Crossley

Crossley
No's 1 - 10
1949 - 1973
Chasis Crossley TSD42/1
Wellington City Council B42D body work
Electrics by Metropolitan / Vickers
Motor 120bhp
Rheostatic control; foot operated master controller regulated by hydraulic damper giving "notchless" acceleration and breaking.
Breaking system combined rheostatic motor breaking with air operated wheel breaks.
These vehicles, nicknamed the "Silver Ghosts", originally entered sevice on the Roseneath route in 1949. The bodies were built at the City Council's work shops in Kilbirnie and, due to post war steel shortages, featured a wooden frame. They also had a pressurised ventilation system which did not proove a success and was later replaced by conventional opening windows. Four of these buses were also built for the New Plymouth City Council. The New Plymouth vehicles differred in that they had battery power for manouvering and a cover at the base of the trolley poles.

crossley photo
Wellington Crossley No. 1 being tested in April 1949
at Oriental Bay (Graham Stewart)

Preservation

crossley no2
No.2 being unloaded at the Kilbirnie Workshops
(The Omnibus Bulletin)

Only one of the Wellington buses, No.2, is still known to be in existance. Over Christmas 1997 it was rescued by the Omnibus Preservation Society and moved into storage in Kilbirnie. Due to it's wooden frame it is said to be in poor condition. However, three of the four New Plymouth vehicles are preserved at various museums around the country. The one at Ferrymead in Christchurch is fully restored and operational. The other two, in poorer states, are at The Queen Elizabeth Tramway Museum in Paraparaumu and The Foxton Trolley Bus Museum.

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