I found this image which I am sure is a Gilford 168OT working on Bribie Island.The 168 refers to the length of the wheelbase in inches (14 feet) and the OT means it is a cab over engine model.

The chassis length at 168" viz. 14 feet is wrong. In Gilford type designations the first two digits represent feet the last digit inches. The 168 chassis was actually 16 feet 8 inches long.

Car177, is there any chance that you can repost the Bribie Island Gilford? GM

Was the Bribie Island Gilford similar to the attached Gilford? GM

The Bribie Gilford as requested.

Anyone able to post information on other Australian Gilfords? I know about the one on the Indooroopilly route

Greg Travers produced an article for the HCVA Fleetline Magazine in 1995. GM

I think McVicars MO-66 was still doing Regent park to Auburn the service I can remember seeing a McVicars bus like MO-66 from train as it was coming into Regent Park station waiting at the bus stop in Amy st but this was the late 70s.

It would have been retired well before that with the m/o 066 plates on an AEC Coachmaster in 1968 and there may even have been another bus in between with those plates.

The fleetline report above shows m/o 66 as being on an ex DRT&T double decker in Dec 1953, so something had happened to this Gilford before that date sold/scrapped?

Andrew

Can anyone shed any light on the Australian gGovernment contract that Gilford supplied against and was probably a key reason for settingup the branch in Sydney. We have a block of chassis numbers for which we have no history and it is possible that these are the vehicles supplied against this order.

Andrew Stevens

/30 L Andrews from ? had one registered NSW 134430

stevand123 wrote:Can anyone shed any light on the Australian gGovernment contract that Gilford supplied against and was probably a key reason for settingup the branch in Sydney. We have a block of chassis numbers for which we have no history and it is possible that these are the vehicles supplied against this order.

Andrew Stevens

Was this contract with THE Australian Government or AN Australian Government? We have a federal and six state governments here?

Were they bus or truck chassis?

The only Government run bus services in those days were in Canberra (federal), but I doubt they would have had a need for that many buses.

Not sure whether it was 'The' or 'An'. If it was 'An' then I expect it was Sydney as that is where the branch was set up and where most of the known vehicles were located. The remainder were mainly in the Brisbane area. In respect of were the chassis for buses or trucks, the probability, based on the numbers of chassis built for the types, is that the chassis were used for buses as that was the main use of Gilfords. They did make truck chassis but only in small numbers, and since we don't know the types of chassis supplied against the contract, all I can go with is balance of probability.

As a bit of an aside, we are aware that Tarragindi Bus Services (Thomas Findlay) of Ekibin, Brisbane owned five Gilfords, one of which was registered Q311.462. Can anyone shed any light on the other four

The problem then becomes that Gov bus services didn't actually start in Sydney until after the Gilford office closed in 1931. No Gilford buses were acquired new for the Government bus fleet in Sydney, nor has any research come up with a suggestion that they might have been ordered, then cancelled.

So does that make Queensland a more likely source for a government contract? At least seven were registered in the Brisbane area.

No, not for buses. I am not aware of any state government run bus services in Brisbane. Even today, they are only run at Council level.

I think, therefore, that what we are saying is that it must be a national government contract.There is a comment in the Fleetline article that by July 1930 almost 50 chassis had been sold. That quantity would seem to match the size of the block of chassis numbers that we can't find histories for, to which end, is there any means of finding the chassis numbers associated with any of the known Australian Gilfords. The Hera with Hancocks is definitely not in the equation as the Hera chassis design is too late to be included in the block of chassis numbers, but do we know its chassis number?

The other curiosity is the reported fire engine. Are we able to confirm this? Was there more than one? Is this the Government contract? All rhetorical questions I know.

I am told that several people over here in the UK have tried in vain to try and get an understanding of Gilfords down under but without much success. Hopefully, with a bit of luck, someone will read this and give me more of the story.

Are there other forums I could try - I have also used HCVC.

I think we are getting towards going in circles here.

The Australian Government had responsibility for just one bus service - in Canberra. It was only small in those days and its fleet is well documented - no Gilfords, let alone anything like the numbers suggested. If there was a Governmnet contract, it would not appear to have been for buses.

As for the fire engine chassis, again a difficult ask. I have been researching aussie fire engines for 40 years and have never come across anything I have identified as being a Gilford (but still a lot of unidentified vehicles in photos). The article mentions that photos of it exist; can you post some so I can try and match it with other photos?. Another question is, did Gilford build the complete fire engine, or ship a chassis off the Merryweather or John Morris for the fire gear to be fitted? Again, many different fire jurisdictions down here, either local government, state government, or insurance company controlled. I'll make some enquiries through my colleagues and see if anything surfaces.

I beleive that there were two Gilfords at Sandgate, Queensland, the J.T. Ford example that passed to Mc Grath, No.6, that went probably in the sixties,the later No. 6 was a Leyland bus that had been renumbered with the start of Continental,there is also a reference in Gillingham's book about another Gilford chassis that had long been out of service and had been ownrd by one of the companies taken over by Mc Grath, either Black and White or Blue and White, it was at the earlier Shorncliffe premises.

Car177, That's interesting as the impression I had was that the J.T Ford, and Black and White vehicles were one and the same. Are you saying they were two separate companies?. The suggestion had also been that one had been rebodied as a full. I had my doubts and now knowing the Australian registration system your statement that fleet no 6 was re-assigned to a Leyland makes more sense.

There was a Gilford HVp-734 that the Indooroopilly-Kenmore-Lone pine service.

J.T. Ford was the owner of Black and White Sandgate having bought it off Syd Mullen who in turn had bought out WB McCann, up until the late 1940's, he , Ford, also had Blue and White as well, he sold to LS &CMG McGrath who also obtained Ibis, Ford went to Turramurra NSW,there had been Blue and White and Black and White Companies operating in Sandgate for years prior to the McGrath acquisition.
During the J.T. Ford ownership there had been a bonnetted Gilford which had had its body removed during the war and the chassis lay around the then depot in Shorncliffe for some years.
The half cab Gilford was No. 6 in the McGrath fleet, McGrath brought in the fleet numbering, this bus was said to operate until the late 1950's, I do not have a photo of it.
The second and final No. 6 was an ex MMTB Leyland TD5 that had its chassis extended and bodied by Black and White.