This was the usual starter motor chorus every morning at the Midland red depot in Wellington. Telford. About 10 of the damn things churning over for ages accompanied with a scene from Steven kings film, the fog.
It was a similar scene in the First York depot only with about 40 of the beasts cold starting on a morning. There was a big cloud of blue exhaust fog hanging over the depot, after walking down the yard to collect your bus you could taste it for hours afterwards!
Now imagine a yard with National's and VR's on a very cold morning and seeing a wall of blue smoke heading at you when you went to sign on..Cough! Cough!
I can almost smell the smoke! Got on one of these for 5 years, going to school, didn't breakdown often, but when they did it was great, late for school!
I would definitely be taking a look at the single point cold start heating element on the inlet manifold making sure it works. The Nationals were always a pig to start in the cold weather especially with the air operated accelerator pedal but could be improved slightly if the cold start device was working OK.
Charge air tanks at full throttle with gear selector in S, it says on the right hand side of the cab, no wonder we used to cough in the mornings if you were spare ar Silverhill, 15-20 nationals and 10-15 Bristol VRs to fire up😮
That dog gazing at the fan in the TV advert ought to, instead, gaze at the fan of a National 1, with the proper engine, starting from cold. All the diesel clag would give a much more realistic "back on the road" feeling than the wind blowing in his fur.
Bless her she was being a right stubborn madam u can't beat old Leyland nationals and old atlanteans. When buses were build to last and for comfort not like the rubbish we have today
I owned a reconditioning company in the 80's & 90's, built 100's of these 510's, Iconic and ground breaking monoblock design for the era, but truly awful to work on and so unreliable... Leyland 'grenade' was a well deserved nicknamed. Good for business though, couldn't build them fast enough. National Mk1 is still my favourite bus closely followed by MK2. Happy days.
@@basiltaylor8910 I'll conceed the old Gardners have a huge fanbase but i can't for the life of me understand why....Hated working on the damn things, and always seemed each one was built by a guy in his shed than mass produced. Take a pipe from one and it won't fit on another without modification. Also very leaky from dozens of access plates with crappy cork gaskets, smokey. Found it amusing when I had to swap dozens of 'Old Gardners' for brand new 'green' Gardners (6LXB Green) for midland mainline..,,. Yet had the same morning clag and only just scraped through the visual smoke check.... Some leg lifting going on there by Gardner i reckon, only thing green about them was the colour they sprayed them.,lol That said I do miss the deep burbling low revving sound and a joy to drive because of the massive torque they had.
That would be an emissions pass at VW! 💪🤪 I have to say I love the sound of a National! The 510 is a beautiful things - obviously a bit of a pain to work on, but they sounded awesome!
Should carry some disco lights and hire out...great smoke machine effect 🤣....preferred the Gardner or TL engines for sound though...and the 510s headless wonder was a fitters nightmare apparently
Most Leyland Nationals seem to have vanished by 2000 and remember the Mk1s engine sounding clattery and whining with lots of smoke that was different to the Mk2 with hardly any smoke and the engine with a booming noise.
Yes indeed - she was withdrawn from PSV use in 1999, last major operator was Chase in the Midlands who used them up until April 2007 just after the Arriva takeover
Turning over with sporadic cylinder detonation check. Blowing more smoke than puffing Billy check. Gradual increased frequency of cylinders detonating helping the starter motor along check. Gradual phasing in of the motor to keep itself turning until the starter hands over reigns and motor achieves self sufficient idling check. This engine gets a clean bill of health.
@@antpoulton1990 Someone told me it injects more fuel into the cylinders. I'm surprised no one used a burning rag to make mk1 Nationals start from cold a bit quicker but then again they would have been gassed out and took 10 yrs off their lifespan.
This can't be right... I mean I see other ppl's comments on remembering them to be hard to start, but that's too way much cranking time and smoke! The starter must be suffering! Is the compression ok? Maybe you should consider installing some sort of an engine pre-heat system, webasto or whatever...
Perfectly normal for a 510 in almost sub zero temperatures, and the compression is fine - the engine has had a full strip down and rebuild less than a 1000 miles ago. She has a cold start fitted but appears to be inoperative so it is on the list to be looked at by someone who knows the engines well.
Yes the "headless wonder" Leyland 510. Had full rebuild before coming back into my possession so should be good for some years to come yet hopefully poultyphotos.smugmug.com/The-fall-and-rise-of-GLJ681N/Bumpers/i-XZtLt5t/A
Some Nationals were fitted with a warm air vent below the front windscreen so bus companies could pump them full of warm air to enable starting on cold mornings and to ease the issues with the notoriously unreliable system that was present in the combined heat exchanger and ventilation located in the roof pod. You always knew how annoyed people were when someone told the bus was colder than an ice box and you at the next stop went and t keyed the panel to reset the system and hoped that that would work.
Wow a very early 75 model. Canberra's 70 intermediate length 10.9m dual door versions were mostly built in 1975, the first 20 or so late 1974 builds were easy to spot. They had the long roof pods. The rest had the pod like this.
This was the usual starter motor chorus every morning at the Midland red depot in Wellington. Telford. About 10 of the damn things churning over for ages accompanied with a scene from Steven kings film, the fog.
It was a similar scene in the First York depot only with about 40 of the beasts cold starting on a morning. There was a big cloud of blue exhaust fog hanging over the depot, after walking down the yard to collect your bus you could taste it for hours afterwards!
Ha! Same at Castlefields depot in Shrewsbury!
Complete with original Hants & Dorset fleet number. Oh how I remember that clatter. Happy trip down memory lane.
Now imagine a yard with National's and VR's on a very cold morning and seeing a wall of blue smoke heading at you when you went to sign on..Cough! Cough!
It really shows how much of a long way Diesel engines have come over the years. But I love those classic sounds
This got to be some quality starter motor to crank for that long without overheating
I hated these buses back in the day but looking back now, they were great times when these old girls were on the road.
Gotta give it to Leyland, they could sure make a helluva starter motor...
The starter motor was actually made by Butec
That's why it worked then 🤣
A certain Miss Thunberg enjoyed this video... 🤣🤣
Probably not as much as I did though, absolute belter. Cheers 👍👍
She took some coughing and spluttering, but sprung into life, wonderful sound, and good to know she's still going strong.
The sound of that engine......perfect
I love the sound of the Leyland National it's my favourite Bus ever
I can almost smell the smoke! Got on one of these for 5 years, going to school, didn't breakdown often, but when they did it was great, late for school!
What smoke? The starter smoke or the diesel smoke?
Could listen to that 510 purr all day long
I would definitely be taking a look at the single point cold start heating element on the inlet manifold making sure it works.
The Nationals were always a pig to start in the cold weather especially with the air operated accelerator pedal but could be improved slightly if the cold start device was working OK.
Its on the "to do" list!!!
Let me know if you have any problems. I worked on Nationals for many years.
@@London1064 its the plugs
The most environmentally friendly bus you will ever see.
Exactly. Just don't show this to Greta Thunberg........
I miss the sound of the Leyland National so watching this video is really really amazing
I do love a Leyland National!
Charge air tanks at full throttle with gear selector in S, it says on the right hand side of the cab, no wonder we used to cough in the mornings if you were spare ar Silverhill, 15-20 nationals and 10-15 Bristol VRs to fire up😮
That dog gazing at the fan in the TV advert ought to, instead, gaze at the fan of a National 1, with the proper engine, starting from cold. All the diesel clag would give a much more realistic "back on the road" feeling than the wind blowing in his fur.
Ha ha reminds me of the bus station back in the day,smoke every where!
Ah the melodic sound of the 510
Bless her she was being a right stubborn madam u can't beat old Leyland nationals and old atlanteans. When buses were build to last and for comfort not like the rubbish we have today
Comfort on a Leyland national? You sure? 😂
Class 142 on wheels :)
I owned a reconditioning company in the 80's & 90's, built 100's of these 510's, Iconic and ground breaking monoblock design for the era, but truly awful to work on and so unreliable... Leyland 'grenade' was a well deserved nicknamed. Good for business though, couldn't build them fast enough. National Mk1 is still my favourite bus closely followed by MK2. Happy days.
Yes the old 510 guaranteed to give any bus mechanic a constant migraine and longing for a Gardner 6LX.
@@basiltaylor8910 I'll conceed the old Gardners have a huge fanbase but i can't for the life of me understand why....Hated working on the damn things, and always seemed each one was built by a guy in his shed than mass produced. Take a pipe from one and it won't fit on another without modification. Also very leaky from dozens of access plates with crappy cork gaskets, smokey.
Found it amusing when I had to swap dozens of 'Old Gardners' for brand new 'green' Gardners (6LXB Green) for midland mainline..,,. Yet had the same morning clag and only just scraped through the visual smoke check.... Some leg lifting going on there by Gardner i reckon, only thing green about them was the colour they sprayed them.,lol
That said I do miss the deep burbling low revving sound and a joy to drive because of the massive torque they had.
That would be an emissions pass at VW! 💪🤪
I have to say I love the sound of a National! The 510 is a beautiful things - obviously a bit of a pain to work on, but they sounded awesome!
I hope this is being forwarded to Greta Thurberg's suggested videos feed 😂
More cold starts like this please 💪
I was waiting for the iconic 'scream' however brief 😁
Leyland national fitted with an early prototype cloaking device, later models being fitted the less claggy Klingon design
Should carry some disco lights and hire out...great smoke machine effect 🤣....preferred the Gardner or TL engines for sound though...and the 510s headless wonder was a fitters nightmare apparently
Most Leyland Nationals seem to have vanished by 2000 and remember the Mk1s engine sounding clattery and whining with lots of smoke that was different to the Mk2 with hardly any smoke and the engine with a booming noise.
Yes indeed - she was withdrawn from PSV use in 1999, last major operator was Chase in the Midlands who used them up until April 2007 just after the Arriva takeover
That brings back memories 👍
In a country that's crying out for big single deck busses you would think that there would be a few dragged our of retirement
I drove them. Best bus ever. Semi box best in ice and snow. Pity there gone!
I remember when Hull bus station was full of these.
I remember seeing the North Bank Travel nationals on Greatfield in the late 90s.
That would have smell great..those smoke
More cold starts please
Turning over with sporadic cylinder detonation check.
Blowing more smoke than puffing Billy check.
Gradual increased frequency of cylinders detonating helping the starter motor along check.
Gradual phasing in of the motor to keep itself turning until the starter hands over reigns and motor achieves self sufficient idling check.
This engine gets a clean bill of health.
Awful dull Leyland engine sound check
Good grief Ant, I thought you had sold this old girl some time ago;
Salutations from your old colleague "Browser"
Hello John, long time no speak, hope you're well. Yes, I did sell this back in 2011 but fortune bought her back to me in 2019!!
Why didn’t they put on them a pump to spray ether/ easy start to get them running if it was always a problem to start em
Oh that smoke would have smell soo great
Love that sound
Michelotti designed bus 👌
Would this be ULEZ compliant ?
I think it might be close with a bit of engine tuning perhaps . . .
Getting lung cancer just watching this
Good batteries!
National's were great smoke machines from cold. Someone who i know who had a MK1 National has a cold start button
She has one but whether it does anything is another matter . . .
@@antpoulton1990 Someone told me it injects more fuel into the cylinders. I'm surprised no one used a burning rag to make mk1 Nationals start from cold a bit quicker but then again they would have been gassed out and took 10 yrs off their lifespan.
Good battery they have there
That's melts some more ice, dont let greta thunberg see this lol
Ps uk England 🇬🇧 here
Did these old things have pre heat or was it like the old ee engines on locomotives?
wonderful
Looks like it could blow up
Crikey, Damn good battery and starter motor!!
Did these have Glow plugs or did drivers have to keep cranking until she fired up?
There is cold start button but not sure it actually does anything!!
Were glow plugs not a thing for UK buses?
At 02:00 what is the smell like?
Didn't they ever have glow plugs?
Sounds like it struggled.
Would like to own one of these Leyland buses but were to get them if for sale ?
I wonder why the world agreed that engines needed to be cleaner? ;)
This can't be right... I mean I see other ppl's comments on remembering them to be hard to start, but that's too way much cranking time and smoke! The starter must be suffering! Is the compression ok? Maybe you should consider installing some sort of an engine pre-heat system, webasto or whatever...
Perfectly normal for a 510 in almost sub zero temperatures, and the compression is fine - the engine has had a full strip down and rebuild less than a 1000 miles ago. She has a cold start fitted but appears to be inoperative so it is on the list to be looked at by someone who knows the engines well.
I don't think greta will be pleased lol
Smoky bus engine
Lol this bus uses ad blue.
Greta Thunbergs favorite video. 😂
What's the green painted national. Next to it? Ex chase via fruit farm ownership by any chance?
No, its ex Devon General FDV829V, been preserved for some years now but hasn't moved from this spot in several years that I'm aware of.
@@antpoulton1990 arrh okay
wright streetlites be like:
some enviromental pollution there
It could have blown up!
No chance, was under control at all times.
Im really surprised this isnt a wrightbus streetlite that had its coolant burned down, good riddance
Is that a Leyland engine ?
Yes the "headless wonder" Leyland 510. Had full rebuild before coming back into my possession so should be good for some years to come yet hopefully poultyphotos.smugmug.com/The-fall-and-rise-of-GLJ681N/Bumpers/i-XZtLt5t/A
Were they this hard to start when they were new?
If it was cold, yes and often much worse!
Some Nationals were fitted with a warm air vent below the front windscreen so bus companies could pump them full of warm air to enable starting on cold mornings and to ease the issues with the notoriously unreliable system that was present in the combined heat exchanger and ventilation located in the roof pod.
You always knew how annoyed people were when someone told the bus was colder than an ice box and you at the next stop went and t keyed the panel to reset the system and hoped that that would work.
Euro 6?
what year 1973 ?
74-75
First registered 21st January 1975.
Wow a very early 75 model. Canberra's 70 intermediate length 10.9m dual door versions were mostly built in 1975, the first 20 or so late 1974 builds were easy to spot. They had the long roof pods. The rest had the pod like this.
Nou!