ENGINEERING ENDEAVOURS
The BMMO S15, one of our Class VI fleet, needed
some serious welding work near the rear suspension
on both sides. This has been done by Pete Murphy and
required some of the body panels removing to get at it.
Even so space was limited and Pete needed to be a contortionist to complete the work.
The bus has since had a periodic check by John Townshend and was out earning money on
1 April providing a shuttle service for the Association of 16mm Narrow Gauge Modellers at Stoneleigh.
Kevin Hill and Pete Murphy have been continuing work on the Jumbo Fleetline, mainly the offside
lower deck but Kevin has refurbished the cab.
The exterior work on West Bromwich 101 is now complete with the signwriting and application of
coats of arms. Geoff Hodkinson has refurbished the interior on both decks.
The Sandwell Motor Company Bedford SB3 is one of the vehicles scheduled to go in to the new hall
and will be repainted for its appearance there. Over the winter Pete Murphy has pulled out the dent
it suffered to the offside front panel and then various people, including Bob Williamson and Paul Gray,
have sanded it down and prepared it for painting by Kevin when the weather allows. Bob Williamson adds
that work continues on cleaning the aluminium beading. Once cleaned and finished with Scotchbrite it will
be varnished as part of the complete repaint.
The tests required for our Class VI fleet come round all too frequently and the two Bristols were scheduled
to visit Kidderminster for this purpose on 6 April. Both have been checked over by John Townshend who has either
rectified things himself or got others involved. The FSF has had the interior tidied by Steve Johnson.
The FSF has also been treated to new tyres at the rear, Phil Ireland and Fred Withers taking it to Lodge Tyres
in Birmingham for this purpose.
Another West Bromwich bus receiving attention is 248. The review for 2005 recorded Dick Lolley's progress
and the latest news is that templates have just been made and sent off for new glass for two windows.
Dick has also been preparing the BCT Guy owned by him and Fred for Class V test. Others beavering away
have been Mike Jordan and Dave Brown on the BMMO S12, while Dave Parry has been attending to the fuel filler on the SOS Queen.
Of the private owners vehicles, Dave Taylor is often seen lying on his back under Walsall 56 doing something with the fuel tank,
no doubt associated with the £10 bet as to whether the bus will attend Showbus in 2006 (or was it 2007?).
The saga of getting a replacement front grille for Phil Ireland's Sheffield Bristol VRT was finally resolved a in
March when a local firm managed to produce in one week what another fabricator with bus building credentials had failed
to produce in a year! PLI
WATER PUMP WOES
Following on from the overhaul of the BMMO D7 XHA482 water pump, BMMO D9 BHA399C obviously felt left out and
decided its sell by date had also arrived (the scribe’s notes from 1996 had noted a slight leak then so it had
done well to last another ten years!). One of the redundant D9’s from ‘out the back’ gave up a donor pump for
overhaul and the refurbished unit was then fitted to 5399 in early March, leaving me with yet another pump to overhaul.
Is 2006 the ‘Year of the Water Pump’? (We’ve had King Pin years and Alternator years, so why not?) JJP
D10 – THE WORK GOES ON!
Recent weeks have seen the list of outstanding work reduce with an engine oil change, attention to gearbox oil
leaks (that should see a loss of profit for Castrol!) and the renewal of the power steering pump and water pump belts.
The latter is no five-minute job due to a slight design ‘oversight(?)’ at Carlyle Works in 1959.
Faced with a lack of space in the ‘engine bay’ a home for the dynamo was obviously required and this could only be achieved
by mounting the dynamo remotely and employing a jackshaft driven from the crankshaft front pulley.
Said shaft – which has a close resemblance to a Triumph Herald drive shaft, but suitably shortened! – tends to get in the way
of belt changing. An unexpected bonus of all this lying on a cold floor for several hours on a
February day was the near elimination of the familiar rumbling sound that could be heard at idle in the lower saloon,
since it was at last possible to get some grease into various pulley bearings etc. that are not normally easily accessible.
JJP
LD8 PROGRESS
The 1685 Group's Midland Red Leyland Titan PD2 (LD8 class) received external coats of paint to get it presentable for the
Midland Red centenary events. Many of the panel strips had not been refitted, however – indeed many were missing when the
bus was taken on from its previous owners nearly 30 years ago.
The surviving strips were returned to bare metal and have now been painted back to undercoat.
These are now being refitted to the bus.
The missing strips are a bit of a problem because Leyland used a profile that appears to be no longer available.
Every cloud has a silver lining, they say.
In this case, another museum had concluded that a Leyland-bodied PD2 open stored for many years had deteriorated beyond economic repair.
Many window pans and exterior panels had been removed and the panel strips not salvaged. However some panels and their strips were still
fitted and thus carefully removed. Even more usefully, the same profile strips were used on the interior ceilings so these were carefully
removed too. Almost certainly there will not be enough but the problem of the missing strips has been considerably reduced.
MRK
FLEETLINE REPAINT APPEAL
In the current work plan, Fleetline 3780 is due to be repainted back into BCT livery, in order to improve its overall appearance.
Several members are sponsoring this work, but there is a shortfall in funds at the moment.
Anyone wishing to assist may send donations to Paul Gray. JM
Compiled from reports by Phil Ireland, Bob Williamson, Jeremy Price, Malcolm Keeley & James Munro
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 e-mail us
A registered educational charity no 507191
