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Bus Chassis

R

Robert Ensor (bob)

master brummie
THIS THREAD WAS CREATED FROM AN ORIGINAL COMMENT BY mw0njm AS SHOWN IN THE FIRST QUOTE BELOW

[QUOTE="mw0njm., post: 655809, member: 112577"]
does anyone remember bus chassis being driven along washwoodheath rd to mcw. with the driver wearing a biggles hat and goggles? or am i being daft as usual lol.


Edit Reply by Bob Ensor: [/QUOTE]
I remember seeing a lot of chassis being driven around those guys would be bundled up like Scott going to the Artic
 
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maypolebaz said:
I remember them too, in my case during the 50s. What a miserable job that must've been.
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You can be sure those guys were looking forward to a hot cuppa some where.
I recall going to Browns Lane the Jag factory in the 70s and Daimler limos coming out with no coach work it been so long ago I do not even recall how I knew they were DS 420's perhaps they had the front grill.
 
In the 60s my Dad was a trade plate driver delivering new vehicles all around the country, various types but predometry types out of Longbridge. He used to have van chassis to deliver to a coach builder I think Luton way. They were literally just the chassis with engine and gearbox and drive shaft. The drivers seat was made from wood packing cases and roughly bolted to the floor. Sometimes there was no windscreen but usually this was in place to give some protection.
All drivers hated them but they all had to do them usually once a month.
In the winter he used to have that many layers of coats he resembled the Mitchelin man, together with some rolled up foam to soften the seat.
In complete contrast I remember him having to deliver an Aston Martin DB4 to Newport Pagnell.
All these vehicles were usually parked up outside our house overnight so he could get an early getaway the next morning, even down to the occasional single decker bus from Metro Cammell, usually export ones for delivery to London docks.
 
Reference the chassis pic in post#7 BON 531C in Bull Street on 10th January 1979. It had been re-bodied after a fire.
Bon531c_Snow.jpg
 
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Elmdon Boy said:
In the 60s my Dad was a trade plate driver delivering new vehicles all around the country, various types but predometry types out of Longbridge. He used to have van chassis to deliver to a coach builder I think Luton way. They were literally just the chassis with engine and gearbox and drive shaft. The drivers seat was made from wood packing cases and roughly bolted to the floor. Sometimes there was no windscreen but usually this was in place to give some protection.
All drivers hated them but they all had to do them usually once a month.
In the winter he used to have that many layers of coats he resembled the Mitchelin man, together with some rolled up foam to soften the seat.
In complete contrast I remember him having to deliver an Aston Martin DB4 to Newport Pagnell.
All these vehicles were usually parked up outside our house overnight so he could get an early getaway the next morning, even down to the occasional single decker bus from Metro Cammell, usually export ones for delivery to London docks.
Click to expand...
My pop also delivered cars to the docks, he worked at Austin's he would leave work walk over the road at Longbridge to a Company called James Car Delivery,. get a car and drive to the docks then hitch a lift back to Brum,. then go to work the same day, he delivered a lot of Healey 3000's going to America I will ask if he was ever dressed like a Yeti driving a chassis
 
I recall someone, living nearby, who drove new Singer and Hillman cars. I don't know where they went but I do remember they were on trade plates (red letters on a white background) and the chromium plating was covered in a pink coloured film.
You could often see men, with trade plates beneath their arms, thumbing lifts on the major A type roads..
 
I wonder were those a temporary cab that was installed the single cab most certainly looks like it
The same trade plate in both pics and the same puddle in the pics taken from the same place promo pics ?.
 
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
I wonder were those a temporary cab that was installed the single cab most certainly looks like it
The same trade plate in both pics and the same puddle in the pics taken from the same place promo pics ?.
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Bob,
Both cabs were temporary to give drivers some protection from the weather.
I took the pictures myself close to Stonebridge island about 1967.
Boomy
 
The ladder seems to be an integral part of the maintenance trolley. I guess maintenance men were used to them.
 
oldMohawk said:
BON531C after it caught fire. A rather unsafe looking ladder and platform trolley by the side of it.
View attachment 137459
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Wow I hope we are looking at a bus that's had some what of a clean up after the fire
There is not a lot left, there must be a lot of fibre glass used I can not think of what else could burn and take the bus to the chassis
The trolley looks like a self build affair narrow to go between the buses the lower platform raised for a better work hight, has a little Heath Robinson look about it
 
BON 531C (3531) a Daimler Fleetline entered service in early 1966. It was burned out on 13/10/71 when in PTE ownership. It was used for a while for training of mechanical apprentices. It was re-bodied, with a slightly longer body, re-entering service in August 1978 as 5531. It had the distinction, it is said, of being the only post war ex BCT bus to be re-bodied.
Since those days of the nineteen seventies other, usually metal, tall steps have been the order of the day I guess.
 
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
The trolley looks like a self build affair narrow to go between the buses the lower platform raised for a better work hight, has a little Heath Robinson look about it
Click to expand...

Not so much Heath Robinson, I would suggest, but more designed to fit a purpose. From the spalling at the higher level it seems to be made from aluminium. Even today, in the Restoration of Railway Carriages, we still use similar Towers. Climb up the inside of the ladder and then access the work platform through a 'trap-door'.

Perfectably acceptable and not in any way dangerous.
 
Ken_R said:
Not so much Heath Robinson, I would suggest, but more designed to fit a purpose. From the spalling at the higher level it seems to be made from aluminium. Even today, in the Restoration of Railway Carriages, we still use similar Towers. Climb up the inside of the ladder and then access the work platform through a 'trap-door'.

Perfectably acceptable and not in any way dangerous.
Click to expand...
I think the "spalling' you speak of is paint wear, looking at the long platform support beams are solid at the ends, if they were aluminium I would expect them to be open, the same can be said for the short support for the lower platform which goes through both uprights,
The ladder seems to taper towards the top, lot of work in metal, I think this was a ladder that got repurposed, the platform that its built on looks like a old cart with steel wheels from a railway platform.
I would of thought using round tube would have been more in line for a store built unit.

Now what ever its built of it works and that is what counts.
 
There were two types of trade plate General and Limited, the General plates were red with white digits and an oblong licence holder the Limited were white with a red border and red digits and a triangle licence holder.
General trade plates cost more and could be used at any time for business or leisure, Limited plates were for business only and you had to have a written chit stating the purpose when using them, also limited to only two persons in the vehicle.
 
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