single-decker bus and single-decker bus, single-decker coach (bus), coach chassis manufactured by Leyland Bus, Leyland between 1959 and 1982. History The Leyland Leopard was introduced ...
s and 1974 Seddon Pennine RU. So, in 1978, it ordered a single-deck version of the Dominator with an extended-wheelbase, designed for 11-metre coachwork, this was bodied by
Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia *Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria ** Marshall railway station Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Is ...
and the style, dual door with 46 seats, when exhibited on the Dennis stand at the 1978 Motor Show at the
National Exhibition Centre The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is an exhibition centre located in Marston Green, England, near to Birmingham and Solihull. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International rail ...
was named Camair 80. David Cox, then Engineering Director of Merseyside PTE, reviewed it under his alias Midlander for Buses. He commented that the design was nothing like as stylish, but probably cheaper to produce than the original Marshall Camair. He felt that the side-facing bench seats over the front wheel arches, with their deep footstools, gave a rather tunnel-like aspect, and offered his ideas on a tidier layout, but praised the principle of using the same chassis for double and single-deck applications.
Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...
took a further nine in the following year. Dennis designated all ten of these SD103A. They were the only customer to place a repeat order (in 1981) for eight outwardly identical vehicles coded SD128A. Darlington's next purchase was to be the only batch of Ward Motors Dalesman GRXI in 1984. The next customer was the borough of
Hartlepool Hartlepool ( ) is a seaside resort, seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is governed by a unitary authority borough Borough of Hartlepool, named after the town. The borough is part of the devolved Tees Valley area with an estimat ...
, a neighbouring fleet and another that was all single-deck, they chose East Lancashire Coachbuilders to body their six. Unlike Marshall, East Lancs did not build over the engine compartment, giving an effect reminiscent of
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
's single-deck Fleetlines and
Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...
's single-deck Atlanteans, which had been bodied respectively in 1965 and 1967 by Marshall. With dual-doors the Hartlepool buses sat only 43. Hartlepool had never operated Fleetlines of any sort, and had reluctantly switched from Leyland-engined Bristol REs with dual-door bodies to
Leyland National The Leyland National is an integrally constructed British step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries – the National Bus Com ...
s before these buses, their first since the 1950s with Gardner engines. They were later to take Leyland National 2s and
Dennis Falcon The Dennis Falcon was a rear-engined single-decker bus, double-decker bus and coach chassis manufactured by Dennis between 1981 and 1993. It was mostly built as a single-decker bus, although some express coaches and a small number of double-d ...
s. A number of chief engineers working for operators in the North of England met regularly at the time at gatherings sponsored by the Traffic Commissioner, as well as Tyne and Wear PTE,
United Automobile Services United Automobile Services was a bus company, which operated local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne & Wear, England. It provided bus services across a wide geographical area, stretch ...
,
Northern General Transport Company The Northern General Transport Company was a bus company in North East England from 1913 to 1987. History Early history Northern General originated in the early 1900s when Gateshead and District Tramways asked Parliament's permission to ext ...
, Trimdon Motor Services,
Cleveland Transit Cleveland Transit was a municipal bus operator based in the former county of Cleveland in northern England, operating from 1974 until its purchase by the Stagecoach Group in 1994. History The non-metropolitan county of Cleveland was formed ...
, Darlington and Hartlepool these included
Barrow in Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...
Borough Transport. They also were all-single deck at the time, but contemplating future double deck orders. So their numbers 18 and 19 carried similar bodies to the Hartlepool buses, but with only a front entry/exit door and 46 seats. These two batches shared the same SD115 type code, and chassis numbers for the two batches comprised a single series. Barrow had a batch of five East Lancs bodied single-deck Fleetlines delivered in 1971, which were 50 seaters with seating above the engine, but since those Barrow Borough Transport had switched to the locally-built Leyland National, it was problems with the Leyland 510 engines on these as well as standardisation with prospective double deckers that led to Barrow's purchase of Dominators. Barrow were to order double deckers in 1984, but these turned out to be Leyland Atlanteans. The fourth customer was
Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil () is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydfil, daughter of K ...
Transport, another all single-deck fleet, like Hartlepool, no Fleetlines were operated. The fleet consisted of East Lancs-bodied Leopards, Bristol REs with East Lancs and Eastern Coach Works bodies, Leyland Nationals and a batch of Metro-Scanias. Hartlepools single-deck Dominators had its first East Lancs bodies, Merthyr Tydfil's their first Marshall bodies. Their six (coded SD116) had single-door 50 seat Camair 80 coachwork. Like Hartlepool Leyland National 2s followed. Later in life, these buses were sold to the City of Chester, whose General Manager had previously worked at Darlington. The penultimate customer took their single-deck Dominator, the sole SD130A, some months after the final new customer's batch was delivered but this was no surprise as the job involved was a lot more complex than a bus body. EBB846W was to the bespoke specification of the Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Fire Brigade and the vehicle was constructed by fire-appliance specialists Angloco, it was the fire brigade's number 319, and it was comprehensively fitted-out as a control and communications centre for major incidents. The body was low and angular, looking to be over the bus maximum width of 2.5m. It had two outward-opening doors on the nearside and a single 'passenger' window in mid wheelbase. It was liveried in fire-engine red, the grille was an unadorned mesh affair in an otherwise flat front, featuring a divided flat-glazed windscreen. The final customer for the single-deck Dominator were a fleet who had Fleetlines, but only double-deckers, this was
Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...
based
Thamesdown Transport Swindon's Bus Company (formerly Thamesdown Transport) is a bus operator in England, serving Swindon and the surrounding area. Previously owned by Swindon Borough Council, ownership passed to the Go-Ahead Group in February 2017 and the operation ...
. A proportion of the fleet had to be single-deck because of railway bridges (like Darlington, Swindon was a town built on railways) and prior to 1980 the single deckers were five Weymann-bodied
AEC Reliance The AEC Reliance was a mid-underfloor mounted engined single-decker bus and coach chassis manufactured by AEC between 1953 and 1979. The name had previously been used between 1928 and 1931 for another single-decker bus chassis. History Two ...
s, three Leyland Leopard PSU4 with Pennine Coachcraft bodies and five late-model coach-seated Eastern Coach Works Bodied Bristol RESL6G. Thamesdown's numbers 1-4 (FAM1-4W) were the only short-wheelbase single-deck Dominators, type SD132B, they had 40 coach seats in 10-metre single-door Marshall Camair 80 bodies. Unlike the other customers, Thamesdown later took substantial numbers of double-deck Dominators. Only 37 single-deck Dominators were built, all but the show bus in 1979-81. None are known to survive. The Camair 80 body also went on four 1970 Fleetlines for Tayside, Strathclyde PTE's single deck Ailsa, a number of Dennis Falcons and in a unique demountable-body version on Dodge Commando, again for Strathclyde PTE. G.G. Hillditch, who had been one of the inspirations behind the Dominator and, at the time as General Manager of Leicester City Transport, was the launch customer for the type, had earlier (when General Manager of the Halifax Corporation, Halifax Joint Committee and Todmorden Joint Committee fleets) been one of the customers requesting the SRG6 Fleetline single-decker, but when Leicester required further single deckers from 1980 instead of ordering the Dominator he commissioned the Dennis Falcon H.


Export orders

The Dominator was also sold to Hong Kong. China Motor Bus put the first Dominator (with East Lancs body) into service in 1979, being followed by six with
Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...
RL-type body in 1982, primarily for its route 15 ( Central- The Peak).
Kowloon Motor Bus The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) is a bus company operating Bus services in Hong Kong, franchised services in Hong Kong. It is the largest bus company in Hong Kong by fleet size and number of bus routes, with over 4,000 buses ...
bought 40
Duple Metsec Duple Metsec was a bus bodywork builder based in West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England in the United Kingdom. It usually supplied body kits for bus assembly overseas. It was originated from the bus body manufacturing busi ...
bodied Dominators between 1983 and 1984."Hong Kong Buses Part 3: Kowloon Motor Bus" ''Fleetline'' issue 249 July 1997 page 118 One Dominator with East Lancs body and DAF engine was exported as demonstrator for
Singapore Bus Service SBS Transit Ltd (abbreviation: SBS or SBST) is a multi-modal public transport operator in Singapore operating bus and rail services. With a majority of its shares owned by Singaporean multinational transport conglomerate ComfortDelGro Corporati ...
in 1982. It was shipped to Hong Kong after the trial and entered Kowloon Motor Bus' training fleet in 1986.


End of production

After a production run of 1,007 examples for the UK and export markets, the Dominator was replaced by the short-lived longitudinal-engined Dennis Arrow in 1996, which itself was replaced by the more popular low-floor
Dennis Trident 2 The Dennis Trident 2 (the 2 standing for 2-axle) is a 2-axle low-floor double-decker bus chassis originally manufactured by Dennis, which was unveiled in 1997 and replaced the Dennis Arrow. It was built by TransBus after Dennis was incorporat ...
in 1997.


Dominator variants


Dennis Falcon

In 1980, Dennis developed the Falcon single-deck bus with longitudinally-mounted rear engine. The Falcon H variant had a horizontal Gardner engine with the Voith gearbox mounted ahead of the rear axle, the later Falcon HC had the Voith transmission mounted behind the rear axle and close-coupled to the Gardner engine. The Falcon V variant had vertical engines.


Dennis Dragon/Condor

In 1982, a tri-axle version was developed for the Hong Kong market, known as the Dennis Dragon which was sold to
Kowloon Motor Bus The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) is a bus company operating Bus services in Hong Kong, franchised services in Hong Kong. It is the largest bus company in Hong Kong by fleet size and number of bus routes, with over 4,000 buses ...
. The same model was sold to China Motor Bus, but was known as the Condor. They were usually bodied by
Duple Metsec Duple Metsec was a bus bodywork builder based in West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England in the United Kingdom. It usually supplied body kits for bus assembly overseas. It was originated from the bus body manufacturing busi ...
. Some were purchased by
Stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...
for its Kenyan and Malawi operations. Some of these were repatriated to the UK through dealer
Ensignbus Ensign Bus Company Limited, trading as Ensignbus, is a bus and coach operator and bus dealer based in Purfleet, Essex. As of March 2023, it is a part of FirstGroup. History Ensignbus was formed in 1972 by Peter Newman, who remains involved ...
. They are used for school runs and sightseeing since they have high-capacity.


Dennis Domino

In 1984, Dennis introduced a midibus chassis which was a scaled down Dominator, it could be fitted with Perkins T6.354 and Avon Maxwell transmission. It was only sold to two customers, Greater Manchester Transport and
South Yorkshire Transport South Yorkshire Transport (SYT) was a bus operator that provided services around South Yorkshire and outlying areas. The company was formed as an 'arms-length' successor of the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) in 1986, whic ...
. The Dominos for Greater Manchester Transport were Northern Counties bodied, and South Yorkshire Transport ones were bodied by
Optare Switch Mobility (Optare until 2020) is a British bus manufacturer based in Sherburn-in-Elmet, North Yorkshire. It is a subsidiary of Indian company Ashok Leyland. The company is responsible for the EV operations of the group with Ashok Leylan ...
.


References


External links

{{Dennis, state=collapsed Dominator Double-decker buses Vehicles introduced in 1977 Bus chassis Step-entrance buses