This one is aimed at the good folks on this Forum who have an abiding interest in commercial vehicles!
Back in the early 1990s, the well-known Rolls-Royce collector James C Leake commissioned the restoration of a derlect former Brighton & Hove Milnes-Daimler omnibus of 1905. Milnes-Daimler held the British empire rights to the commercial vehicle output of the German Daimler company. The name derives from that of G F Milnes which had begun as a tramcar builder after taking over the premises of the Starbuck company of Birkenhead. They pioneered the construction of double-deck omnibuses in 1902 / 03. The Brighton & Hove bus was briefly displayed, following its restoration, at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu (in the then "Hall of Fame" I think) and was exported to the USA in 1994. Prior to this, the vehicle took part in that year's London to Brighton Commercial Vehicle Run. I believe that the Leake Collection was partially dispersed a few years later following the death of Mr Leake and I wondered if anyone knew where this bus is now??
There is a similar 1904 Milnes-Daimler - originally in service with a predecessor of Thomas Tilling - in The Louwman Museum in The Hague. The Daimler-Benz Museum at Stuttgart also has a 1907 example, new to another London operator.
If I can find any available pics, I'll add them later. Maybe someone has a pic or two from either The Leake Collection or when the bus was displayed at Beaulieu?
Edited by Pullman99, 22 November 2014 - 14:05.
