'I had to go to Sydney the other day and spent an interesting couple of hours at the Sydney Truck and Bus Museum', says Pete Lynch. 'It is at Tempe, about 10 kms South of the city, in a massive old building that was once used as a tram depot.'
Although the majority of the collection are buses, Pete managed to find a few things of interest that he reckons will 'baffle your anoraks for a while'. Is he right?
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This page contains a single entry by Will Shiers published on October 16, 2008 5:08 PM.
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The AEC in the top photo looks like a service/recovery vehicle for one of the bus operators, so it was probably based on a bus chassis, a Regal maybe.
The fire engine I will have to leave for someone older than me.......is there anyone older than me?????
The van in the next photo is a DKW 3=6, so called because it had a 3 cylinder 2-stroke engine that was said to be so smooth that it was equal to a 6 cylinder engine. (Shades of Commer, Howard?)
The Shell tanker is a Leyland and being a 6 wheeler is probably a Hippo. I used to drive a Leyland tanker for Mobil the same model as this, but it was a 4x2 tractor unit, a Beaver. Top speed of 32mph so we used to knock it out of gear going down hills to get a bit of extra speed up!
The 3-wheeler post vehicle is a Vespa.
I have seen a photo of that artic bus before somewhere; I believe the chassis was a WW2 White Scout Car and was converted in Australia from LHD to RHD
Well done on those Vic, particularly the DKW. I will recommend you to Colonel Weatherley for promotion upon his return. The AEC is 4WD so I dont think it could be a Regal.
Now there must be something wrong with my BLB connection (or my eyesight) because I can only see two photos there but I know there are about six. Anyone else having the same trouble?
Well I can still see 6 photos, Pete, that's why you got 6 answers. I couldn't really see that the AEC was a 4x4 in that photo, but if it is a genuine AEC chassis then it is probably what the Poms call a Militant (what we called a Matador 4x4) with a different cab.
The car version of that DKW (the later ones were called Auto Unions) was quite popular here and they were good cars to drive too.
I'll be waiting to hear about the fire engine once the Poms wake up; someone will know and abuse me for not knowing, I'm sure. I believe Brian W is having a week off because it's his birthday so I hope he gets some good presents and is in a good mood when he gets back. I doubt if he's old enough to remember that fire engine though.
Well Vic, I seem to older than an alarmingly large number of people.... I believe that the fire engine is a Dennis, but I have no idea of the model type.
If you look under the front of the AEC you can see that it's a drive axle, so is it a Matador?
A Dennis would certainly be a good guess, Chris, as they specialised in fire engines of course.
I must be older than you as I couldn't bend down far enough to see under the front of that AEC, but it presumably is a Matador/Militant! Surely those thin-framed windscreens aren't original though, are they?
Correct on the Dennis, I think the AEC is a Matador but will try and find out more about it.
I reckon the AEC is a Matador, the Militant was a 6 wheeler. Looks to have been re-cabbed though, maybe at the same time it was converted to a recovery vehicle?
The fire engine looks like a Dennis 50hp model from somewhere between 1925 and 1930, I'd suggest.
That museum at Tempe is well worth a look, they also have vintage buses doing rides around the local area.
The AEC is a Matador, probably ex Army although the exact history of it is unknown.