Dennis Domino

Dennis Domino
Preserved Greater Manchester Transport Northern Counties bodied Dennis Domino in March 2013
Overview
Manufacturer	Dennis Bus
Production	1984–1985
Body and chassis
Doors	1 door
Floor type	Step entrance
Powertrain
Capacity	24 to 30 seated
Dimensions
Length	7.6 m & 7.8 m
Width	2.5 m
Height	3.11 m

The Dennis Domino was a step-entrance midibus chassis manufactured by Dennis Bus in Guildford, England in 1984 and 1985. It was in essence, a scaled down single-decker version of the Dennis Dominator. Developed for intensive urban work, the Domino was fitted with Perkins T6.354.4 turbocharged engine, Maxwell automatic transmission, front radiator, full air suspension and power steering. It can be regarded as a predecessor of the successful Dennis Dart.

It was only sold to two customers, Greater Manchester Transport and South Yorkshire Transport. The Dominos for Greater Manchester Transport were bodied by Northern Counties, and South Yorkshire Transport's by Optare.

In 1983, Greater Manchester PTE realised its nine-year-old Seddon Pennine midibuses in use on the Manchester shuttle between Piccadilly and Victoria stations were nearing the end of their useful lives. Nothing was at that time readily available that would meet the PTE's requirements and Dennis was requested to provide a solution. This used a very-short-wheelbase version of the Dominator frame, with the optional air-over leaf suspension to axles with 16-inch wheels and low profile tyres, overall body length was 7.6m and width 2.3m.

The engine was mounted transversely and vertically as in the Dominator, but was a 130 bhp 5.7-litre Perkins T6.354 unit, this drove through the radical Avon Maxwell transmission, an automatic electronically controlled constant-mesh gearbox using small multi-plate clutch units to select drive ratios, this also did the jobs of retarder and angle-drive. The radiator was smaller but like most Dominator derivatives mounted at the front, low down in the frame. Greater Manchester PTE were unique among bus operators of the time in having (as a result of buying Lancashire United Transport) a wholly owned coachbuilder, the Northern Counties Motor & Engineering Company. Also GMPTE were unique outside London in having an in-house design-consultant in Ken Mortimer who had styled the Manchester Corporation Mancunian bus in the 1960s.