The Dennis Domino was a step-entrance

midibus A midibus is a classification of single-decker minibuses which are generally larger than a traditional minibus but smaller than a full-size single decker and can be anywhere between and long. While used in many parts of the world, the mi ...

chassis manufactured by

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 ...

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1984 and 1985. It was in essence, a scaled down single-decker version of the

Dennis Dominator The Dennis Dominator was Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis's first rear-engined double-decker bus chassis. It was launched in 1977. History Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis had been absent from the bus manufacturing market since the l ...

. Developed for intensive urban work, the Domino was fitted with Perkins T6.354.4 turbocharged engine, Maxwell automatic transmission, front radiator, full air suspension and power steering. It can be regarded as a predecessor of the successful

Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a Rear-engine design, rear-engined single-decker bus, single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a ...

. 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 bodied by Northern Counties, and South Yorkshire Transport's 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 ...

History

In 1983,

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) was the Passenger transport executive, public body responsible for public transport in Greater Manchester between 1974 and 2011, when it became part of Transport for Greater Manchester. SE ...

(GMPTE) realised its nine-year-old Seddon Pennine midibuses in use on the Manchester shuttle between

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...

and Victoria stations were nearing the end of their useful lives. Nothing was at that time readily available that would meet the PTE's requirements and Dennis was requested to provide a solution. This used a very-short-wheelbase version of the Dominator frame, with the optional air-over leaf suspension to axles with 16-inch wheels and low profile tyres, overall body length was 7.6m and width 2.3m.Dominos for GMT traffic
''

Commercial Motor ''Commercial Motor'' is a weekly magazine serving the road transport Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of ...

'' 21 December 1985 The engine was mounted transversely and vertically as in the Dominator, but was a 130 bhp 5.7-litre Perkins T6.354 unit, this drove through the radical Avon Maxwell transmission, an automatic electronically controlled constant-mesh gearbox using small multi-plate clutch units to select drive ratios, this also did the jobs of retarder and angle-drive. The radiator was smaller but like most Dominator derivatives mounted at the front, low down in the frame. Greater Manchester PTE were unique among bus operators of the time in having (as a result of buying

Lancashire United Transport Lancashire United Transport (LUT) was a tram, bus and trolleybus operator based at Howe Bridge in Atherton, 10 miles north west of Manchester. It was the largest independent bus operator in the United Kingdom until its acquisition by the Great ...

) a wholly owned coachbuilder, the Northern Counties Motor & Engineering Company. Also GMPTE were unique outside London in having an in-house design-consultant in Ken Mortimer who had styled the Manchester Corporation Mancunian bus in the 1960s. The 20 GMPTE Dominos with Ken Mortimer-designed Northern Counties bodies entered service in late 1985. One was demonstrated for an extended period early in 1986 to London Transport in a version of their livery, but the only other customer for the type was the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE), who wanted to replace a batch of second-hand Bristol LHs on services reaching into more inaccessible areas of

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 ...

. Whereas the 20 GMPTE Dominos were quite stylish for their day with bonded glazing and had low entrances with 2+1 seating forward of the rear-axle to maximise standing capacity and thus were 23 seaters, SYPTE chose to specify a body with all glazing, lights, doors, seats, and other parts standardised with its Alexander-bodied Dominators, the all-aluminium bodies were the first to be built by

after they had taken over the Charles H Roe coach works from

British Leyland British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It wa ...

. Unlike most subsequent work from Optare, they were far from stylish, being of very angular outline and fitted with a higher floor than the Greater Manchester buses with a three-step entrance leading to a slightly ramped obstruction free floor with 33 seats. These fourteen buses were marginally longer than the GMPTE buses at 7.8m and delivered before the first of the GMPTE buses. The first of the GMPTE Dominos was exhibited at the Bus and Coach Council's show at the

Earls Court Exhibition Centre Earls Court Exhibition Centre was a major international exhibition and events venue in London, England. At its peak it is said to have generated a £2 billion turnover for the economy. It replaced exhibition and entertainment grounds, original ...

in 1985 and is now preserved by the Selnec Preservation Society. One of the SYPTE batch (C42HDT) adorns the scenery at the

Alton Towers Alton Towers Resort ( ) (often shortened to Alton Towers) is a theme park and resort complex in Staffordshire, England, near the village of Alton, Staffordshire, Alton. The park is operated by Merlin Entertainments, Merlin Entertainments Group a ...

Nemesis. C41/46 HDT have been in storage for some time and have now passed to the owner of 53, 41 will be restored as new 'nipper' and restoration starts early 2017. 46 is to be used as a source of spares to keep 41/53 on the road. C53HDT (now along with 41/46) is back in the hands of the preservationist who rescued it in 1997, and after extensive restoration and help from Alton towers and parts off 42, 53 is now fully road legal and running, ironically the last Domino in service with SYPTE and the only one on the road until 41 is finished. The rest of the 30 other Dominos have been scrapped.

References

External links

Flickr gallery
{{Dennis, state=collapsed

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...

Midibuses Step-entrance buses Vehicles introduced in 1984