semi-buses, coach's?

Unreal Ron,I didn't know semi busses existed till I read this forum. Thanks for sharing the info. JK. Ps, i wonder what the coaches will be like in another 60 yes,anyone got any ideas?

Ronhorse - Great pics, and the semi-buses are a favorite of mine, too! I can recall seeing one in Perth, when it roared around the corner of William & Wellington Sts, when I was about 5 yrs old .. and that memory has never left me!

The one I saw was a KB-7, and I've found a photo of it on the W.A. Library site. There were apparently only three of these in W.A.
The boom period of the semi buses, was during WW2, and they were introduced as a way of beating Wartime restrictions on bus chassis importation, and the restriction of regular bus services, which was done to conserve fuel and tyres.

The semi-bus was simpler to build, and carried a lot more passengers than a regular bus. Waddingtons, later to become Comeng, built quite a number of these semi-bus bodies, both during and just after WW2 .. and the book, by John Dunn, "Comeng - A History of Commonwealth Engineering", devotes a couple of pages to the Comeng semi-buses.

It appears that Bond's Tour's of Adelaide was the first semi-bus operator to use this style. Bonds ran a successful semi-bus, "parlour-coach" service, between Adelaide and Mt Gambier, from 1939.

The Dyson Landliner was a total flop, with insurmountable steering problems. The East Coasters got sick of them, they were so dangerous, and sent one over here to the West!
It ran off the road and crashed, between Perth & Kalgoorlie, and the W.A. authorities banned it from the road, from that point.

The semi-bus idea died rapidly around the early 1950's, as conductors started to be eliminated. You can't run a semi-bus without a driver AND a conductor, so they became uneconomic.

Comeng book - books.google.com.au/books?id=yJXEiRvswoI...ted%20bus%22&f=false (scroll to pages 120 & 121)

Cheers - Ron.

I truly beleive that Australia is the only country in the world where you would see a vehicle of this configuration, a really one-of!!! To me there is always a comfortable feeling about stepping onto a bus, oops, coach, full of people going somewhere they want to go, warm feeling, bit of excitement and mutual expectation, everyone in a good mood to be going somewhere.
Thanks onetrack for puting that site on, great reading, also posting a pic of them sending you the Landliner, what did the East Coast have against W.A.?

One of our moves across the States incorporating family, goods and livestock using one vehicle.

One of our moves across the States incorporating family, goods and livestock in one unit.

Ronhorse - The West Australian Govt Railways, which ran country bus services, in conjunction with rail passenger services, actually contracted to purchase three of the Dyson Landliners from Victoria.

However, it appears that the Landliner pictured was the only one of its kind built, and a model called the Cheetah, which was very similar, replaced it.
The W.A. Govt contracted to purchase two new Cheetahs, as well as the used Landliner .. but the Cheetah contract was apparently cancelled, after new conditions were imposed on the Cheetah contract.

It remains a point of contention whether the W.A. Govt authorities knew that Victoria refused to renew the registration of the Dyson Landliner.

The Dyson Landliner pictured, was loaded on the train to Perth, and unloaded in Kalgoorlie on Thursday 24th July 1947, to a fanfare, and a big pictorial spread in the "West Australian" newspaper.
It was then driven to the Tramways carbarn in East Perth, where some work was carried out on it. It is not recorded what work the Tramways Dept did to it.

When the Landliner reached W.A., the Police Traffic Branch examined it, and expressed deep concerns over the bus' excessive size .. but more importantly, expressed deep reservations about the lack of back-up steering, in the event of steering hydraulic hose failure.

The Landliners hydraulic steering was controlled from the driver compartment in the front of the trailer, and had no mechanical coupling whatsoever, it was all purely hydraulic. A burst hose left the driver with no steering.

The Traffic Branch concerns were over-ruled by another, un-named Govt Dept. Incredibly, the bus was only registered to carry 44 passengers, when the Traffic Dept eventually issued a "provisional" registration! .. despite the fact, the Govt had paid to extend the capacity to 61 passengers!!

It appears that the passenger reduction was due to the bus not meeting W.A. Traffic Law regulations, as the bus weighed 15

I'm still trying to locate my old school bus. Last heard of up near Waikerie or Berri area (South Aus). Rod.

Ron, that is the most information I have read on the Land Liner, Thank you. I have been seeing pictures of that bus for a lot of years, and I knew it went to W.A. it would be interesting to know of the rest of it's dfemise. I sort of recall hearing that it got turned into a semi trailer bus, or the back bit at least, obviously, but I can'ty recall where I would have read that.