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Friends of Classic London Buses of the Fifties For those actively involved in or supporting the preservation of London buses, coaches and trolleybuses of the past Taken from the now-demolished British Railways Southern Region Central Division Headquarters at Essex House, Croydon by the late Dave Edwards, this photo forwarded by David Thrower shows an RT on the 194B, an RML on the 130, three XAs on the C1 and C2 services, and an SM or SMS on the 166, about 1972. No prizes for knowing which was the most reliable of the various buses illustrated. Newsletter 168 August 2020 Opening Lines I am greatly encouraged in my efforts to produce this monthly mish-mash of material by the number of readers who have kindly remarked that in these difficult times the Newsletter is a welcome distraction from the unpleasant reality of viruses and the like. In turn I have to say that I couldn't manage to do so without the contributions of many of you who manage to find so much interesting matter from a time now long ago; even the photo above, with a plethora of “modern” rear-engined buses, is almost half a century old. I well remember having to go to Stamford Hill when the XAs were almost new and thinking that they lacked the elegance of former classes. I can't now remember what it was that caused me to visit the area nor how I got there but I do know that it was not on an XA. More recently I had occasion to contact the much-missed Colin Curtis on the subject of Llewellyn glands for SM-class flywheels. He said he couldn't decide whether the Atlantean or the Swift was the worst bus ever designed but he rather thought the latter. Progress, eh?! 1 The Radio Trainer David Fisher Looking through some of my old photographs which I have recently set about scanning has made me aware of an anomaly that I had not previously noticed. In 1979, I took a couple of photos of the radio trainer bus which was at the time allocated to Bexleyheath garage, travelling northwards along the Edgware Road having just passed Paddington Green Police Station. There had been no need to change its coding to anything but 'RT' to denote its specific role for many years following use as the decimal trainer bus! One view is of the rear, from which I confirmed that MXX 47 was indeed RT 2958, however, looking at the other picture in which the numberplate is obscured by an elderly Volvo, I can clearly read the fleet number which shows as 'RT 2985'. This could not be true as that vehicle was scrapped 8 years previously at Wombwell. 2 Was this something that was known about and I have never noticed before? I'm assuming it was a simple mistake made when applying the transfers and wonder what the bonnet plate showed. RT 2958 is shown as being sold in April of 1985 to Philippe Grit in France, a name that I am sure I recognise from FOCLBOTF or maybe RT/RF Register magazines. Does anyone know anything else about this? [Editor's note: RT 2958 did indeed go to Phillipe who is a member of the “Friends.” I imagine this error was the result of a garage repaint and for some reason the painter managed to get the digits in the wrong order when applying the transfers. It was not entirely unknown, and over the years we have now and then featured pictures of buses with incorrect registrations, doubtless for the same reason – everyone makes mistakes! When I was at HH, our painter, Tony Griffiths, told me of a bus received from Aldenham overhaul on which the front and rear registrations did not match. He claimed that neither was correct for the bus, but he was a teller of tall tales and I strongly suspect that one of them had been right. Even today errors occur; in relatively recent times I used to see an MTL Leyland National 2 running around Wigan sporting a Glasgow registration (xGB) whereas it should have been a former Birkenhead mark, (xBG) and this on a modern, reflective numberplate, not simply transfers on a painted background. It was corrected after a few weeks.] Airwork Alan Bond With everything that has gone on down the years I had forgotten about Airwork but David did give me some additional guff on them. As you probably know, Hawker opened the Langley factory to produce Hurricanes for the RAF in 1936 as Kingston couldn't meet the required production levels and they also needed an airfield for testing purposes of completed aircraft, the latter having been carried out from Brooklands for some time. Towards the end of the war, production was scaled down and Langley was to have closed after they produced their last Hurricane in July 1944. It was around that point that Airwork stepped in and bought the Langley site for ongoing aviation work as well as other services. The company was set up in 1928 to provide various services to the RAF and their base was at Heston aerodrome until they took over at Langley. There is what looks to be an interesting article about Airwork here :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airwork_Services It does not mention buses, though. RT 4680 Alan Bond I have attached a photo of RT 4680 taken in its preservation days at, if I remember correctly, Canon's Marsh at Bristol, the original site of the Bristol bus rally. At the time the bus was owned by the late Jack Clark of Slough, who was a long time driver at Windsor garage. Strangely enough it was bought from South Bucks Coaches, who never actually used it, by one of his sons as a wedding anniversary present. Four or five of us mucked in to look after her and the old girl always looked neat and tidy but Jack always insisted that she should look as if she was just running into New Cross garage off service. There was always a time card in the cab and in the waybill box along with a log card and, more often than not, an old Gibson ticket machine box on one of the back seats. I drove her for many miles along with Chris Reid, another ex-Windsor driver who was close friend of Jack's. We always used to rib Jack as 3 he would only drive the bus over roads that he knew so when we went to far-away places, he would usually have his feet up most of the time. I didn't mind as I am always quite happy to be in the cab of an RT, not that I could manage the climb up into the cab these days, and I know Chris was also of the same mind. Some happy memories with a lot of photos taken in some odd places one of which is a shot of the RT under a 13' 9" bridge at Bishopsdown on the A30, just outside Salisbury, on the way to Weymouth one year (1977 I think). When I can find a copy of the latter I will send it. Editor's note: This bus is not listed as surviving, so I asked Alan what had happened to it. See page 23-4 to find out. 4 Confessions of a Bus Enthusiasts Wife – Part Deux Ann Clarke The more astute amongst you will have noticed (and no doubt mourned the fact) that it has been some time since I submitted an article for this worthy publication. There’s a reason for that. Until lockdown started there wasn’t actually much to report, from my point of view anyway. Himself is working up to a technical article surrounding the rebuild of RT 1348’s engine; my input has largely consisted of “Is it fixed yet?” While he has spent lockdown engaged in worthy bus-related engineering works, I have spent it turning into a misanthropic badger. I will be beyond relieved when the hairdresser's opens again and I can spend a few pleasant hours in the company of people who do not talk about buses. Needless to say word of Olive’s (for that is her name) existence has spread and soon even the sanctuary of the hairdresser's will be no more. The chappie who owns and runs it, turns out, spent his formative years living with his grandfather in North London riding on buses to visit family, owing to grandfather not having a car. He has been promised a circuit round our field. I can only hope his journey will be less terrifying than mine was. More of that later. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to go off-roading in a double decker bus? Oh, wait. I did. It must be the grey hair; the colour has left me and taken my common sense with it. And so, one warm and sunny day not so long ago I got the inaugural ride in Olive. She’d sat, since my last missive, in her not so little shed – engineless. So it was a big moment when the engine was completed and returned to its allotted space between the left hand wing and drivers cab. It does look good too. Quite sexy, for an engine, that is……just ignore the oil filter, pretend it doesn’t exist. That’s what London Transport did. Then I heard it. The long forgotten but not unfamiliar roar of the engine whirring into life.

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