The Volvo B58 Story

This article originally appeared in the December 1990 edition of TRANSACTION.

On the occasion of the sale of the last of ACTION’s fleet of B58 Volvos it is appropriate to recall a little of the history of this type of bus as the purchase of Volvos back in 1971 was one of the most significant events in Australian bus history.

Up until the early 1970s the Canberra Bus Service had been a consistent purchaser of the products from AEC since the first AEC Renowns trundled around the city streets in 1926. The largest number of non-AEC products purchased in the 46 years between 1926 and 1972 were 11 Leyland Leopards bought between 1962 and 1966. But in the early 1970s, reliability problems with the AEC Swifts caused the Department of the Interior to look for alternative chassis.

Volvo was exploring the possibility of entering the Australian market with a chassis labelled as a B58 and demonstrated a chassis in Canberra in 1971.

Ironically, the Volvo B58, a traditional mid-mounted underfloor engine format, was described in some circles as the Swedish equivalent of the Leyland Leopard, ironic in the sense that the Department did not like the Leopard.

As the result of the calling of tenders on 4 February 1971, the Department ordered, in May 1971, two B58-50 chassis to be bodied by Freighter Industries in Adelaide, to a design similar to that being applied to 20 AEC Swifts.

The Volvo chassis was equipped with a 9.6 litre HD100A engine which developed 175bhp at 2200 rpm. With a chassis weight of 11,700 lbs (2,000 lbs heavier than the AEC Swifts), the Volvo was the heaviest and most powerful bus to have operated in Canberra. Also of note was that 207 and 208 were the first buses in hte fleet with power steering, an exhaust brake, and spring parking brake.

Swedish Motors Pty Lrd delivered the two new buses to Canberra on 29 February 1972, and both buses were then used to extensive driver and mechanic training after being registered ZIB 207 and ZIB 208.

Number 207 replaced AEC Reliance 127 as a charter only bus and entered revenue service on 8 April 1972 when it made a trip to Batemans Bay.

History was made at 1.55pm on 16 May 1972 when Australia’s first Volvo route bus, ZIB 208, left the City on its first revenue journey to Latham on route 41, replacing ZIB 186, the first of the Freighter-bodied swifts.

Whilst the Commonwealth Government owned the first Volvo route buses in Australia, it is interesting to note that the chassis which was demonstrated to the Department was bodied by Denning as a coach in September 1971 for Grendas of Dandenong and, after being sold to the AAT, was transferred to Canberra in 1980. All three Volvo ‘pioneers’ were in Canberra for about four years before the AAT coach went to Queensland.

The two Volvos proved to be very reliable, and when Volvo Australia introduced its turbo charged engine (the THD 100A) to the local scene, it was decided to order some chassis with the new engine for use on intertown routes 16 and 42 between Woden and Belconnen.

Six chassis of the B58-56 rtpe, a longer wheelbase than 207 and 208, were ordered in February 1973. All were to have bodies by Smithfield in Sydney.

Volvo handed the first bus over in an official ceremony on 9 August 1974. It was registered ZIB 236 on 30 August and entered service not on route 16/42 but on route 26 to the airport on 9 September 1974. That allocation was short lived, and the bus was soon working the express route 16/42, followed by the other four buses, 237-9 and 250.

It is believed that they were among the first turbo-charged buses in the country and, with an engine developing 250 bhp at 2200 rpm, they were easily the most powerful city buses in Australia at the time.

The six Volvo of the February 1973 order received a Smithfield coach body to a design which was reminiscent of the then current Denning style and body. ZIB 251, a 45 seat, air conditioned coach, was to supplement the AEC Reliance coach ZIB 100 and form the nucleus of an expanded coach operation, a project which never came to fruition.

In September 1973, a further 16 Volvos were ordered, followed by 17 in two batches in early 1974 and then another 37 in November 1974. All were to have the same Smithfield body and all were to have semi-automatic transmissions supplied by Wilson SCG, a Leyland subsidiary. In June 1975, however, the order of 37 was amended to permit the last 17 of that batch to be fitted with ZF 2Hp 45 003 fully automatic transmission. This change followed a problem with the supply of Leyland-built transmissions to Volvo – a make which was rapidly taking over part of the chassis market once held by Leyland.

After coach 251 was deliverede, the other Volvos were registed in a block (ZIB 337 – ZIB 406), with 407 being reserved for the second Volvo coach, an order which never eventuated.

The last of the ACTION B58 Volvos are up for sale, but we have retained ZIB 207 to represent what was an epoc making decision in 1971 to buy a continental European chassis. THe purchase of 207 and 208 was to change the whole face of the Australian bus market. Within a decade the traditional English chassis had been virtually replaced  by the European chassis.

And then came the unthinkable – at least unthinkable in 1971 when Canberra ordered two Volvo buses – the purchase of Leyland by Volvo. One will soon be able to buy a Leyland Lynx complete with a Volvo engine!