Fodens in NSW

BillyP wrote: .
.I only recall Diesel Motors at Parramatta Rd Auburn (L/H side heading into Sydney)
and just up the road from the Locomotive pub.....
Run by the Oneil family at the time........
ERF had a sales & service setup on Woodville Rd Villawood........
Its possible they MAY have moved out of Auburn to Villawood......where
they now sold mostly Cummims / Roadranger powered stuff
Whether they were connected or not i dont know............
.....................Billy.....................

Billy, yes Diesel Motors, Parramatta Rd cnr of Junction St. The workshop was in Junction St. I think W T Coggins the Holden dealer was on the opposite corner some years later, or it may have been one street further up Parramatta Rd, toward Sydney.

Yep O/N........
when Diesel Motors moved out (possibly to Moorebank)
Diesel Parts moved into the same spot,.....that may have
caused some confusion..............
....................Billy.....................

OK, I may have to concede defeat in trying to place the Foden sales and service at Moorebank, NSW. Before they even conceived the idea of the Liverpool by-pass, if you were Sydney bound on Newbridge Rd, you came off the end of the high level concrete bridge (where it crossed both the Georges River and the Main Southern Railway line), you came to a 'wye' junction. Right hand fork took you to Hammondville and then to the Army complex at Holsworthy.
If you took the left hand fork, that eventually crossed the Georges River again at Milperra, a lot of transport yards would eventually spring up in Chipping Norton. Only a few miles East of that 'wye' junction, a large industrial area mushroomed on the LEFT hand side with entrances onto Newbridge Rd itself. (The continuation of Newbridge Rd would become Canterbury Rd.)
Either I am hallucinating, (or just getting senile) but I would have almost bet money that Foden's had a yard in that area just described. Circa late 1970's. As to whether ERF was there as well, I wouldn't be so bold.
Or, I have been smoking too much of that stuff in the garage instead of assembling projects.
Cheers, Dave_64
\

Dont give up dave
After Diesel Motors moved from Auburn (and Diesel Parts moved in)
They possibly did move to that area , so you could still be in
with a chance................
.....................Billy.....................

Knew I had seen it somewhere; "The Feuding Foden Family", Allen Littlemore. Available from the Foden Society shop, link below

www.thefodensociety.org.uk/FS%20On-Line%20Shop.html

Any reference in that book to Foden in OZ? If so, got anything on the location of their yard? In NSW, I mean.
Thanks, Dave_64

.Dave....After further discussions with my colleague (he will like that)
we will say you are right about the Moorebank site...this
is where they moved to after leaving Auburn..................
It was at Moorebank that Diesel Motors shut up shop..........
...................Billy.......................

Beaut !
I was beginning to think that a shandy of truck driving tablets and that stuff I was smoking in the shed had finally pickled my brain, just like me daughter warned me !
Dave_64

A bit to add to this from the UK. By the time ERF was established in 1933 there were no members of the Foden family (other than Edwin Foden's 2nd wife who had non-family underlings running the firm)) by then involved. William Foden was still in Australia and didn't come back to take charge until a couple of years later. So it wasn't a family split or disagreement as often stated. ERF were slap in the middle of Sandbach while Foden were a mile or more 'down the road' and actually in Elworth, although the railway station closeby is named 'Sandbach'! The two firms might have been in competition, but they did talk to one another.

From a 1957 Foden maintenance manual the address for Diesel Motors Pty Ltd is given as Challis House, 10 Martin Place, Sydney, NSW. Also in Bentley, W. A., and Diesel Company (O'Neill Bros.) Pty. Ltd., Fullarton, Adelaide, S. A.

Diesel Services Pty. Ltd, Cnr. Princes Highway and McNaughton Road, Clayton, Vic.

The house magazine 'Foden News' for October 1979 lists :-

Foden (Distributors) Pty. Ltd., Newbridge Road, Moorbank, N. S. W., and at Brisbane, Queensland.

Diesel Motors Pty. Ltd still at Bentley, W.A.

Diesel Company (Readymix) , 82 East Terrace, Adelaide, S. A.

Hope you find this of interest.

Thanks for confirming the location of Foden in NSW just before closure.
Can anyone remember the last known abode of ERF (in NSW) ???
Dave_64