Leyland Victory 2
The Leyland Victory 2 MK2 was a front engined double decker bus built by Leyland (sometime between 1978 and 1981). It was specially designed for the Hong Kong environment (hilly roads and “one-man-operation”). Its physical appearance was somewhat identicial to Dennis Jubilant except for a couple of minor features. Its chassis was developed from the Leyland Victory J chassis. The Leyland Victory 2 was powered by a Gardner 6LXB engine and Voith D851 gearbox. Only one Victory in China Motor Bus’s fleet was fitted with an SCG GB350 gearbox. The Leyland Victory was a popular bus as every single major public transit operator in Hong Kong operated them. The negative thing about the Leyland Victory 2 was that it was prone to turning over due to its soft suspension and high centre of gravity.
KMB Leyland Victory 2
Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) acquired 540 Victory MK2s. All of them had Alexander Bodies. They arrived in four batches. Each batch looked slightly different (i.e. height of the windscreen). One of them was equipped with an air conditioning unit for experimental purposes and was classified as a coach. Unfortunately, the experiment failed and the air conditiong unit was subsequently removed at an unknown date. Due to unknown reason, KMB sold 15 of its Leyland Victory 2 to New Lantao Bus.
CMB Leyland Victory 2
China Motor Bus (CMB) acquired 167 Leyland Victory 2s. the majority of the CMB’s Victorys were identical to KMB’s Victorys except CMB’s had modified rear bumpers. twenty of their Victorys had Duple Metsec bodies. All of them were transferred to New World First Bus after CMB lost the right to operate in Hong Kong.
New World First Bus Leyland Victory 2
CMB transferred its entire Leyland Victory 2 fleet to NWFB after CMB lost the right to operate in Hong Kong. NWFB repainted some of its Leyland Victory 2s into the NWFB livery. NWFB never used its entire Leyland Victory 2 fleet for revenue service in any single day. They were withdrawn in August 1998.
City Bus Leyland Victory 2
Citybus was awarded the right to take over 26 routes previously operated by China Motor Bus. To operate those routes, Citybus acquired 10 Leyland Victory 2s from New Lantao Bus (NLB), second-hand Leyland Atlanteans and new buses.
NLB Leyland Victory 2
New Lantao Bus (NLB) purchased 15 Leyland Victory 2s from KMB. They were used to provide South Lantau Island bus service. Ten of them were withdrawn in 1992 after Kwoon Chung Motors (KCM) took over the company. Ten of them were acquired by Citybus in 1993.
Fate after retirement
The majority of the Leyland Victory 2s had been scraped after they were withdrawn from passenger service. Its motor was salvaged and used to power motor boats. Some of them were used for rescue training exercise. City Bus converted 5 Leyland Victory 2s to training buses, tree pruning vehicle and service trucks. One of them is being preserved in the England Museum.