End of an era: Myanmar's 'big belly' Chevy buses from WWII face scrap

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All

This news story was just sent me by Bill Falconer a reader of MLU.

The CMP based buses that have run in Burma/Myanmar for nearly seventy years have been ordered of the road. To be replaced by modern buses.



Follow the link for the report and an interesting video.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...ace-scrap?lite

Not a bad run.

Cheers Phil

[Keith Webb]

Thanks for sharing this Phil. Interesting news report, although the segue in the middle to an almost completely unrelated story was weird. The script demonstrates the usual media approach of partly informed as to the history. A Chevy first registered in 1939? Hmmmm.

I hope these continue in rural areas of Burma. It was an amazing time warp when I visited in 1977. About half the buses were Fords, few had a driven front axle, although Chev engines were the standard in both types then.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Keith

Glad you enjoyed the bit, I was told back in April by a Tokyo Civil Engineer that they life of the CMP buses in Yangon was drawing to an end. He said there were still 20 CMP buses running in that area of the country but that they would be gone soon. Of course I wonder how many times that had been said over the years.

He was collecting information on which CMP they would most likely been based on and wanted some information that I sent him. Will have to see if I can find the sketches he sent of what he had seen.

Cheers Phil

[Alex van de Wetering]

Thanks for posting this Phil. At first I thought these buses were only built with a CMP as inspiration, as we have seen with trucks in a different country (?), but to my surprise they were actually built on a CMP base, and at least front clip, fenders, grille and bumper were retained without modification.
Sad to see them go......you wonder if they had any spares to keep these truck running for all these years or if they just replaced arts with parts from a later truck or vehicle(?)

although the segue in the middle to an almost completely unrelated story was weird

Now that was strange indeed.....almost if the editor mixed up two stories!

Alex

[Neil Ashley]

Its the fate of the 40 Humber Armoured Cars and Bren Gun Carriers etc etc we want to know about.

Presumably already scrapped.

[welbike]

Hi there,

Same happened in the US, the late 30's White busses had been running forever in the Glacier National Park, and were just falling apart! but Ford came to the rescue, and so the bus bodies were put on a modern LPG running Ford chassis and engine!

Shame the White/Volvo Co. didn't get involved!! (edit, Volvo is owned by Ford now, so they did!)

See also here: http://http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-1930s-White-Glacier-National-Park-Red-Bus.htm

And a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYuszWB8l8w

Cheers,

Lex