Cobb & Co was the name used by many successful sometimes quite independent Australian coaching businesses. The first was established in 1853 by American Freeman Cobb and his partners. The name Cobb & Co grew to great prominence in the late 19th century, when it was carried by many stagecoaches carrying passengers and mail to various Australian goldfields, and later to many regional and remote areas of the Australian outback. The same name was used in New Zealand and Freeman Cobb used it in South Africa.
Chinese passengers leaving for the diggings by Cobb & Co. coach, Castlemaine, Victoria. State Library of Victoria, Picture Collection.
Rhoden's Halfway House, Old Gippstown, built in 1863 at Pakenham for the Cobb & Co Gippsland route
Cobb & Co Coach, Kallangur, Queensland, unknown date
Tom Roberts' 1895 painting "Bailed Up," painted near Inverell, NSW
The Concord coach was an American horse-drawn coach, often used as stagecoaches, mailcoaches, and hotel coaches. The term was first used for the coaches built by coach-builder J. Stephen Abbot and wheelwright Lewis Downing of the Abbot-Downing Company in Concord, New Hampshire, but later to be sometimes used generically. Like their predecessors, the Concords employed a style of suspension and construction particularly suited to North America's early 19th century roads. Leather thoroughbraces suspend passengers who are in constant motion while the coach is moving. The swaying is accepted by passengers for the shock absorbing action of the leather straps and for the way the special motion eases the coach over very rough patches of roadway. This suspension, which was developed by Philip de Chiese in the 17th century, was long replaced by steel springs in England.
Concord Coach in Wells Fargo livery with leather-covered front and back boots
Glen's Falls, Lake George & Chester stagecoach c. 1880
The three longitudinal perches, the front transom supporting the metal uprights, the front axle with its link for the pole. Brake levers on the outside edge either side
The Springfield coach, 1907. Charlestown, NH to Springfield, VT