In 1981, the National Bus Company (NBC) introduced their upmarket National Express Rapide service in partnership with the well know West Country operator Trathen's. The Rapide service used better quality coaches with features such as air suspension, reclining seats, toilet, refreshments, hostess or steward, video and television. Some of these features were offered by Ribble Motor Services on their 'Gay Hostess' class Leyland Atlantean double-deck coaches during the sixties. The NBC had to hire suitable coaches from Trathen's to use on the new Rapide services. Towards the end of 1981, the NBC drew up the specification of the coach to be used on the Rapide services: it had to be British built, be a rear-engined coach with a power output of at least 245bhp, high-floor and have air suspension. Leyland Bus were known to be developing their own in-house rear-engined integral coach which would be launched in late 1982 but not go into production until 1983. The NBC turned to Hestair Dennis and a few days before Christmas 1981 NBC's engineers had lunch with Dennis' engineers and Dennis accepted to contract (challenge) to design and deliver by the end of April the following year, 10 rear-engine coach chassis to Duple who Dennis nominated to be the bodybuilder. Duple had just launched their high-floor coach called Goldliner. The contract stipulated that the first of the 10 coaches must be delivered by September of 1982, and the rest delivered by the end of 1982. Dennis developed the Falcon V rear-engined chassis which the front of the chassis was shared with the Dennis Dominator double-deck chassis. The Falcon V chassis had a 20ft wheelbase and powered by a rear mounted vertical 10.5-litre V8 Perkins TV8.640 turbocharged diesel engine producing 260bhp at 2400rpm, because a lot of NBC drivers had 'Teflon' (none stick) driving licences, the Falcon had to have a semi or a fully-automatic gearbox, Dennis chose to use a Voith 4-speed fully-automatic gearbox, the drive went to a Eaton 23000 series rear axle to give a top speed of 75mph. Other features of the Falcon V chassis include: air suspension, air brakes, power steering and a front mounted radiator. All 10 Falcon V chassis at a cost of £37,000 each were delivered to Duple Coachbuilders by the end of April 1982, Duple developed a luxury version of their Goldliner body known as the Super Goldliner IV and had a flat roof rather than the stepped roof fitted to the standard version, inside featured 47 reclining Duple seats, central mounted sunken toilet with a servery unit mounted on top of the toilet compartment. Other features include: video, colour television, and tinted side windows.
The first two Duple Dennis Falcon V coaches were launched to the trade press at Peterborough in early September 1982, then a week later they were handed over by the Transport Secretary David Howel to Robert Brook the Chief Executive of the NBC at Dennis' Guilford factory and entered service with Western National, the remaining eight were delivered by January 1983, and entered service with Western National (three) Yorkshire Traction (two), West Yorkshire Road Car Co (one), and National Travel West (two). Because the timescale that Dennis and Duple had was hopelessly impracticable resulted in no testing done before the completed coaches entered service, which resulted in a series of operational problems: body flexing caused the plug type entrance door to open while the coach was moving, which cut the power from the engine! the 4-speed automatic gearbox lacked a high top gear! and a few Falcons caught fire. The NBC decided not to order any more Dennis Falcon coaches and specified Duple and Plaxton bodied Leyland Tigers to be used on the Rapide network, then from 1984 MCW Metroliner and Plaxton Paramount 4000 double-deck coaches, but that is another story to be told. The Falcon coaches were withdrawn after less than three years and sold most had covered over 200,000 miles each! A number of operators re-powered the Falcon with a Cummins LT10 engine. The last sighting of a Dennis Falcon V coach was in 2005, it was owned by small coach company called Day Tripper who shared a yard with a coach company called Ribble Valley Coaches at Broughton near Preston. This Falcon was new to National Travel West as ANA 100Y. The owner of Day Tripper Barry Leyland told me who ever wants it can have it for scrap value and take it away.
Dennis was rather optimistic at the press launch of the Falcon V coaches at Peterborough in September 1982, and quoted that in future the Falcon V would be offered with a choice of a normal aspirated Perkins engine producing 206bhp, or a Mercedes OM 422 V8 engine producing 280bhp, two types of ZF 6-speed synchromesh gearboxes would be offered. Apart from the 10 Falcon V coaches built for the NBC, only one more was built (SDA404/120), which was used as a test-rig and was displayed by Dennis at the 1982 Motor Show held at the NEC near Birmingham. This chassis was later broken for spares. Dennis even said at the launch that they might build a rear-engined integral coach. In June 1983, Hestair took over Duple, and by the end of the year Dennis and Duple were working together on a in-house rear-engined intergral coach which became the Duple Integral 425.
David Hargreaves who was the Executive Chairman of Dennis knew that the NBC were still looking for a purpose built coach for their National Express network. The Integral 425 was developed with the NBC in mind: maximum passenger capacity, maximum luggage space, and maximum fuel economy. Duple had built a prototype integral Caribbean based on a Neoplan Cityliner underframe, this became the test bed for the Integral 425, and repowered with a Cummins LT10 engine mated to a five-speed fully-automatic ZF gearbox, the running units that the Falcon V should have used. Sadly, by the time the Integral 425 went into full production in 1987, the NBC were in the process of broken up and sold. The NBC took four Integral 425s in late 1985, followed by 13 in 1987, National Express took a solitary Integral 425, but when they drew the specification of the Expressliner in 1988, it was not based on a 425, but a Plaxton Paramount 3500 Volvo B10M, their 425 proved to be unreliable. The first 12 production 425s had the frames built by Duple, then transported down to Guilford for Dennis to attach the running units, and then driven back to Blackpool to be completed by Duple. This arrangement proved to be expensive and time consuming, so a few of Dennis' engineers were transferred to Duple, so the running units could be fitted by Duple.
Dennis developed the Falcon as a rear-engined single-deck bus for Leicester, with the first bodied by Duple entering service in early 1981. Two versions of the Falcon bus were offered H and HC. Then came the Falcon V rear-engined coach chassis, followed by the Falcon V rear-engined double-deck bus chassis. The Falcon was in production from 1981 to 1993, a total of 140 were built of all types, chassis numbers 101-2140.
This view shows a West Yorkshire Duple Super Goldliner IV (C47Ft) Dennis Falcon V (SDA404/112) DWW 925Y fleet number 2201 parked in Leeds Wellington Street coach station. Note the smart Alcoa alloy wheels which were fitted to help keep the weight down, the quoted unladen weight was 11.52 tons (11,712 kg).
Dennis did build other coach chassis, the Dorchester launched in 1982 only 67 built, but the Javelin launched in 1986 was a sales success and remained in production until 2011 with 2566 built. The rear-engine R-Series launched in 1999 to replace the successful Javelin only remained in production to 2006 with 98 built. What let Dennis down until the Javelin was launched, was no dealers, no back up, and poor spare parts availability, sadly the last two mentioned weaknesses, would always be the weakness of Dennis. The Javelin was a superb coach chassis, the only let down was the clutch on the models with manual gearboxes, and cooling problems if thrashed up and down the motorways on National Express services.
Conclusion: People seem to like to criticise both Dennis and Duple over the Falcon V fiasco, given that both parties only had four months to design a build, it was a great achievement, if the NBC had only gave Dennis and Duple four months to test a bodied prototype, then the Falcon V would be a different story, or would it? Duple replaced the Goldliner with the Caribbean in September 1982, the same month that the first two Falcons entered service with Western National. Dennis's experience of building the 10 Falcon V coaches was used when Dennis worked with Duple on the design of the Integral 425, and later the R-Series.
Postscript: During my PSV (PCV) driving career I have had the pleasure of driving many Dennis buses and coaches: Dart, Dominator, Dragon, Javelin, R-Series and Trident, apart from the Trident which were awful things to drive, the other models were a delight to drive. My favourite was the Javelin, a true driver's coach, I have drove the standard model with the 240bhp engine, and the range topping 300GX model, both manual and automatic.
Technical details Duple Super Goldliner Dennis Falcon V coach:-
Chassis Type: Dennis Falcon V 12-metre rear-engined coach chassis (£37,000)
Chassis Manufacturer: Hestair Dennis Ltd, Guildford,Surrey GU2 5XP England UK
Engine: Rear mounted vertical 10.5-litre turbocharged Perkins V8 TV8.640 diesel engine
Power output: 260bhp at 2,400rpm
Torque: 640lb.ft at 1800rpm
Gearbox: Voith D854 4-speed fully-automatic with torque convertor and an integral retarder. Gear selector buttons to the right of the driver below the side window, with a push button for each forward gear, neutral and reverse, fourth gear button would engage fully automatic operation of the gearbox. When in the automatic mode, the driver could hold each gear by pushing the button for that gear, and to return to fully automatic mode fourth gear button would be engaged, to prevent accidental engagement of reverse an additional button needed to be engaged at the same time.
Rear axle: Eaton 23000 series (10.8 ton), with a ratio of 5.43:1 giving a maximum top speed of 75mph
Front axle: GKN
Suspension: Full air suspension with self levelling valves, two air bellows and telescopic dampers mounted on a trailing 'A' frame on the front axle, and four air bellows and telescopic dampers mounted on a 'H' frame on the rear axle
Brakes: Full air split system featuring Eaton ''S'' cam brakes, spring actuated parking brake on rear axle and a Bendix Westinghouse AD2 air dryer
Steering: Integral power steering, 20in two spoke steering wheel, 5 3/4 turns lock to lock, turning circle 68ft
Cooling: Front mounted radatior with a 24in diameter thermostatically controlled hydraulic driven cooling fan, oil cooler incorporated in the cooling system for the gearbox
Fuel Tank: 80 gallon fuel tanks behind front axle, filler neck behind the offside front wheel arch panel
Wheels and Tyres: 10 stud Alcoa alloy wheels, tyre size radial, tubeless 275/80 × 22,5
Instrumentation: Two man tachograph, three air pressure gauges, fuel gauge and a panel of six warning lights: coolant, alternator, oil pressure, gearbox temperature, main beam and indicators, in addition a Radolarm warning light with test facility for the coolant
Performance: Maximum speed if holding each gear: 1st 32mph, 2nd 41mph, 3rd 57mph, and 4th 75mph. Speeds for gear changes in the automatic mode: 2nd 20mph, 3rd 35mph and 4th 50mph
Fuel consumption: Approximately 6mpg at 70mph
Bodywork: Duple Super Goldliner IV (£38,000)
Bodybuilder: Duple Coachbuilders Vicarage Lane, Blackpool FY4 4EN, England, UK
Body type: Super Goldliner IV
Height: Approximately 3.5-metre
Glazing: Tinted single glazing with full draw curtains
Seating and trim: 47 reclining seats, with armrests, trimmed in autumn tint brown striped moquette. Additional fold up seat for the Hostess or Steward recessed into the toilet compartment. Chapman Driver's seat. Full soft trim to sides and the roof, and a removable gangway carpet
Audio, Television and Video equipment: Radiomobile radio and cassette player with microphone, each seat has an individual earphone socket, two 14in JVC colour television monitors one above the driver's partition and the second in the centre near the servery unit, Panasonic video recorder/player
Heating: Smiths Webasto DBW300 system
Entrance Doors: Power operated plug type door, Continental centre door mounted on the offside
Toilet: Sunken centre mounted offside
Luggage: 6.7-metres of storage between the axles
