posted by Don Kincl
QOTD For Bus Fanatics: Can You ID This One?
– Posted on August 23, 2020
posted by Don Kincl
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Looks like you’ve got them stumped Paul.
I’ll throw out Fagoel or Twin Coach for a start.
I asked on one of my FB groups and it could indeed be a Twin Coach
That rounded door should be a dead giveaway, but I don’t recognize it…
I’ll make a guess and say an early Canadian Western Flyer…
I don’t recognize it either but I question weather the plate above the grill belongs there. The bus appears to have an aluminum body but that one plate is rusted. If that plate doesn’t belong there the bus would have a much different look without it.
I would say an early Crown Coach. The arrangement of the windshield with the thin angle pieces on the corners was a Crown signature, as was the rounded shape on the front paired with flat sides. The arched doorframe and the destination sign box over the windshield were atypical for Coach, but in the 1940s, they were trying all sorts of variations in design and detail, all around their basic coach spec which appears to shine through, here. If not, it was likely a builder looking at Crown for some inspiration.
The best you’re getting out of me is something British. It has that Commer van look to the front.
You got me on these one. Looked at some pictures of early Flyer and MCI’s, but no matches.
Of course I have no clue what this is, but I remember my year in school in Bournemouth Dorset/UK in 1983. The buses of public transportation were old, some maybe 50 years old, many of them double deckers. What I liked best, was the wooden planked floor, so as if you were on a steamship that has crawled onto the land, even the noisy engine sound fitted that impression.
I’ll take one more shot – I’ll say the chrome strip on the front is misaligned and should go up and down…which might make it a White….
Easy – this.is an Austin Utility Coach. Built briefly by Dwight Austin before joining GM and bringing his angle drive patent with him.
Nice! I’ve always wondered about the Austin, since its angle drive was such a key aspect of the GM buses.
Good for you, Evan! I would never have guessed it.
I continue to be amazed at the depth of knowledge among this group…
The Austin is an almost exact match, except the Austin is rear engined.
It is rear engined. Some of the Austins had a grille like that at the front. I’m not sure whether it actually had a radiator up there, or some other air intake.
There’s more pictures of another Austin here with grille tat clearly shows the rear engine too: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1934-austin-utility-coach-bus-one-of-a-kind.634004/
I suspect that’s perhaps even the same example as your lead photo. There weren’t many of these made in the first place, and even fewer exist today.
But yes, despite the grille – which may well have been added in the decades following its manufacture (never underestimate the strange mutiliation people are capable of inflicting on old bus bodywork) – it’s rear-engined.
It is the same one. Same Studebaker pickup parked in front of it.
Apparently it had been converted into an RV and broke down here.
According to Google street view it’s still there
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.4365027,-99.6273607,3a,15y,358.44h,88.03t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCVu-wTMXKZ8kbP9DHgaGtw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Pelton law office had a large collection out back and he let me wander around and told me stories about a lot of the vehicles. my personal favorite was the Henney bodied hearse
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ralf_k/7305170096/in/photolist-c8wUyy
This was back in 2012