Lots of people have been asking to have a look at the various projects
and the state of play of each of them. So with that in mind I will
concentrate on the projects that are being done and start with these two
views of the 10T10. As can be seen the reframing with the exception of
the cab is now complete and the first section of interior panelling and
flooring are now in place. On July 1, 2013 it will be 75 years since
T499 entered service in Grays and that surely is our target date for
completion…
The next full scale project is the Southdown TS7 DUF179 which has been
undergoing a major strip down to rectify the rot. The nearside is not in
bad shape whereas the offside requires the replacement of all the
pillars. Throughout this month we have been stripping this down and just
today ‘the tide has turned’ and the new pillars are being cut in
readiness to being fitted. The two shots below show the various stages
of the strip down.
In amongst the rotting pillars on the rear we found this name inscribed
into one of them, can anyone shed any light on who J. Pavett was? Is
that from its days in preservation or does it date back further?
And here are the six pillars being readied to be added to the offside
and start seeing us putting back together some of what we have had to
strip off.
Meanwhile taking shape up at Busworks Blackpool is our RTW335 which is
now ever nearing completion and the progress can be followed directly on
the RTW335 blog, which can be seen at http://rtw335.blogspot.co.uk/
And the reason that the Cub has not featured this month is that we have
been working on RTL453 to start getting her all set to take her place in
the Wartime London Tour fleet, that starts operating on April 3, have a
look at the website if you are wondering what I am talking about
www.wartimelondon.com and whilst out having tacho fitted a careless
truck driver damaged the rear end… This has needed to be tackled and a
new pillar fitted as well as the panels, it has however meant that the
vehicle will now need a full repaint and we will also now add
signwritten adverts to her for the late 1940s so she will end up looking
special, so every cloud and all that… Apologies for not having rotated
the photo as I am damned if I can find the rotate button on this new
blog feature so will get someone to explain it to me…!!
And lastly up is RTL1014 that returned to us after 45 years in
California. The vehicle was sold by our Chairman here Peter Newman way
back in 1967 and he delivered it to the docks at Southampton for its new
owners UniTrans at University College Davis. They have owned, operated
and loved the vehicle all that time and due to Californian emission
regulations RTL1014 became an outcast from their fleet as she still has
her original engine, so we acquired her back. She sailed back on the
same shipping line she went out on, came back to the same port, and was
collected by myself and Peter, bringing the story full circle. I
commented to him as he got out of the cab back at PT ’45 years and you
got the bus back, must be a record breaking period for a money back
guarantee!’ The intention will be to restore to London 50s condition but
preserving her 45 years of US service… looking forward to that one…
So thats it for the month
Cheers for now
Steve
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