Harris Park Transport Treasures 1990

[Dave Wilson]

Harris Park's Murray Farm depot was a treasure trove of withdrawn buses in the early 90s.Shown is an Albion Victor with Coachmaster body of about 1964 vintage.Went to scrap unfortunately. There was also a Bedford VAL 14 which was so locked in it couldn't be photographed.


At left is former M/0 4382 Bedford SB3 with Allison auto/Coachmaster C 1960 and Bedford SB M/0 5354 CC C 1966 ( still in service) . It was hard to tell at times whether a particular bus was still in service. 4382 with its bizarre AEC wings is happily preserved.



M/O 5668 I think was a Bedford VAM 70 with a Hedges Body.I've forgotten the name of this model Hedges. There were two others one being M/o 7112. All were scrapped. Photographed at the Harris Pk depot.



M/O 8233 was Athol Hedges Bedford ex Tamarama Bus Service. Seen at Epping



This lovely old Leyland Tiger Cub M/O 4873 Comeng was still running in the late 80s.M/0 7433 was another.

[Simes]

Nice collection of a varied fleet

Have you got anything of their Hurstville - Connells Point ops? Even the other side of the family?

[ged]

re M/O 5668 has an Athol Hedges Metro-star body - these date from around 1969-70 and came in a variety of forms - some with a stepped deck coach body - or those with a straight floor for bus work. Some came with dual-purpose seating. There seemed to be two types of destination blind - either like the one on 5668 - raised above the roof line or a shallower version with no raised roof line.

[Bovways]

This lovely old Leyland Tiger Cub M/O 4873 Comeng was still running in the late 80s.M/0 7433 was another.

Not to mention the very new looking XE Fairmont Ghia ESP lurking behind it. Classic!

[ross johnson]

Travelling through Oatlands [near Pennant hills Rd only last Sund week, a Harris Park bus showing desto 'SCHOOL BUS' drove towards me, then turned off. No passengers. Strange, 3 or 4 years down the road from closure. Still, was a 'strange' bus company.

[mo 5537]

Thank you David. Great photos particularly the one of mo 4382. You mentioned that it is happily preserved. Do we know where and in what state it is in and is it ever on show. Would be great to see again. It formed a magnificent mix of buses that used to loll around the little depot at South Hurstville for weeks at a time without ever doing any service. Ditto the Sandy Beach Bus Company depot over at Yowie Bay/Miranda where other Harris Park units lurked for ages without seemingly going anywhere.

More photos would be greatly anticipated.

[wallace]

Thank you for posting those wonderful photos from Harris Park.
I think that first pic of the coachmaster was at the Gymea Bay depot for years.
Same again for the Tiger Cub m/o 4873.
I grew up riding these buses around the shire. Always on hand were some Tiger Cubs and range of SB Bedfords. 4832 was also occasionly in attendance at the Gymea Bay Depot as well.

These were great buses but unfortunately they were quite run down in the last days of there operations here in Gymea Bay in December 1990.
The Depot still stands but don't know if there are any buses still hiding in there?

[preco]

Sorry for digging up an old post, but I am continually amazed at what you can find on the internet.

What fantastic memories, particularly the Metro Star & with the old 181, Parramatta to Beecroft, route number.

I use to live in Murray Farm Rd Beecroft, & I caught the 181 everyday to school & back from 1970 to 1976. I still remember, like it was yesterday, the first day the Metro Star picked us up. We had been used to the older Bedfords in the old Harris Park colour scheme which was blue with red stripes. Then one morning we saw this gleaming brand new yellow coach approaching, & I remember saying to the other kids, "I wish that was our school bus." Then, low & behold it pulls up & the door opens, & behind the wheel was our favourite driver, Gary Tucknott. Gary was such a cool guy, he always let us operate the doors & indicators, buy us lollies & drinks & take us on little excursions (ie different routes) on the way to school. I remember he also had an equally cool younger brother, Steve, that started driving for Harris Park, later on.
Anyhow, here was our favourite bus driver with a brand new, & to us, luxury coach with the ultimate in fun accessories. A microphone! What fun we had with that microphone. Probably drove Gary around the bend, but I'm pretty sure he used have fun too.

Thank you Dave for posting these amazing photos.

Does anyone have pictures of the original Harris Park Livery ie royal blue with red (& white?) stripes?

I would love to see them.

Thanks again.

Peter.

[Thirroul]

Sorry for digging up an old post, but I am continually amazed at what you can find on the internet.

What fantastic memories, particularly the Metro Star & with the old 181, Parramatta to Beecroft, route number.

I use to live in Murray Farm Rd Beecroft, & I caught the 181 everyday to school & back from 1970 to 1976. I still remember, like it was yesterday, the first day the Metro Star picked us up. We had been used to the older Bedfords in the old Harris Park colour scheme which was blue with red stripes. Then one morning we saw this gleaming brand new yellow coach approaching, & I remember saying to the other kids, "I wish that was our school bus." Then, low & behold it pulls up & the door opens, & behind the wheel was our favourite driver, Gary Tucknott. Gary was such a cool guy, he always let us operate the doors & indicators, buy us lollies & drinks & take us on little excursions (ie different routes) on the way to school. I remember he also had an equally cool younger brother, Steve, that started driving for Harris Park, later on.
Anyhow, here was our favourite bus driver with a brand new, & to us, luxury coach with the ultimate in fun accessories. A microphone! What fun we had with that microphone. Probably drove Gary around the bend, but I'm pretty sure he used have fun too.

Thank you Dave for posting these amazing photos.


Does anyone have pictures of the original Harris Park Livery ie royal blue with red (& white?) stripes?

I would love to see them.

Thanks again.

Peter.

Gary still works in the industry, all be it a little further North nowdays! Obviously you didn't do a good enough job on him!

[preco]

Thanks for that Thirroul.

Do you know whereabouts he is working. Do you also know if his brother Steve is still in the game?


Cheers

Peter

[ALBION1881]

There were two body names that was Athol Hedges that was put on various chassis there was the Metro star and the Multi star MO-5668 was a earlier Metro star and I think MO-8233 I think has the Multi star body Robert Brisbane water coaches Gosford had both types on Bedford chassis and a pretty good bus to ride on.

[wallace]

At left is former M/0 4382 Bedford SB3 with Allison auto/Coachmaster C 1960 and Bedford SB M/0 5354 CC C 1966 ( still in service) . It was hard to tell at times whether a particular bus was still in service. 4382 with its bizarre AEC wings is happily preserved.




This lovely old Leyland Tiger Cub M/O 4873 Comeng was still running in the late 80s.M/0 7433 was another.

Did any of the Bedford SB's survive after their days with HPT. Would love to see any pics of any ex older HPT stuff operating with different operators. All this talk recently has really sparked my memories from 20 years ago when they were operating at Gymea Bay. All we get now is boring white buses with a red word one them. Even the South Trans days were not to bad with there assortmant of Leylands.

Also did any of these Comeng Tiger Cubs survive to see service with any other operators after their HPT days.

A big massive thank you to all that have contributed so far.

Admin: Photos removed from quote.

[Oddbod]

I used to catch the Leyland Tiger Cub M/O 4873 to school everyday in 1985 on the 165 bus route to epping station. I remember thinking at the time "why do we get the clapped out stinky old bus???? "
funny how 25 years on, your attitude toward old classics like this change, and you wish the old girl was still around!
I can do without the cranky old italian bus driver though.... he hated kids, and i think he may have hated this bus as well.... i know as kids we hated seeing the "old bomb" coming round the corner... if only i'd offered to buy it then..... $500 would have covered it i reckon.