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Preserving a Bus

Site last updated 28/4/2007

Site updated 29/11/2005with some newly-arrived photos of A104 in preservation in the 1970s (see In Preservation), and some splendid photos of this batch of 6 Regals in service (see In Service).

Work continues on AEC Regal Coach DMS 130 (updated 28/4/2007) - Click on coach picture for details!).

New (29/8/2005)! Page of All surviving Regal half-cabs, updated 9/7/2006. Please send me further updates.

DM1051 was collected 23/9/2006 by its new owner, and is now preserved in Surrey.

I bought my first bus, an ex-London RT, RT1396, in 1988. This site gives some details of the 3 buses and 1 coach I have (so far!) owned.

What made you buy a bus?

This is a common question, and one for which I do not have an easy answer! A bus is a large, friendly, sociable vehicle. A vintage bus comes from the period when British Bus Engineering was justly famous for excellence all round the world. London's RT and RM buses are perhaps the best ever designed, and are magnificently engineered with an immense care for detail. The London fleet was supported by a superb facility at Aldenham which kept buses in smart condition. I am proud to have owned vehicles of such pedigree. Whenever I take the bus out for a drive, people approach me to chat about it or to ask questions. They tell me they went to school on this type of bus, or did all their courting on the back seat upstairs.

Where on earth does one buy an old bus?

Nowdays, there is the Internet, which has many sites for bus enthusiasts, and there are always some vehicles for sale. There are also bus magazines which carry adverts. In 1988, I went to a bus rally, and asked bus-owners if they knew of a good RT for sale. I went home with a telephone number and a personal recommendation, and the deal was later made. RT1396 was owned by a group who had another two buses to maintain, and who had decided their resources did not stretch to looking after three.

How did you get it home?

Apart from a 20 minute trial drive at an HGV driving school, I had never driven a bus, so picking up RT1396 from a South London bus garage on a Sunday morning, and driving it through the city and up the A1 was quite a challenge. Because the driver's seat is attached to the body of the vehicle, and the steering wheel is part of the chassis, a good deal of movement is felt as the body sways or the wheels hit a pothole, and my initial impression was that the chassis and body were about to part company. Later I found this is normal, and learned to relax!

When I got it back home and parked it outside the house, the neighbours queued up for a ride, so I had to drive them "round the block".

What's it like to drive?

The RT has a pre-selector gear box which is delightful to use. Just select the gear with the left hand, then at the appropriate time, depress the "clutch" pedal (more properly called the operating pedal), and the job is done. The only disadvantage is that you have no visual indication of which gear you are in, you need to rely on hearing and experience. It is virtually impossible to stall an RT.

The steering can be heavy - it is not power-assisted - particularly with a full load. But it is precise, and with practice the bus can be driven all day without much fatigue.

It is naturally a noisy vehicle, you are beside the engine, but 10 minutes in the cab of a Southdown "Queen. Mary" showed me just how noisy an old bus can be! How old drivers survived a 6-hour shift in a bus like that is beyond me.

The size is not too much of a problem. You sit up high and have excellent visibility, so judging the width is not difficult. Turning left too soon, and therefore running over the pavement with the back wheels is a common beginner's fault - you soon learn to "turn square".

Overall, you need to learn to drive the bus with a respect for its venerable age; do not try to force it, adjust to the lower speed of an earlier age. Modern traffic is not necessarily sympathetic to old vehicles, so driving an RT bus on a motorway at rush hour is not a pleasurable experience - but drive an RT through central London, and you appreciate its strengths.

Where do you keep it?

A call to a farmer-friend had solved the accommodation problem - at least temporarily. The bus was stored in the open, but in a secure yard. This is not ideal for an RT, which has a good deal of wood in the frame, and I hoped the farmer would be able to clear a space in a barn. This never materialised, but I was lucky in finding another farmer-friend who had space in a Dutch barn. The bus moved to another Huntingdonshire village, and was there for the next 10 years.

What licence do you need?

I soon decided I should take a full PSV licence, although for most purposes I could at that time drive it legally on a car licence. As I understood the law, I could apply for a licence on the basis I already owned the bus, but it was clearly better to make the effort to take the test, so I took some lessons with a Cambridge Training company, learning a lot in the process. Two friends who also owned RTs took the test at about the same time and all of us passed.

How much does it cost to insure?

Less than a car for fully comprehensive! There are one or two specialist insurance companies who recognise that owners of vintage buses do low mileage and are very careful drivers.

What does it do to the gallon?

Strangely enough, I have never measured it. But I believe it should be about 10 to 12 mpg. The RT does not boast a mileometer, so it would not be easy to measure.

Do you take it to rallies?

An early highlight in my ownership was taking RT1396 to London as part of RT50, celebrations to record 50 years of the RT in London. Parked up in Finsbury Square I was part of dozens of RTs, and at five minute intervals we set off for Covent Garden, there to park outside the London Transport Museum and to have a photograph taken with RT1 and RT4285. Then it was time to take a busload of the public round a West-end route. A memorable day!

Apart from that, I have taken the bus to very few rallies. Most of them are boring! Owners park up, take a surreptitious glance at the neighbouring vehicle to make sure it is not smarter than theirs, lock it up so that the general public cannot despoil it, then go in search of refreshments.

Running days are now more in vogue, and can be interesting, but are hard work and expensive. You have to travel, perhaps a long way, paying your own diesel. You work to a demanding schedule all day, rarely having time to look at other vehicles or talk to other owners. They can be interesting if you can share the driving with a colleague, giving you time-off between shifts.

What do you use it for?

The bus soon became a familiar sight in the Stodden villages where I live, and I was happy to use it for Church and village events. A memorable trip to Wickstead Park with a full load of village families was followed by another to Wimpole Hall. Occasionally I use it for weddings to help out a friend - there is always a demand for a smart vintage bus to ferry the guests from the church to the hall. At the Dean Millennium Ball in 2000 I was happy to bus guests in full evening dress to the marquee, but made it quite clear that getting home was their own affair! I did the same service for the Dean Jubilee Ball in 2002.

How do you fix it if it goes wrong?

My buses have been exceptionally reliable, I am very glad to say! When they do misbehave I generally rely on knowledgeable friends. The most serious mishap to occur to RT1396 was a broken rear spring. I contacted a fellow RT owner in Cambridgeshire who I knew had some spares, bought a new spring, then drove the bus down to Ward Jones of High Wycombe, a very well-respected repairer of old and modern buses. Rather than leaving the bus with him, I waited with it and watched the removal of the old spring with interest (it proved very troublesome, and provoked much interesting language).

I also experienced oil on the rear break-drums from a leaking seal oil (fixed by Ward Jones again), and leaks from radiator hoses (I got new hoses and fixed them myself, a neighbour providing some extra-strong ex-army jubilee clips).
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Links

There are some very professional bus sites out there! Try the following, all of which have links to other pages

These are links to "family" sites - unashamed plugs!

This document maintained by JohnB@crownsys.co.uk.
Material Copyright © 2006 John Braga