~1942 Chevrolet in 1955

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system improver
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Re: ~1942 Chevrolet in 1955

Post by system improver »

The Grummet bodied Chev belonged to Martyn's Service Pty Ltd. It was registered OF 079, which places it around 1950, but it could have been re-registered or bodied on an older chassis. The livery was green with cream around the windows and on the bonnet and an orange roof. The proprietor of Martyn's was H T S Martyn who ran hire cars around Daylesford from at least the early 30s. They provided a bus service between Daylesford and Hepburn Springs and then in the 50s between Daylesford and various other towns. The business was renamed Little's of Daylesford ( K R Little) in 1974 but I suspect it was sold before that to Little and the Martyn's name continued for a while. Little's still operate out of Daylesford, amongst other places.

I don't have a direct photo of the bus, but in this 1963 John Masterton photo of a C&B bodied Inter K5 belonging to Waterton of Daylesford, you can just see the Martyn's bus on the right:
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Roderick Smith
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Re: ~1942 Chevrolet in 1955

Post by Roderick Smith »

Thanks for that. Perhaps the roof wasn't orange in 1955? Even in the supplied view, perhaps only the forward-facing panel was orange? From a different source came the comment that the Daylesford - Hepburn Springs service was semi suburban. Services matching cinema times would have been likely. The family had gone to Daylesford as a day return on the newly-introduced through Walker 280 railmotor from Melbourne, so our time there would have been roughly noon to mid afternoon. Also from elsewhere, the operator had an austerity-body bus which was withdrawn in 1954. That hints that this one was a second-hand replacement. I don't know who had fleets of them to onsell, but this was an era when operators were upgrading to Bedford SB buses.
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Bedford-29
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Re: ~1942 Chevrolet in 1955

Post by Bedford-29 »

If you didn`t mind I took a copy of the picture and resized it to study it the bus is standing in front what is now Daylesford newsagency and a place called Mimosa 53 Vincent st Daylesford.
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Roderick Smith
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Re: ~1942 Chevrolet in 1955

Post by Roderick Smith »

That was only a small fraction of a 35 mm neg, which I scanned at 2400 dpi. I don't have the time to go for 4800. The verandah rhs was Victoria Hotel, now converted to various upmarket food outlets. The cinema went dark in 1963, but has been revived as a community cinema, but with only about a quarter of the former capacity. Cropped lhs is a view down to Royal Hotel, which is a survivor.
The Austerity wasn't Martyn; it was Hubbard of Hepburn Springs (from a contact accessing BCSV records). I have another 1942 Chev photo up in the Queensland section. I do have one at Maldon for a future post: b&w, so I can't check the roof colour.
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Re: ~1942 Chevrolet in 1955

Post by Bedford-29 »

Looking at the enlarged 2500 x 3318 picture I did the bus has two destination boxes with two lights one either side of the desto boxes either this is a ex Melbourne bus and brought second hand or it was up from Melbourne on a day trip to the mineral springs at Daylesford or Hepburn.
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Roderick Smith
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Re: ~1942 Chevrolet in 1955

Post by Roderick Smith »

That was great detective work; I'll put a rescan in the queue of processing tasks. Higher in the thread 'system improver' has identified it as Martyn, a Daylesford-based operator, registration OF 079. Local runs could well use second-hand equipment. As at 1955, Sunday-school picnics were still in the furniture-van era, but would any operator send a 1942 Chev (with ~1950 registration) as a front-line charter? Around 1957-58, my early Walhalla and Wilsons Promontory tours were in Bedford SBs. Martyr had some funny old things for school charters, but forward control. IIRC Hoy had some funny old things for school charters, also forward control. Hubbard, an other operator in the Hepburn Springs area, had withdrawn an austerity-body Chev in 1954. I'll try for my Castlemaine photo with tomorrow's batch.
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor
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