Refurbishment of former BCC Leyland Panther #498

[Hornibrook]

Afternoon all,

Yesterday the Queensland Omnibus & Coach Society commenced the first stage of refurbishing our ex-Brisbane City Council Leyland Panther/Athol Hedges #498 - in anticipation of its week-long loan to the Brisbane City Council's Virginia bus depot on Monday January 13th.

#498 is extremely rare as far as Leyland Panthers and the BCC go as it was the only vehicle to be fitted with a regenerative braking system during its tenure on Brisbane's city bus routes.

A couple of our members including Malcolm Knowles (past President), Matt Luchterhand (current Vice-President), Craig Watkins (Committee Member) and myself (current President) were lucky enough to be invited to utilise Chryss Jamieson's Coach Design workshop facilities throughout the entirety of yesterday.

After some thorough inside detailing, we then commenced repairs on the off side, roof top paintwork which has been slowly deteriorating due to natural exposure to the elements.

Below are a few photos on the day showing the progress we achieved and also a before shot, taken in July 2013 at the RACQ MotorFest where #498 provided shuttles for the day-long event.

The refurbishment will continue to be undertaken throughout the next week and a half leading up to our depot visit on the 13th.


If you or anybody you know would be interested in helping us with the restoration of this vehicle or any others in our collection, please get in touch with us via president@qocs.org.au.

A before photo shows #498 at the RACQ MotorFest during July 2013.


#498 is shown here in one of Coach Design's workshop bays alongside a brand new MAN 18.290 school bus destined for Victoria.


The progress of yesterday's visit to Coach Design - with the removal of the old paint on the off side, roof top.

[Cordes Express]

Looking good there.... Can't wait to see it when its finished...

[Bus_Control]

Why is it on loan to virginia for a week?

[Hornibrook]

Why is it on loan to virginia for a week?

As Virginia are short on buses of course...

The actual reason is that our club has been invited to display it for a week to show the depot's drivers what buses were like 45 years ago, seeing as she was constructed in 1968.

[mcpaton]

I'd love to see some more photos of the Coach Design factory if you have some? I'm a big fan of their coaches and have always been curious as to how they were put together. Thanks!

[1115]

Nice work.
Keep the photos coming. Maybe could rival "Fearnes3848" efforts when 1016 was rebuilt.

[captainch]

I had the plesure of driving it on its first day in service!

[dude]

Being repainted into Double Striped Orange & White is it (i.e. a freshener of current livery) or something else?

498 was one of the few to receive such a livery and NOT undergo a complete overhaul to 'Manther' status from memory.

[Colhad75]

I would vote for the original dark blue with light blue under the windows livery.

[Two-Way]

It will stay in its current colours

[Bus_Control]

Any plans to show it off at the other depots?

[Maladjusted]

There appears to be a bit too much of a talk up on the work being carried out on this particular vehicle.

As for a rival to "Fearnes3848" efforts, no - sorry, that should be the benchmark then this one falls very short of that goal.

It is just getting a lick of paint on the roof and cant rails to gutter moulds. Mainly to replace about 300 broken and corroded rivets, general wear and tear and neglect since the last time it had a full roof paint job probably in 1968! The cant rails had been painted about 136.3 times due to the amount of advertising that would have been put on there over the years. The size of the cracks in the paintwork you could have lost a mini minor up there.

It will be remaining in the colour Ford Yellowfire/Ivory white livery, as this is what it was refurbed and painted in, just before the Queensland University took on the role of designing installing and trialling an innovative propulsion system, back in 1989-90.

Its nickname is "REG" no not after Varney! It is short for Regenerative Braking.

What is regenerative Braking? See here http://www.permo-drive.com/index.htm an example of a system in 2004 when i went and saw them in Ballina NSW. It was being used and developed for the US Army (they flew two Stewart trucks to Australia to be fitted with their system), before the ideas were sold to Dana Corp.

One of several next ones to receive love and attention is 722 which was the last Panther built numerically. It is still in the original Dark Blue/Light blue/Ivory white livery just has a bit of rust in the framework around the rear door and a big general tidy up from years of being exposed to the elements.

Others on the agenda include BCC 827 Last Volvo B59. BCC 725 & x Rockhampton Leyland National BCC 229 & Mt Gravatt Leyland Worldmaster
Then next week I'll start on something else, don't know yet!

No plans as yet for this bus to go to other depots, however we are open to invitations!!

[dude]

Ford Yellowfire/Ivory white livery

Never heard it referred to by that name - only as double striped orange. Interesting its referred to as 'Yellow' in the same way that Brisbane's cab company are also 'yellow'.

Which cloth fabric does 498 have? Is it the original brown that went into the 1st generation Great Circle Line MAN's (101 - 110) or the second generation fabric which is more of a berber?

Is the REG system still functioning after all these years?

[Maladjusted]

Yellowfire is the name of the colour on the bus, it is the colour the BCC's Department of Transport chose from a 70's Ford car colour chart have a look at an XA Falcon. Even though to me the colour looks like a burnt orange. The price you pay when being mildly colour blind.

The seats are in the refurbed Brown cord cloth as you say, it would be nice to have the original Orange Vinyl to burn the back of your legs on.

The REG operation of it hasn't been working for a long time as it was most likely disabled before going out to pasture. I think the accumulators may now have a weak bladder which would not have stood up well either.

[dude]

Panthers as far as I recall retained their blue vynil even after the orange/ivory paint came along - only losing them if being upgraded to a Manther - or in this case to Reg. B59's had orange from new that were so slippery you could slide off the seat on a corner.

[Maladjusted]

Yes sorry, my mind slipped a few cogs and g/years and confused with B59's yellow/orange vinyl seats to match paint, when they were new. Memory recall is obviously failing faster than i thought.

The blue vinyl wasn't as nearly as slippery. Qld Omnibus and Coach Society's X BCC 722 Panther has the blue vinyl still in her!

[1115]

There appears to be a bit too much of a talk up on the work being carried out on this particular vehicle.

As for a rival to "Fearnes3848" efforts, no - sorry, that should be the benchmark then this one falls very short of that goal.

Misunderstanding. I was referring to the comprehensive photographic coverage of the 1016 refurb. Agree that the 1016 Project itself took things to another level, and longer than a week!

Really looking forward to seeing 498 when complete.

[dude]

The blue vinyl wasn't as nearly as slippery.

Too right - also another characteristic of Panthers I hope all those preserved have is the sound of the strap handle rivets sliding around inside the grab rails that snapped off very soon after their installation. Very noticible when taking a corner quite rapidly!

[BT-Otto]

Yeh, I remember that ! LOL

[Bedford-29]

Maladjusted you mean ex BCC Leyland National 729 as 229 was a Leyland Royal Tiger.Picture from the Graeme Turnbull collection.

[Maladjusted]

I would have said all the rivet ends rolling down the tubes on braking and going back under acceleration, those sounds take me back too!!
Yes reinstalling that important function is all part of the refurbishment!!

Painted the roof this evening under floodlight in the cool just as well- put a bit too much hardener in the paint, it was drying pretty quick.
Didn't start till after 7:30- no rain yet, only got 3/4 of roof done otherwise getting off the roof would have involved sliding off on the wet paint and leaving skid marks on my clothes all white too!

I took a picture of it and would have posted it but it just turned out black!

Even though QOCS has just less than 1% of the entire Brisbane Panther fleet they consume a fair bit of time. Will have to start on Panther 721 next getting it back in shape and doors working ready for April. AEC 80 also requires quite a bit of TLC.
Poor old 722 got a fair bit of work done in the frame of the centre window area a while ago, now needs the centre door frame work but hasn't been revisited much recently.

Beddy-29 I was not refering to 729 though that is a great picture in front of the Toowong Fueling bay outlet. We have both 725 National and 229 yes a Royal Tiger but known in export markets as a "Worldmaster", the vehicles are in pristine condition, just the camera lens is dirty!
As seen in the repeated fotos below.

[BT-Otto]

I would have said all the rivet ends rolling down the tubes on braking and going back under acceleration, those sounds take me back too!!
Yes reinstalling that important function is all part of the refurbishment!!

Such a shame to see them in that condition.

[Maladjusted]

They have been cleaned up since that picture was taken, the amount of scum from trees and other things that settle on these buses is unbelieveable. Being almost all Pommies in the picture they only like a tub every 6 months or so just to keep them looking half decent!
This photo was taken just before wash day.

That picture of 729 National at Toowong Graeme Turnbull took, is a great capture and representative of the small number of Brisbane Nationals. Graeme certainly travelled around a lot and left almost nothing unnoticed. Then finding time to write papers for RMIT University as well, one of which was recently favourably mentioned within Brisbane Transport for its content.

mams.rmit.edu.au/an7uc5idd9q41.pdf‎

[BT-Otto]

That picture of 729 National at Toowong Graeme Turnbull took, is a great capture and representative of the small number of Brisbane Nationals. Graeme certainly travelled around a lot and left almost nothing unnoticed. Then finding time to write papers as well, one of which was recently favourably mentioned within Brisbane Transport for its content.

I've never seen a National in the Blue livery. Till now, I'd only seen them in the Cityxpress livery.

[Hornibrook]

I would have said all the rivet ends rolling down the tubes on braking and going back under acceleration, those sounds take me back too!!
Yes reinstalling that important function is all part of the refurbishment!!

Such a shame to see them in that condition.

Unfortunately the preservation (which includes maintaining their cleanliness) all comes down to man power, skills and interest - which are two things we desperately need for our club...