A-Z of British Bus Bodies

James Taylor

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781847976390
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Transport & Navigation

A-Z of British Bus Bodies sets out to offer a first port of call for anyone with an interest in those who built bus and coach bodies in Britain and Ireland between 1919 and 1975. From charabanc to service bus, from luxury coach to municipal double-decker, the sheer variety of public service vehicle (PSV) bodies is astonishing. The alphabetical listing of British bus body builders between 1919 - 1975 covers the well-known larger companies and small local companies, and is illustrated with period and modern images, including contemporary advertising material. It includes a substantial introduction looking at operators of the period, the body building process and the development of bus body building throughout the period. A comprehensive guide to bus bodies 1919-1975 and a valuable reference work for the bus enthusiast. Superbly illustrated with 300 colour and black & white photographs including period and modern images and contemporary advertising material. James Taylor has been researching and writing about motoring history for over thirty years and has been interested in classic buses since childhood.

Part 1 INTRODUCTION

THE SCOPE OF THIS BOOK

This is the sort of book I wish I had been able to find when I was first interested in buses in the late 1950s. Enthralled by references in the pages of Buses Illustrated and by the sight of unusual bodies while on holiday trips around Britain, I wanted to know more about the companies who had built these buses and coaches. It was not hard to find out more about the chassis makers, even defunct ones such as Crossley or Gilford, but there seemed to be no source of reference to tell me about Heaver, Samlesbury, Waveney, Welsh Metal Industries and the like. In fact, only the most basic information about the big names such as Duple, Harrington, MCW and Park Royal seemed to be available in those days.

When I came to prepare this book, I discovered that there were far greater numbers of public service vehicle (PSV) bodybuilders in Britain than I had imagined. That made the task of writing it harder, but more interesting as well. Since I first became interested in buses, of course, a great deal more information has become available both in print and on the web, and it would be wrong of me not to acknowledge how important that has been in putting this book together. Somebody once said that we only think we are tall because we stand on the shoulders of giants and that is a particularly good way of explaining how I feel after preparing this book. The legendary names in the bus enthusiast’s world are too many to list here, but they have definitely been the giants.

Right from the start, I should explain that this book is in no way intended to be the definitive reference source to its subject. Such a book would require another lifetime or two to prepare and would run to many volumes. The aim of this book is to make the entry for each coach-builder into a succinct summary of what is known, that is, enough to satisfy the merely curious, but also a starting point for those interested in discovering more. And there is more – much more – to be discovered. There are still many constructors of PSV bodies who have been only imperfectly identified, or not identified at all. This is particularly true of the 1920s period, but frustratingly true also of a favourite period of mine, which is the late 1940s and early 1950s.

There are very many companies who are known by little more than their name and a date, and I debated long and hard about whether to include them or not. In the end, I thought that I should – discovering that some trace of a company has been recorded is better than finding it absent from these lists, even if the information recorded is not very enlightening. Where information is extremely limited, however, I have wielded an editorial pencil. So I hope that readers will understand that where an entry simply indicates that a company ‘constructed single-deck bodies in the late 1920s’, it is an invitation to further research on the subject. On that score, if any readers are able to add information or corrections to what is in this book, I would be delighted to hear via Crowood. I will add any new information of substance to a second edition, if one is published.

As the book’s title implies, it covers bus and coach bodybuilders who were active between 1919 and 1975. Some of these may only just have crept into the period, so a company that had been active before World War I, but closed down in 1919, would be included. Many companies listed continued in business after 1975; their entries acknowledge this, but generally give only a brief mention of their later activities.

In order to keep the lists within manageable proportions, I have deliberately restricted their scope in some areas. Companies responsible only for minibuses or minibus conversions have been excluded and those that built only welfare-type or works bus bodies are also not listed. Several operators constructed bodywork for their own use in their own workshops; these have also been excluded, unless they also built bodies for other operators as well. However, there is a list of them in the Appendix at the back of the book. Finally, I have included companies based in the Republic of Ireland where information has been available, even though many of them did not sell their products outside their own country.

A book like this cannot provide fully detailed histories of every single PSV bodybuilder within its chosen limits. However, it can offer a first port of call for anybody who wants to know a little more about a company, as well as an encouragement, perhaps, to pursue further research. There are many excellent books on individual coachbuilders to be had, most of them compiled by dedicated enthusiasts. Though they tend to have small print runs and are not always easy to find, typing the name of a coachbuilder of interest into one of the online book specialist sites will very often uncover a copy for sale.

SOURCES

I have put this book together from a huge variety of sources, beginning with my own observations going back to the late 1950s and early 1960s. I have of course drawn on very many books, many written by highly respected PSV authors and some written as one-off labours of love by dedicated enthusiasts. There are so many of these that it would be impossible to list them all; I would not claim to have read all those available, either, and of course there are new ones appearing all the time. However, it is important to make quite clear here that this book relies heavily on the wonderful research that has gone into so many of them and in that respect I make no claims to originality.

I have also gained information from a large number of magazines, most notably Commercial Motor, Bus and Coach, Buses (and its forerunner, Buses Illustrated). Particularly useful have been the Commercial Motor online archive at www.archive.commercialmotor.com and some of the PSV Circle publications devoted to bodybuilders. I have made extensive use of archives held by the Omnibus Society, the Kithead Trust and the British Commercial Vehicle Museum (BCVM), although I would not claim by any means to have gleaned every scrap of information that may be available there. The internet has been a further source and information has turned up in some of the wonderful sites fed by reminiscences (such as Old Bus Photos), in some of the more serious sites dedicated to recording fleets (Ian’s Bus Stop and the Peter Gould material at www.petergould.co.uk), and even in local history sites not otherwise interested in anything to do with the PSV world.

Photographs have come from a number of sources, including the BCVM, the R.C. Davis Collection (now held by the Omnibus Society), the Kithead Trust, Nick Larkin, Roy Marshall, the Omnibus Society, Ron Phillips, the late Brian Smith (via the Canvey Island Transport Museum), the Peter Davis collection (now held by the Omnibus Society) and my own collection. In a small number of cases, it has not been possible to discover the identity of the original photographer despite best efforts; sincere apologies here if any reader feels slighted and I would aim to put the matter right if this book goes to a second edition.

About halfway through turning my mass of notes into a book, I also discovered in the Omnibus Society archives a wonderful typewritten document that listed bus and coach bodybuilders. I have since learned that this was put together by Derek Roy of the PSV Circle, as an aid to the Circle’s sub-editors. His painstaking work has contributed a great deal of detail to my own book and if I had discovered the document earlier, I would have had to put in a lot less effort!

Finally, thanks go to Nigel Furness for reading through the manuscript at an early stage and providing constructive criticism; to Tom Clarke, who provided last-minute help on his speciality, Gurney Nutting; and to the Omnibus Society itself, whose members’ formidable knowledge has made this book far more accurate than it otherwise might have been.

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND

In Britain as elsewhere, the business of building bodies for public service vehicles (PSVs) grew up separately from the business of building chassis for those vehicles. The reasons were simple. Many of the bodybuilders had started life in the days of the horse-drawn vehicle and their specialism was in constructing sound and attractive bodies, to which the addition of axles was a mere accessory. The chassis makers, on the other hand, mostly had very different backgrounds. Their expertise was in things mechanical, notably in engines and gearboxes; mounting these on a ladder-frame chassis was a secondary part of their activity. The two types of manufacturer needed one another, but there was no pressure in the beginning for them to amalgamate and thereby produce complete vehicles. Although some of the chassis makers did turn to making complete vehicles, they were in the minority.

The early years of the twentieth century saw some quite fierce competition, with chassis imported from continental Europe vying for custom with home-built types. Yet the bodies were almost invariably made in Britain to suit local requirements. The Great War of 1914–18 brought some great strides in the technology of road vehicles, with body makers and chassis manufacturers subsequently enjoying a period of peaceful co-existence for half a century or more.

However, things were changing. As the market for buses and coaches began to contract during the 1950s, a battle for survival began. At first, it was characterized by mergers and by the failures of the smaller companies. Then, as the pressures became more intense, the move towards integral construction (bodies that carried their own running units and had no separate chassis frame) gathered momentum. The major steps were made at the end of the 1960s, with those body makers who had not joined the trend finding themselves in difficulties.

By the middle of the 1970s, the integral bus and coach had become the norm and the old distinction between body maker and chassis manufacturer had largely disappeared. At the same time, continental European manufacturers had begun to exploit the gaps that were developing in the British market. By the later 1970s, the bus bodybuilding scene in Britain had changed forever and it is at that point – actually a period rather than a clearly defined date – that this book closes its coverage. For the sake of convenience, the cut-off date chosen is 1975.

CONSTRUCTING A BODY

A 1938 publication issued by Duple shows the bodybuilding process of the time from start to finish and helps in understanding what happened at this major coach-builder. Obviously, smaller companies operating from less spacious premises had less sophisticated methods, but the essential principles would have been the same. In 1938, all Duple bodies were of composite construction and the company prided itself on invariably delivering completed vehicles on time.

When a customer’s chassis reached the Hendon works from its manufacturer, the first job was to strip it of all electrical and loose equipment. Once the chassis had reached Duple, it would not move again under its own power until it had been completed; tractors were used to move unfinished vehicles from one department to the next.

The Drawing Office prepared a full-size drawing of the agreed body design. This drawing then went with the vehicle through the various stages of manufacture, to avoid the need for departmental foremen to make constant visits to a central Drawing Office. The completed drawing was accompanied by full workshop schedules, itemized with instructions for each department involved in the construction of the body. When the job was completed, all the information was recorded so that a repeat order or a request for replacement sections could be dealt with immediately. Amendments to the original instructions were also recorded, on special coloured amendment sheets.

The sections of ...