Moonraker By Freighter Lawton.

[Denv12]

Freighter Lawton's built the "Moonraker" body at their Seaton factory.It was a similar design to their other coach bodies at the time.
I'm looking for some history of the model. What year did the Moonraker first become available? I know that STA Roadliner had a few of them,I think they were Hino's. Then were a variety built on Bedford,Hino,Leyland to name a few.Majority seemed to have been single axle whilst fewer were 3 axle. One coach I remember was a 3 axle coach with a detroit engine.It was bought from nsw bus dealer Rob Treweren(excuse the spelling).It was owned by Rainbow Coaches in Adelaide.I saw this coach in 1988 in Adelaide.The owner was a friend of Flynns Buslines. Local bus company Associated Tourist Service had a Leyland Moonraker.What other companies had them in their fleets? The Moonraker was similar to these coaches below. Is it possible that Freighter Lawton used the same jig for the Moonraker,etc but the bodies used different panelling? If you have any photos,magazine adverts,etc please add them here.Thanks.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/1942681419305458/

[system improver]

Someone at Freighter must have been a fan of James Bond. Ian Fleming's 3rd book in the series was published in 1955, called Moonraker. It was made into a film in 1979. In 1971, Freighter changed their styling significantly, both for track buses and coaches. The rounded front was discarded and a flatter version adopted. The coach version, was called the Moonraker, the first one of which I saw and which featured in advertisements in T&BT went to Sinclair in Melbourne on the Hino chassis. Eventually the style for coaches was separated into the Executive and the Apollo around 1974.

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Here is the track version as seen in this Bruce Tilley picture of one of the Ballarat tram replacement buses from 1971:

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[Denv12]

[quote="system improver"] In 1971, Freighter changed their styling significantly, both for track buses and coaches. The rounded front was discarded and a flatter version adopted. The coach version, was called the Moonraker, the first one of which I saw and which featured in advertisements in T&BT went to Sinclair in Melbourne on the Hino chassis. Eventually the style for coaches was separated into the Executive and the Apollo around 1974.

Thanks system improver for your help.
I thought there was a distinct connection between them.You can see where the street buses got their windows.The Ford TAA buses had a slightly raise window line.
I added some photos.

[Denv12]

I found this link:
http://www.busaustralia.com/forum/viewt ... 21026&f=10