Guest bus man Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 Cravens of Darnall had a long and proud history of supplies bodies for railway vehicles and bus bodies world wide The last bus to be bodied by Cravens was a Bedford supplied to Sheffield Transport: this bus was purchased for the rail replacement service which would run when the Hope Valley line was closed. The chassis for this bus was delivered to queens road from Bedford and was shortened before bodying hence reports in some publications that there were two vehicles. In order to avoid further confusion this is NOT the committee coach which caused so much controversy either. The line didn't close and the bus was sold to King Ecgbert School at Dore and then passed to Greenthorpes the garage people who used it as a family run about. The photo below shows the bus in their ownership Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest transit Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 Cravens of Darnall had a long and proud history of supplies bodies for railway vehicles and bus body’s world wide The last bus to be bodied by cravens was a Bedford supplied to Sheffield transport this bus was purchased for the rail replacement service which would run when the hope valley line was closed. The chassis for this bus was delivered to queens road from Bedford and was shortened before bodying hence reports in some publications that there were two vehicles. In order to avoid further confusion this is NOT the committee coach which caused so much controversy either. The line didn’t close and the bus was sold to king ecgbert school at dore and then passed to greenthorpes the garage people who used it as a family run about the photo below shows the bus in there ownership ...as i have just posted on the "Greenthorpe" thread - although it is a bit of an "ugly duckling" ,i cant believe this bus was'nt bought for preservation due to its infamous local connections! :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madannie77 Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 An advert for Cravens in the Institution of Locomotive Engineers Journal for July-August 1949: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnm Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 I well remember going past the Cravens factory on the train (to Retford I think) many times & seeing carraige units freshly painted, often looking quite colourful to be shipped around the world in the 50's . Shame its gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukelele lady Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Don't forget the TV program tonight on BBC 4 at 9 o'clock, Some of the trams shown are in Sheffield, I believe it's been on before but worth a second viewing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waterside Echo Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Cravens of Darnall had a long and proud history of supplies bodies for railway vehicles and bus body’s world wide The last bus to be bodied by cravens was a Bedford supplied to Sheffield transport this bus was purchased for the rail replacement service which would run when the hope valley line was closed. The chassis for this bus was delivered to queens road from Bedford and was shortened before bodying hence reports in some publications that there were two vehicles. The line didn’t close and the bus was sold to king ecgbert school at dore and then passed to greenthorpes the garage people who used it as a family run about the photo below shows the bus in there ownership Lets not forget that the Bedford was used by the STD band, occasionally it would be pressed into service due to bus shortages before its disposal in the early 70s. W/E. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madannie77 Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 To highlight what bus man put in the first post of this topic about Cravens' business being world wide: From 1959 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madannie77 Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 And more locally, from a 1929 Corporation tram & bus timetable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
History dude Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Diesel Multiple Units built by Cravens. Class 106 introduced 1956. Motor Brake Second Class 105 - 1957 - M.B.S. Class 105/2 - 1957 Class 105/1 - 1957. & 1958 Motor Composite Class 105/2 1959 Motor Brake Second Class 141 1956 & 1958 Driving Trailer Composite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmy117 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Cravens also built the three members of class 129, the single car parcels units in 1955, and the class 311 electric multiple units for use in the Glasgow area. Not sure about the class 141's, they were a lot later and built by British Leyland from bus parts Nigel L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madannie77 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 4 hours ago, Lemmy117 said: Cravens also built the three members of class 129, the single car parcels units in 1955, and the class 311 electric multiple units for use in the Glasgow area. Not sure about the class 141's, they were a lot later and built by British Leyland from bus parts Nigel L According to railcar.co.uk the DTCLs built for what became the Class 105 & 106 units were originally given the class number 141 when TOPS was introduced in the early 1970s, as listed above by HistoryDude. There were also some TCLs (for the three car sets) classified as 170s. I was unaware of those designations until HistoryDude's post, but I am now enlightened thanks to railcar.co.uk, where there is also a list of the class numbers allocated to all of the first generation DMU vehicles. Cravens also built the Class 112 & 113 DMUs (50 cars of each type in total). These were built in 1960 and all withdrawn from use by the end of 1969. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boginspro Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 This was an interesting Cravens bodied vehicle, the Karrier Ro-Railer ----------------- (C) http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/smjsa47.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madannie77 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 More about the Ro-railer here and here (pdf file) It appears to have been a failure, working for only a few weeks before a front axle failure put it out of service on the rails for good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 It doesn't sound as if the class 112 and 113 trains were very successful either, if they had a working life of under ten years. What was wrong with them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
History dude Posted January 5, 2017 Share Posted January 5, 2017 On 04/01/2017 at 08:26, Athy said: It doesn't sound as if the class 112 and 113 trains were very successful either, if they had a working life of under ten years. What was wrong with them? The carden shaft would shear a lot apparently, one sheared that baldly that it ruptured the fuel tank causing a fire, while it was in a tunnel! The resulting fire was really intense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lysander Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 In the early 1950's I lived on Littledale and my bedroom looked out across some fields into Darnall Depot and Cravens. Anything interesting and it was a swift trot before school to "kop" it. Probably the finest thing I ever saw at Cravens was a full train set of coaches destined for some royal potentate somewhere in Asia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
History dude Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 Any pictures of the factory? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith_exS10 Posted June 14, 2019 Share Posted June 14, 2019 If l may ask something slightly.off line has anyone any info ss to their Ww2 activities? A good friend of ours had the newsagents on Barber Road about no.36 or 38.l think.from at least 1930.on. About 1936 he moved to Scarborough as as hotelier. All.was well till.someone thoughtlessly dropped a bomb on it followed shortly by an instruction (Direction of Labour Regulations) to return at once back to Cravens in his trade as a jig and tool maker.which he did till 1946. The Ministry obviously found him after several.years and conveniently his mother still lived opposiite the works. He was remarkably reticent about what he did and rather oddly only ever would admit to making ta fixtures for the Westland Lysander, hardly a fighting machine. So please can anyone tell me what did go.on in the war? Was it buses still or what? Anything top secret? Somebody will.know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lysandernovo Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 I apologise for starting a new topic but I cannot find the original thread. Someone asked what the company did apart from assemble Lysander airframes ( a STOL Army Co-Operation type a few of which operated coastal patrols from Sheffield Aeroclubs airfield at Netherthorpe and later made its name by flying agents in and out of occupied France) The company made Horsa glider wings ( mainly used on D Day and at Arnhem) They made and repaired railway wagons,. They also manufactured aircraft components for:- the Welkin,Barracuda, Lancaster and Lincoln as well as exhaust manifolds for the Merlin engine. They completed;-artillery limbers,gun shields, armoured vehicle gun turrets, ammunition racks,generating plants as well as boring and heat treating a range of gun barrels. An interesting array despite 100,000 sq ft of the main assembly area being damaged during the Blitz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madannie77 Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Here you are lysandernovo. Cravens made plenty of equipment for railways worldwide as well as bus bodies (120 on RTs for London Transport) and tram bodies for Sheffield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boginspro Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 On 23/05/2019 at 22:12, History dude said: Any pictures of the factory? A couple pictures here of a fine vehicle in Craven's works. Though I have no information of the bus they must have been very proud of such a beauty. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Varkanoid Posted October 19, 2020 Share Posted October 19, 2020 On 14/06/2019 at 15:58, Keith_exS10 said: If l may ask something slightly.off line has anyone any info ss to their Ww2 activities? A good friend of ours had the newsagents on Barber Road about no.36 or 38.l think.from at least 1930.on. About 1936 he moved to Scarborough as as hotelier. All.was well till.someone thoughtlessly dropped a bomb on it followed shortly by an instruction (Direction of Labour Regulations) to return at once back to Cravens in his trade as a jig and tool maker.which he did till 1946. The Ministry obviously found him after several.years and conveniently his mother still lived opposiite the works. He was remarkably reticent about what he did and rather oddly only ever would admit to making ta fixtures for the Westland Lysander, hardly a fighting machine. So please can anyone tell me what did go.on in the war? Was it buses still or what? Anything top secret? Somebody will.know Just came across a video of Cravens and lead me to this website. My Grandad used to work there (who passed away quite a while ago now) and he told them they also used to make Spitfire parts. He specialised in the wooden parts on buses/trams. He told me he was involved in making Spitfire propellers and once showed me a picture of him stood next to a propeller which was taller than him. I wish I still had that old photo but it must be long gone now. I think he was in his 20's during the war, my mum was born in 1941. They were not called up to do service because they were vital to the war effort and as it was a very skilled job it would take to long to train others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveHB Posted October 19, 2020 Share Posted October 19, 2020 On 20/04/2020 at 17:19, lysandernovo said: I apologise for starting a new topic but I cannot find the original thread. Someone asked what the company did apart from assemble Lysander airframes ( a STOL Army Co-Operation type a few of which operated coastal patrols from Sheffield Aeroclubs airfield at Netherthorpe and later made its name by flying agents in and out of occupied France) The company made Horsa glider wings ( mainly used on D Day and at Arnhem) They made and repaired railway wagons,. They also manufactured aircraft components for:- the Welkin,Barracuda, Lancaster and Lincoln as well as exhaust manifolds for the Merlin engine. They completed;-artillery limbers,gun shields, armoured vehicle gun turrets, ammunition racks,generating plants as well as boring and heat treating a range of gun barrels. An interesting array despite 100,000 sq ft of the main assembly area being damaged during the Blitz. 3 hours ago, Varkanoid said: Just came across a video of Cravens and lead me to this website. My Grandad used to work there (who passed away quite a while ago now) and he told them they also used to make Spitfire parts. He specialised in the wooden parts on buses/trams. He told me he was involved in making Spitfire propellers and once showed me a picture of him stood next to a propeller which was taller than him. I wish I still had that old photo but it must be long gone now. I think he was in his 20's during the war, my mum was born in 1941. They were not called up to do service because they were vital to the war effort and as it was a very skilled job it would take to long to train others. Topics merged Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madannie77 Posted January 14, 2023 Share Posted January 14, 2023 The Railway Gazette, May 1952 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted January 14, 2023 Share Posted January 14, 2023 What a marvellous advert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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