Gold Coast Scenic Clippers

[Industry]

With all these great photos of past operators another one comes to mine, is max holman;s Gold Coast Scenic Clippers and remember they had a terminal in Elizabeth St in Sydney.

At one stage If I'm right they had an Japanese Hino Coach which ended up with Lyrabird Coaches at Milton in NSW

Some of his other coaches were Watt Bros???

Anyone have any photos to share with us all of another express operator of the past.

[captainch]

yes max had the very first hino coach in australia, also the aec coaches he had , had female hostess on the them, a coupple of the aec coaches ended up with trailor tours, and one to hunters hill bus company

[Industry]

Does anyone happen to have a photo of this coach or any of the AEC's.

A few years ago I had the opportunity of having a drink with Max Holman in Goulburn, and was invited back to have a look at some of his old photos, but in the meantime he passed away.

[Centralian]

Might this be the Hino.

RC100P.1.jpg

I have it in my records as having been imported in mid 1964 which must make it among the first Hino's in Australia. From old Fleetline/HCVA mags I have it as having operated with Blue Ribbon between '66 and '71 and then with Lyrebird Coaches. I photographed it here at Hills Bus Sales Wollongong in the mid or late '70's from memory with Hurstbridge Coaches markings.

[VIKing]

The Hino in Hurstbridge livery is the same Hino as operated by Gold Coast / Blue Ribbon and Lyrebird. It was the first Hino in Australia, yes it arrived in 1964. The photo at Hills would have been in the late 1970s, it came back to Hills from Hurstbridge and wound up stored, minus engine and gearbox in the Hills storage yard in Montague Street. I was offered it for preseravtion at that time, but lacked anywhere to store the vehicle, I am sure it never ran again and would have been sold for a shed or scrap. It had been fitted with bus seats along the way.
Industry - as to Max Holmans' photos, Max showed me some (all ?) of these at one stage. I distinctly remember a number of large colour photos of 2 or 3 of the AEC coaches parked on the edge of the sand at the Gold Coast with a very youthful (early thirtys) Max proudly in front of them.

[Swift]

Was the Hino considered reliable compared to other makes?It really only took off in Australia in the mid 1980s ,partly filling the market niche for more basic and cheaper buses left by the Bedford products.

Still I find it extraordinary to see a Hino dating from that long ago in Australi and with the same winged badge as recent buses!
I take it that the brand just couldn't crack the very established buying habits of most Australian bus operators at that stage.

[Industry]

VIKing, yes I arrived there just after Max had completed hid school run and it appears he had a set pattern after his school run which involved arefresfment or two.

If I turned up prior to him doing his school run, I,m sure a vew photo albums would have been produced from the back shed.

I had met Max on a number of ocassions when he was operatin VIP from what is now Greeen Squarein Sydney on a Monda, in a previous job would turn up to collect a cheque to pay of a debt to my employer from Max or his daughter Roslyn.

He certainly was a character of the bus industry over his time.

[VIKing]

Was the Hino considered reliable compared to other makes?It really only took off in Australia in the mid 1980s ,partly filling the market niche for more basic and cheaper buses left by the Bedford products.

Still I find it extraordinary to see a Hino dating from that long ago in Australi and with the same winged badge as recent buses!
I take it that the brand just couldn't crack the very established buying habits of most Australian bus operators at that stage.

The Hino chassis released in the late 1960s and into the 1970s (the RC320/RC420) was a very robust chassis - full air brakes, rear engine, then air suspension as well. If you look Hinos from this era you will see them repowered with GM and Caterpillar engines - that was their apparent shortfall - lack of engine reliability. Many operators tried them around this time, but did not switch over to all Hinos in the longer run. Hino later broadened their product range to compete in the school bus market with front engined buses, and certainly sold many of these chassis.

[VIKing]

Gold Coast Scenic Clippers did actually order six new Hino RC100P / Freighter coaches, but these were not delivered before they ceased trading. They were allocated Freighter body numbers 4019 to 4024.

[Swift]

Hino later broadened their product range to compete in the school bus market with front engined buses, and certainly sold many of these chassis.

I can remember observing West Bankstown Bus Service Smithfield Euro bodied ones outside Bankstown Stn while I was waiting to go for a ride back to Strathfield on one of their Swifts.
I thought ,wow talk about a Japanese Bedford copy!
They also ran actual Bedfords too ,BLP models which made the comparison more compelling.

[Centralian]

Western Road Transport in western Sydney were an early Hino operator that went for about 5 or so RC320/420 units from an all Bedford fleet. I remember one of the salesmen at John A Gilberts just shaking their head in disbelief at the time. Then they ended up going the other way with an almost all Volvo B6FA fleet.