Leyland Lynx

C920FMP

The first Leyland Lynx to be operated by Midland Red West was a demonstrator that was loaned to them by Leyland Buses Limited between 16th April and 5th May 1987. The vehicle was a very early Leyland Lynx being the 4th to be built as part of an initial batch of vehicles which included the 6 C61-66HOM. These six vehicles were delivered to the West Midlands PTE as demonstrators to evaluate there potential as  replacement buses for the Leyland Nationals. Like Midland Red West they went onto purchasing production vehicles from Leyland Bus during 1989 and 1990. The demonstration vehicle C920FMP was operated from Redditch Garage and spent most of it's time operating either on the service 318 which at the time still ran from Redditch to Stourbridge and the X8 from Redditch to Birmingham via Wythall. The vehicle also saw service on the town's 57 and 58 bus routes. Unlike the eventual production vehicles C920FMP was fitted with a Gardner 6LXCT engine and Leyland Fluid Hydracyclic gearbox and as such was mechanically very similar to many Mark II Leyland Nationals

62701-50    G101-50HNP

As part of a much larger Badgerline Group order Midland Red West received 50 Leyland Lynx’s in 1990. The vehicles 1101-50 (G101-50HNP) were delivered during February and March 1990. 1101 and 1102 were registered ahead of the rest in the February for driver and engineering training. All 50 entered service at Digbeth Garage on Sunday 1st April 1990. A launch of the vehicles was staged on Monday 2nd April at the former Hams Hall Power Station where the vehicles had been stored prior to their entry into service. From Sunday 26th April 1990 the last six vehicles 1144-50 were transferred to Redditch for use on the 57 and 58 where the Company was at the time in competition with the Kingfisher Bus and Coach Company. Over the next few years as the bus operation running out of Digbeth Garage began to reduce more and more vehicles were transferred to Redditch until by the mid 1992 1139-50 were at Redditch. Following service changes in late 1992 1145-50 moved to Kidderminster. With the introduction of the first batch of Dennis Lance’s in April/May 1992 (L201-221/322/223-37AAB 201-37) at Digbeth 1101-8 moved to Kidderminster with the balance of Leyland Lynx vehicles moving to Redditch to allow the majority of the Leyland Nationals at Redditch Garage to be withdrawn. With the introduction of the Dennis Darts (301-13) at Kidderminster in September 1995 1107/8 moved to Redditch. On 27th April 1997 when the Digbeth operation closed all 50 Leyland Lynx’s were concentrated at Redditch. Some of the vehicles soon found use at Evesham Garage on a floating allocation from Redditch. In February 1999 1101/2 were actually reallocated to Evesham but following service changes in June 2000 they moved back to Redditch.  1108 and 1130 were withdrawn in June 2003 and transferred to Eastern Counties with one vehicle allocated to Norwich and the other to Great Yarmouth Garages. The vehicles saw little if no use with First Eastern Counties and returned back to First Wyvern in early September 2003. 1148 was taken out of service in the early part of 2003 with mechanical problems and was finally withdrawn in June 2003. However, both 1145 and 1148 were repaired in August 2003 and put back into service due to a vehicle shortage. 1130 was put back into service at Redditch during Christmas week. Since the middle of 2003 the Company has gone through of a process of taking Lynx vehicles out of service for short periods of time before reinstating them at a latter date. From October 2003 a number of the Barbie2 livered vehicles have been taken out of service and sold other First Group Companies as the requirement for the vehicles has reduced in the First Wyvern fleet. With the introduction of the national vehicle numbering scheme 627xx was added to all fleet numbers. Following the mass withdrawal of Leyland Lynx vehicles in the early part of 2005 a number where put into storage at First Leicester (on behalf of First Midland Red) as there is not enough secure storage available at the various First Wyvern garages. A number of the vehicles are likely to be converted to driver trainers for various First Group companies around the country (see section at the bottom). 62707 (G107HNP) was withdrawn in January 2005 following an accident involving Arriva vehicle 4607 (P607CAY) when the former vehicle was pushed into a bus shelter. G107HNP was sold for scrap in July 2005.  During April and May 2005 First Wyvern sold the following lynx vehicles 62703/5/8/9/11/37/40/8 to the First Group Central Engineering unit at Rotherham for conversion into driver training vehicles    

Livery Key :  Barbie 2 - Non low floor corporate Firstgroup livery known as "Barbie2"  & Barbie 3 - is the new corporate Firstgroup livery for all vehicles which is a modified version of the original Barbie livery (The dates in brackets are when the vehicle was last repainted)  

During the summer of 2000 First Bristol replaced a number of their full sized single deck vehicles with new low floor buses. This resulted in a number of the Leyland Lynx vehicles from their first batch F600-32RTC (1600-34) becoming surplus. These surplus vehicles were cascaded to a number of other Firstgroup subsidiary Companies such as Badgerline and Southern National. Three of the vehicles F601-3FTC (1161-3) found there way to First Wyvern. The vehicles were pressed into service still in their red, blue and yellow Bristol Cityline livery at Evesham Garage. Union agreements at Redditch prevented their use at that Garage as they lacked anti-attack screens on the cab door (A driver at Redditch can insist on a vehicle with an anti-attack screen whilst operating an evening service after 1900). The vehicles were soon repainted into the then standard red and cream livery and the vehicles acquired the required modified cab doors to allow operation at Redditch Garage. As the vehicles had just been painted they were selected for Circle Line branding for the routes 57/8 in November 2000. The vehicles remained at Redditch until the summer of 2002 when all three were withdrawn and were to be transferred back to Bristol. However, First Wyvern decided they still required them even though 1161 and 1162 had already been repainted into the new Barbie2 corporate livery by First Bristol and had received modified wheel arches to remove the fiberglass skirt panels. 1163 was also repainted into the Barbie2 livery but as the vehicle was to be retained by First Wyvern the wheel arch modifications made to 1161/2 were not made. All three re-entered service at Redditch Garage during January/February 2003 to replace the three low floor Darts 327/9/30, which had been reallocated to Worcester Garage.  During October 2003 all three were withdrawn once again but this time they were sold for further use with First Leicester.