丹尼士喝采 Dennis Jubilant

丹尼士喝采 Dennis Jubilant

編號 Class：N　

正當巴士公司深受第一代後置引擎巴士所帶來之麻煩事而困擾，丹尼士於一九七七年，率先向九巴提供四個新一代由同廠一款貨車底盤改裝而成之前置引擎巴士─喝采，四架喝采巴士都是長九點四米，而且配上九巴自行設計之車身，編號N1-N4，在投入服務後，便被派往行走過海隧道線及往返佐敦道碼頭及元朗之50線。

及後，九巴再引入為數其三百六十架喝采巴士底盤，而且全數長九點七米，較樣板車長零點三米，其中一架更是用作試驗雙層空調巴士之樣板車，及後因試驗失敗，被編作最後一架喝采，編號N364。在三百六十架新車中，其車身選配有所不同，由N5-213及N364均採用亞歷山大提供之車身，外觀上跟同期之勝利二型十分相似，而由於擁有粗壯之泵把，故有「大泵把」之暱稱。至於N214-363則全數採用都普車身，由於車廂之扶手是鬆上黑色油漆，故此被人冠以「黑金剛」之稱號。而三百六十架新車投入服務初期也是主力於行走過海隧道線，及後服務於東九龍一帶之路線。而在它們晚年，所有喝采被調派至原由勝利二型服務之路線，以配合勝利二型之退役時間表，而大部份喝采也於稍後之一至兩年內陸續退役，最後一架配都普車身之喝采巴士─N343，也於二零零零年正式退役。而有為數約十部配都普車身之喝采巴士於九十年代中期在脫離載客行列後，曾被改作訓練巴士，不過最後一批為數四輛喝采訓練巴士，也於二零零零年中退役，由四架利蘭奧林比安九點五米巴士取代。

When the bus companies puzzled with the poor performance of the first generation rear-engined bus, Dennis first supplied KMB with a batch of 4 new designed front-engined bus called Jubilant which actually modified from a truck chassis. All of them are 9.4m long and fitted with KMB designed body. After the registration, they were named as N1-N4 and deployed on cross-harbour tunnel routes and route 50 which operated between Jordon Road Ferry and Un Long. After the trial, KMB introduced a sum of 360 Jubilant chassis which is 9.7m long and one of them was air-conditioned double-decker demonstrator, however, the test was unsuccessful, the air-conditioning unit was removed and classed as the last member of the Jubilant fleet, N364. From N5-213 and 364 , all of them were fitted with Alexander KB-typed bodyworks which are very similar to those fitted on Victorys. The remaining (N214-363) bodyworks were supplied by Duple Metsec. All Jubilants were served the cross-harbour tunnel routes and Eastern Kowloon routes after entering service, in their lately service life, they were deployed on the routes served by Victory Mk2 before to tie in with the withdrawal of the Victory. The Jubilant quit from passengers services since mid 90s and the last, N343 was withdrawn in Jan,2000 .

About 10 Jubilants with Duple bodies were converted to training bus after withdrawal from passengers service and the last batch of four Jubilant training bus were replaced by Leyland Olympian 9.5m at mid 2000.

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