[schakravarthy]

A brief history of Ashok Leyland, as found on their website.

The pictures and text are borrowed from http://www.ashokleyland.com/history

1948- Founded by Raghunandan Saran, Ashok Motors was set up in collaboration with Austin Motor Company, England and incorporated on September 7th for the assembly of Austin cars."


1949- Production began in September at the factory situated at Ennore, south of Madras, and soon the first indigenously assembled A40 Austin car was rolled out.


1950- An agreement was reached between the two companies and Ashok Motors got sole rights to import, assemble and progressively manufacture Leyland trucks for seven years.


1951- The first Leyland chassis assembled by Ashok Motors at Ennore were four Comet 350-engines tippers sold to the Mangalore Tile Factory.


1954- The Government approved the progressive manufacture of Leyland commercial vehicles and a license for the manufacture of 1,000 Comets a year was granted.


1967- ‘Titan’ - The first Indian-made double decker with 50% indigenous components was launched.


1970- 1,000 numbers of the 6x4 ‘Hippo’ Tipper was designed and delivered to the Indian Army based on its specific requirements.


1972- The license to manufacture 10,000 vehicles a year was granted


1976- The ‘Viking’, the first ever bus with an alternator and a unique front overhang that facilitated front entry hit the Indian roads.


1978- India’s first rear-engine bus – ‘Cheetah’ was introduced with mixed reactions from drivers. While it cut off much of the heat, their complaint was that they “could not hear the engine!”


1982- India’s first vestibule or the articulated bus was introduced ushering in a whole new concept in urban travel.

[directinjection]

Originally Posted by schakravarthy

A brief history of Ashok Leyland, as found on their website.

The pictures and text are borrowed from http://www.ashokleyland.com/history

1954- The Government approved the progressive manufacture of Leyland commercial vehicles and a license for the manufacture of 1,000 Comets a year was granted.
Attachment 1354602

The 1951 picture seems wrong as it shows a Viking chassis which was launched only in mid 1970s. They have also missed out on an important milestone - the year 1980 - when AL launched a low floor, rear engined integral bus.

[travancore]

Bombay, ca 1968. I have never noticed a front entry DD of this vintage before!

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by travancore

Attachment 1354802

Bombay, ca 1968. I have never noticed a front entry DD of this vintage before!

Travancore, what make is that bus. Same Leyland connection.

And by the way Schakravarthy, they also missed this one -

More can be found at this link.

http://oldphotosbombay.blogspot.in/2...ships.html?m=1

The best website for the best vehicles .

[travancore]

An Ambassador Mk II - from Mysore to France ?

courtesy forum-auto.com

[FINTAIL]

Originally Posted by travancore

An Ambassador Mk II - from Mysore to France ?

courtesy forum-auto.com

Is she rotting by any chance?

That said, the following pics were uploaded by Karlosdeville, back in 2008-09.







Incidentally, the rear tyre seems punctured then also.

Perhaps the pics you uploaded were also taken in the same time?

Kindly refer to this link: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintag...ml#post1546994

Thanks!

[schakravarthy]

Pictures found on https://www.facebook.com/BANG.BANGALOREANS
Picture and text credits to the 'community' and the respective owners.


Tank bed as bus terminus: Subhashnagar (KBS)
Courtesy: The New Indian Express, Bangalore / Photo by K. Gopinathan


Road blockade during Cauvery agitation, 13.12.1991
Courtesy: The New Indian Express, Bangalore / Photo by K. Gopinathan










Kalasipalya BusStand in 1968
Image: Prajavani

[schakravarthy]

Rusting in peace behind locked gates.

[harit]

I recently came in contact with Mr. Rajan Deb from Bhopal. He has restored a very rare bus. It is a Commer Q2 of 1938. It belonged to Maharaja of Dhar. It is thought that Pandit Nehru toured Mandu in this bus. It has a Petrol Engine. and is probably the only surviving Q2 bus in the World, could not find another on Google images. Today this bus is with the Jhira Bagh Palace, a heritage hotel.

Apparently the restoration started in October 2014 and finished in this month.
Mr. Rajan shared some photos which are put up here.
Rajan, thanks for sharing.

Cheers harit

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by harit

I recently came in contact with Mr. Rajan Deb from Bhopal. He has restored a very rare bus. It is a Commer Q2 of 1938. It belonged to Maharaja of Dhar. It is thought that Pandit Nehru toured Mandu in this bus. It has a Petrol Engine. and is probably the only surviving Q2 bus in the World, could not find another on Google images. Today this bus is with the Jhira Bagh Palace, a heritage hotel.

Apparently the restoration started in October 2014 and finished in this month.
Mr. Rajan shared some photos which are put up here.
Rajan, thanks for sharing.

Cheers harit

A rare find indeed, and even moreso since still running the petrol engine. I wish the embellishments were not added to the front though - they were totally unnecessary. But full credit to the owners/restorer for saving this machine and restoring it to this level.

Do any period photos survive of the bus in action?

[travancore]

Bombay, 1952. Looks like a new Vauxhall for company too.

[ariesonu]

A gorgeous looking truck has come up for restoration at same garage where my cars are worked upon:
It is missing most of the floor pans, dashboard items, radiator and of course the upholstery but in this state also it looks awesome.
The restoration will definately be a long process but cannot wait for the day to see it drive out on its own:
Feast your eyes:





















Fuel tank




















Radiator is missing






Regards-Sonu

[harit]

Originally Posted by ariesonu

A gorgeous looking truck has come up for restoration at same garage where my cars are worked upon:........
Regards-Sonu

This truck is either a Bedford or perhaps an Austin. It was located in UP, a Govt vehicle and is Left Hand Drive, may have come to India under some Govt to Govt scheme. Below is a photo of the same truck at its location at that time. You can see the rust below the center partition of the front windshield. It is the same vehicle.

I was a bit surprised to hear that it is there, it was supposed to have been purchased by one of the two brothers on this forum who are in a culinary related line of business.

This is the truck at its location before being moved.



The trailer public buses which were quite popular in Bombay, but have now disappeared, were also seen in Hyderabad and probably Ahmedabad too. I remember that in Bombay one had toppled. In Ahmedabad they simply crashed. Note the advertisement, today a strict nono with photographs. Those days were more carefree, careless, irresponsible and deadly.





Cheers harit

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by harit

The trailer public buses which were quite popular in Bombay, but have now disappeared, were also seen in Hyderabad and probably Ahmedabad too. I remember that in Bombay one had toppled. In Ahmedabad they simply crashed. Note the advertisement, today a strict nono with photographs. Those days were more carefree, careless, irresponsible and deadly.

Cheers harit

These kind of Ashok Leyland buses were also popular in Calcutta till the 1980's. The route L 9 was quite famous. The bus started from Gol Park (South Calcutta) and would go upto Esplanade or Howrah Station. Many of these would lean to the left side and would look like something quite abnormal.

[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

These kind of Ashok Leyland buses were also popular in Calcutta till the 1980's. The route L 9 was quite famous. The bus started from Gol Park (South Calcutta) and would go upto Esplanade or Howrah Station. Many of these would lean to the left side and would look like something quite abnormal.

We had quite a discussion on these trailer buses in Kolkata at a point of time, as you can see from this post:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintag...ml#post1380419

to this one

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintag...ml#post1380512

Also, L9's route used to be from Gol Park to Northern Baghbazar depot.