ENGINEERING REVIEW 2003
Many kind words were received after last year’s bumper bundle of news on restoration work so here we go again. The priority for the Trust continues to be getting the Midland Red collection in as good a condition as possible for the company’s centenary in the autumn of 2004. Our annual October open day will include what we are determined will be the finest line-up of Midland Red stock since, er, the company used to park up Bank Holiday duplicates in the bus station beneath Dudley Castle. As before lots of volunteers deserve credit for their efforts. The principal volunteers in each project are mentioned but it must be noted that most projects receive help from other kind souls. Apologies, of course, to any unfortunate who has contributed significantly to a project and been missed out - nothing personal! Persons meriting special mention over more than one specific bus are Phil Hoole and Mick Green for their efforts in keeping the exhibits clean, Dave Parry, John Townshend and Dick Lolley for Class VI checks, and Roland Slater for his work on destination blinds for the Class VI fleet.
O9926:-
The impact of the 1913 Tilling-Stevens has been improved considerably by receiving the remaining upper deck ‘modesty’ panels, manufactured by Pete Murphy, and basically fitted by Phil Ireland and painted by Malcolm Keeley in 1922 style appropriate to surviving lettering.
CN2870:-
The 1927 SOS Queen is, of course, our ‘secret’ project referred to in Bus & Coach Preservation magazine although it is hardly a secret within BaMMOT. Dave Parry is in charge here, with significant help from Mike Jordan, and progress has been phenomenal. This is despite the obvious difficulties in sourcing bits and pieces, assuming Dave knows what the bits and pieces should look like. Much of his time is detective work and producing drawings for the items to be made. Dave has promised an article once the job is complete but, to give you an idea of progress, the exterior is in first coat of gloss, mechanically everything is virtually sourced and prepared for assembly (perhaps we had better mention fuel tank frustrations here) and then, hopefully, it will be lights, camera, action! Internally there are acres of varnished woodwork but still no seats. The latter is a major cost and any donations would be gratefully received.
GHA333:-
Alex Potts has completely renewed and painted the cab of the Carlyle Road SOS works tug which now looks fine. With the large ‘Towing’ sign painted by Allan Rushby now reinstated at the front, this vehicle and makes an extraordinary exhibit. The wooden deck remains to be done.
GHA337:-
With the SOS Queen taking financial priority, the SOS SON is proceeding only slowly, with an intention to keep it exhibitable until after the Midland Red centenary. Nevertheless bits of work are being carried out, principally by Pete Murphy and Mike Jordan. Mike has been adding extra protection underneath while Pete was last seen finishing off the entrance porch.
NHA744:-
Mike Jordan and Dave Brown, assisted by John Lowe when the weather is too bad to work outdoors on the DD12, continue to bring the exterior works to the BMMO S12 to completion, following their earlier activities under the panels.
SHA431:-
Lots of work on the 1685 Group’s Midland Red LD8 class Leyland PD2. The principal improvement has been a complete body repair rear of the rear axle, including a new platform floor. The nearside is now largely complete with window pans refurbished, glazing mounted in new rubber, and in first coat of gloss. Internally the upper saloon is being reassembled after being completely stripped, rewired, and all tired items replaced or refurbished. The platform area is being restored after much battering by suitcases, Verometers and Setrights, and evidently at least one tumbling drunk, judging by the unintended bend in the staircase panel!
UHA255:-
The promised repaint by Kevin Hill of the BMMO S14 was completed and included lining out and authentic signwriting to splendid effect. One of our shabbiest exhibits has been transformed into a real eyecatcher.
XHA482:-
This BMMO D7 is to receive the same attention as the S14. By the end of the year much of the paint had been stripped (particular thanks here to Tom Couling) and new primer applied by Kevin Hill in readiness for a Spring repaint.
871KHA:-
This early BMMO D9 is one of the buses that has stood about the museum in partially stripped state. It became mobile again after refitting the fuel pump and now Kevin Hill and Alex Potts have made a splendid start on its restoration; initial attention has involved the upper saloon exterior panels and the frames beneath. Last seen, they were probing the traditionally desperate areas behind the axles. The intention is to restore it over the next few years to WMPTE colours to differentiate it from BHA399C.
6545HA:-
The BMMO S16 returned successfully to Class VI service after its engine repairs.
EHA767D:-
Another of our ‘long red single deckers’ (BMMO S17) is now mobile again, thanks to a rebuilt brake master cylinder from Jeremy Price and refitted on the bus by Kevin
GHA415D:-
John Lowe has completed the reconstruction of the platform and drivers cab floor on the Midland Red DD12 class Daimler Fleetline and has now turned his attention to refurbishing the lower deck interior over the rear axle. The chassis frames of a lot of Fleetlines are extensively rotted over the rear axle and this bus is no exception. Pete Murphy is now attending to this heavy job and once this is completed John will be able to rebuild the interior.
NOE544R:-
A new offside wheelarch stress panel and the removal of glazing to allow rectification work to the steel window pans were preliminaries to Kevin Hill repainting the Leyland National into Midland Red West colours in the summer. This had to be followed by the sourcing of new window rubbers prior to reinstatement of the glass as the originals were beyond reuse. Tim Moss has continued to work on the interior, particularly the disreputable dashboard area.
CKO988:-
Pete Murphy manages to escape from time to time to work on his Maidstone & District Leyland TD4 recovery vehicle, which has seen the body reacquainted with the chassis.
FFY402:-
Alwyn Marsden and Pete Murphy continue to progress the Southport open-top Leyland PD2. Very good news was obtaining unused window pans from our colleagues at the Manchester Museum of Transport. Recent work has been around the cab floor.
FRC956:-
The classic Trent all-Leyland PD2 has been back in Class VI service following its 2002 repaint. Mechanical attention before its reinstatement included a frustrating brake balancing problem.
GUE247:-
This Stratford Blue Leyland PS1 had an exciting summer season when it was displayed to the visitors who showed a lot of interest. Sadly no substantial donations resulted to renovate the desperate body. It is now parked at the side of the Scania Hall and is fully sheeted over.
HOV685:-
New batteries have been fitted to the Birmingham City Transport Leyland PD2. Engineering attention included replacing the front drag link. The lower deck seats have been removed for reupholstering with BCT’s own style of moquette of which Rob Handford kindly and heroically organised a special run a few years ago on behalf of BCT bus owners. During this exercise the 1685 Group discovered that post-1950 seatbacks, whilst apparently identical, are slightly wider and not strictly interchangeable.
JOJ245:-
The Acocks Green Bus Preservation Group’s BCT Leyland PS2 is now very close to completion after the most thorough restoration. The Group also obtained some of the special run of BCT moquette for this bus. The seats have now been done and it is also applied to the side panels and looks quite splendid.
JOJ976:-
The BCT Guy Arab IV continues to look good, this year benefiting from a rubbing down and repaint of the blue panels by Kevin Hill and Steve Johnson, followed by application of authentic style fleet numbers. Mick Green then applied elbow power by wax polishing the cream panels to such astonishing good effect that the bus looked like it had received a complete repaint!
KFM775:-
Even something as reliable as a Bristol L5G can be laid low by electrical problems, and the summer saw several frustrating man-hours by Phil Ireland, Dave Parry and others identifying the real fault behind a failure to charge. The problem was finally tracked down to a trapped wire and a faulty regulator, which was sent away for repair. This was then followed by a dynamo problem, which led to an overhaul of the offending unit.
RDH505:-
Don’t get too excited (yet!) but the Walsall full-front Leyland PD2 has moved into the engineering workshop area.
SUK3:-
The facelift commenced at the end of 2002 has been followed by a ‘quickie’ repaint. ‘Quickie’ does not necessarily mean a few hours work - it means a couple of very long days by Kevin Hill and Pete Murphy after a lot of preparation work by a number of volunteers, notably Tom Couling on paint stripping and Alex Potts on tidying the front end! As a result the Wolverhampton Meadows-engined Guy Arab is remarkably transformed, to the extent that the temporary metal panels replacing missing windows now look out of place. The cruel joke is that a few panels will be repainted in a slightly different shade to get the true Wolverhampton effect (no, not really!) Being an open platform bus, the platform and staircase areas are highly visible so Maurice Collignon has stripped the flaking paint and applied new green.
HBF679D:-
SUK3 produced one additional green bus to the display and here is another. Kevin Hill’s repaint, sponsored by Dave Taylor, means that the very distinctive livery of the fondly remembered independent operator, Harper of Heath Hayes, is now exhibited at Wythall on this Leyland PD2A. Internally Geoff Hodkinson has been stripping tired paintwork, not least the upper saloon ceiling where the previous painter had failed to obtain an adequate base, resulting in chronic flaking. All seat frames have also been stripped of old paint and have received a first coat of primer.
SBF233:-
On the subject of Harpers, Kevin Hill’s Midland Red Leyland PD2 recovery vehicle started life as a double-decker with the Staffordshire independent. The bus had been stripped by itinerants before Kevin acquired it. Helpfully the 1685 Group’s source of spares, an ex-Lytham PD2, was able to offer up a number of useful body parts and Kevin has largely completed the rest, prior to a future repaint into National Bus service vehicle yellow.
GRY60D:-
The Leicester Leyland PD3 has returned to the site after a period of storage elsewhere.
NEA101F:-
A gradual paint stripping exercise by a number of volunteers (Tom Couling, Kevin Hill, James Munro and John Richards plus others) has seen the West Bromwich low height Daimler Fleetline moving closer to a repaint. An order for new window rubber for Metro-Cammell bodies is likely for this bus and SUK3.
XDH56G:-
The Forth Bridge of bus restorations. Dave Taylor doggedly continues to work his way through the massive 36-foot long Daimler Fleetline double-decker built as a one-off for Walsall Corporation with more and more new panels and rebuilt engine compartment doors in evidence.
SOE913H:-
New pillars and steelwork mean that the Bristol Road Group’s WMPTE Jumbo Daimler Fleetline is now in much better shape than it was a year ago but still has a long way to go.
OWE271K:-
Phil Ireland’s Sheffield Bristol VRT/East Lancs is now close to completion. Work during the first half of 2003 concentrated on rebuilding the platform area with the doors finally refitted in May. The fibreglass rear bustle engine covers have now been refurbished and repainted but refitting light clusters revealed a number of electrical problems, which remain to be resolved. Attention has now turned to repainting the seat frames and dealing with other interior restoration.
PDU135M:-
Geoff Hodkinson continues to work on his Coventry Daimler Fleetline to good effect. It was externally in the right colours, albeit undercoat, by the end of the year, after earlier attention to corroded body pillars. Internally the seat frames have been repainted.
KON311P:-
Although not presently part of the Class VI fleet, James Munro’s efforts successfully got this WMPTE Leyland Fleetline/MCW through a Class V test in April allowing it to attend the Wiggly Worm rally at Chasewater in June.
SDA757S:-
James Munro’s WMPTE Leyland Fleetline/ East Lancs is also advancing although much of the good work is out of sight. It received the major chassis rectification presently being applied to GHA415D, and extensive work around the wheelarches and surrounding floor.
BOK1V:-
James Munro continues to source spare parts and a full set of original style seatbacks for the WMPTE MCW Metrobus.
NHR156M:-
Not a registration many will instantly recognise as a museum owned bus! It is in fact the ex-Thamesdown Daimler Fleetline chassis. Early in the year, Phil Ireland provided it with some panelling and a platform at the front to make it tidier and safer for visitors. Subsequently, both Tom Couling and Geoff Hodkinson have done work removing rust and giving it a coat of silver chassis paint. It is currently on axle stands at the front, the wheels having been removed so that the decent tyres can be exchanged with worn out ones on the running fleet.
Malcolm Keeley with additional notes by Kevin Hill, Peter Murphy and Phil Ireland
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 e-mail us
A registered educational charity no 507191
