|
|
welcome to the showbus picture of the week
see over 25,000 pictures worldwide free to view in our gallery |
|
This week's picture comes courtesy of the archives of the Bus & Coach Society of Victoria. The very active group run regular events in the state and back in March this year organised a tour of the routes of the now defunct Hamptons routes operated by two long gone operators with red or green livery. As will be seen from this photo, Hampton Red favoured Foden chassis for a time. Paul Kennelly, Secretary of the society, who organised the trip, has an encylopedic knowledge of Melbourne's bus operations and provided this information on the quartet:
"From left to right, the rear engined Foden PVRG6 with a Gardner 6LW engine and Motor Body Assemblers (MBA) of Camperdown Sydney body was new to Martin's of Albury in March 1956. It came to Hampton Red in August 1962 where it was re-registered as HPE174. It was sold as scrap in 1972 after being without an engine for a period.
The next bus is a Foden PVS6 with Gardner engine. It was new to Murray Valley Coaches (a "Viewmaster") in 1950 (see pic) with a J A Lawton & Sons of Adelaide body. It was sold to a Sydney operator in the late 50s and then came to Melbourne where it was re-bodied by R V Piper at his shed at Ventura Motors, Centre Road depot and registered HHS290 in February 1961. It was sold in 1976.
The next bus is a Symons & Fowler bodied Foden PVS6 with Gardner engine that was new to Martin's of Albury in August 1948. It came to Hampton Red in May 1963 and was scrapped in 1969.
The final bus, HLA042 was another ex Murray Valley Coaches Viewmaster new in 1950. It was also rebodied by R V Piper in September 1961. It didn't last so long as its twin and was sold as a caravan in 1973.
The first Foden that Hampton Red operated was their first another PVS6, new to them in May 1951 and registered UV811. It had a Symons & Fowler body. It was rebodied by Cheetham & Borwick in September 1961 and reregistered HLC128. This lasted the longest of all their Fodens until sold in 1980."
|
We have thousands of pictures to choose from for our Picture of the Week but you are welcome to send in your own. If we do not feature it here, it may appear later in our picture gallery.
Ideally pictures should be 732 pixels wide and no more than 100kB.
Please email to rally @showbus.com with "Picture of the Week" as the subject
See July 30th's picture of the week here.
|
|
|
|
|
