Leyland were not new to this design concept, the pre-war 8.6-litre engine was used in horizontal orientation for the London Transport TF-class Tiger FEC single-deckers and the sole Leyland Panda but, like the contemporary work of Tilling-Stevens and a slightly later prototype from AEC, such designs were put into abeyance to further the war effort.

[1] In 1948, Leyland and the MCW sales organisation concluded a twenty-year agreement that they would exclusively collaborate on integral designs and favour one another with body-on-chassis business.

Their idea was that an under-frame comprising durable Leyland engines and other mechanical units would be permanently attached to a similarly heavy-duty body structure.

To this under-frame, Leyland attached all running units comprising radiator, engine, axles, suspension, steering, gearbox, brakes, controls etc.

The HR44 can be distinguished from the HR40 by a slightly longer rear overhang and a flatter panel above the side windows allowing for sign-painted advertisements.

[7] Leyland announced the Royal Tiger Worldmaster (RT series) in 1954 as the replacement for the Royal Tiger and from about 18 months later the units from it became standard in EL and ER Olympics, around 1956 the series 2 Olympic was announced, this used Worldmaster units, in particular the O.680H diesel engine and the Pneumocylic gearbox and the body styling was revised.

Lengths and wheelbases were quoted as follows:[8] A radio celebrity at the time of the Olympic's launch was Professor CEM Joad, whose catchphrase on the BBC programme The Brains Trust was: "It all depends what you mean by…" In the case of the HR series Olympic it really did all depend what you meant by home as of the 92 'home' models built in the British Isles 2 were exported (one each to Trinidad and New Zealand) and a further 31 'home' models were built by the South African subsidiary and they exported 11 of them to Rhodesia.

Including the New Zealand and Trinidad buses and the demonstrators the percentage shares were as follows (of 92 buses so rounding errors have occurred): Red & White Services had 2 and its subsidiary United Welsh Services had one, these were ordered before the Red & White Group sold its bus interests to the British Transport Commission but delivered afterwards so that the state-sector bought 3% of 'home' Olympics.

Municipal buyers were: The remaining ten buses went to independents: Already the Leyland-MCW idea of a totally standard bus had been stymied by the width and length changes, and the corporation fleets (whose General Managers and Transport Committee Chairmen were always trying to establish individuality for the sake of civic pride) further muddied the waters, Birmingham's five HR40s sat 36, Edinburgh's sole HR44 had only thirty two seats and an open rear-platform entrance as on contemporary double deckers (and most of the rest of Edinburgh's small single deck fleet).

[6] Of the Rhodesian examples the seven for Salisbury United were 45 seaters and the four for Thatcher Hobson of Broken Hill were 56 seaters, (presumably 3+2 and not intended for those with paler skins) these last four were delivered in 1955, but like the rest of the 20 later South African HR Olympics they had 52xxxx numbers, suggesting completion of running units at Farington during 1952, the first 11 of the South African HR44s had 50xxxx numbers.

SAR, operating buses in difficult terrain and often at altitude, required very high power outputs for the time and wanted more than the 200 bhp available from the Leyland O.680H, presumably the 15.2 litre Leyland-Albion O.900H was not suitable for the application, or had ceased production, as the SA2 Olympic featured a 220 bhp Cummins engine coupled to Twin-Disc torque-converter transmission.

The other 57, built between 1953 and 1957 were B44D examples for Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS) of Kingston, they were the only customer for the ER2 to be served from the UK, buying 270 ER2/44 to B44D layout and 19 shorter ER2/34 (presumably to 18 ft wheelbase and 33 ft overall length) also with dual doors and seating 36 between 1958 and 1966, they also took 150 ER3 from 1966 to 1969, 5 were to shorter length ER3/41 spec and from the middle of 1968 the rationalised gearbox was fitted, the last models being ER3A/44.

Deliveries stretched from April 1951 to May 1960, the only major customer was CUTCSA who took 63; that sole Uruguayan order accounted for 78% of output, next were the six remaining in the UK, then Madrid Corporation's four (Madrid at the time also took Worldmasters and PD3 Titans with MCW bodies), two for Argentina, two for Cuba whilst one each went to Costa Rica, Turkey and Poland.

The major customer for the EL2 was Cuba which took 993 from 1960 to 1966, next largest was Buenos Aires with 242, then CUTCSA with 100, owners are unknown for two and three were sold to the government of the Dominican Republic.

The first owner of the other 42 was Leyland Motors acting as insurer for the loss of the Magdeburg (see later), of those 42, 14 were lost at sea, 9 of the 28 salvaged went to an Australian operator Westbus,[13] two to a British coach firm but the destinations of most of the remaining 17 are unknown.

When obituary writers looked for examples of the salesmanship of Lord Stokes upon his death in 2008, it was his sale of 1,192 Olympics to the government of Cuba that was most frequently mentioned.

running in factories carrying workers to the sugarcane fields; although they are in very bad shape and have been repaired so many times, they are still doing service with original engine and transmission.

Firstly in 1960 a batch of 18 from an order of 200 were being unloaded at Havana docks when a French ammunition ship MV La Coubre in a nearby berth exploded.

[15] In the ensuing salvage operation 28 were removed and brought to land while the wreck was refloated and taken under tow to Greece, with 14 buses still in the hold.

The remaining 28 Olympics were all sold, some (doubtless) for spares and scrap, some for non-psv uses; one was converted by Tiverton Coachbuilders to transport racing cars for the Tyrell team, (Most other racing car-teams of the time used Worldmasters or Leopards, although Gulf used an AEC Regal VI and Lotus an AEC Swift.)

[citation needed] Only 5 early Olympics were sold in Turkey and Leyland sales personnel discovered resistance to a name of Greek origin.

So, the 300 B36D vehicles sold to the Istanbul municipal bus fleet in 1968/9 were named Leyland-MCW Levend, a word meaning a crack soldier.

The rest of the world figure of 127 (4%) breaks down into: Iran 32, not known (includes at least 1 non-psv) 18; Canada 17; Rhodesia 15; shipwreck 14; Belgium 12; Australia 9; Spain 4; Dominican Republic 3, and one each to Costa Rica, Israel, New Zealand, Poland and Trinidad.

The Leyland-MCW Olympian, built from 1953 to 1957,[2] was based on the Olympic superstructure, suitably lightened, and carried units from the Leyland Tiger Cub.

It demonstrated with the Toronto Transit Commission as #507 and a number of other Canadian operators (Burley Bus Lines and Chambly Transport).

The much decayed remains of former King Alfred HR40 JAA708 were repatriated to the UK from dereliction in the Irish Republic in 1990 and Friends of King Alfred Buses announced one of the most ambitious and thorough going restoration attempts ever seen in the bus preservation movement[19] which resulted in the bus being available to ride on at their Winchester running Day on 1 January 2013.