[harit]

Originally Posted by Stanher

For those of you who (like me!) thought that the Jeep minitruck/minibus was a Mahindra product!

The advert. material attached by you shows this 'truck' with a separate cab and a curved windshield. This was also available in India. Then Mahindra did some mods, like the front grill portion was used but this curved windscreen was omitted and a front flat glass was used. These were very popular as mini busses all over India.
But personally I like this version on the advert. better, the glass gave it a panorama effect and character.

[Stanher]

Harit,
Yes, as you say, these were indeed available in India. What I meant was, I didn't know it was a US Jeep product until I saw these ads. I thought they were entirely Mahindra's designs!

Originally Posted by harit

Then Mahindra did some mods, like the front grill portion was used but this curved windscreen was omitted and a front flat glass was used.

You're right about that- and the glass was split in 2 halves if I rememebr correctly- there was one a van variant of this model used by my ex-school, around 15 years ago atleast, later replaced by Matadors.

[anjan_c2007]

Saw this classic one doing its duty faithfully in South Kolkata last week

[fx45]

1210D.. my fav.. we had such tow trucks until recently in MUmbai.. some were army spec with some differnet styled front wheels.. but now all disappeared :(

[deepclutch]

Saw this classic one doing its duty faithfully in South Kolkata last week

I regularly see one such tow truck painted in blue here in my town.sadly ,it does not have "Benz" badge which earlier tata's do have.

[Edmund]

Originally Posted by dude131

An old Mercedes bus which was used by St. Xavier's college - Goa. (recently retired from service). I remember St. Mary's ICSE - Bombay also had a similar bus when I was in school.

We had the same busses in st.xaviers nashik too, lighter blue though!!

[dhrishikesh]

Hi all,
@ my native place, Ratnagiri; there is a Bedford truck...
I think from 1959...still in a running condition, used for transportation of Mangoes & Beetle Nuts from farm to the godown...
First owned by gentleman Mr. Mama Vaidya & then sold to Mr. Bhaiyya Devkar in 2006...
I am going to native place on 23rd May & will return on 29th May, will definitely post the information along with some pics..
Regards,
Hrishikesh

[anjan_c2007]

A 1940's wooden bodied Chevrolet bus, owned by a collector at Nagpur.

[SuperSelect]

A 1940's wooden bodied Chevrolet bus, owned by a collector at Nagpur.

Chevrolet buses always have special memories. In my school days, we would see them often - (though they were very old even at that time ). Staying at Pedder road, I would wait to see the Villa Theresa School bus - maroon and brown just like the one pictured by anjan. It used to faithfully plod along, at a snail's pace every day come rain or shine. Then next door, Hill Grange High School had a similar one in blue.
But one Chevrolet bus I'll never forget was the one I rode to school in. I went to a primary school at Grant Road, where we had one solitary school bus - a Chevrolet - blue and black, with a very high, I mean it, a very high roof. It had a simple seating layout, wooden benches facing each other and back to back, four rows along the length of the bus.
She ran on - wait for this- PETROL !
The bus (BYL ----) was owned and driven by a stern Parsi gentleman called Faredoon Dalal. Faredoon uncle was one person who put the fear of God in us ! Short, stocky, with crew cut white hair, he would drive slower than the slowest, always caring for his beloved bus more than anything else, and abusing drivers / pedestrians on the left and right of the bus alternately ! If we ever dared to make noise / speak loudly in his bus, he would look up back through the angled rear view mirrors, and shout at the top of his voice. And God help those who came late after school left, and made Uncle wait ! God, he was the stuff nightmares are made of, and in those days we all believed we could make a full length horror film on Faredoon Uncle . In retrospect though, he was a delightful old man, who took pride in his work and in his steed.
I wonder what happened to that bus, and to Uncle ? Last I knew, was that his son owned and drove a similar later model low roof bus, for my secondary school - St. Mary's. Would love to see the bus somewhere, sometime...
This is what the bus looked like, albeit in much better condition.

[deepclutch]

I think the bus shown in @anjan_c2007 post runs on coal?We got some other post here where the same looking bus which uses coal gas to run.

[IQBAL VEERJI]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear fx45 - On BEST buses, I would like to share some information. Some models of BEST buses used to have what is known as a pneumocyclic grearbox. The double deckers were known as "Cheetah" and the single deckers were known as "Tiger Cub".

The tiger cub had a very interseting feature. The engine was a 6 cylinder unit horizontally mounted under the floor in the middle of the bus (as seen lengthwise), hung from the chassis (you sleep below it to set the valve clearences. If it fell by any chance, you would be history. I used to do this work as I wanted to learn, then someone would start the engine with me still below it to check if all was OK). There was a long shaft driving a fan in front and a very small propeller shaft coming out of the engine and going to the gearbox. The gears would be changed by the driver in normal fashion but there was no clutch pedal. The gear lever essentially was a pneumatic valve operating solenoids which in turn would compress or release bands inside the gearbox. The gears would be stars, planets and cylindrical rings. The lever would be slotted (just like in today's Ferraris). Operation of the lever would result in a "swish" noise as the air pressure applied and released the bands.

It was in regular use till the end 70s. Alas, nowhere to be seen now.

I know because I used to be a trainee in the BEST workshop in Dadar in 1975. Now I am a GM somewhere. I used to enjoy life more when I was a trainee.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Hi Behram I am with you as far as I know there were some buses with fluide drive clutch units, and somewhere in 1959 to 1960 there were double decker buses with rear engine and automatic doors they were imported in those days by BEST and they were very few of them mostly plying between mahim and florafountain.We can see some of similar buses in Honkong even today. Then there were Leyland buses with gear lever on left side of driver completely coverd in a box type housing with only 3" lever with knob the bus had no clutch pedal and when gear was changed we used to get a jerk. Then there was a route no.D from mahim to colaba this route buses were double decker and all windows could be rolled up and down by turning a handle located in the centere,they were already aging in those days. THOSE WERE THE DAYS Then came trailer buses which were slow and one of them over turned near sidhivinayak temple in year 1974. I was to take this bus from worli I was a trainee in Sah & Sanghi in 1974 it was a saturday and I missed this bus by few seconds later when I passed sidhivinayak I saw this I was lucky as many people got hurt in the accident. The huge bus was lying on one side.
these were discontonued later due to some other reasons.

[IQBAL VEERJI]

Originally Posted by iraghava

Lots of these are also still plying in interior parts of UP. You guys want pics?

Dear You will find plenty of them in Punjab with bonnet and side fenders removed they carry almost 18 passangers at a time and use single cylinder diesel engine

Originally Posted by dude131

An old Mercedes bus which was used by St. Xavier's college - Goa. (recently retired from service). I remember St. Mary's ICSE - Bombay also had a similar bus when I was in school.

Hi there used to be a school in mahim St Allossis High School this school had a benz bus blue in colour in year 1968 now we dont even see the school.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by deepclutch

I think the bus shown in @anjan_c2007 post runs on coal?We got some other post here where the same looking bus which uses coal gas to run.

Thats a petrol engined Chevrolet bus.It still has the original side valve engine.

[zibby]

Pic from Goa in 1960s

Source : Flickr

[the mole]

Originally Posted by zibby

Pic from Goa in 1960s
Attachment 140071
Source : Flickr

Ahha the famous buses from goa, all you had to do was to whistle to stop them. Brings back fond memories of my inumerable trips to goa as a child. Nice pic Just refreshing to see the happy faces