included 10 classic trucks. DAIMLER TRUCKS
Whilst looking at the Daimler Truck & Bus website recently, I came across a press release that caught my eye. I’ll admit, it wasn’t bus related, but it would be hard for any vehicle fan to be unimpressed by the beautiful historic trucks which the company showed off at a special event in Karlsruhe, when 10 milestones of commercial vehicle history were placed on display as part of a ‘Tribute to Carl Benz’ event on 4 May. It served as a reminder that it’s been a few years since I visited the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart, which is home to all manner of vehicles, charting the company’s history from its very early days.
In fact, the then Benz & Company delivered its first bus, powered by a combustion engine, on 12 March 1895, just over 130 years ago. The bus was used on a scheduled service connecting Siegen, Netphen and Deuz. At that time, a combustion engine was as much an alternative technology as hydrogen is for us today. The vehicle was based on the Benz Landauer, the largest car offered by Benz & Cie at the time. Ordered on 19 December 1894, it had a total of eight seats and was used by Netphener Omnibus-Gesellschaft. On 29 March 1895, the company ordered a second bus, which was delivered on 26 June. Both were powered by a horizontal, single-cylinder 2.9 litre engine at the rear, rated at 5hp. The delivery of the first Benz combustion engine bus represented the beginning of the company’s long and successful history in the coach and bus sector, something to which numerous exhibits at the Mercedes-Benz Museum bear witness. Among them is a Mercedes-Benz O 303 coach from 1979, representing the first bus on which systematic rollover tests were conducted as well as being the first bus model worldwide to be equipped with an ABS anti-lock braking system.
A more unusual vehicle is the Mercedes-Benz O 10000 city and long-distance bus from the late 1930s, which was converted into a mobile post office in Austria, and remained in use into the 1970s, which sits alongside a replica of the team bus used by the German national football team during the 1974 Football World Cup held in Germany.
If you’re nearby, the museum is well worth a visit.
