MO 1964 - M/O 1930

1930 was bodied in April 1978, part of the first order of 200 Mercedes Benz buses made by the NSW Government for the Public Transport Commission. It was delivered in mid 1978 to Kingsgrove. It has been suggested that the only reason Kingsgrove received the mark I O305's was due to a by election in the state seat of Earlwood. They were all meant for the Eastern suburbs, thus they were fitted with Eastern destination blinds at the factory, being the first type of bus with narrower side destinations - the Leyland Leopards before them had full size front and side destination blinds, Kingsgrove had none of the smaller south western set available to install. The front destinations were changed over and the side ones had to wait until a batch of smaller blinds could be produced.

Mercedes Benz mkI 1923, in original livery, during a tour in June 2007

m/o 1930 in service at Circular Quay possibly in late 1978, note the drivers window.
photo supplied by Graeme Knappick

In either 1983 or 1984, it received an overhaul at Chullora, the bell cords that were hung along the windowline were removed and poles with push buttons were installed instead. The drivers window was replaced with the same window used on the mkII and mkIII bodies. Then painted into mkII/III colours, then in December 1989, the first of the mark I's are withdrawn. 1930 was withdrawn in January 1990.

1930 seen here on the 28th January 1990, withdrawn in a storage yard at Randwick depot, next to a new O405 3353 which to this day remains at Randwick depot. Graeme Knappick

1930 along with eleven other mkI Mercs were purchased by Fearnes Coaches, before leaving Sydney, they were sent to Pressed Metal Corporation for an overhaul. There the floors were redone, wall panels replaced and interior painted. The side destination box was removed and replaced with a matching window. The front was replaced and the whole bus painted in their livery.

1800, 1840, 1861, 1877, 1916, 1918, 1924, 1926, 1930, 1942 and 1964 were all purchased for use by Fearnes, 1832 and 1857 were used for parts.

Once at Wagga Wagga, what was m/o 1930 was registered MO 1964 and used on town runs. A few years later, it along with MO 1967 (ex 1840) were painted into a special town shuttle livery. The route ran from one end of Wagga's main street to the other, linking two places where Fearnes services terminated and shuttling passengers from the centre of town to these places. After Fearnes redesigned their network, making all services terminate in the centre of town, the shuttle was discontinued. Their mark I Mercs cascaded down to school runs after their fleet of ex government Leylands were withdrawn. In 2002, MO 1964 was repainted into the Fearnes livery. She continued to serve until 2007.