1950 Foden PVSC6 (WAGR F44)

Foden PVSC6 — WAGR F44

Wagr 43 rrs dp43 foden pvsc6 wellington st c1954 Coopers 6 foden pvsc6 rrs f44 benger sep 1973 Coopers 6 foden pvsc6 h1306 wagr f44 benger 31 12 74
At a glance

The vehicle

Year1950
Make / modelFoden PVSC6
Fleet number(s)WAGR F44
ManufacturerFoden Ltd, Sanbach, Cheshire, England
Model/numberPVSC6
EngineGardner 6LW 8.4L 6cyl diesel
Transmission4-speed constant mesh (crash) gearbox
BrakesDrum brakes
SuspensionLeaf spring
Body: ManufacturerCommonwealth Engineering, Granville NSW
Body: Construction(not specified)
Body: Seating38 passengers
StatusNot recorded in the crawled source — confirm operational/restorable/spares status with BPSWA before publishing.
On the road and in preservation

The story

This type of Foden is an example of the bus that was the backbone of the West Australian Government Railways (WAGR) Railway Road Services for over two decades. At one time, WAGR was the world's largest operator of Foden PVSC6 buses who used them to replace country rail passenger services and for country areas not serviced by rail. This Foden PVSC6 entered into service with WAGR on 6th June 1950. The Commonwealth Engineering body carried 38 passengers and was fitted out with comfortable, high back coach seats. It was purchased from Diesel Motors Distributors and continued in service with the Railway Road Service until the early 1970's.

After service with the WAGR the bus was bought around 1971 by Coopers Bus Service of Benger (Benger was located on a crossing loop on the south-west railway between Armadale and Bunbury) for school and Bunbury area running and carried a navy blue livery. In 1975 it passed to Loves Bus Service (Bunbury) and was repainted into Loves' light blue livery.

In 1980 it was finally withdrawn from service, stored and then sold to a private owner.

BPSWA member, Terry Duke, brought F44 back to near original condition as a Railways Road Service Bus and donated the bus to BPSWA in 2007 where it now forms an important role in the succession of Railway Road Service buses from 1947 to 1987.

Loves foden pvsc6 h 1306 blue livery wagr f44 coopers 6 29 12 77
Loves foden pvsc6 h 1306 blue livery wagr f44 coopers 6 29 12 77 — caption/credit pending volunteer review
Gallery

Photos

Captions above are auto-derived from the source filenames as a starting point — a volunteer should confirm/replace them with real what/where/year/photographer credits per the Design System's imagery rules.