(first posted 12/10/2017) Several very good guesses but unfortunately no winners from yesterday’s CC Clue – but let’s take a look at this unique vehicle anyway. What we have here is a Bedford OB CAC 31/33 passenger bus – the CAC stands for Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, an Australian aviation company originally from Melbourne.
CAC CA 13 “Boomerang” Fighter
Incorporated in 1935, CAC was a privately owned company that expanded greatly during WW II and manufactured both indigenous and foreign aircraft designs in support of the war effort.
After the war, with aircraft production winding down, the Australian government wanted to retain the aluminum and metalworking skills it had developed within the workforce at CAC, so the company entered into a partnership with Bedford to supply aluminum bodies for the Bedford OB bus chassis.
The Bedford OB (O = series number, B = Bus) was built from 1939 to 1951, and with over 12,000 produced, was one of the more prolific buses of the inter and post-war period. It could be seen throughout the UK and most of the colonies.
A little over 16 feet in length, it could typically carry 25-29 passengers – power in early models was a small Bedford petrol 4 cylinder that produced only 28 horsepower. Later models had a version of the Chevrolet “Stovebolt” OHV inline six cylinder that had in been in use by Bedford since the mid-1930s. The chassis was semi-forward control, with the rear of the engine extending into the cabin – resulting in the somewhat “shrunken” nose and bonnet.
CAC had the chassis modified to a full forward control configuration, allowing more passenger space, and endowed it with a streamlined aluminum body with fully enclosed sides, similar to Nash models in the US. George Mason would have been a fan.
They were used for a variety of services; regular passenger to school bus.
Obviously, similar to the Nash, this body style tends to be fairly polarizing – as for the CAC, I give it a “thumbs up.”
A fun read—and I now know 100x more about these than I did a day ago. Hooray for the richness of CC!
Plenty of stuff on eBay under “bedford bus,” though few of this model. I found this photo charming, even if watermarked:
Nice looking coach.
Sweet bus. Would make a mighty fine camper, except that the door is on the wrong side. 🙁
Caption says “camper conversion, ca. 1970”:
You’d need to tour Australia in it, Paul!
Bloody long way in a O series Bedford, fast they were not
This is a fascinating history of the bus, but the second photo of the CA 13 Boomerang sent me down a pleasurable rabbit hole – the aircraft echos the Australian auto industry in that it was based heavily on the CAC Wirraway, itself heavily based on the North American NA-16 (subsequent revisions known as the BT-9 Advanced Trainer as used in the USAAC and P-64 Fighter as sold to foreign air forces).
Inspired by your comment, I had to go check out the Boomerang myself. Very interesting plane; great ground-attack aircraft, apparently.
The CAC Boomerang was a classic piece of Australian ‘make do’ engineering and created at a time of great peril. The Wirraway was a good trainer, but when pitched against Japanese Zero’s ……
There was great concern that supply lines would be cut completely – Singapore had fallen, Pearl Harbour attacked, Darwin was being bombed regularly, miniature submarines had penetrated Sydney Harbour and attacked moored vessels…. things were looking pretty grim!
So using components available from that aircraft, CAC created the Boomerang, in a matter of months. Still no Zero but much more useful and as you say, fantastic in the interdiction role.
Another example was the Owen light machine gun – literally created in a matter of weeks and so simple it famously would fire when covered with mud, of which there was a lot on the Kokoda track where Australian forces were fighting – and repulsing – vastly greater numbers of Japanese at the time.
With the recent depletion of manufacturing in Australia I wonder if we could ever do such things again.
Ah yes the Owen gun. Only the Australians could come up with a weapon that was not only less accurate than a Sten but more expensive. Mr. Owen’s
genius was in designing a machine pistol having a gravity assisted top mounted magazine that ejected shells from the bottom firing from a closed bolt so dirt fell right through. It also had a high rate of fire so was ideally suited for the sort of jungle warfare Bruce found himself in where accuracy was not at a premium.
Interesting, is that a hole for a hand crank in the lower grille? It seems suspiciously offset just enough to say it is for functional purposes, not a styling feature.
Speaking of styling feature from the looks of the factory shot those bumps on the front that hold what appear to be the turn signal lights are quite elaborate.
Good question – don’t know for sure on the rather ornate protrusions on either side of the grille, but I’d guess they are either small turn signals, ports for auxiliary lights, or since they look like they line up with the frame rails, tow hook spots or mounting points for larger bumpers… Jim.
I think they may have been frame covers. These buses had very little front overhang. From the chassis photo they’re in the right place to line up with the ends of the frame rails, and leaf springs have to go somewhere.
Update: Turns out that lovely styled piece on the driver’s side covers the steering arm from the in-house forward control conversion, while the passenger’s side one is simply there to match. Driver’s buses of Melbourne has a nice long article on each vehicle in their historic fleet.
https://driverclassics.com.au/heritage-fleet/1947-bedford-ob
I caught these buses every day to and from school in the 1970’s. West End Bus Service in Townsville, Queensland, Australia had a whole fleet of them, and they were very old. I lived at Pallarenda which meant a 4km drive at 80km/h, and that was beyond their maximum speed – they were screaming. The back was configured in a U so you sat along the sides – perfect for “Piggy in the Middle” when some kid walked down there. Only the cool kids sat down there.
I remember dropping the school bags when you got in at the front of the bus on top of the engine cover. When the buses broke down you had to collect your bag so the driver could look at the engine. The gear lever in some of them was behind the driver and quite a reach for him. Not much in the way of Synchromesh – if there was it was well worn – and the poor drivers used to spend a lot of time grinding the gears to the screams of the kids “If you can’t find it, Grind It”. More embarrassing if the bus driver missed the gear, the bus slowed down too much, and he had to start all over again. I would suggest these things were a pig to drive.
The company went bust in around 1980, and the buses just disappeared. At long last.
Great first hand account – thanks for sharing. I noticed in the interior pic that the shift level was way back behind the engine cover, and must have been a painful reach for the driver. The last of these came off the line in 1952 so they must have been well worn by the 1970’s. Jim.
Full crash gearbox simple to use if you know how. I drove my uncles O series flat deck truck overloaded to hell with hay bales didnt matter by then it was just the farm truck well beyond roadworthy
^^^ This what makes CC so great. Most of us, perhaps even in Australia, are completely unfamiliar with these, but there’s always a CC’er with an interesting experience and stories to share.
Nice find Jim. I have photos of the two restored buses, the Driver one has had the signwriting updated.
With a 214ci engine & 72 bhp I am surprised that Legweak’s school buses reached 80km/h! Maybe down hill?
I vaguely remember – it was 40 years ago – one of the buses was a lot longer than the others, and it had different gearing. It may have had an extra gear. The buses were always packed – standing room only, and the bus driver always screaming “No-one on the steps. Get out of the doorway!”
There was also a substantial sea breeze – the road was on the edge of the beach – and Townsville’s ghastly 32 degree C and 80-90% humidity. These buses were not a pleasant place to be, especially sitting on the brown vinyl seats.
The longer bus used to take forever to get to around 50kmh, screaming and rattling its everything off, and then the driver tried to put it into top gear, usually with lots of crunching. The difference between 2nd and 3rd (or was it 3rd and 4th) was enormous, and on the windy days, the bus didn’t have enough grunt down low to pull away. So back a gear, rev it out, and try again. And so on. If the driver revved it enough it would just have enouigh grunt to stay and start slowly pulling away, even cruising nicely, but it was shear luck if it ever made it in to that gear. It was cruel to listen to, and its funny how I can still remember it.
Don’t forget these buses were over 20 years old then.
Here is an interesting photo showing the air combat ‘heritage’ of these buses!
This was a much more successful venture than one of CAC’s other 1947 projects, the Deliverette micro-van. This was designed to be small enough to drive on sidewalks and was powered by a 600cc BMW motorbike engine and had a saddle seat.
Thanks for all the additional info John. Jim.
Great article. Made me look up which old Bedford I caught home in the ’70’s, turns out it was a ’51 CAC-bodied one, without covered-in wheels. SB3 chassis, apparently. It was the only petrol bus, and only driven by Tom, who had a temper and probably a record. He would stop and threaten the naughty kids (who deserved it!). Unlike all the slow, stinky Leylands and AEC’s, this had (it seems) a roaring 5 litre six, and cranky Tom drove like a maniac, completely flat out. What 10 y.o. petrol-head couldn’t have a (slightly terrified) love of that? 80km/h on bouncy, crumbling, curvy roads near the Dandenong Ranges (and into them) felt like 160, and was likely about as safe.
Apparently, the rivetts on these and the original that held the aluminium to the frames were very prone to falling out, leading to rattles. I can assure you that on Tom’s rollercoaster, the windows and walls rattled so much they all but fell out too.
I too rode a Bedford bus to school in the mid 70s with a roaring six, great description justy, but this was a mid 60s model built by Comair which I think was the same company as CAC.
I would not have minded if it broke down on the way to school, but it never missed a day in about 5 years, as reliable as the sun.
One of my friend’s father was the local Shark Contractor – as in he used to set the nets and baits to catch the sharks. He used to tow his massive dual hull Shark Cat boat – which must have been well over 2 tonnes – with an old Bedford Truck – slowly. I swear it had the same engine and gearbox as the buses as it made exactly the same noises.
Great story, and it brings back memories of my trips to & from Pine Rivers High.
From the open wheels ours must have have been the late version.
And, yes the windows rattled in their perished rubber frames too.
Such a fantastic design and piece of Aussie and Bus history! Great article!
First thing that came to my mind… Turn it into a Skoolie!
I own 3 of these now
it’s a 54 the open wheel version
getting one on the road
no more screaming 5 ltr 6
I have fitted a 2011 Cummins ISB and 6 speed auto
Our old bus we brought from someone that had used it as a kids cubby house it was rusted and in pretty poor condition, well we thought so however the motor and gearing was great, the only rust was on the front oter which we had repaired by a oldtime bus repair company in Melbourne who new of and had worked on these buses years ago. We transformed it into a mobile home in 1980 and travelled from Melbourne city to Beechworth and lived in it for 12 months prospecting for gold, we then travelled across the Nullabor to WA and up to Geraldton. We reluctantly sold it in Perth but lived and travelled in it for over 12 months. It had a kero fridge and we timber lined it, I do have photos. If I had my time again I would not hesitate in buying another one such great memories.
As stated in an earlier post, shifting looks like it would be somewhat difficult. I’d think if the lever had a section going toward the front with the knob, like an upside down L, would have been easier. Interesting power was from a Chevy stovebolt 6. If I recall correctly, it was just 216 cid. Maybe there were other versions of it.
“A little over 16 feet in length, it could typically carry 25-29 passengers”
Really? Not a typo or two? The bus looks longer than 16 feet, and if a 16-foot bus could carry 25–29 passengers, they must be schoolkids. You wouldn’t fit 25 current-size Americans into a 16-foot bus. A 9-passenger van is longer than 16 feet.
The buses my city buys are 30- or 40-feet, and advertised as carrying about as many people as the length, in feet (plus standees). This of course would never actually happen, as they drive around empty all day. The last “official” statement from the City that I’ve seen about bus ridership is that, on average for the entire year, there’s 3.2 persons on each bus, and one of them is the driver. This data is from pre-Covid, ridership reduced during the Wuhan Plague and I haven’t found an official report since then. The best thing the operators have done is to sell advertising wrap that covers the windows, so we can’t see how empty they are (unless the light shines through from the other side.)
You’re right some of the details are wrong
They had a range of lengths
Ranging from 16 to high 20s in length
I have a 33 seat version it’s just under 30 ft
They were all six cylinder and a Bedford engine from the UK not a stove bolt