Prepared on Notepad by Ian Smith,

This page created 5th April 2000, updated 28th February 2006.

Atlas Bus Lynxes

Atlas Bus Lynx Pan Atlas Leisure won the contract to operate the 112 (Ealing Broadway - Brent Cross - Wood Green) in July 1988. Eight new Leyland Lynxes were bought, together with a secondhand Leyland National from Cumberland as a spare. The Lynxes, 49 seaters with stepped floors, were treated to a white livery with grey skirts, with red and blue diagonal stripes and Atlas Bus fleetnames. They operated from a base in Harlesden. The buses were given AB fleetnumbers, but apparently randomly: probably the order that they were lined up in at the time!
In October 1991 Pan Atlas also took on the 107 (Edgware - New Barnet), for which Olympians were bought. Some interchange of buses between the routes occurred, with Olympians appearing on the 112 and Lynxes on the 107.

The buses were renumbered in July 1994, using the last two digits of the registration numbers.

In 1994 the company lost the 112 on retender, to R&I Coaches, and was taken over by London Coaches. The Lynxes, minus Atlas Bus fleetnames, put in some appearances on the 107, but all were quickly sold for further service elsewhere: four went to Crosville, two to Yellow Bus in Stoke Mandeville and two to Luton & District.

Further service

The Yellow Buses Lynxes were taken over relatively quickly, when the company succumbed to The Shires in July 1975. They became 422 and 423, then 3065 and 3066 in the new numbering scheme, and worked initially at Aylesbury. By 2000 they were both trainers, and were repainted by Arriva Training School into almost their original white livery with grey skirt, only this time with a yellow cheat line instead of the red/blue diagonals!

Meanwhile the Luton & District two had become 417 and 418 at Stevenage, being renumbered in the new scheme to 3064 and 3076. The latter was withdrawn in 2000, but was surprisingly reinstated for a further stint at High Wycombe. The former had a brief spell with Arriva East Herts & Essex, still in The Shires' blue and yellow livery, before going back into store at High Wycombe.

Two of the Crosville buses returned to the London area after five years in Wales, in 1999, when they were bought by Blue Triangle as part of its Dome Emergencies and rail replacement fleet.


Ian's Bus Stop LX Contents. Atlas Bus histories. LX photo refs. Blue Triangle.