Ford R Buses.

[Swift]

Just a few questions about the R226 (and shorter R192?) chassis.
I remember Cumberland later Metro West of Rydalmere having a sole CCMC bodied example which remained in the Cumberland scheme until it was sold/withdrawn sometime by the late 80s.
They seemed to sell well in the late 60s. Were they considered a decent bus or less desirable by operators to a similar front engine Bedford VAM (except the Ford had larger 10 stud wheels over the Bedford's 8 stud numbers)?
I can be sure of one thing. They would have had more grunt!

[1whoknows]

My main experience of R192s was riding in the Ansett and TAA airporters as a youngun. They seemed horrid and underpowered and with a gear stick that was out the door in one gear and up the guys arse in the next. By contrast I rode several of the Col Sinclair Fords up Ray Road when visiting my aunt in Epping as a teen. Now that's a pretty decent hill by any standards and the R226s seemed to cope with it better than the VAMs, and way better than those stretched SB5s that HPT used on it later on.

[Swift]

By contrast I rode several of the Col Sinclair Fords up Ray Road when visiting my aunt in Epping as a teen. Now that's a pretty decent hill by any standards and the R226s seemed to cope with it better than the VAMs, and way better than those stretched SB5s that HPT used on it later on.

I was trying to think what section of Ray Rd is challenging to a bus but from memory non of it's that steep. Do you mean Kandy Ave that joins it up that hill from Beecroft Rd, where that restaurant with the pagoda roof used to be at the corner?

[1whoknows]

Its uphill all the way from Carlingford Road to Midson Road, the steepest bit being just after the bend as I recall - also in peak hour the buses had to stop and drop at most stops so starting all over again.

[Swift]

That rings a bell. Been a while since I've been there and only driven a car that way. The gas bloaters no doubt worked for their money too.

I appreciate your feedback. You've pretty much answered what I wanted to know.

According to Wikipedia they were built until 1986!
Yet we quickly dropped them here.

[boronia]

I recall driving one a couple of times for Blythe's back in the early 1980s. Too many buses ago to remember much about it, But I think it was one that needed perpetual gear changing (with 2 speed diff) to keep it moving along.

The Qld Fire Services bought a few in the 60-70s with petrol engines and had them bodied by Hedges.

9159-003 (Small).jpg (101.72 KiB) Viewed 1521 times

[Swift]

That's kind of similar in concept to the Austral firepac truck introduced decades later. They were gutless too, with the peaky Caterpillar engine before installing Cummins instead. The Ford D series truck, later the Cargo, shared many underpinnings with the Ford R bus chassis and Cummins were an option in both trucks.
Austral was Hedges ultimate successor too.

[boronia]

Correct. Hedges morphed into Austral-Denning and produced this model known as the Firepac from the early 1990s. The engine was mid-mounted behind the cab. It featured a similar 2 door walk-in dual cab arrangement.

9101-Untitled-26j (Small).jpg (105.3 KiB) Viewed 1504 times

When Austral went under, Varley Engineering of Newcastle took up the design and produced it in a 4-door tilt cab configuration.

[Swift]

While it was nice to have a home(ish) grown fire truck widely used in Australia's urban fire stations, I never cared for their excess use of straight corners on their body design. They looked like a concept truck from circa 1976!
I really miss the Internationals with the petrol V8s that ran a long time with the NSW fire brigade. Their V8 note with the sirens blaring at the same time really gave me a thrill.