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English   The world’s first bus series launched by Daimler
11.09.2008 von admin


Breakthrough for the motorized bus

A lot speaks in favor of quoting the year 1898 as the start of motorized bus operation. In that year, Benz supplied three twelve-seaters to Llandudno in Wales where they were operated on excursion routes throughout the summer. In this case, the design was based on a horse-drawn bus concept known as the Kremser Pate, an open vehicle with soft-top, driven by a 15 hp two-cylinder engine. At the time, the “Birmingham Daily Mail”, reporting on a planned city bus line, wrote: ”Since they coped well with the tough conditions encountered on Welsh roads and in the Welsh mountains, there need be no worries concerning their suitability for the forthcoming line service in Birmingham.”


Motorized Daimler bus, 1898/99

The first regular-service bus from Daimler started operating in the same year. After trial driving with a Victoria car, in which Gottlieb Daimler himself had taken part, a company called “Motorwagen-Betrieb Künzelsau-Mergentheim GmbH” was founded as early as February. However, it was not before September that a converted Victoria car with 10-hp engine (7.4 kW) started operating, with a stage coach body with capacity for ten people serving as passenger compartment.

The country line had to contend with a number of problems. A filling station network was not yet in place, and the fuel-selling chemists did not always have sufficient quantities on stock. In rainy weather, the high and narrow wheels occasionally got stuck in the mud, and it took a team of farm horses to pull the vehicle out again. And finally, the three-meter high vehicle’s road-holding was far from satisfactory, since its high center of gravity called for great sensitivity on the part of the driver.


The first Daimler 10 hp mail service bus, with seating for ten persons. Bad Mergentheim-Künzelsau bus route, 2nd October 1898


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