Rod, Hal and others,

Before the arrival of cable and electric trams in Melbourne, the Victorian Railways ran horse buses from the rail terminus at Kew to Doncaster. Perhaps the Kew line was the one that was planned to be extended to this destination. No railway was built.

Here is a photo of a VR horse bus outside the Morning Star Hotel which was built next to the place where Doncaster Road crossed Koonung Creek. The bus is operating on an Up service from Doncaster to Kew with passengers and the Royal Mail. The photo was taken around 1880. Sorry this photo is too big for my scanner, so only part is in this scan,

Cheers
John Wayman

----- Original Message -----
From: Hal Cain
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 2:24 PM
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] Re: VR bus photo

Roderick Smith wrote:
>
> Hal's posting reminded me that I have a photo of the preserved White bus in
> VR livery with the Masterton fleet over 10 years ago. It was used for one
> sector of an ARHS round tour: steam tug Wattle to Portarlington, vintage
> buses to Geelong, derm back to Melbourne (also anticlockwise tour).
> It was a bus with a bonnet. I can't find the photo fast, as I can't find
> the date of the tour fast. It sees to be after 1994, but not long after..
> Instead, I enclose a photo of the bus at a Puffing Billy Olde Time Festival,
> on Sun.8.10.95. This was taken by Peter Foun, and appeared in Nov.95 RNV
> (from which this rescan has been made).

Nice, Rod! But the buses on the Kew route were shorter and had no rear
door (I think -- I never travelled on one, and mostly saw them from the
Kew Junction bus stop or tram stop).

> * Hawthorn - Kew from 5.10.1939 to 2.11.1956.

OK; from some reading, I believe that initially the buses ran offpeak
trips but also remained in service alongside the peakhour trains, when
Kew services were reduced to peak only; around 1950 the trains were
cancelled, though electric-hauled goods (chiefly briquettes) continued.
Towards the end of the service, I think the bus was peak-only.
>
> Would the Kew bus have been based at Deepdene?

Definitely. I saw afternoon trips running out from Deepdene quite often.

Hal Cain