Dennis Dart

The Dennis Dart is a rear- engine driven Midibus the English manufacturer Dennis Brothers. During the eighteen- year production period over 11,000 buses were built. The name was used by Dennis Dart already built in the 1930s bus.

Background

Planning for the Darts began in 1988 when the Herstair Group, the owner of Duple Coachbuilders and Dennis decided a bus in the size class between a minibus and a normal-sized single deck to develop and bring in the same year on the market. Bedford Vehicles produced with the Bedford J already 1958-1976 and from 1979 nis 1981 with the Bedford JJL buses on this scale. Leyland Motors had brought out with the Leyland Swift last year a Mididbus.

Dart Series SDL

The bus was finally introduced in 1989. He had a wayward duple - Dartline structure, the very concise working through the wavy front. The structure was 2.3 m wide and 9 m long, but Dennis completed the offer after a short time by a 8.5 m and a 9.8 m long version. The bus was powered by a Cummins six-cylinder engine 6BT together with a gear type AT545 Allison Transmission. This drive unit came later in MCW Metro Cammell Weymann Rider by Metro used. The drive of the bus was arranged under the floor, which led to an elevated floor of the passenger compartment of the stages in the entry made ​​it necessary.

The bus could be sold in significant numbers to London Buses and some operators outside London. Shortly after the introduction of the dart but the body manufacturers Duple was sold to Plaxton. Plaxton showed no interest in the Dartline construction which was therefore sold to Carlyle Works Limited, which further manufactured building. In 1991 the design was sold to Marshall bus in Cambridge, in 1992 five structures manufactured. 1993 Marshall underwent the design a facelift and brought out the version of the C36 structure. The later version published C37 smoothed out the distinctive shape of the original design completely.

As of 1990, Wadham Stringer bodies for the dart forth. The structure with the name Portsdown sold only hesitantly and was replaced in 1995 by the UVG Urban Star. Wrightbus presented in the same year with the Handybus also a structure before, which was designed more functional, however, did not represent an artistic climax.

As early as 1991 Plaxton had presented the pointer, which was originally known as Reeve Burgess Pointer, since it was produced in the former production site of Reeve Burgess. Plaxton, the Reeve Burgess took over in 1980, completed the work in 1991. The pointer structure quickly became the most sought-after construction for the Darts, although its box-like appearance was generally perceived as unattractive.

Also in 1991 brought the East Lancashire Coachbuilders the EL2000 out. In the same year, the Dash of Alexlander which sold well appeared. Northern Counties also tried to participate in the success of darts and developed the Northern Counties Paladin, first with multi-piece windshield, and later with multiple bends, two-piece windshield. Plaxton bought the competitors in 1995 and ceased production of the Paladin.

With the onset of the 1990s trend towards low-floor buses, the sales of the Dart broke, so that production of the Dart was discontinued in 1998. The last three buses were delivered to Thames Transit.

Marshall

Marshall Capital

Wadham Stringer

Wright Handybus

Plaxton pointer

East Lancashire Coachbuilders EL2000

Alexander Dash

Northern Counties Paladin

Dart Series SLF

In 1995, Dennis Dart SLF with the (Super Low Floor ) is a low-floor version out, which later became known as TransBus darts and Alexander Dennis Dart. At 2.4 m Width of vehicle lengths of 9.2, 10 and 10.6 m were initially offered. The powertrain of the SLD was retained, but an air suspension instead of leaf springs of the SLD used. Initially, the low-floor bus with the construction of the pointer was sold, which was replaced by the revised Pointer 2 1997. Other available structures were the Spryte the East Lancashire Coachbuilders, the UVG Urban Star (later sold as Caetano Compass and 1999 replaced by the Nimbus ), the Wright Crusader, the Alexander ALX200 (until 2001 ), which developed from the C37 Marshall Capital (later of Metro Cammell Weymann built ) and its further evolution MCV.

Some buses with the ALX200 configuration were also delivered to North America. On the local market, they were sold as Thomas Dennis SLF -series.

In 1997, the Dart SPD (Super Pointer Dart ) has been introduced. At 11.3 meters in length, it was the same length as the Leyland National. Designed as a midi-bus bus had thus reached the length of conventional buses. The engine power was increased. As the transmission of Allison B300R was used, optional transmissions from Voith were available. Originally available only with the 2- pointer structure, including structures of East Lancashire Coachbuilders, Alexander ( ALX200 ) and Marshall were offered later. In 1998, the series by the MPD (Mini Pointer Dart ) was supplemented with 8.8 m length, but the level is still larger than the original Dart.

With the introduction of Euro III emission standard in October 2001 the new Cummins ISBe came in Dart to use. The four-cylinder engine with 3.9 l displacement found in all versions use only the 11.3 - m model was the six-cylinder version with 5.9 liter displacement. The ISBe Euro IV was offered for the Dart SLF from the end of 2006.

The Dennis Dart SLF was replaced by the Alexander Dennis Enviro200 2007. The last SLF was delivered to the Park Iceland Transport Company Limited in Hong Kong in March 2008.

Another version of the SLF appeared in 2002. In the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, there are due to the topography makes special size restrictions for buses. For replacement of overaged buses on the islands a narrow version of the Dart SLF was developed. The buses were adapted constructions of East Lancashire Coachbuilders and Caetano. Such buses were also purchased from other operators in the UK. In Gibraltar, the narrow version of the Dart SLF is also in use. The last narrow Dart was delivered in the summer of 2007. Alexander Dennis has so far for this version no direct successor in the offer.

Dart SLF East Lancashire Coachbuilders Spryte

Dart SLF Caetano Compass

Dart SLF Caetano Nimbus

Dart SLF Wright Crusader

Dart SLF Alexander ALX200

Dart SLF Marshall Capital

Dart SLF MCV Evolution

Dart SPD Pointer 2

Dart MPD Pointer 2