On the buses - catching Clipper for memory lane

By CAMERON WILLIAMSON

"So how many miles do you reckon she's done?" asks Bill Tunnicliff of Nelson, leaning proudly on the door of the Newmans Clipper.

"There are a few gaps when she came back from the North Island, but the records show she's driven more than three million miles," he said.

Tunnicliff is the volunteer driver of the Ansair Flxible Clipper owned by the current generation of the Newman family, run by the Newmans Milestone Association and kept at the historic garage at Nelson's Founders Park.

Newmans imported six buses new in 1952, brought over from Australia on a barge during a dockers' strike, and nearly lost one overboard.

The badge says Ansair Flxible Clipper, incorporating the name of the coachbuilder.

"They're extremely well built, the same as the American Greyhound buses except that the door and the steering wheel are on the other side," says Tunnicliff.

Inside the pop-riveted body, the generously padded seats seem, after being crammed into a diminutive airliner, to be in a permanent recline position.

Wooden facings, blinds and curtains on the forward-sloping windows and more legroom than a first-class lounge transport a passenger back to the halcyon days of provincial public roadliners.

"In the USA, Greyhounds used a big Buick V8, mounted on an independent chassis," Tunnicliff said.

"In the event of a problem, a whole new engine could be wheeled in the 'garage door' at the back of the bus.

"Passengers would get back on the bus after a 20-minute teabreak and not even realise the whole engine had been replaced."

Newmans had a choice of two engines and chose the big low-revving Leyland (1400-1800 revs at peak) that is used to power road graders.

The bus' huge mileage was mainly covered in the North Island. It was taken off the road in 1965 after 13 years rotating between nationwide touring and regular service on the Wellington-Palmerston North-Napier run.

Tunnicliff says there are only four left in New Zealand, although there are enough surviving in Australia to support a Clipper Club and even a few in Saudi Arabia.

A retired body shop specialist, Tunnicliff takes great pride in the Clipper's condition and in the upkeep of the association's other vehicles, an 19-seater International bus and a 1927 six-seater Cadillac that used to service the top half of the South Island. The fleet is hired out for weddings, civic and corporate transport.

But the Clipper remains Tunnicliff's pride and joy. "She goes through the warrant of fitness check with all ticks," he said. And despite periods of inactivity, "she always fires up with first compression."