The Beamish Museum has enriched its collection of working buses with the addition of a Leyland Lion LT1, one of the first motorbuses owned by Sunderland Corporation. Leyland-bodied No.2 (BR 7132) was new in May 1929, one of 12 of these 32-seat single-deckers bought to complement the municipal tram service, which continued to be expanded until 1949 and did not close until 1954. The Lions, with four-cylinder petrol engines, took over operation of the new bus routes which had begun in 1928 using vehicles and crews hired from Northern General.
They had a short life in Sunderland, bought by a dealer in Hull in 1934, when No.2 was sold on to Tantivy Motors in Jersey where it was re-registered J 9008. It survived the Nazi German occupation of the Channel Islands from June 1940 to May 1945 and is believed to have been one of only four buses licensed for service at the end of World War Two. By then it had gained three extra seats.
When Jersey Motor Transport acquired Tantivy’s stage services in 1946, the Lion joined the JMT fleet as its No.46, remaining in service through most of the 1950s alongside many other prewar Leylands which survived longer than most of their contemporaries on the British mainl…
