Leyland Buffalo: What's the Story?

... By the way, the other (?) 2 Oz Buffalos I mentioned both "starred" on BigLorryBlog - the first one is in the National Road Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs, no idea where the other one is or who owns it (I can't find the original post on BLB - no idea whether the bloke standing next to it is the owner). Andy, could one of the two be the NT Buffalo you mentioned?

Any further info on them would be much appreciated, Cheers,

T




PS: More pics of the Kiwi Buff were posted on the ATHS forum by the owner's brother (plus heaps more from the Caulfield Museum and friends, Internationals, KWs, Pacifics etc. - go see at forums.aths.org/InstantForum414/Topic67829-4-1.aspx )

http://forums.aths.org/InstantForum414/Attachment12082.aspx
http://forums.aths.org/InstantForum414/Attachment12083.aspx

Tatra, didn't know about the one at the Road Transport Hall of Fame. Was trying to work out the fourth you knew of - that's the one.

The other three, I'm guessing, are the one I put up a pic of in Perth, the one in Queensland that appears at Beenleigh etc and the blue one that lives in Warnambool?

Oh, and the one Sarge posted. Five?

I think there's another in NZ but she's stuffed big time. Rufus Carr sent me an old pic of her and one of her dilapidated state now. Can't find the old pic but I know I've got the current pic somewhere. To be honest, can't even remember if she's a Buff. If Rufo sent her, though, it's quite likely.

Hi Andy,the Queensland one belongs to Bill Baskett,who is quite involved in the museum at Winton,which is where the truck is now I think.Bill is based in Toowoomba and he was also involved in the Gatton thing on the weekend.If you have a bit of a look at the pic of the Commer knocker in the Gatton pics,you`ll see his name on the right hand side of the bull bar.

...the blue one that lives in Warnambool?

Andy, now you got me confused (not difficult to do) - a blue one? You mean the lwb in my first post?

So we have (edited to add more info provided in AtkiPete's article)...

1. The grey lwb (Baskett);
2. The green one you posted (which I always assumed - because of the rain - was one in the UK...);
3. The one posted by Sarge (HCVC member Bob Addison's?);
4. The Museum's Buff;
5. the yellow/white one with added sleeper (Ryans of Warnambool's? This is now painted blue/white);
6. Robert Caulfield's Cummins engined one in NZ;
7. Possibly another one in NZ;
8. 2 Spanish ones (I'm thinking of getting in touch with the Spainiards but language may be a problem); and
9. maybe more in South Africa or South America - there was a very strong Leyland presence in Argentina, for example (pretty certain the lone Israeli example has been scrapped long ago :'()?

I hope this makes sense - sorry for being a pest...

Cheers,

T

Tatra - The Green Buffalo is in Perth, Western Australia. Contrary to false reports from those Melburnians .. it does rain on regular occasions, in the Western parts of Australia, during Winter ..

Onetrack,

Noted - I must admit I never got as far as Perth when I visited Oz - thought about it but decided my XC Falcon panel van probably was not up to the drive from Melbourne So, yes, the picture of Perth I have in my mind is a place where it rains for 3 minutes once a year...

Also, the cab has rust like you'd expect on a Pommy vehicle (I've cut and replaced enough rusty bits when I was in the UK to know) and that was another red herring. Lastly the CCMV capping says it has a cracked block, something you encounter in Europe when people forget to drain the water out or top up
anti-freeze levels before winter, but would not expect to happen in Oz ...

Cheers,

T

As far as I know, the green one #2 is the one that Ryans of Warrnambool now have (#5). Gavin Atkin bought this but it had a blown power divider and he ended up selling it on.

Brian Copley owns the one in Perth and I remember seeing pics of the blue Warnambool one when I was still in Perth and then comparing it to Brian's truck. Definitely two separate trucks.

Sorry, Tatra, the blue one I referred to is your number 5 owned by Ryans. They have a nice collection.

Just been hunting around in the desktop and ended up finding the following.

Here's the Baskett truck (pic by Graham Kircher):



Here's the 'other' NZ Buff that Rufus Carr told me about. She's known as the McRobbie Buffalo and is owned by a mate of Rufo's who wants to restore her but needs some help as she's a bit of a challenge. Rufo also sent me a period shot of her pulling a float but I haven't been able to find that pic for ages.



Finally, I was idly going through some pics of Rick Thege's collection near Ballarat and came across this. Look what's in the background and Cummins-powered! Buffalo?

Tatra - Well, surprisingly, Perth has an annual rainfall of 869mm (over 34") .. and many parts of the SW part of W.A., get over 1250mm (approx. 50").
In addition, it's not unknown for Winter overnight temperatures in inland areas, to go well below freezing overnight.
I have seen 22