Solved: Wendax 1669 - Borgward Hansa Express

Started by Wendax, August 14, 2015, 02:29:31 AM

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Wendax

B 4000 engine, but not built by Ottenbacher.

pguillem

Here the pain begins.  The only other German coachbuilders I know for Borgward buses -NWF and Ottenbacher being excluded- are Auwärter, Kässbohrer, Ludewig, Pollmann, Puppe, Schmitz and Steib.  Is it one of them ?

Wendax

I can ease your pain. It wasn't built by any of these, in fact there was no coachbuilder involved.

pguillem

Quote from: Wendax on August 29, 2015, 01:40:22 PM
I can ease your pain. It wasn't built by any of these, in fact there was no coachbuilder involved.

Good news ! As it doesn't look like any other Borgward bus known from me, was it built for some special purpose ?

Wendax

It was a (not so ordinary) bus and it was used as such. I need the name of the bus and the engineer behind it.

Unlocked and open for all again.

Hiawatha

Prototype built in house from a design of Prof. Focke in light alloy circa 1951?

Wendax

Yes, Prof. Focke was the engineer behind it. Now I just need the name of the bus.

Locked for you.

Hiawatha

My source doesn't mention any name. As I have already spent hours researching this bus, please unlock.

Wendax

Unlocked and open for all again

pguillem

All I could find, following Hiawatha's info, was a reference to Peter Kurze's book "Prototypen und Kleinserien Fahrzeuge der Borgward-, Goliath- und Lloyd-Werke " showing a list with the "Focke-Bus" from 1950.  No other name.

Wendax

Its name is written in large letters on its sides.  ;)

Hiawatha


Wendax

It is Borgward followed by two words.

pguillem


Wendax

No, Focke and Bus are not part of the name. One of the words is associated to Borgward, the other one often used for buses in the 1950s (not so much by the manufacturers, but by the bus companies).

pguillem

#40
Hansa Express ?

Wendax

Spot on!

pguillem


Bill Murray

Well Done Patrick :applause: :applause: :applause:

I got the Borgward Hansa part earlier today and did a lot, a lot, of google research from that point and came up with nothing.

Interesting, Gerd, that in looking at hundreds, if not a thousand or so, german bus images of the period, I never saw the word "Express" used on the side of the bus or even in their advertising.

In any case, it was a challenging puzzle.

Bill
Cheers
Bill

pguillem

#44
Quote from: Bill Murray on August 30, 2015, 06:00:10 PM
Well Done Patrick :applause: :applause: :applause:

I got the Borgward Hansa part earlier today and did a lot, a lot, of google research from that point and came up with nothing.

Interesting, Gerd, that in looking at hundreds, if not a thousand or so, german bus images of the period, I never saw the word "Express" used on the side of the bus or even in their advertising.

In any case, it was a challenging puzzle.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Most of this puzzle was pretty haphazard guessing.  I tried Borgward, considering the possibilities excluded, because I doubted that this bus could be a Magirus-Deutz, a Krupp, a Faun or a Vomag, but I was stuck before Hiawatha's message because I didn't know the relation between Borgward and Prof. Focke.  This info given, I just tried to know more, but Focke-Bus was the only answer I came with.  Gerd help me a lot with his hint. I considered Rhombus and Hansa, but two Google searches convinced me that the latter was more efficient because there was a Borgward Hansa Express truck from 1927 (also named Hansa-Lloyd).  A great lot of luck this time.

BTW, I am very surprised that this intriguing bus doesn't appear in any Borgward page.

Wendax

Quote from: Bill Murray on August 30, 2015, 06:00:10 PM
Interesting, Gerd, that in looking at hundreds, if not a thousand or so, german bus images of the period, I never saw the word "Express" used on the side of the bus or even in their advertising.
Some Expresses for you:  :)

Bill Murray

Well, Gerd, another lesson well learned.

I bow to your extensive knowledge of the European vehicle scene compared to mine.  :hail: :hail:

I obviously did not use the proper search criteria in Google to try to match bus with express.

In my defense, I got hung up on the fact that delivery vans (lieferwagen) of all marques were often called "express" and I just did not associate the term with a bus.

In any case, thanks for the new photos and I have saved them for future reference.

Bill
Cheers
Bill

Wendax

Some more pictures (on the last one you can see that Borward changed the side lettering in later years when the bus was used for weekend tours of his workers):

Wendax

Another picture of it as the Wochenend-Express: