I suppose it seems a bit unusual for this subject to resurface here again but i received an email from an enthusiast who had seen a facebook post with a couple of Ken Magor's photos of Royle Bros. austerity buses and he wondered why on one of the buses the route numbers had been painted in an unusual place. After i explained to him what i knew of the route number being where it was i thought i would post this homage to Royle Bros. with as many of their austerities as i could find in my photos of the period.
This is the Ken Magor photo of the Royle Bros. austerity m/o 858 with the odd placing of the route number. Normally the route number would be displayed beside or above the destination where it originally was on this bus but because of rain water entering the interior of the bus through the route number box that 858 had above the desto the box was removed and the roof waterproofed so the route number was then painted on the bus bodywork just above the left hand headlight. There was one other bus in the Royle fleet that i know of that received the same painted route number in the same location for the same reason and that was m/o 567 their Star Bros. bodied White. Now at the time this seemed to be a good fix for the problem it solved but unfortunately within a very short space of time the licencing authorities became aware of the change in display of the route number and due to a rule the the sign had to be displayed at a certain height so that a passenger could see it on approaching a stop, it was ordered the route number be relocated to wehere it originally was. So it is rare to see a photo of it in this position as it was only there for a very short period of time.
m/o 858 is shown here i think at Roseville Stn. and is operating Royle's route 201 to East Roseville on which it was a regular performer. The body work on 858 had been "modernized" with rounded roofline contour and modified desto layout.
This is my photo of m/o 858 when it still had its route number box .It is seen at East Roseville about to depart for Roseville Station on 9th March 1959.
Here m/o 858 with MBA White m/o 383 is at Royle's Smith Street Willoughby depot on 16/5/59. Royles old workshop is still at this site only slightly modified.
Another of their austerity's was m/o 210 and is seen in their Smith St. depot side yard with on the left m/o 590 a Com Eng Ford Fleetline m/o 383 the White m/o 858 the Ford Austerity and just nosing out from behind 210 is the last normal control bus owned by Royle m/o 881 a White.
Here is a better photo i took of m/o 210 at Chatswood on 25/10/59. m/o 210 is not operating a regular route sevice here but this is on a Sunday and is standing outside a church in Victoria Avenue after operating a special regular pickup of passengers around the streets of Willoughby just for this church.
m/o 354 was the final Austerity owned at the time by Royle and is seen here in Edinburgh Road Willoughby on 2/11/58, again on that special Sunday service and in this photo the bus has moved slightly onto the wrong side of the road as the Ford's had a poor steering lock and it was jusy about to turn left into Fourth Avenue., nowhere near any normal Royle service route. You may notice in the photo the driver is definately dressed for church going wearing a suitcoat and shirt with a collar and tie.
This was the other Royle bus with the short lived route number placement m/o 567 a Star Bros. bodied White in Victoria Avenue Chatswood on 3/11/59.
- Forest 567 ROYLE.jpg (72.54 KiB) Viewed 1702 times
I am not sure whose photo this is but i appreciate its use. This is m/o 567 before it lost its route number box and had the route number relocated. It is looking a bit unhappy here after a runaway accident.
After service with Royle m/o 354 saw more years service with the Willoughby Salvation Army seen here in Victoria Avenue Willoughby not very far from its old depot in Smith St.
I hope this post may be of interest.
