A journal of my bus preservation activities.
go to the beginning
Latest:
20/07/07
It's been over 5 years since I last updated this page. A lot
has happend since then. for one thing,
I no longer own any preserved buses, as I
sold the last one (which was also my first) in May 2006.
RM 291 is now with it's new owner in Northhamptonshire. I haven't
seen it in any internet rally reports, but I know it is in good hands.
RMC 1469 has a class 6 mot, and can be regularly be seen in service with a full load of passengers at bus rallies in the south east of England.
SMS 369 also remains in good hands, as part of the Cobham Bus Museum fleet, althought it is currently out of service due to a couple of cracked cylinder liners. However a replacement AV 505 engine has been sourced, and will be fitted to the bus in due course, after being converted to horizontal operation.
1/12/02
RMC 1469 has a new owner. It's in the good hands of an
experienced preservationist and it will certainly make more rally appearances
than it ever did in my ownership. However I shall continue to post
reports of it's restoration progress through these pages.
1/11/02
SMS 369 has had some of it's seat cushions re-upholstered.
Namely, the rear bench, and front transverse seats. Their tatty condition had always
let the interior down, but this has now been rectified, with the help of Cobham's
Richard Hussey, who kindly took them to the upholsterers. Richard has also been working on the bus's rear heater and helped Dave Kriesler repair the PA system. Dave also got the troublesome centre doors working again.
25/9/02
A short visit to England gave me an opportuntity to reaquaint myself
with the fleet. I spent an enjoyable day driving RM 291 and SMS 369 around Surrey.
23/6/02
SMS 369 was is service for 5 hours at the Sidcup Running Day.
It ran faultlessy until the final journey when a broken cooling hose clip caused
water loss and overheating. The problem was fixed by Cobham's Paul Morris.
Photo: Paul Morris
10/04/02
SMS 369 Passed its MOT test just in time for the LBPT's
annual Open Day where it was used to convey a party of visitors from the Ipswich
Transport Museum.
30/03/02
RMC 1469
A roll of RMC moquette has been acquired and there should be
enough material to re-trim all of the seats on the bus.
05/09/01
RMC 1469 passed its MOT test today. It's now back on the road although
I'm not exactly in a position to drive it, living in California. Its a bit late in
the rally season too but it might well make an appearance at one of the remaining
events.
I forgot to mention that RM 291 also got a new MOT a couple of weeks ago.
SMS 369 is currently unservicable due to a charging fault.
18/07/01
RMC 1469
Since I first owned this bus it has suffered from a common
RM problem, low accumulator pressure. Accumulators pressurise the RM's hydraulic
braking system and are set, if my memory serves me correctly, to about 600 psi.
Over time this air pressure leaks away and the accumulators need recharging.
This is done with a device called an intensifier, which takes air from a compressor
at about 90psi and boosts it to 600 in the bus's 2 accumulators. A sign of
low pressure is in the number of brake applications(apps), with the engine stopped
before the warning flag drops. 9 apps is good, I was only getting 1 but today, in my
absence, the system was recharged and the bus now achieves 10 apps
which is even better.
It can now be MOT'd and made road legal but unfortunately this won't be done in time
for the Routemaster Assocciation's RML40 celebration at the Cobham Bus Museum this
Sunday. Hopefully it will make an appearance at the Lingfield Show or another
suitable venue.
22/06/01
RMC 1469
A flurry of activity during the last month
resulted in the completion of the upper deck, barring a few minor
items. It's a great improvement on its appearance when I first acquired
it almost exactly 2 years ago although it could do with a better set of
seat cushions. For the moment I'm reusing the orange moquette ones
that came with the bus.
There'll be little progress for a while as I'm now working
in California for about a year.
10/05/01
RMC 1469
The ceiling painting is complete and the luggage racks installed. The
yellow plastic trim has been replaced
around the windows and the sides have been clad in new Rexine. Quite a
transformation, and the interior is
really beginning to take shape now. A start has been made on chiselling
off the old treadmaster flooring,
a tedious job that should take a couple of days.
08/04/01
RM 291 went to the annual Cobham Bus Museum open day and took
part in a parade of buses representing route 77 over the years. It was
another successful event for Cobham, by all accounts, and I would have
liked to have attended but unfortunately it concided with a trip to
the USA.
18/03/01
RM 291 took a party of work colleagues to
Brighton for the day.
The round trip including "dead mileage" was about 150 miles and I was
relieved that the bus performed well with no problems at all. We had fish &
chips with Champagne on the pier and then sampled some of the rides at the funfair.
It was an enjoyable day out despite the cold.
10-11/03/01
RMC1469 At last the ceiling is now back together with
correct pattern beading
and no sign of the large holes that were drilled for the mains lighting
fittings.
The captive nuts for the luggage rack brackets have been cleaned and
replaced where
necessary. The first undercoat has been applied which immediatley
improved
the appearance of the interior.
19/12/00
RMC1469 Progress has been slow recently but work continues
on
the upper deck ceiling now that the front dome has been fixed up. The
beading
has been seriously butchered in the past and I've replaced most of the
threaded steel inserts used to hold the beading screws in place. The
coving
panels have been patched up and re-covered and are ready to go back in.
I discovered that the plastic material above the luggage racks is
impervious
to paint stripper so the paint is now in the process of being removed.
RM 291 was used on a filming contract in November and
December.
The location was in the vicinity of Liverpools St station and was for a
film called Killing Me Softly starring Joseph Fiennes. On 9/12/00, the
day
of the Christmas Lights Tour it was used to convey a party of carol
singers
to Trafalger square. A collection raised £450 in aid of The
Children's Society.
23-24/9/00
RMC1469 was give a pair of correct pattern LT mirrors,
replacing
the ubiquitous plastic Spafax variety fitted at sometime in the 1980s.
A battery isolating switch was also fitted.
Work began on restoring the front dome which although didn't look
too bad from the ground, had a large dent on the top. A heavily filled
left hand corner hid the extensive tree damage which even impinged on
the
inner skin. A great deal of hammering eventually dislodged a huge lump
of filler about 3ft across! I'll keep that as a souvenir.
The dome was bashed back into something like its correct contours
but
will still required some filling to finish off. The radio antenna
housing
was removed as was all of the paint down to the original Lincoln green.
28/8/00
RM291 was in service on route 19 between Cobham and Woking
in
conjunction with the classic car show being held there. This was the
first
event that I'd taken the bus to this year and It was also the first
time
it has carried a full load passengers since its days with Clydeside
back
in 1990. On a couple of the turns I travelled as a passenger and it was
extremely satisfying to see the bus full of people for a change, just
as
its meant to be.
26/8/00
RMC1469. At last I've acquired a set of Green Line blinds
courtesy
of Paul Wheeler. Unlike many others, I don't have a particular interest
in bus blinds and routes but it's still important to have a decent set fitted to
one's vehicle. In this case its showing route 705 to Windsor. I know
they
are not totaly authentic but if anyone has a set of Hertford RCL blinds
for sale or loan I'll be glad to hear from you!
19-20/8/00
RMC1469. I took advantage of the continuing warm weather and
moved the bus into the yard as its much better than working in a gloomy
shed. I replaced all of the window rubber on the lower deck using
material
supplied by The Routemaster Association. The window glass and winding
mechanisms
were cleand and polished too.
12-13/8/00
RMC1469. The seat frames were topcoated and dried so quickly
in the hot weather that I was able to start refitting them later in the
day and they were all back in the bus by Sunday. Various bits of trim
were
refitted and there is now no trace of the buses' days as a Training
&
Recruitment Bus, not downstairs anyway! The feeling of satisfaction was
tempered by prospect of doing it all again to the upper deck.
5-6/8/00
RMC1469. The Treadmaster was laid and the seat frames rubbed
down and primed ready for the topcoat.
24/6/00
RMC1469. The old rubber flooring was removed and start made on
cleaning
off the remains of the glue in preparation for the new Treadmaster.
27-29/5/00
RMC 1469. The lower saloon is starting to take shape now
that
the seat boxes have been painted and Rexine applied. The front bulkhead
is also complete. All that remains is for the seat frames to be
repainted and new Treadmaster flooring to be laid.
13/5/00
SMS 369 was cleaned in preparation for the Auto-motion 2000
event the following day. A proper windscreen washer bottle was fitted
behind
the drivers seat. It replaced the old plastic container, wedged between
the windscreen and instrument panel, that had served this purpose for
too long! The bus wasn't fitted with washers originally as this was not a
legal necessity for PSVs. I installed them to comply with Class 5 MOT
requirements.
The bus got to the rally and back without any problems, always a relief
when driving a Swift!
29-30/4/00
RMC 1469
The fabric covered ceiling panels were painted in a similar colour
to the original material and the result deemed acceptable. A few
luggage
rack sections were fitted to the lower deck and the rest of the weekend
was spent scraping old glue of the sides in preparation for the new
Rexine.
Also, the faded plastic trim from around the windows was painted Sung
yellow.
8/4/00
Most of the day was spent cleaning RM 291 ready for the
Cobham
rally the following day. The bus hasn't been on the road since the
Staines
rally last year and had acquired a thick coating of dust during
hibernation.
I took it out later for a test run but discovered a charging fault. I
replaced
the alternator the following morning but by then it was to late to go
to
the open day.
1/4/00
RMC 1469
More RMC seat cushions and backs were obtained today. They are in
good
condition and should clean up nicely, Now I only need 4 more cushions
and
2 backs to complete the set.
The plastic trim from around the windows has been removed for
cleaning.
In common with all other RMC/RCLs this has faded from yellow to white
over
the years. It will be keyed and painted Sung yellow before refitting.
50 metres of burgundy Rexine and a roll of crash canvas arrived
during
the week from Hewits. The canvas
will
be used on the ceiling coving panels. The theory is that when painted
it
should look very similar to the original material which had to be
discarded
due to damage. The Rexine is a heavier gauge than that used on RM291
so it will be even harder to form around some of the complex curves
found at the rear of the upper deck of a Routemaster. However I'll worry about
that when I come to it.
19/3/00
I painted the lower deck ceiling of RMC 1469. This has
greatly improved its appearance and also erased the last traces of the
partition which formerly divided the lower saloon. I couldn't resist fitting a
section of overhead lugage rack just to give me a taste of things to come!
