[Stanher]

Originally Posted by wasif

Stanher.

The colour of the plates during the Nizams times was yellow, which was the official state colour.

The system was three letters followed by three to four numbers as in "HYX 1234".

Oops, sorry, my bad! In that case, green is ruled out in the case of the aurangabad car.

So, did govt. vehicles have any special/separate designated colours for the no. plates? I'm suspecting red was used, which is probably how /why all govt. vehicles have a red strip at the top of their no. plates?

BTW, I might be going but any idea when the HYX series (later continued as APX post AP formation) was introduced?

[wasif]

No idea when the HYX series was actually started, maybe DKG can enlighten us on this.

The Royal family vehicles had the red plates, as can bee seen on the Dodge with Capt. Pestonjee, King Kothi 1. and I think they were the only one using the red plates, all others had the yellow plates with the black lettering.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by wasif

The Royal family vehicles had the red plates, as can bee seen on the Dodge with Capt. Pestonjee, King Kothi 1. and I think they were the only one using the red plates

It appears that all Royal families throughout the country had red plates on their cars. Which probably explains how govt. vehicles (belonging to the subseqyent 'rulers') got the red strip at the top of their plates.

[sabinesnubbing]

Gents,
In all the many photos I have seen, red plates have a royal connection and (admittedly post 47) governmnet plates are green or have a green strip at the top. I have several B/W photos of royal plates and they tend to show as closer to black than this plate. For my money this is a green plate.
Of all the places in India for the 1902 series numbers, we know the least about Hyderabad province. Yellow was the chosen colour originally and I have this photo from 1913 that was taken in Hyderabad and shows a white on probably black plate with number 525A. However the occupants of the car do not look ordinary! The HYX yellow plates are supposed to be 1920s and what came before them or after them (before 1939) I do not know. And why suddenly HYX when they cannot have registered that many cars by the 1920s???
The 1939 list is as follows:
HTA
Aurangabad
HTB
Bhir
HTD
Bidar
HTG
Gulbarga
HTH
Hyderabad (up country)
HTK
Karimnagar
HTL
Nalgonda
HTM
Medak
HTN
Nizamabad
HTO
Oosmanabad
HTP
Parbhani
HTR
Rhaighur
HTS
Senatnagar
HTV
Adilabad
HTW
Waranagal
HYT
Hyderabad (private)
HYV
Secunderbad (tpt.)
HYX
Secunderbad (tpt.)

This is interesting in that it has HYX as Secunderbad. I just wonder if the known '1920s' plate HYX 4938 is actually a 1939 series number????

More questions than answers again - sorry
Cheers
Cedric

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[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by harit

This picture may have been taken in Aurangabad, maybe someone can identify the hills in the background.

On asking around old hands have positively identified (as I suspected) that the backdrop is University Hills in Aurangabad.

[karlosdeville]

Some lovely period pictures here

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...bangalore.html

[harit]

Originally Posted by sabinesnubbing

Gents,
In all the many photos I have seen, red plates have a royal connection and (admittedly post 47) governmnet plates are green or have a green strip at the top. I have several B/W photos of royal plates and they tend to show as closer to black than this plate. For my money this is a green plate.
Of all the places in India for the 1902 series numbers, we know the least about Hyderabad province. Yellow was the chosen colour originally and I have this photo from 1913 that was taken in Hyderabad and shows a white on probably black plate with number 525A. However the occupants of the car do not look ordinary! The HYX yellow plates are supposed to be 1920s and what came before them or after them (before 1939) I do not know. And why suddenly HYX when they cannot have registered that many cars by the 1920s???

I distinctly remember that there used to be a HYB series also, seen on a 1922 Dodge Bros. and 1926 Fiat tipo 509. No idea which year this series was applicable.
Cheers Harit

[harit]

Hi guys.
Nostalgia.
I own this attached photo. No one here could identify, so I sent to prewarcar.com. They put it up and got a huge response, it is a Franklin Pirate, around 1930, very rare, only around 6 survive. It still had a BMW registration no., this was written on the back of the photo. A Franklin was known to exist in Bombay but unfortunately the person knew of it is no more.
This is a valuable photo.

Cheers harit
Posted at Karl's insistance

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by harit

Hi guys.
Nostalgia.
I own this attached photo. No one here could identify, so I sent to prewarcar.com. They put it up and got a huge response, it is a Franklin Pirate, around 1930, very rare, only around 6 survive. It still had a BMW registration no., this was written on the back of the photo. A Franklin was known to exist in Bombay but unfortunately the person knew of it is no more.
This is a valuable photo.

Cheers harit
Posted at Karl's insistance

A couple of noteworthy points I must mention.

• Firstly Franklins were always air cooled, but most models had a conventional looking mock radiator grille, lending the car a pleasing appearance compared to other air cooled contraptions of the time.
• See the way the door 'folds' out to conceal the running board - a feature 10 years ahead of its time.
• Popular amongst high end American cars of the time like Auburn and Cord are the 3 hinged doors and horizontal bonnet louvres.
• Look at the height of the window sills - this car has tremendous proportions! Appears to be dual cowl - must have been a very upmarket car in its day, probably doomed like so many others when the depression hit.

[harit]

This is a 1927 LaSalle, identified in prewarcar.com and Mr. Barwani.
It belonged to a Parsi family, I have lots of other pics, they also had a huge Fiat, 1928 Buick etc. They travelled abroad, there are pics of them with an Adler/Wanderer in Austria, a Cadillac Limo in London. Later on there was a Buick 1941, and a Chrysler pre 1940. It seems that a daughter got married to an English military man, and they often spent time in Mahableshwar. But no Parsi could identify them till now. These photos had come from a torn album and I pulled out only car related pictures.
Recently I got another set of pictures from a Parsi gentleman, he told me that in one picture there was his grandfather in the same LaSalle. The registration nos are the same. But who and why is lost in history, he only knew about his grandfather being there. So the mystry who these folks were continues.
Cheers Harit

[karlosdeville]

A neat photo of a phase 1 Vanguard here.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/1264524-post818.html

[harit]

Attache photo is of a bus, probably a Chevy, or whatever of "Pindi & M" bus co, asking one to travel by "shooting bus" probably carrying "shootin mail". No idea of where and when. The no plate is unfortunately not legible. The 'M' in the name could have been Murdee.
Nice house on the background. Old photocorner on lower right is firmly stuck. Could Pindi have been Rawalpindi?
Looking forward to comments which include correct identification of the bus. I'm too lazy!

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by harit

Attache photo is of a bus, probably a Chevy, or whatever of "Pindi & M" bus co, asking one to travel by "shooting bus" probably carrying "shootin mail". No idea of where and when. The no plate is unfortunately not legible. The 'M' in the name could have been Murdee.
Nice house on the background. Old photocorner on lower right is firmly stuck. Could Pindi have been Rawalpindi?
Looking forward to comments which include correct identification of the bus. I'm too lazy!

I need to 'shoot off' a reply for such a nice photo

Any idea if Shooting Bus had some connection with bodystyle - shooting brake? And for that matter how did the term Shooting Brake come about?

Looking at the backdrop I would say this picture is taken in a smaller hillstation, like Mahabaleswar (or the like). Thanks for sharing.

[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Any idea if Shooting Bus had some connection with bodystyle - shooting brake? And for that matter how did the term Shooting Brake come about?

QUOTE

Shooting-brake is a 2-door hatchback car body style with a squared-off rear.

The term originated with custom built 2-door luxury estate cars altered for use by hunters and other sportsmen such as golfers, riders, and polo players requiring easy access to larger storage areas than offered by the typical autmobile boot


In the early 19th century, a brake was a large carriage-frame with no body, used for breaking in young horses. By the late 19th century the meaning had been extended to a large waggonette designed for country use. A "shooting brake" carried a driver and gamekeeper facing forward and up to six sportsmen on longitudinal benches with their dogs, guns and game carried alongside in slat-sided racks."

UNQUOTE

Source - Wikipedia

[Alvis]

harit

Do not know what the bus is but the route it is running on seems to be Pindi-Murree. Rawalpindi was the Head Quarter Western command, Indian Army and Murree was/is a hill station to which the gora sahib retired when it got too hot in the plains. very similiar to Simla, but on a much smaller scale.
The bus says Civil and military contractor, so probably carried all the orderly's, peons and the like, and top right hand side of roof says Pindi - Murree.