Solved: Wendax 1669 - Borgward Hansa Express

Wendax · August 29, 2015, 12:08:02 PM

B 4000 engine, but not built by Ottenbacher.

pguillem · August 29, 2015, 12:59:32 PM

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 · 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.

pguillem · August 29, 2015, 02:09:35 PM

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 · August 29, 2015, 02:18:02 PM

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 · August 29, 2015, 02:27:00 PM

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

Wendax · August 29, 2015, 02:37:08 PM

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

Locked for you.

Hiawatha · August 29, 2015, 05:59:45 PM

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

Wendax · August 30, 2015, 01:39:39 AM

Unlocked and open for all again

pguillem · August 30, 2015, 10:50:55 AM

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 · August 30, 2015, 01:25:25 PM

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

Hiawatha · August 30, 2015, 01:55:39 PM

Eight letters?

Wendax · August 30, 2015, 02:09:26 PM

It is Borgward followed by two words.

pguillem · August 30, 2015, 02:22:59 PM

Borgward Focke-Bus ?

Wendax · August 30, 2015, 03:29:38 PM

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 · August 30, 2015, 04:21:26 PM

Hansa Express ?

Wendax · August 30, 2015, 04:42:55 PM

Spot on!

pguillem · August 30, 2015, 05:41:18 PM

Unknown in the Net. Thanks ! :)

Bill Murray · 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

pguillem · August 30, 2015, 10:31:07 PM

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 · August 31, 2015, 03:15:23 AM

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 · August 31, 2015, 07:54:34 AM

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

Wendax · August 31, 2015, 02:14:58 PM

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 · June 25, 2017, 03:31:58 PM

Another picture of it as the Wochenend-Express:

News:

Solved: Wendax 1669 - Borgward Hansa Express