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Gas Bag Car

i rememer a saying "shes a right old gas bag she is" wonder if this is where it came from
It might be older than that Lyn, there is also the alternative expression "wind bag". Not looking for a flame war but is wind bag more said of men and gas bag of women? :D
 
Which two Guy buses were used? Does anybody know?
Bob
Hi Bob, from my archives this is what I find:
It seems that the bus mentioned here was a single deck Guy "Conquest" of 1929, It was car 60 OF 3969 and had been a 26 seater with front entrance with a petrol engine. It was converted to forward control, with 32 seats and in 1933, for the British Industries Fair, and ran on compressed town gas. This bus ran until 1935 in that condition and was then converted back to a petrol engined bus but soon withdrawn, as were the other nine of the batch although they remained petrol engined. Bus 60 carried roof boards, similar to those on the Eldon airport buses, proclaiming that it an on town gas.
Between 1932 and 1934 experiments were also done with diesel engines. 442 OJ 5442, a Crossley "Condor" double deck demonstrator was used between 1932 and 1934 (withdrawn 1937), also in 1932 KV 1396, a Daimler COG 5 (Leicester appearance by Brush - not up to Birmingham standards ) was trialled briefly and finally the Guy "Arab" double deck, 208 OC 8208 with Gardner 6LW diesel engine, MCCW bodywork and into service mid 1934.
It seems that the COG5 was the decider that caused the transport committee - obviously guided by MR. A.C. Baker, the general manager - that diesel engines were the corporation buses future. Notable were the decisions to abandon more tram routes (some only had lives extended by WW2) and interest in trolleybuses also waned. Most of the pre-war petrol engined buses had gone not long after the end of the war and the few that survived worked out of Birchfield Road as that became the only place with petrol pumps.
Much of this places the Illustrated London News report a little late, but that may have been a plug for wartime economy and experiment?
 
Hi Bob, from my archives this is what I find:
It seems that the bus mentioned here was a single deck Guy "Conquest" of 1929, It was car 60 OF 3969 and had been a 26 seater with front entrance with a petrol engine. It was converted to forward control, with 32 seats and in 1933, for the British Industries Fair, and ran on compressed town gas. This bus ran until 1935 in that condition and was then converted back to a petrol engined bus but soon withdrawn, as were the other nine of the batch although they remained petrol engined. Bus 60 carried roof boards, similar to those on the Eldon airport buses, proclaiming that it an on town gas.
Between 1932 and 1934 experiments were also done with diesel engines. 442 OJ 5442, a Crossley "Condor" double deck demonstrator was used between 1932 and 1934 (withdrawn 1937), also in 1932 KV 1396, a Daimler COG 5 (Leicester appearance by Brush - not up to Birmingham standards ) was trialled briefly and finally the Guy "Arab" double deck, 208 OC 8208 with Gardner 6LW diesel engine, MCCW bodywork and into service mid 1934.
It seems that the COG5 was the decider that caused the transport committee - obviously guided by MR. A.C. Baker, the general manager - that diesel engines were the corporation buses future. Notable were the decisions to abandon more tram routes (some only had lives extended by WW2) and interest in trolleybuses also waned. Most of the pre-war petrol engined buses had gone not long after the end of the war and the few that survived worked out of Birchfield Road as that became the only place with petrol pumps.
Much of this places the Illustrated London News report a little late, but that may have been a plug for wartime economy and experiment?
Alan
Thanks for all that info.
Bob
 
Them old gas cars were ok as long as you did not give cpl Jones a lift with is bayonet... I had a modern gas car it was a lot more economical than petrol/diesel was.
 
British Gas and Ford did that a while back Pete, a fleet of Ford Transits built to run on LPG, I don't think it was a success, a whole bunch of them came through the motor auctions as non-runners.

Motor traders converted them back to diesel.
 
British Gas and Ford did that a while back Pete, a fleet of Ford Transits built to run on LPG, I don't think it was a success, a whole bunch of them came through the motor auctions as non-runners.

Motor traders converted them back to diesel.
Thanks.i see why now. i had a look on google. they were not very eco friendly.
 
Natural gas is odorless, colorless, and tasteless

most gas utilities, adds mercaptan odorants, a commercial blends of sulfur compounds with a distinctive "rotten egg" smell.

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National Benzole was petrol with benzole added. From after WWI to 1950s the proportions were 50/50 but then the proportion of benzole was reduced until eliminated by 1960 and National Benzole changed its brand image to National. National was finally absorbed into the BP brand in the 1970s with whom it had had a petrol supply agreement for many years having no refineries of its own.
 
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