What AEC bus model is this?

[sando]

Hi Folks
I recently purchased this bus , and i have very limited information (has an AEC badge and possibly manufactured in 1960-70's )
Could someone please help me with the model of this bus, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Linto63]

It is an AEC Swift originally built for ACTION, Canberra. If you are able to ascertain the body number (usually on a metal plate near the front stairs) this site may give more info on its history. http://www.actbus.net/fleetwiki/index.p ... #Post-1956

[ZIB-585]

Agreed it's an AEC Swift. Looks to be the Smithfield body so build date 1974 or 1975. Only 20 of these were built.

Body or chassis number can narrow down the exact bus.

[Bedford-29]

Ex Action Smithfield bodied AEC Swift like 331 in the picture.Picture from the Leon Batman collection
http://www.busaustralia.com/gallery/dis ... pos=-12425

[CCCC]

So did action also have same body with volvo chassis

[Fleet Lists]

Yes B58's also see http://www.busaustralia.com/gallery/dis ... pos=-12426
http://www.busaustralia.com/gallery/dis ... pos=-12285

[CCCC]

Yes B58's also see http://www.busaustralia.com/gallery/dis ... pos=-12426
http://www.busaustralia.com/gallery/dis ... pos=-12285

Thanks for that.
Was this body when introduced exclusive to action.

[boronia]

So did action also have same body with volvo chassis

Yes, also Freighter built some bodies to the same design.

[system improver]

...Was this body when introduced exclusive to action.

Yep, pretty much the same design was built by CVI (Comeng), Freighter and Smithfield. There were differences in rear windows and a few others things but they looked similar. The original CVI design had some characteristics of buses available to other operators but, as far as I am aware, no-one got one to the same design. I guess the ACTION people had a say in the design.

[sando]

Thanks for the replies

I couldn't find a Vin number , and there is no identification plate near the front stairs, but i managed to find a unit number = U261735 69138 on the front axle.
Based on this number could you decipher any more info?

[KBS]

I had four of those AEC Swifts all ex Canberra, not a bad bus but don't expect to travel fast in one, be sure to clean the radiator out and we put mesh on the rear engine door and they will run 5 to 10 degrees cooler in summer because they are prone to overheating.

[ZIB-585]

That's not a chassis number, although ZIB 233 was 101138.

I assume you don't have any rego papers that included a chassis number? Or any former number plate details?

[boronia]

Thanks for the replies

I couldn't find a Vin number , and there is no identification plate near the front stairs, but i managed to find a unit number = U261735 69138 on the front axle.
Based on this number could you decipher any more info?

Too early for VINs, but chassis numbers were usually stamped on the chassis rails near the front spring hangers or at the rear near the engine support cross member

[Swift]

Just discovered this topic. That is one of the final 20 Swifts built for ACTION, bodied by Smithfield. Only one or two were officially completed 1st Jan 1975, so essentially a 1974 bus.
I can tell it's a Smithfield by the non sloping driver's window and the "no.3" desto box under the left side of the windscreen.
It isn't ex Deanes Coaches (who got six of these Swifts from this final batch for ACTION) as it hasn't got the modified one piece desto glass.
This bus is probably the last unmolested survivor left!

[Swift]

So did action also have same body with volvo chassis

Yes, also Freighter built some bodies to the same design.

Whilst plainly very similar to the original CVI design, there were more differences than you think. Upon close comparison, the windscreen is slightly less deep, the ellipse profile of the roof is a totally different shape, different ribbing either side of the front desto and the rectangle black headlight section on the front sits slightly higher, away from the bumper bar.
Of course the rear end styling was the typical Freighter treatment of the time -to leave their stamp on it I guess.
Even though the Freighter examples looked like the odd ones, they actually comprised the biggest batch of Swifts in the fleet at 37 against CVI's 30, Athol -Hedges 14 and Smithfield's 20, although Smithfield was the successor to CVI and their bodies were virtually identical to the CVI units with a few minor differences.

[stajourneyman]

Are you sure about ACTION having purchased Athol Hedges bodied AEC Swifts??

I know they got a batch of Hedges bodied AEC Reliances just beforehand, but I don't recall them ever receiving them with Hedges bodies??

[Fleet Lists]

see http://www.actbus.net/fleetwiki/index.p ... _Disposals Scroll down to fleet no 121

[Swift]

Are you sure about ACTION having purchased Athol Hedges bodied AEC Swifts??

I know they got a batch of Hedges bodied AEC Reliances just beforehand, but I don't recall them ever receiving them with Hedges bodies??

Yes. Here is one. They had manual gearboxes, interestingly enough, like Japan practise with city buses. The CVIs were the first to get mono control.
http://www.actbus.net/gallery/zp-core/f ... 8e196cd4b2

[boronia]

I had four of those AEC Swifts all ex Canberra, not a bad bus but don't expect to travel fast in one, be sure to clean the radiator out and we put mesh on the rear engine door and they will run 5 to 10 degrees cooler in summer because they are prone to overheating.

Company I worked for a few of them. They could never keep the handbrakes in adjustment. Tighten them up, and within 2 or 3 days they didn't work again. Not good in a bus with a fluid flywheel transmission.

[Swift]

Company I worked for a few of them. They could never keep the handbrakes in adjustment. Tighten them up, and within 2 or 3 days they didn't work again. Not good in a bus with a fluid flywheel transmission.

There is always the turn the wheel toward the gutter method. Right when facing uphill and left down hill. It would have been a bit of a pain though.
The Swift 760s built for various private operators in the late 70s had maxi brakes fitted.
Was it true these Canberra Swifts had the 4.1 diff ratio? That means they could top out at 100km/h!

[boronia]

That was a regularly used solution, but you didn't always have the luxury of a gutter. One driver didn't give one sufficient lock on the wheel one night, and the bus managed to roll itself down hill and take out a couple of cars and into the local scout hall.

They were usually parked facing uphill outside the "depot" (just a shed next to a house in a suburban street). THe fluid flywheel had enough "drive" at idle to hold the buses steady while the driver ran around to the back and put a couple of bricks behind the rear wheels.

[Swift]

It sounds like this problem didn't rear it's ugly head until they operated in Sydney's hilly typography. Deanes mechanics must have just kept on readjusting their cables daily for their hilly north shore runs!
Those buses were unroadworthy without a working park brake and therefore illegal.
That about scout hall incident should have sent the company to the wall.

[hugh45]

The original photo of the green AEC bus which was a former Action bus is similar in colour to the all over green buses used by Murray's when they ran the Carlton to Rockdale route 49 in the early eighties.

[boronia]

Murrays sold them to Brighton BL with the service, don't know if they got repainted there.

[Swift]

Back in 1993 there was an orange and white Freighter example parked in a yard on Marsh St near the airport. Does anyone know who that operator was?