Here’s a very unique and technically interesting bus from our friends down under – it’s a Dyson Landliner and it plied the roads in Australia for several years back in the mid-to-late 1940’s.
I’m sure CC readers are familiar with the semi-tractor trailer bus – they were used in the 1920’s and 30‘s, but gained prominence during the war years transporting workers to and from defense plants throughout the country. They were cheaper and easier to construct than a regular coach, and the trailer could be built in elongated versions that could carry more passengers. They are still on the road today in some of the world’s less developed areas.
Dyson Trailer Bus with Reo Prime Mover
In Australia, Dyson’s Peninsula Motors Ltd was a bus service located in Frankston, a city just to the southeast of Melbourne. During the war, their current coaches were being used at capacity, so they built several trailer buses to augment their fleet, and transport increasing numbers of military personnel between various Army Camps and railheads in the area.
When the war ended in 1945, they leveraged their expertise in trailer buses to construct a novel new design. Instead of a prime mover that pulled the trailer, they developed a powered bogey that went under the front of the coach body.
This bogey contained two Ford flathead V8’s – side-by-side – very similar to the Fageol Twin Coach bus. Each had its own four speed transmission that was joined in a single linkage. Fortunately for the driver, hydraulic assisted steering was provided. Initially, a marker was placed on the front bogey that extended up to the front of the windshield allowing the driver to see the orientation of the front wheels – you can see its triangle shape in the photo above. Later models had an internal gauge. The driver’s cockpit was dead-center in the middle of the front.
The first coach was designed as a luxury model, with thirty aircraft style first class seats, a lavatory, and a hostess who served drinks and snacks. Later standard models had sixty regular seats. Length was forty-five feet and it was eight feet wide.
Dyson “Cheetah”
As was typical with twin-engined models of this era, getting everything to run in synch was difficult, and as a result, reliability tended to be poor. In addition, the local transportation regulation board would not certify them for regular service use – only for special charters. After two years, Dyson’s sold off their Landliners switching to regular coaches. The company did build two updated models named Cheetah in 1947 for another operator, but these also proved fairly unreliable – and after a short time the bogies were removed and the bodies converted to a standard tractor trailer bus. An example of an earlier converted model, here with a Foden Prime Mover, is above. They remained in service up until the early 60’s.
These Landliners were an innovative experiment, and certainly produced a very unique looking bus.
In the US, Santa Fe Trailways Lines also developed a bus during the war with a powered front bogey; the “Victoryliner” – we’ll take a look at it in an upcoming post.
Army posts must qualify as less developed areas of the world. Generations of trainees and drill sergeants know the trailer bus as the “cattle car”. Probably not quite the same passenger experience as your unique bogey driven coaches though.
Thanks for this nice history of something I’d never seen before.
From the inside
40 hommes et 8 chevaux?
Thanks for the comment – as a 28 year Air Force retiree, I can assure you we look at Army posts as less developed areas; especially the lack of a golf course :-). Jim.
SEATS!? You got SEATS!!!???
I don’t remember seats either. I do remember being instructed to “make your buddy smile”
With modern technology (especially in the EV department), the basic concept of these buses could live once again (you listening Tesla?). Funny how there’s another company also called Dyson that makes vacuum cleaners (some of the best in the world by the way) and has no relation to this company at all.
Dyson vacuum cleaners are preparing to enter the car business, with an electric car built in Singapore.
It’ll suck.
Or blow. Depends on which way you look at it.
How or why would EV technology make this concept “live once again”?
We have 45′ buses everywhere, and it’s not like they need to use twin passenger car drive trains, eh?
Electric motors would eliminate the problems associated with the Ford Flathead V8s as well as the transmissions from their time. But otherwise you make a good point–there are already “conventional-style” buses today made with the same body length as these forgotten bogey models.
Oh, Mr B, you’ve excelled this reader’s delights. How wonderful.
Frankston is these days a sea-side suburb 35 miles from Melbourne, connected by electric train and a freeway. Then, it was more remote. There was, and is, a large Royal Australian Navy training base about 10-15 miles across the Mornington Pensinsula, and a (then) training base at the tip of the Peninsula (at Portsea) about 20 miles south of Frankston. Neither were connected by train, so I imagine the need for large-scale transport during WW2 was enormous.
White Australia was a thoroughly English outpost, and, accounting for the full Sir Humphrey Appleby bureaucracy effect, it is of familiar, teeth-grinding amusement to hear that the coppers (police) allowed the behemoth to be registered, but the Transport Reg Board who wouldn’t allow it to actually be a bus! How very.
I’ve never heard or seen of these magnificent things in my life, and I grew up 25 miles-odd north of Frankston.
Today, Dyson’s is just a large bus carrier across this city of nearly 5 million, Frankston is a huge and busy suburb consisting of cheek-by-jowl wealth (proximity to the sea) and poverty (distance from downtown Melb), the world is very different, and we aren’t at war. So I hope such buses aren’t ever needed again, though, just between you and I, I’d love to see one again, just once. They look magnificent.
Sometimes, you travel the world by internet to learn about something that was right on your doorstep.
Cheers, Jim Brophy.
Thanks for the additional info Justy – I agree, would have been nice if one or two had been preserved. Jim.
Ive seen a picture of this Dyson before somewhere and having lived on the Frankston line ( Bon Beach, Newbury ave) have seen Dyson buses but never knew anything about these type of buses, certainly an innovative idea but it went nowhere it seems.
“Cattle cars”…oh yes, I remember them well….from the USMC! Not luxurious at all, but sure beat using one’s LICUs!!(Light Infantry Combat Units=feet) around Camp Pendleton or MCRD….DFO
I’m not sure if this is related, but…
At least in modern times, in most of the US, it is illegal to be a passenger in a towed vehicle. Example, you can not ride in a travel trailer as it is being pulled.
Was that not the case 70 years ago?
Yes. And it’s still not the case in many other countries. Towed trailers behind buses are quite common in parts of Europe like this one in Switzerland.
Bendy buses were in use in auckland years ago and I think Wellington more recently, but complete towed trailer bus configurations here were of the semi trailer variety and are long gone, though I did see one being RV converted a few years ago.
That thought entered my mind too. Perhaps the bogey was (or could be) more “permanently” attached to the rest of the vehicle, so that it would legally qualify as a single vehicle rather than a tractor and trailer? By way of comparison, articulated buses are now common (in fact, with the engine usually in the rear section), and the fact that the vehicle has a joint in it does not make the rear portion a “trailer.”
Ditto here in Munich. MVG has 62 buses with the towing wagons in its fleet. They are affectionately called ‘Buszüge’ (bus trains).
The combined ones carry more passengers than the bendy buses (130 versus 100). The advantage is that MVG can adjust the capacity based on demand, routes, time of the day, etc. With low demand, the towed wagons can be discoupled.
The towed wagons have CCTV and communication system connected to the operator in case there’s any problems. The front wheels of towed wagon turn in accord to the position of tow bar.
Another great find and article Jim. Thank you. A fascinating design I was not familiar with.
Thanks for doing these justice. I’m still struggling to find the rationale behind them, but I do always appreciate when folks try something new and different, even if it doesn’t pan out. It must have been a bit strange piloting one of these.
What a very retrofuturistic look!
Those ‘cattle cars’ are still used in Havana, Cuba to this day.
How were the four speed transmissions shifted on those bogey units? I get ” joined in a single linkage”, but that does not begin to explain how that linkage is connected to the cab.
That’s a good question Nikita – I couldn’t find any schematics. I assume some sort of U joints were used as the shifter stayed stationary but the linkage had to traverse with the bogey. Given it was all mechanical, its easy to see why they had a poor reputation for reliability. Jim.
Never mind the gear shift, how about the steering? Note that the front wheels are turning slightly in the ‘unclothed’ photo, so you need to transmit a steering input through a rotating join! The mind boggles…
I had a bus enthusiast friend who passed away a couple of years ago who I am sure knew a bit about these, and I have a recollection that they didn’t work very well.
Thank you so much, Jim! This is why I love CC so much. I learned something new about buses today. What an amazing contraption. The boffins had to be of English heritage, as only they would be so, ahem, “innovative” to come up with weird arrangements.
From what I understand, keeping any flathead Ford V-8 running was a challenge. Image two side by side in Australian heat!
Yes, you’re absolutely right – keeping those flatheads cool must have been a challenge, and probably contributed to them being retired. Jim.
Yeah, Canuckle, my money’d be on some Can’t Be Tolds from the Old Country having come up with this wacky arrangement. (Ridiculously, at the time this wonder was dreamed up, respectable Anglo Aussies still called England “Home”, and for a good 20 years after then too. FFS). I can almost hear them:
“Yes, yes, I see your point Algernon, one Ford flathead overheats badly, two will indeed the fix the problem, what.”
Wow, the engineering challenges just boggle the mind. Shift linkages, steering linkages, hydraulic brake lines, fuel supply lines, everything had to translate from a fixed point to a swiveling point. Then there was the coordination of two engines without the benefit of any fluid couplings. It is amazing they worked at all.