Daimler / Leyland Fleetline

Early 1970's, the population of Hong Kong grew quickly. Transportation is becoming a problem. The old, traditional buses with front mounted engines were getting outdated: they were uncomfortable, unable to carry a large amount of passenger, and they need another operator to sell the tickets.

1971, China Motor Bus (CMB) of Hong Kong bought in a new bus from Great Britain--the Daimler Fleetline. The bus has a length of 30 feet (which was considered quite long that time), and the most important thing about the bus is--the engine was located at the back of the vehicle.

A bus with rear mounted engine has several advantages over front-mounted engine:
1. The inside was much quieter and cooler and thus more comfortable.
2. With engine at the back, the bus can now have a lower floor level, thus getting on and off the bus was faster, and more convenient.
3. A "coin-box" can now be located right next to the driver, thus no operators are needed for selling tickets.
4. With engine moved to the rear, more space can be obtained, thus, more passengers can be carried

All the above features were extremely advanced, and the bus became very, very popular. Within a short time, hundreds of Fleetlines were bought into Hong Kong, and CMB named the 33 feet  Fleetline LF (probably standing for Long Fleetline) and 30 feet Fleetlines SF (Short Fleetline?).

A nickname was given to all Fleetlines-- JUMBO --a name that was originated from the 747 airplane. Clearly, the nickname JUMBO was given because of Fleetlines' ability to carry an enormous amount of passengers--121 people, an unbelievably large number of passengers at that time.

Fleetlines were very popular at first. However, after about twenty years of services, they were slowly getting old and dirty. Slowly and slowly, Fleetlines were being replaced by newer, more advanced buses.

Years passed, in around 2000 or 2001, all Fleetlines in Hong Kong were replaced by newer buses. 

Below are something that worth noticing about Fleetlines:
1. Ancestors of today's Super Low Floor buses--since Fleetlines have all their mechanical parts at rear, they have a very low ground clearance which made getting on and off the bus way easier than other buses.
2. Fleetlines have 150hp/153hp/180hp engine and a semi-automatic transmission. (it is very interesting to see the driver "playing" around with the transmission thing)
3. All engines have a volume of 10,000cc+
4. At one point, they were the most common bus in Hong Kong
5. The Fleetlines were the largest buses when they entered service in Hong Kong
6. Fleetlines, at that time, were able to carry the most number of passengers
7. The first generation of rear mounted engine buses
8. Power steering was available for the bus
9. and probably more....=)

	SF 11of CMB in "luxury" bus color scheme.
SF 4 near the end of its career...I had a memorable ride on this bus with my friends before this bus retired....=)
	The dashboard of a Fleetline...the this on the left of the steering wheel is the transmission column...it is very fun and interesting to c the bus driver playing with it~ =)  and if you are interested in knowing what other buttons do...you can message me~ =)