Once upon a time.......E.H.Blythe of Bexley

[Centralian]

A snap shot of this Sydney operator in the mid/late '70's. Also traded under the name of Blytheway. Depot was at 23 Haigh St, Bexley and operated Routes 6, 68 and 229. My first slide is a copy of the covers for the timetables for these routes, so indicates where they operated. Hope you enjoy this trip back in time, and any other Blythe's memories would be most welcome.

Blythe timetable.1.jpg

5074.1.jpg

5128.1.jpg

HUK 726.1.jpg

4018.1.jpg

324.1.jpg

HZJ 360.1.jpg

Cheers !

[boronia]

By the late 70s, Rte 6 was with Bill Sharpe's Caledonia Bus Lines, and later passed to Murrays.

I drove the Ford a couple of times for Neville, he also had a RFW coach which was good to drive.

[Simes]

When did they sell up?

That last pic is pure gold since it's a typical street around here, wide with bungalows down each side and those bushes.....

Route 6, did that goto Moore's eventually being the 471?
Route 68, I know this one Sydney Coachlines then STA as 499
Route 229, Pleasure Tours? 446? then Punchbowl?

[boronia]

Not sure of exact date, but would have been mid 80s from memory.

[Simes]

The 68 used to go down a street just over from mine and we've been there since '84, I've only got memorys of two (or three) tone green bedfords running up and down there....

[boronia]

Murrays sold the 59 to Brighton Bus Lines (the Sydney operator, not Melbourne), I think they got the 6 as well initially. Another operator (Sydney Bus Lines ??) had it for a while, but I don't think Moores ever did.

[mo 5537]

Many thanks Centralian. Great memories for me. They had some great buses and an immaculate fleet - mo 324 being a stand out towards the end. No photos of Leyland Tiger Cub mo 4939 or the old Bedford mo 4370? It was a great treat to go past the property in Haig Street where the depot was literally in the back yard. On the way we used to walk past Pioneer's depot on Forest Road - another treat. Then turn left over Croydon Road and off to Hurstville and Cross Street past Leach's depot and the grey and red buses
All these white buses now with stick on transfers seem rather bland these days.
Regards, mo 5537

[Simes]

Couldn't agree more with you mo 5537 - I remember peering down from a newly opened Westfield "International" Food Court window into Crossways depot with I think two Atlantean's and a few ex govvie leopards in it. Also passing Pioneer on Forest Rd, hoping the Forest Rd door was open to get a peak inside.
those were the days

[timetable gunzel]

The 6 had oodles of Operator changes towards the end; Blythe to Sharpe 1977, to R.Murray May 1979, to Brighton BL October 1982, to Jenteeno Pty Ltd 2 Dec 1983, to Challenge Travel 1984, to Highway Tours 10 Sept 1984, to Sydney Coach Lines April 1985, Closed 12 October 1996.

[VIKing]

Blythe sold their 2 remaining routes - 68 and 229 - to the Hill organisation in 5/84. Blythes then reappeared as a route opeator in June 1989 with route 121 Kogarah - Carss Park (ex Kogarah Bus Service). This was sold 01/04/94 to South Trans.

[Centralian]

Many thanks Centralian. Great memories for me. They had some great buses and an immaculate fleet - mo 324 being a stand out towards the end.

Thanks mo 5537. I remember ex 324 sat for many years in all white on a property alongside the Freeway from Penrith to Sydney, just before St Mary's. There were a few removalist vans/containers there as well from memory. I haven't seen too many (if any) "modern" Bedford SB5's with coach seats, and ex 324 having 2 doors as well made it easy to identify. Sorry, no photos of the other 2 you mention. I still have a few operators to cover in this immediate area, so stay tuned as they say.

[mo 5537]

Thanks anyway Centralian. Yes the Bedford SB5 with the high back red coach seats was a bit of class as it were to catch home after sports afternoons. Look forward as always to more postings. Regards mo 5537

[GM]

m/o 5537, here are two photos from the Ken Magor/BCA Collection.
Blythe 172, m/o 4939 Leyland Tiger Cub Comeng.
Blythe 165, m/o 4370 Bedford Comeng.

[GM]

Centralian, In my Callow Youth I took a long journey,in the school holidays,from my Place of Birth at Granville to photo buses in the wilds of Hurstville.
My means of transport, my trusty Push Mangle. (As seen, bottom left hand corner of photo).
Not many photos could be taken, as in 1949 the 116 Film I was using cost 1/6 (15c) for a roll of film of eight photos, (a lot of pocket money) therefore I was very choosy what I took.
Amongst those photos that I did take that day, one was of E H Blyhes two buses. Photo attached. GM

[Swift]

I'm just flabbergasted at all these operators I have never seen before.Man I love those CVI bodies on the Albion Viking and the Ford.
That Perkins powered Bedford SB5 with CVI body is very interesting too.I have memories of riding a Metro West Bus lines bus just like that i nthe Eastwood West Ryde area back in the 1980s but without the Perkins power.Would love to have ridden this Perkins version!I suppose it had an allison auto as well !The MW one I caught was a manual and slow!

Any other Sydney operators of the 1970s and 80s please put them up here on the ATDB pronto!!

[Punchbowl Tiger Cub]

Centralian,
Nice to see some photos of Blythe.Keep up the good work and put up some more of the old time operators from the St.George district and surrounds.

I have vivid memories of Blythe operations and having the misfortune to go on on a Day Tour to the Zig Zag Railway.Two vehicles were used,one being the RFW/CC (can't recall the rego just now) and m/o 324.Sure enough I got stuck on m/o 324.What a slow trip on the Blue Mountains!!!!!! Sure wish I had been on the RFW that day.We were left long behind and go home very,very late!!!!

Kind Regards Punchbowl Tiger Cub

[Windy]

The front of HUK 726 bears some resemblance to the Freighter/Smithfield bodied buses which ran in Canberra with the AEC Swift and Volvo B58 chassis respectively. Lovely shots, while I don't remember ever seeing these buses in service, it's certainly nice to see the one-to-three route family operator and their operations relived.

[Centralian]

Not many photos could be taken, as in 1949 the 116 Film I was using cost 1/6 (15c) for a roll of film of eight photos, (a lot of pocket money) therefore I was very choosy what I took.
Amongst those photos that I did take that day, one was of E H Blyhes two buses. Photo attached. GM

GM thanks for sharing some of those select images on the board with us over time. Some as in this early Blythe photo, going back 60 years. I hope you don't mind me quoting from an email you sent me some time ago about why we choose to share some of these older photos on here:

"These old photos are part of our heritage and show the progress through the years from the open sided vehicles with solid tyres to some of the beautiful low floor, air conditioned, power steered, auto gear boxed vehicles we have today, compared with the old stuff we had to cope with. Crash Gear Boxes, Armstrong Steering, Air Conditioning by opening the Windows, no front door, non adjustable drivers seats (One size fits all), flimsee tickets, smokers etc." Thanks again.

With your Blythe photo here, my eyes went straight to the art deco style units in this picture, do you (or any locals) recall the street and if the units are still there. [Please don't tell me a shopping centre stands on the site now !]

[Red and Cream]

Thanks to Centralian and GM for bringing back some fond memories of times past.
Here are a few black and white shots from my camera of the Blythe era in the 50's and 60's..









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[Simes]

With your Blythe photo here, my eyes went straight to the art deco style units in this picture, do you (or any locals) recall the street and if the units are still there. [Please don't tell me a shopping centre stands on the site now !]

Hurstville and art deco don't seem to match up from my experience - if it's near the station I really doubt that row survives, since it's either Westfield, an office block, high rise office block or low rise apartments from the 80's around there these days

[Punchbowl Tiger Cub]

Good Morning Everyone,
This has certainly turned into a great topic.Well,the street in question in the picture with Art Deco units is Carrington Avenue where it used to join up with Forest Road.

The units survived until a few years ago.When I first married in the mid 1980's,I lived further down Carrington Avenue in a blonde block of flats opposite the council carpark.

Prior to that street being closed off at Forest Road,Saints ran some of it's 113 trips down Carrington Avenue each day instead of Glouester Road.

Kind Regards Punchbowl Tiger Cub

[Centralian]

And thank you Red and Cream for your gems as well.

[Simes]

I took it upon myself to go and check out the old depot this afternoon and funnily enough there's a "Blytheways Bus Depot" sign still on the wall of the house, whoever's in there seems to have a large car collection now

[Andrew]

Does anyone know what those funky aerials on the roof of some of the buses were for?? Depot to bus comms. or picking up other signals?? I haven't really seen this type of aerial used on buses before from older photos posted here.

[boronia]

I'd say they were simply AM radio aerials. That was all that was available back in those days. Buses used for charter work might have had this "luxury", and a normal vertical car aerial would have caused height or reception problems.

The concept of 2-way comms for small operators was unheard of, as was even FM radio.