Leyland Lioness

The Leyland Lioness, type code LC, was a bus chassis built by Leyland Motors from 1926. It was the bonneted version of the Leyland Lion, and Leyland traditionally used the feminine form of a name for the bonneted layout. Like the Lion it was one of the first chassis designed specifically for use as a bus, with a low frame for easier boarding and pneumatic tyres, hence the leading P in its type code. Most were fitted with comfortable coach bodies for 24 to 36 passengers by Burlingham, Harrington, Wray's Motor and Body Company and Weymann, and open excursion buses were built as well. Besides the pure bonneted form there were versions with a half cab pushed far forward, which gave the driver good all-round vision and easy access to the engine and carried the letter S for side-type in the type code. Engine and equipment largely matched the Lion, and a fire engine with a long turntable ladder was developed from the Lioness because its low bus frame gave a low centre of gravity.