Title: Leyland Buses in Israel
Author: Alon Siton
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-3981-0574-4
Specification: 235mm x 165mm, 96pp, softback
Price: £15.99
Israel was one of Leyland’s many important export markets, taking large numbers of mid-engined left-handdrive Royal Tiger Worldmasters from 1955 until the early 1970s and operating them to the end of the 1980s. There is much to learn about them from this book, apparently the first written specifically about them.
Alon Siton was moved to write it following the discovery in Jerusalem of a large photographic collection showing what he describes as “these beloved buses” in service mainly with the country’s largest operator, Egged. Many were assembled in Israel where most were bodied, though there also were Leyland-DABs from Denmark, Van Hool-Leylands from Belgium and some rather stylish Worldmaster coaches with bodies built in Greece in 1963.
There also were two early 1960s Lions, a combination of Worldmaster chassis frame and Atlantean rear engine power pack, but they were not what the Israeli market wanted and that pair remained unique.
Rear-engined Panthers followed later in the same decade. In between, Italian manufacturer Viberti supplied…
