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The Leyland Lynx was the successor to the long-running Leyland National. C920FMP started life as a demonstrator painted in NBC's poppy red.

After the six Leyland Lynx prototypes, B60-01 to B60-06 inclusive, Leyland Bus commenced production of its new generation city bus at Workington in late 1985.

First off the line numerically were three underframes (LX1001 for development and LX1002 and LX1003 for Citybus in Northern Ireland), closely followed by the first bodied production vehicle, LX1004.  This was a single door bus with 51 seats and a ramped floor and was to be a Leyland Bus demonstrator, intended to be shown and loaned to potential customers.  It was fitted with a rear-mounted Gardner 6HLXCT engine and a four speed Hydracyclic gearbox.

It was initially painted in National Bus Company (NBC) poppy red with two narrow white bands below the windows and grey skirt panels, and looked almost identical to prototype B60-05, which operated initially for Ribble as its fleet number 901, although there were some differences.  The interior included seats upholstered in the standard NBC moquette of the time, perhaps indicating that NBC were then still a potential major customer for the Lynx, although it was then in the process of being broken up and sold off.

The completed bus was photographed at Leyland in February 1986, but never entered service in this red livery, and was most probably never registered at the time.  However, by June 1986 it had been repainted in a white livery with a grey skirt and registered as C920FMP, becoming one of only seven production Lynx with C-prefix registration numbers, the others being West Midlands PTE 1061-1066.

In its new livery it attended a launch event at Wilmslow in July 1986 before embarking on its demonstration career.  An example was from April to May 1987 when it was on loan to Midland Red West, operating from Redditch garage.  This career lasted only for some ten months, as in May 1987 the bus was sold to Caldaire group operator West Riding, being replaced at Leyland Bus by demonstrator D603ACW.

At West Riding it was initially numbered 216 and retained its white livery with the addition of West Riding fleetnames, numbers and lettering but was subsequently re-numbered to 252.   It was later repainted into the blue and cream Sheffield & District. It was followed by another 76 new Lynx for West Riding and its associated Sheffield & District and Yorkshire Woollen fleets, and a further 46 Mk2 variants.  In total, nine were purchased second hand or ex-demonstrators, making a total of 131 Lynx in the Caldaire Yorkshire group.

In December 1987, 252 was transferred to the Sheffield & District fleet, still in the all over white livery and retaining the same fleet number.  It was subsequently painted into the smart blue and cream livery. However, in October 1989 it returned to the main West Riding fleet and the blue was replaced by green.  In January 1998 the bus passed with the rest of the Caldaire fleet to Arriva Yorkshire, but later in the year it was transferred to the driving school and adapted for use as a driver training vehicle. This involved the installation of brake controls and a seat for the instructor and additional mirrors.

In 2006 it was withdrawn and purchased for preservation and is the oldest surviving Lynx in the UK (prototype B60-02, dating from 1984, is preserved in Western Australia).

LEYLAND LYNX PRE-PRODUCTION BUS C920FMP AT LEYLAND IN ORIGINAL LIVERY 860226 (3).jpg
FRONT INTERIOR OF DEMONSTRATOR LYNX C920FMP AT LEYLAND 860226 (1).jpg
C920FMP - white - demonstrator.JPG
C920FMP - white - Sheffield.JPG
C920FMP - Blue - 1.JPG
C920FMP - 1.jpg

West Riding 252 (C920FMP)

Technical details:

Chassis (integral) - Leyland Lynx

Body - B51F

Date new - 1986

Owner - West Riding Omnibus Museum Trust

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