NEWS SHEET OP THE BUS MUSEUM OP WESTERN AUSTRALIA. EDITED BY - Terry Duke ALL COPoYESPONDENCE TO _ P.O. Box 46, Como, W.A. 6152

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1 41 JUNE 1964 NUMBER 143 NEWS SHEET OP THE BUS MUSEUM OP WESTERN AUSTRALIA EDITED BY - Terry Duke ALL COPoYESPONDENCE TO _ P.O. Box 46, Como, W.A Registered by Australia Post - publication No. WBH 0544

2 42 RATTLER June B.M.W.A. NEWS Many thanks to Bruce Harris for the kind words for the now new editor of this esteemed magazine, known locally as "Ratbag", I only hope that I can keep up the good work and standard that Bruce has achieved over the past ten years. I hope to introduce some new ideas and features progressivley, so am looking for your participation, and will be most grateful for local input, with regard to:- 1) Personal memories of bus opperations 2) Noted sitings of bus wrecks or campers that have been in revenue service 3) Ideas for bus outings on a regular basis BELLEVUE NEWS Last, week 3rd June was the work day with members steam cleaning The R.T.L.'s engine, in preparation to going back into "situ". Within the same day Ian Kerr, our new bus examiner, took No. 8 over the pits at Redcliffe depot, for relicencing to vintage plates, she passed with full marks 11 We hope to have No 81 examined shortly so that both can be approved for vintage plates. BE11LEVDE WORKDAYS It is a timely reminder that except for Christmas, New Year and Easter holidays THE DEPOT IS OPEN FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN THE MONTH. We welcome new members to come and have a look at the vehicles Cover Photograph; Midland Railway No. 5 somewhere between Perth and Geraldon. See feature. Howard Cowell - photograph.

3 June 1984 RATTLER 43 and the progress made in restoration. Remember you are not expected to grab a spanner on the way in and get dirty 1.1 BUNBURY TRIP Sunday 27th May saw the running of our Westrail DP90 from Railway Road Service, Stirling Street Depot, Perth to Bunbury. Col Davidson will report on this in our )j.y issue and hopefully a photograph will be included. PMSHBACK - 10 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH Ten years have elapsed since the introduction of the Red City Clipper service. This was Perth's second free clipper service, the yellow clippers having started during the previous year. When inaugurated on 24th June 1974 it was operated by Hino No. 931 and Panther No. 970, each resplendent in its red livery, reminiscent of the Emu Bus Co. livery many years earlier. The original route was from the Bus Station via Wellington and Milligan Streets, the Terrace, Victoria Avenue and Wellington Street. Services operated with a 15 minute headway in an anti-clockwise direction only, and were aimed particularly at providing a link between the Bus Station and the R.P.H. Clockwise services have since been added and the route extended to cater for P.C.C. fringe car parks. ) FORTHCOMING EVENTS written by Howard Cowell. It is hoped to make this a regular feature, with regard to outings that would be of interest to our club members and famill'ies. NEXT MEETING The next meeting of the B.M.W.A. will be held on Friday, 27th July, at hours. It will be held at the usual location 135 St Georges Terrace, in the W.A. Trustees Building. This will be the Annual General Meeting.

4 44 HATTLEH June 1984,; :) THE MIDLAND RAILWAY STORY - Extracted from Truck & Bus 1960 Introduction Fast overnight freighters with two main crews on a 312 mile haul, overnight sleeper coaches and daylight stage services, special tours concentrated solely on the study of wild flowers in their native surroundings. These are some of the unusual features of the operations of a private enterprise railway company in the Wildflower State of Western Australia. 7 J - ooo The company, the Midland Railway Company of Western Australia Limited incorporated in England and its shares are available only on the London Stock Exchange. It has been operating in Australia since 1894 serving

5 June 1984 RA.TT1ER 45 the Agricultural district between Perth and Western Australia's second largest port, Geraldton, in the North. Traffic is mainly wheat and general merchandise. like its larger colleagues the W.A. Government Railways, Midland has found it, not only profitable but essential to operate a fleet of Road freight and passenger vehicles to ease the inflexibility of rail operation. This also as the double barrelled effect of keeping the revenue intact and of forestalling any possibility of other Companies establishing road services which would compete for available traffic on tougher terms and obviously to the detrement of the rail service. The Midland management was early to sense the possibilities of road transport, in October 1946 it commenced its first road passenger service from Perth to Moora (118 miles) a month later extended it through to Geraldton. The W.A. Government, earlier in the same year had established some road services profiting by experience gained on its first road operation which commenced in 1941 on the Perth - Kojonup route. In 1948 Midland introduced a road freight service for smalls to Geraldton the road passenger service proved so popular that a night sleeper coach was placed on the Geraldton run Midland pioneered the Perth - Gingin - Dandaragan - na gingara freight service with a four wheel drive austin and trailer serving newly opened settlements between the established road and rail and the West Australian coast, The road services are supplementary to Midland's rail operations. The company recently dieselised its railway and now has seven diesel electric locomotives, diesel shunter, 18 carriages, 11 brake vans andover 600 wagons. It hauls daily freight trains on the 277 miles section of 3 foot six line between Midland Junction and Walkaway where the W.A. Government Railway crews take over for the last 19 miles into Geraldton. Midland also run a weekly passenger train in each direction.

6 46 RATTLEE JUNE 1984 The W.A.G.H. incidentally run their Perth - Geraldton line virtually parallel to the Midland route about 20 miles to the east and control lines radiating from Geraldton to the north, north-east and south. The W.A.G.R.'s Road Services follow the Government line as far as Ballidu and Buntine on two separate routes. Since 1946 the Midland Road Services have been built into quite a sizeable operation. There are 15 A.E.G. goods ) and passenger vehicles in the fleet and the Austin mentioned earlier. It is now a stand-by vehicle as the roads on the Badgingara run have been considerably improved. There are 6 coaches (including a deck and a half observation coach) a sleeper coach and a passenger - freighter N.B. Editor: now at Soltogio brothers. The latter was the original vehicle used on the Road Services and has clocked over 500,000 miles. It is now only used intermittantly or as an overflow vehicle. Freight vehicles consist of five vans and two semitrailer combinations. Two of the vans are six wheelers and the semi-trailer prime movers are single axle matadors. The sleeper coach is used on an express overnight run on Sundays and Thursdays from Perth and on Mondays and Fridays from Geraldton. It covers 312 miles journey in nine hours thirty minutes elapsed time, which is an average of 34 miles an hour. This is sixty minutes faster than the schedule for the daylight trip although on the latter there are seventy minutes taken up with meal and comfort stops against only twenty minutes on the sleeper run so that the difference is a net ten minutes. The train does the journey in Fourteen and a half hours. The sleeper coach carries only 20 passengers. Each seat is adjustable to four positions of about 60 degrees from the vertical. Head rests and foot rests are also provided while pillows and two rugs for the passengers are stored in locker ready for use. The seats were J

7 June 1984 BATTLER r 47 designed and built in Midland Railway's workshops at Midland Junction. Single fares for the through journey is 3.5s. with 1 surcharge on the sleeper coach. Fares to and from Perth and main towns are listed. Pares between intermediate points are based in 2% pence per mile. Seats are not reserved although tickets are only sold up to ke capacity of the vehicle. Pares have remained unchanged sinae. 1953* Each passenger is allowed 281bs of baggage free. Prams and pushers are carried on hooks at the rear of the bus. Excess baggage to the maximum of 561bs is carried on the freighter expresses at the concessional rate. Hot meals and refreshments are available en route at Bindoon Park, Wahteroo and Mingenew, in addition toilet stops are made at Moora and Three Springs. All coaches carry radio, the observation coach is also equipped with a public address system. Ten gallon drinking water tanks are fitted in the coaches for the use of passengers. Pull first aid kits are also standard equipment. The pioneering passenger freighter has 14 seats and a capacity of 2 tons of freight. The latest coaches to join the fleet have under foot lockers, 36 adjustable seats and weigh in the vicinity of 9i tons. Most recent addition, the deck and a half type, weighs 12tons and has 36 seats. The daylight coaches leave Perth and Geraldton every ^ay except Sunday, at 7.30 a.m. Two drivers from the crew of each vehicle, taking the wheel in fourty mile stretches. The crew member not driving attends to the need of the passengers, issues and collects tickets where necessary, handles luggage and parcels, etc. (To be continued in July's edition.) MTT IEWS - supplied by Bruce Harris A further 44 Mercedes Benz 0305 buses are on order, 8 of which will be purchased from the bi-centinal funds and which may therefore wear a special livery.

8 48 RATTLER...June 1984 Bus 008 is being converted to LPG power, it was repainted into a different livery for a while, as mentioned in an earlier rattler, but has since been repainted back into the normal livery. The use of electronic destination equipment on buses has been limited, the last bus so fitted being onwards have the conventional two track layout. Bus 444, with the aluminium framed body has entered service at Causeway Depot. Its body, although to Alusuisse design, ) was in fact, constructed by Mauri, of Esio near Milan in Italy. It was sent in c.k.d. (completely knocked down) form to Perth, where it was assembled by V.W. Bolton. It will spend a short time at each M.T.T. Depot prior to permanent allocation. The M.T.T. has a new towtruck, this time on a Scania 82M chassis, it is to be allocated to Fremantle Depot. It is in the standard yellow livery used on the other tow trucks. The Volvo tow truck now displays the Fleet No. 18, Its radio call sign. At least one bus at each depot has now been fitted with the magnifying lens as fitted to Bus 450 mentioned last month. NEW VEHICLES 444 UQB 444 Mercedes Benz 0305 Mauri/JW Bolton 843D 5/84,r 449 UQB 449 " " J W Bolton " " Chassis numbers. 444 = = Allocations ; 444 to Causeway 449 to Redeliffe Transfers 772 Causeway to Morley 634 Causeway to Redeliffe 3/84 Withdrawals 3/ AEC Regal VI / Howard Porter ex Causeway 626 " " ex Redeliffe