THE SCOTTISH VINTAGE BUS MUSEUM – VEHICLE COMINGS AND GOINGS
Aug 2011
Two new arrivals to report — but
what a difference — separated in age by 92 years! Their respective owners have
kindly put pen to paper (or should that be finger to keyboard?) with details.
THE NEWEST ARRIVAL IS ALSO THE OLDEST - BY FAR!
A W Brotchie
On 17 May 2011 the
Vintage Bus Museum became host to its oldest resident — when Edinburgh horse
tram 23 was delivered. With just a little headroom problem the veteran was
lifted off the lorry by which it had been transported from its former — but
temporary - home at the Longstone Garage of Lothian
Buses. It is now stored in Shed 99 where restoration is to continue to
completion.
The old car, dating from c1885, was
located some six years ago in the garden of a house in Newtown St Boswells,
where it had served for a century as a garden summer house, tool store, and,
local rumour has it, a meeting place for members of the local ‘Wee Free’
congregation. New owners approached the SRPS at Bo’ness to try to discover what
this “small old carriage" in their garden was, and it was soon identified
as the saloon of a horse tram car, later to be confirmed as one which ran in
Edinburgh.
A Trust was formed to preserve,
restore, and exhibit the historic survivor and the ‘body’ was craned from the
garden and taken to Lothian’s Seafield Works, where
operations to identify it were commenced. After a short period, because of
reorganisation, it became necessary to move it from Seafield.
LB provided a space in the old rifle range at Longstone,
where it has remained until the recent flit.
As only the saloon, remained, it has
been necessary to fabricate new platforms, stairs, seating etc, and most of
this work has been ably undertaken by Douglas Scoular (as a change from his
usual bus activities at Lathalmond).
Wheels and all braking gear were
obtained, originally below Douglas lsle of Man horse
car 46. This had been purchased for a tramway proposal which never
materialised. Their loss is our gain. The purchase included wheels cast in the
foundry of Miller & Co in Edinburgh’s London Road (who supplied tram wheels
to all corners of the globe). These were regauged,
and a new support frame was constructed, by the Shed 47 Railway Group at
Lathalmond. Metal fabrication for new light boxes (paraffin lamps!) has also
been expertly carried out here, by Messrs Roemac Ltd.
The timber body was in remarkably
good condition, having been, in its garden life, covered by a corrugated iron
pitched roof, and raised above the ground on a brick underbuilding.
Various species of timber were used in its construction; oak, ash, pine and
mahogany are all in evidence — all in solid pieces, as ply had not then been
invented. Surprisingly the elements in poorest condition were generally those
of oak, much of the corner pillars and headstocks being reduced to ‘honeycomb’
consistency. Needless to say, these were the first parts to receive attention,
with new materials replacing all rotten items.
Careful “archaeology’ has
established the livery details. Below some ten coats of paint (which had
provided excellent protection) the original dark blue colour - lined in gold
leaf — was located, plus detail of the route description on the boards
immediately above the windows. When the tram was built, route branding was (as
it now is again) ‘all the rage’ in the Capital, and about twelve different
route liveries were in use — in theory to aid recognition by the illiterate.
Thus there were red cars, green cars, white, yellow, blue (as our car is) and
several others — but no tartan cars! This is a pity, as tartan was used as a
livery in Glasgow (the red and white version of the Menzies
tartan) and in — of all places — Liverpool [Scouse
tartan?]. ln the preserved horse tram the quarter
light windows were of blue glass, engraved decoratively, and we are very
fortunate that of the total of 14 of these, twelve originals still survive.
Replacements for those missing have been made.
When Edinburgh opened its first
horse tram route, on 6 November 1871, it was very quickly realised that the vehicles
purchased were too heavy to be economically horsed on the city’s hills. The
SSPCA were very active in ensuring that horse flesh was not maltreated, the
outcome being a constant effort thereafter by the Tramway Company to produce
cars of the lightest practical construction. In the early years vehicles were
purchased from many different manufacturers, including Stephenson of New York
and Starbuck of Birkenhead. Eventually, with the knowledge gained from these
builders, the Company decided that they could do just as well themselves, and
the first car built at their works at Shrubhill [the first of a succession of
horse, then cable, then electric cars to emerge from there] was unveiled in May
1879. This design was refined and adjusted, with some single ended cars for the
‘Morningside Circle’ via Clinton Road, ‘reversible’ cars where, at a terminus
the body of the car rotated on its chassis to face the opposite direction, and
some small single deck cars - also some open ‘toastracks’
for summer and workmen’s services.
‘Our’ car was put in service about
1885, probably as a replacement for one of the first generation cars. The
original operating company, the Edinburgh Street Tramways, owned exactly one
hundred cars when their lease of the Edinburgh lines ended on 9 December 1893.
A new company, the Edinburgh & District Tramways Co took over (from the
beginning of June 1894) operation of the lines within the city and the old
company was left to operate the Leith and Portobello lines. The cars were
shared, 70 to the District Co, 30 remaining with the original Company. Car 23
remained with the Street Tramway Co until the lease of the Portobello lines (as
far as Jock’s Lodge) expired at the end of January 1896, when along with five
other cars it was handed over to the District Company. It was last licensed for
the period to 28 May 1900, but for some now unfathomable reason it was then
renumbered 22 and re-licensed to 28 October 1900. At this stage it was
honourably retired and sold out of service.
This is the third Edinburgh tram to
be preserved, and they have achieved this status in reverse order of age.
Electric car 35 of 1948 has been unceremonially
‘dumped’ on the National Tramway Museum at Crich in
Derbyshire by Edinburgh Council, who seemed unnaturally anxious to have it off
their hands. It deserves a better fate. Former 1903 cable car 226, electrified
in 1923, was rescued from the Borders some
years ago. This belongs to Lothian Buses and is currently in a
dismantled state. In addition to these vehicles, an Edinburgh horse bus still
exists, presently languishing in the Transport Museum at Leyland in Lancashire.
It too deserves a better fate.
...and over to
Gordon McGregor for the other new arrival".
LS103 (OJD903R) is a Leyland National, new to London Transport (LT)
in July 1977, entering service on the 7th of that month, 7/7/77!! The bus was
one of a batch purchased by LT to replace the RF class buses at Bromley Garage
for the service 227. The bus was briefly stored at Bexleyheath Garage until the
RF buses had been moved on. This was due to the limited space at Bromley.
Bromley Garage became part of LT‘s Selkent district.
LS103 finished its service with LT in 1992 where it operated from
Croydon Garage having spent all its life previously at Bromley.
Eastonways of Ramsgate purchased the bus and numerous other LT
Nationals in 1992 for ferry contracts that they had. LS103 became fleet number
2 with its new
operator, painted blue and white with "Sally Ferries"
all over it. In 1999 it was extensively refurbished by Eastonways,
new floor, floor covering, new heaters and less seats
having a standee capacity as it was to convey passengers to and from the
ferries.
Once the bus was replaced by new low floor buses in 2001 this
bus and others were sold to Mike Nash at Weybridge in Surrey. Mike sold the bus
onto Andy Walcott, based in the Cannock area of the Midlands, who had a similar
LT National in LS324, AYR324T. Andy had issues with LS324 and decided to
transfer the excellent interior to LS103 - literally the whole lot before the bus
was repainted into London Transport livery that it still carries today. Andy
sold the bus to Martin Denman and Chris Jones in 2003. Martin brought the bus
to Scotland and into the Glasgow Vintage
Vehicle Trust's premises at
Bridgeton where he was a founder member. The bus was seen at various events in
Scotland and was a regular visitor to Lathalmond. In 2009 I bought the bus from
them and continued to house the bus at Bridgeton. The bus had been off the road
since 2006 and only required minor attention prior to its MOT in March 2011
where it passed with flying colours. I moved the bus across to Lathalmond in
plenty time for this year’s Running Day. Whilst en route we lost a fan belt in
Dunfermline but as I was very close to Lathalmond carried on with no trouble.
The day before the running day a
starting problem appeared; however this did not stop the bus being well used on
the day. An old starter was removed from a spare Leyland 510 engine and
overhauled locally and a new lift pump purchased to be fitted as well. With
these jobs and other running improvements to be done I felt it appropriate to
have this National join the fleet at Lathalmond. (Hmmm. -Ed.) It was sad to
remove the bus from Bridgeton as it had a long association there; however it
will return for the open day in October to its other Scottish home.
May 2011
In February, an explosion at the
power feeder post to sheds 92 and 100, and the subsequent fire, destroyed the
insulation of the underground feeder cable. Power was restored later in the
day, to essential areas, but the incident highlighted the parlous state of the
underground cabling throughout the site. A new cable was installed and finally
went ‘live’ on 17 March. Planned replacement of another section to the Bluebird
Suite has now been completed.
Quotes have been obtained for the
remainder of the underground cabling, and it is hoped that this can take place
later this year. Meanwhile, other, less pressing projects have had to be put on
the back-burner for the time being.
The melting snow on the Bluebird
Suite roof resulted in serious problems with water ingress for a few weeks, and
urgent repairs to make it watertight were carried out.
On a more positive note, the Shed 4
café facility has been completely upgraded with new kitchen units, sink, urn
and fan extractor – thanks to Doug Dickson’s efforts; a splendid job. Much work
has also taken place in the office block – old radiator pipes have been removed
and several rooms including the archive and the ‘ballroom’ have been treated to
a lick of fresh paint, courtesy of Mark Farquar and
Colin Groundwater, with assistance from Andrew Walker.
ARCHIVE UPDATE
Graham
Martin-Bates
I am
happy to report that the archive capacity has been increased with the
preparation of another room in the office block for this purpose. I am grateful
to those Committee and other members for their assistance in getting the room
ready for moving in. I intend to have a desk available for use by members
wishing to view items in the collection. I am currently considering ways to
communicate details of the collection already catalogued — so watch this space!
Over the
winter months I have spent some of my retirement time cataloguing a large
collection of prints, mostly colour. An accumulation of workshop manuals and
related material has been added to the library and duly catalogued.
A start
has been made to sort, in stages, the vast collection of slides donated last
year on behalf of the late Richard Prentice; this is likely to be a long-term
project. Various donations continue to come in, all of which are most welcome e
large or small. As ever, I can be contacted by writing to: Immeriach,
St. Madoes, Glencarse,
Perth PH2 7NF or telephoning 01738 860284 — or catch up with me at any Museum
event. I intend to be available in the afternoon of the Running Day.
March 2011
After the Open Weekend, Kenny Barclay swapped his Eastern Scottish
Volvo Citibus E187HSF for GCS50V, a 1980 Leyland Leopard Y-type in Clydeside
livery which featured on the cover of DUP59. This latterly had been at GVVT
Bridgeton. Robin Thomas's Western SMT Bristol LD RAG411 also left Lathalmond
for Bridgeton shortly thereafter.
Dec 2010
NEW TRIMMING SHOP
We now have the services of a qualified trimmer
and a new facility for this is being created in shed 99. I'm assured that very
competitive rates can be offered to members who require seats retrimmed and
anyone interested should make contact with Raymond Devlin in the first
instance.
At the 2010 Open Weekend three new arrivals appeared. The first was
an old favourite, Wigan Corporation Leyland Tiger TS4 of 1932, 81(EK8867)
(Left), owned since the 1960s by Dave Hoare. Its Santus
body was refurbished many years ago at Whitburn by
the late Jimmy Henderson and is a welcome addition to the Exhibition Hall.
(Left) EK8867
seen at the 2010 Open Weekend (J Crichton)
(Right) 981 EHY arriving at Lathalmond, August 2010, (J Pettie)
Click on photos to enlarge images
By contrast, the other two, Bristol MWs 981EHY and
990EHY, ex-Bristol O.C. were collected from Arbroath where they latterly served
as fruit pickers' transport. They are only at Lathalmond temporarily, being en
route to join Mike Walker's ever-increasing stable of former BOC buses sometime
next year.
At the same time Leyland Lynx lorry JTT724, having had its cab
rebuilt by Andrew Crockett and BJ, headed south for Chepstow …..
….. whilst the unique
Sentinel HSG/Cowieson AUX297, (Left) of Rod Wallace, has found a new home in
Cheshire where it joins the old Hippo bowser KYY425D.
(Right)
AUX 297 (Anon)
(Left) JTT724
Later on two Guys departed, Central SMT EVA324 to a new home in
Northern Ireland …..
….. and McGills GVD47
to.... McGills Bus Service! Not the original - the new McGills based in
Greenock although the old garage at Muriel Street, Barrhead is owned by them.
(Left) EVA324, March 2010, Lathalmond (J Crichton)
(Right) GVD47, 1963, Barrhead (IMacGregor)
We have also acquired the remains of Manchester Corporation
138 (VM4439), its first Leyland Tiger TS1 new in 1938. This had latterly been
with the Manchester Transport Museum and was about to be consigned to scrap.
Minus engine, gearbox and steering, what was left of the 1935 body has
subsequently been dismantled by a group restoring a Manchester Crossley with a
similar body and has provided valuable parts as a result. Believed to be the
oldest surviving Tiger in existence, the chassis itself was restored some years
ago and is in excellent condition, far too good to scrap. Anyone out there
restoring a Tiger TS1 or TS2 looking for a sound chassis as a base