Remembering Pressed Metal-Sydney:Bus & Coaches.

[Ben_Daui]

Also at the time you could get Scania or Saab badged

Yep its funny seeing a SAAB coach.

[Swift]

Getting back to the cars, Renault ceased local assembly here in 1981, and (from my memories) virtually walked away from the market. There may have been a small niche market for a local importer but the Governments 20% limit on imports put small volume importers at a disadvantage. Citroen and Peugot similarly faded away around this time.

Which is when Japanese makes really took a foothold until the Korean juggernaught tempered things by the 2000s, then we saw the return of Renault and the two other froggies in imported form slowly creep in but never to the levels of saturation that used to be seen in the golden era of all the locally assembled European models on our roads throughout the seventies due to local content rules.

[boronia]

Exchange rates and tariffs affected the european market in the early 80s with the value value of the $AUD dropping sharply after deregulation.

Removal of the quota system and reduced tariffs to make the local industry "more efficient" just killed it, making it more attractive for the small players to come back as importers. Despite their attractiveness in the marketplace, they still seem to have quality issues affecting sales growth.

[Doc68]

What a crock "pmc Dennings" prob had a refurb or major repair & pmc saw an opportunity to chuck a badge on a quality vehicle for brownie points, but just lowering the vehicles value. Awesome & cheap when dry halving (generous depending on roof hatches) your seating capacity when raining

[Isis]

Ha ha, I am pretty sure denning built the coaches in Brisbane and pre delivered them in Sydney with the badge fitted to suit govt. purchase policy

[ajw373]

Ha ha, I am pretty sure denning built the coaches in Brisbane and pre delivered them in Sydney with the badge fitted to suit govt. purchase policy

What maybe a bit like the Waratah trains. Bodies built overseas and fitted out locally to appease voters?

[tonyp]

I'd like to get some historical post going here.If you have anything related to Pressed Metal from any point in their history you are all welcome to contribute anything.

The PMC plant at Enfield (and presumably also the company at the same time) was purchased by Leyland Australia in 1969. As well as continuing bus-building, it became a manufacturing/assembly centre also for Land Rovers, tractors and, after the closure of the Victoria Park plant, Minis and Mokes. By the late 1970s, over 900 people were working at Enfield. At that time, the Leyland Australia Bus and Truck Division was also nearby at Revesby. Leyland Australia also scooped up Denning (and, as JRA, Austral as outlined in the second post above). JRA was the successor company to Leyland Australia and was basically a management buyout of the British company's local assets. The rest of that history is in the second post on this thread.

There are some details in chapter 19 of the book "Building Cars in Australia" (a history of BMC/Leyland in Australia) of which I was a co-author. It may be still available in some bookshops and libraries.

The person to ask about the PMC/truck and bus side of the operation would have been my dad but unfortunately he died a few months ago. If you pm me I can put you in touch with another ex Leyland/JRA person who should be able to fill you in on the whole story.

[Rclasstramcar]

Can you name any bus/coach companies who were regular customers of Pressed Metal? I remember Punchbowl was a customer.

The NSW State Transit Authority was a regular customer starting from the late seventies until the early nineties.

Ben

[Fleet Lists]

If you look through the photo gallery you will find a great number of operators represented http://www.busaustralia.com/gallery/thu ... hp?album=4

[Simes]

From what I can tell, they secured the contract to body the 232 Mark I Leyland Leopards for the Department of Government Transport in the mid 60's (they started to be delivered in 1967) they basically continued to do this until 1990 with the PMC 160 Mercedes Benz O405's (at least with the government operator)

Ventura of Melbourne seemed to like PMC through the 70's and 80's along with other private operators mentioned

PMC assembled a lot of Land Rovers for the military, not sure if they built commercial models as well.

They also bodied Land Rovers for the Rural Fire Service (then Bush Fire Brigade)

[Swift]

I have noticed iron drain grates and man hole covers in our streets with PMC stamped on them and have wondered for many years if they have anything to do with the bus builders.
CCMC (cycle components mnfg co.) did, after all, make other sundtry items like piano hinges and bicycle components.

[Swift]

I have noticed iron drain grates and man hole covers in our streets with PMC stamped on them and have wondered for many years if they were made by the same company.
CCMC (cycle components mfg co.) did, after all, design, make and sell other sundry items like piano hinges and bicycle components.

[David10]

I have noticed iron drain grates and man hole covers in our streets with PMC stamped on them and have wondered for many years if they have anything to do with the bus builders.

The man hole covers are stamped PMG for the Postmaster General's Department (the predecessor to Telecom) that was responsible for the telephone system.

[system improver]

The PMG grates are made of cast iron and not pressed metal. A company called Gatic has made this type of grating for many years and still does. I'm not sure whether they ever had the PMG contract.

[system improver]

I did a bit of research in T&BT which suggests that the first buses produced by PMC were in April 1961. They had an order from the Defence Forces for about a dozen bodies on a Bedford chassis:


The bus had an all metal frame:


A PMC advertisement in T&BT, indicates that a coach was also one of the early vehicles produced:


I'm not sure who it was new to, but a latter photograph from the Ken Magor Collection shows it with Loader of Grenfell:


One of the first private route buses went to Granville Bus Company:


As far as I can tell, the first PMC bodied buses to a Victorian operator were a pair of school buses to Russell at Werrimul in April 1962. There is conflicting evidence as to whether they were on an Austin or Bedford chassis. Bruce Tilley's pic of the bus having been acquired by another operator to run the same school services indicates that it was an Austin, whereas the T&BT deliveries suggest it was a Bedford:


The PMC body design developed in 1962. It was very similar to the CCMC design of the same time, and I have some difficulty picking which is which. To illustrate the point, Doug Barnes acquired both a PMC bodied Bedford and a CCMC bodied Bedford around the same time for his services. In June of 1962, he acquired this bus for his coach service, which was in his cream, blue and silver roof livery:


Three months later he acquired this bus for his contribution to the then multiple operator route from Moonee Ponds to Williamstown (now route 472) and painted the bus in the route colours of red and cream:


Both photos were taken by Bruce Tilley in 1963. I wonder if you can tell which was the PMC body and which was the CCMC body. No doubt, our NSW experts will know all the tell tale signs.

[tonyp]

The bottom one is the CCMC body.

[boronia]

As far as I can tell, the first PMC bodied buses to a Victorian operator were a pair of school buses to Russell at Werrimul in April 1962. There is conflicting evidence as to whether they were on an Austin or Bedford chassis. Bruce Tilley's pic of the bus having been acquired by another operator to run the same school services indicates that it was an Austin, whereas the T&BT deliveries suggest it was a Bedford:

The grill and lights on this one have a lot of obvious design influence from the Bedford J series n/c truck,

bedford bus.jpg (29.31 KiB) Viewed 4757 times

bedford2.jpg (35.17 KiB) Viewed 4757 times

[Meg]

I have just bought a PMC Bedford, I believe it to be a '67 or so VAM70. would love to learn its origins. It has been repainted so not sure of its original livery yet... anyone got info on these?

[ScaniaGrenda]

Hey Meg, Are you after the history of that buses particular origins? (backstory, history etc?)

I'm not 100% familiar on older buses however best chance of trying to find the history is to look for the VIN. there should be a VIN plate somewhere on that bus (most buses will have it located on the entry steps but given the state of this bus it may no longer be on there but still worth a look, may also be one on the chassis somewhere too?)

I do see that bus has one of the older registration stickers on the front windscreen, that alternatively should contain a VIN number on it? If you get the VIN and it is on the ATDB Fleet-lists database (http://fleetlists.busaustralia.com/index.php) it should bring up history of what operator(s) it was with as well as past regos. Hope this helps.

[Swift]

That's an old jalopy. I generally didn't care for manual 330 powered Bedford VAMs growing up, but when I got a ride in an unexpected and short lived acquisition by North & Western in 1992 on the 545 the nostalgia feeling even then was strong.

[Meg]

Hey Meg, Are you after the history of that buses particular origins? (backstory, history etc?)

I'm not 100% familiar on older buses however best chance of trying to find the history is to look for the VIN. there should be a VIN plate somewhere on that bus (most buses will have it located on the entry steps but given the state of this bus it may no longer be on there but still worth a look, may also be one on the chassis somewhere too?)

I do see that bus has one of the older registration stickers on the front windscreen, that alternatively should contain a VIN number on it? If you get the VIN and it is on the ATDB Fleet-lists database (http://fleetlists.busaustralia.com/index.php) it should bring up history of what operator(s) it was with as well as past regos. Hope this helps.

Im interested in this specific bus. When pulling up the flooring I found some rats nests lined with newspapers from Tamworth so im wondering if it was from up that way perhaps? The rego sticker is an UVP but I do have the engine and chassis numbers.. no VIN on this old girl. Ill have a look at your link thank you. Id seen there was someone on one of these forums who seemed to be the Oracle for tracing bus histories but now I'm specifically looking can't track him down. Ill see what I can find on fleetlists.