[harit]

Originally Posted by IQBAL VEERJI

Anjan ji,........ when I have seen a person from BEST coming in our lane to switch ON . light the street lights working on PIPED GAS. He used to carry a long stick and used to shift a lever on the top of the light to ignite fixture having a clear glass bowl, inside there used to be a MANTLE which used to get illuminated and slowly start glowing. In the morning again same guy used to reverse the process to extinguish the street light......

Later on when the electric streetlights started one person used to walk from street light to street light and switch on with a special key. In the mornings he would reverse the process. Whenever there was a bandh, the lights were left on the whole day!

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

I have had a very, very hearty laugh reading about Sandooks and Bandooks Sirji ! Thanks for the nostalgic memories Sirji.The earliest buses I remember having seen in Bombay were the double-decker OM 41702 Leyland buses, with their classic looks.
The buses you are relating to must have had acetylene lamps.

The earlier busses were Albion, very popular in India at one time. If I remember correctly the first double decker busses were Daimlers and were automatic. These had electric headlights

Originally Posted by IQBAL VEERJI

Yes Sir, and the routes of the BEST buses used to be A which is todays 1, A1 was todays 4 ltd, route D which is todays 61, route J3 is todays 315. This is all I can compare but there used to be routes like. F,G,K,N,R, Some of the buses were of having clutch system of fluide drive..

AFAIK, these busses were automatic, not fluid drive.

Here is a picture taken in Mumbai. If it was not written at the back, I would not know where this was. Any guesses?

Cheers harit

[911987]

What a superb photo Sir!Loving it.....
Giving it a couple of attempts, given the curved bayline
1)The obvious guess first-Marine drive towards the top with picture shot from what is now Nariman Point
2)Colaba prior to reclamation of land-Cuffe parade?
Very confusing are the cranes so close to the shore line seen in the background,too close I think to Marine Lines or Colaba to be the Dock area,so I may have just guessed the opposite coastlines to the ones in the pic!
Waiting ......


Guessing again
Hajiali area says my wife!
Going to shut up now to give others a go!

[kasli]

This is the road where sea wind is located the back side of colaba leading to navy nagar. This structure I think exists still. But the shed is not there . Cuffe Parade was not present at this time . Road where Sagar Sangeet Building is ?

Cheers

Originally Posted by harit

Later on when the electric streetlights started one person used to walk from street light to street light and switch on with a special key. In the mornings he would reverse the process. Whenever there was a bandh, the lights were left on the whole day!



The earlier busses were Albion, very popular in India at one time. If I remember correctly the first double decker busses were Daimlers and were automatic. These had electric headlights



AFAIK, these busses were automatic, not fluid drive.

Here is a picture taken in Mumbai. If it was not written at the back, I would not know where this was. Any guesses?

Cheers harit

[911987]

Seems like the second guess in my first post tallies with Kasli's judgement.
Haritji,answer awaited.

[harit]

Originally Posted by 911987

Guessing again, Hajiali area says my wife!
Going to shut up now to give others a go!

The wife is right. The back of the picture says Warden Road. In the background you see Haji Ali road, and further back the chimneys of all those textile mills. Parel and its surrounding area were afterall industrial areas more or less on the then outskirts of Mumbai. Very observant!

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

......................Thanks for the nostalgic memories Sirji.The earliest buses I remember having seen in Bombay were the double-decker OM 41702 Leyland buses, with their classic looks.
The buses you are relating to must have had acetylene lamps.

Here is an early bus, probably around 1930. The headlight is already regular filament bulb type. The picture is a bit blurred, that how it was. In a Motoring magazine of 1936 or 1938, there was an article on the first double decker bus built, and it was built by BEST themselves. They show pictures of testing the limits before a bus would topple.

Cheers harit

[scooby05]

Vow, Harit, This is a shot from first bunglow on Gamadia road,[Warden road], if I see right a part of the passage to the hajiali mosque was already under construction?

[IQBAL VEERJI]

Originally Posted by harit

Later on when the electric streetlights started one person used to walk from street light to street light and switch on with a special key. In the mornings he would reverse the process. Whenever there was a bandh, the lights were left on the whole day!



The earlier busses were Albion, very popular in India at one time. If I remember correctly the first double decker busses were Daimlers and were automatic. These had electric headlights



AFAIK, these busses were automatic, not fluid drive.

Here is a picture taken in Mumbai. If it was not written at the back, I would not know where this was. Any guesses?

Cheers harit

Yes sir I am sure about fluide drive , I saw plenty of them with FLUIDE DRIVE monograme in the front, they were single deckers, and there used to be a promonent jerk when the gears were changed, may be our stupid BEST drivers never knew how to drive them properly. They were Leyland ( Imported)Rubb Rakhaa

[harit]

Originally Posted by IQBAL VEERJI

Yes sir I am sure about fluide drive , I saw plenty of them with FLUIDE DRIVE monograme in the front, they were single deckers, and there used to be a promonent jerk when the gears were changed, may be our stupid BEST drivers never knew how to drive them properly. They were Leyland ( Imported)Rubb Rakhaa

Maybe you are right, maybe the single decker and double decker busses were different. I started traveling by bus in 1969, remember that both single and double decker busses were Leyland. And at that time one driver told me that Daimler busses used to be there and that they were automatic. As I regularly travelled by bus to school and college, some drivers and conductors became friendly.
Here are some more old bus pictures, I suspect one photo was taken outside the Museum, where both the busses have a different front, are without advertisements, and the other on Marine Drive advertising Godrej locks.

Cheers harit

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by harit

Maybe you are right, maybe the single decker and double decker busses were different. I started traveling by bus in 1969, remember that both single and double decker busses were Leyland. And at that time one driver told me that Daimler busses used to be there and that they were automatic. As I regularly travelled by bus to school and college, some drivers and conductors became friendly.
Here are some more old bus pictures, I suspect one photo was taken outside the Museum, where both the busses have a different front, are without advertisements, and the other on Marine Drive advertising Godrej locks.

Cheers harit

I do not know about Bombay, but in many other parts of Maharashtra the Ford Forward Control models with Simpsons engines were also popular as city buses till the Tata Mercedes Benz (Forward Control and later the 1210) took over sometime in the mid-1960's.I believe Ford stopped making/assembling buses sometime in 1955, after heavy customs duty on imports and SKD assembly were imposed.Ashok Leyland and Tata Mercedes Benz were given licences for seven and a half ton truck/ bus chassis manufacture while HM (Bedford) and PAL (Dodge and Fargo) for slightly smaller trucks.

[harit]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

I do not know about Bombay, but in many other parts of Maharashtra the Ford Forward Control models with Simpsons engines .................................................. .....

I am not quite sure which model you are referring to. There was a Ford truck, rather squarish like those Bedfords where the cab was hinged and had to be tilted forward to access the engine. If you refer to these, then this model was built maybe in the 1970's or 1980's by Simpsons using their engine. I remember seeing them as tankers, they had square headlights and a plastic grill. When parts became rare simple round headlights were fixed and the grill in pieces put up. I had not seen them as busses because the cab tilted forwards,

Originally Posted by harit

The wife is right. The back of the picture says ...........

Here is the back of the photo, it says
Subject - "YE HAI BOMBAY MERI JAN" SCENE from WARDEN ROAD
NAME - PUSHPA HANSRAJ
I.A. 2nd year

It would be a nice chance if Pushpa Hansraj were to read this. I.A. could mean Inter Arts, any suggestions?

And what about the monument behind these Cars, Hillman and Hindustan/Morris? What is this monument?

Cheers harit

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by harit

I am not quite sure which model you are referring to. There was a Ford truck, rather squarish like those Bedfords where the cab was hinged and had to be tilted forward to access the engine. If you refer to these, then this model was built maybe in the 1970's or 1980's by Simpsons using their engine. I remember seeing them as tankers, they had square headlights and a plastic grill. When parts became rare simple round headlights were fixed and the grill in pieces put up. I had not seen them as busses because the cab tilted forwards.
Cheers harit

No, I very well know the 1980's FC Ford truck chassis assembled at Chennai that also had Simpson diesels.There is a thread dedicated where member greenhorn has uploaded a picture of what these looked like. :
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commer...cks-india.html

The buses I am talking about were imported Fords (FC). Their front side used to be totally flat like any other Full Forward Control model. The design was too simplistic-two round headlights on either sides and a square grille with rounded edges and with fine mesh.The Simpsons logo was also prominently displayed on the front side. The buses had a shorter chassis than the Tata Mercedes Benz or Leyland buses.I am trying to get hold of a picture!

Originally Posted by harit

Here is the back of the photo, it says
Subject - "YE HAI BOMBAY MERI JAN" SCENE from WARDEN ROAD
NAME - PUSHPA HANSRAJ
I.A. 2nd year

It would be a nice chance if Pushpa Hansraj were to read this. I.A. could mean Inter Arts, any suggestions?

And what about the monument behind these Cars, Hillman and Hindustan/Morris? What is this monument?

Cheers harit

That monument is the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata.The picture is lovely. Kolkata had many such cars surviving till the 1980's, but most of these may have been scrapped.

[harit]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

.........................That monument is the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata.The picture is lovely. Kolkata had many such cars surviving till the 1980's, but most of these may have been scrapped.

I wonder why no one from Kolkatta identified their monument first. Hopefully they will identify the location of this street which has a Phillips showroom.
Do you notice the third car? Wish that car was the focus, not the Hindustan.

Cheers harit

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by harit

I wonder why no one from Kolkatta identified their monument first. Hopefully they will identify the location of this street which has a Phillips showroom.
Do you notice the third car? Wish that car was the focus, not the Hindustan.

Cheers harit

harit: The third car is a Rover. Kolkata had many 1950's Rovers too, all in running condition till the late 1970's and early1980's.The location is in all probability near Dalhousie square somewhere near the old Great Eastern Hotel.
I used to wonder as to how there are so many Rovers in this part of India and not many elsewhere. Like the Beetles, Pontons (even used as taxis),Ford Zephyrs (also used as taxis) and the very wide assortment of pre-1961 European cars in Goa.But Goa was under foreign rule whereas the concentration of Rovers in Kolkata is unique.Chandannagar near Kolkata, now a district was under French rule as was Pondicherry. But there should have been French cars here in West Bengal in that case. I had seen older 1950's Peugeots in Pondicherry in the 1970's, some running as yellow and black taxis.

[harit]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

harit: The third car is a Rover....... I used to wonder as to how there are so many Rovers in this part of India ....

I believe that Rover had an active agent in Kolkatta, maybe he had surplus stocks and continued to sell even after import was banned. Till mid 1970's we used to see "foreign" cabs in Goa, Mercedes Ponton, Peugeot 403, Austin Cambridge, Opel Kapitan, Holden etc. But maintainance was becoming difficult.

Have these slightly coloured rail pictures, there is a car on the extrme left. Somehow I liked these so much that I wanted to put them up. And the name of the railway station in the second picture is just out of focus, really frustrating. Any educated guesses, atleast to which railway line this could be?

Cheers harit

[manishalive]

Originally Posted by harit

Any educated guesses, atleast to which railway line this could be?

Cheers harit

The engine and the surrounding Suggest it to be the world famous Darjeeling Toy train. The backdrop is (architecture and surrounding) is that of a hill station.