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B Type Bus restoration


Charawacky

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B type bus which has it's original body and mechanics has been subject to a £ 752,000 restoration is to be taken to France for which they are looking for donations to cover the cost of £ 25,000. :nut:

 

If you feel you want to donate there is a link on the article which makes interesting reading.

 

http://www.centenarynews.com/article?id=1649

 

also

 

http://companycheck.co.uk/company/06495761

Edited by Charawacky
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I have been the first to comment on the article; "Please can someone justify with costs of £25,000 required for the tour?"

 

Quite right Bob, but what about the restoration costs, seems to be a bit high to me. "B type bus which has it's original body and mechanics has been subject to a £ 752,000 restoration is to be taken to France for which they are looking for donations to cover the cost of £ 25,000."?

 

I've been in the restoration game most of my life. (not professionally) I can't get my head around that figure to restore any vehicle. I recon there workshops it was farmed out to saw them coming as a milking cow money pit.

 

Regards Rick.

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Three quarters of a million for a wooden bus seems... excessive. The restoration does appear to be of a very high quality, but their starting point looked to be pretty good and that kind of money would pay for half a dozen full time staff for a year, all the parts you could possibly imagine and you'd still have at least a quarter of a million left. I don't get it.

 

Asking for $25k to pay for petrol on top of that seems to be quite a reach.

 

Cheers,

Terry

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I think it is worth it. Mind you it is not my money. If it wasn't for the lottery restorations like this would either not take place or take for ever. It does help that it is 2014 and the lottery had earmarked funds for WW1 commemorations. I am sure they were looking for a landmark project such as this to spend their money on.

 

The Royal Logistics Corps should have put in a bid to purchase and restore a WW1 military lorry for their museum. Now is the time to do it. By 2018 everybody will be sick of the Great War commemorations and the lottery money will have gone.

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I think it is worth it. Mind you it is not my money. If it wasn't for the lottery restorations like this would either not take place or take for ever. It does help that it is 2014 and the lottery had earmarked funds for WW1 commemorations. I am sure they were looking for a landmark project such as this to spend their money on.

 

 

The basis of the restoration seems to be this (bar the body). Whilst it looks to be a B/Y type hybrid, its a good starting point.

8125730917_733f0b4de6.jpg

 

Source https://www.flickr.com/photos/23700069@N03/

Edited by 8_10 Brass Cleaner
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Not quite. The rebuild is of B2737 (LH 8186) - a genuine B type chassis that, so I understand, went to the War Department.

 

More photos here:

 

 

Yes, I had a good look of them. A narrative of the restoration would be very interesting.

 

You can just make out that a correct B type engine was procured seperatley, I wonder where the other bits came from?.

 

It looks like its going to be a splendid machine when done.

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It isn't just the bus restoration that the money is being spent on. Incidentally, having seen the bus during its restoration and heard of some of the plans and events being planned over a 4/5 year period, it strikes me as an excellent project. It certainly isn't just a static museum exhibit that comes out for the odd road run. Here's what the LT Museum have had to say;

 

"The funding that the Museum has received from the Heritage Lottery Fund covers a five year heritage, learning and participation programme marking the centenaries of the First World War between 2014 and 2018 which includes the restoration of B-type bus B2737. The sum that we have received takes into account this five year programme.

 

The restoration of the bus is costing around £250,000 – more than half of which was spent on purchasing original parts such as the bus body, engine and chassis. The remainder of the grant that we have secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund covers a whole range of activities including an apprenticeship programme and collections support. It is also funding a programme of learning and participation which will ensure communities across London will have the chance to see and learn about B2737, B-type buses and their role in the First World War through community exhibitions and a touring programme.

 

Staying true to its story, the Museum plans to recreate the journey that the B-type bus would have taken from London to transport troops to the Western Front. The funding that the Museum has received from the HLF does not cover this activity. To deliver this aim we have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £25,000 to cover the costs associated with recreating this historic journey, the largest of which is the cost associated with transportation and the use of a low loader over an extended period. Members of the general public are invited to support the campaign and help the Museum to reach its £25,000 target and in return for their support will receive B-type related rewards. For more information visit www.buzzbnk.org/ltm-battlebus"

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The restoration team keep referring to a 'genuine AEC engine' but is that not a Tylor JB4 or was Tylor part of AEC?

http://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/26th-may-1925/10/of-interest-to-users-of-tylor-engines

 

Also what was the thinking with the chain gearbox, was it to stress the case in compression rather than tension which would occur with gears or was it quieter than running straight cut gears?

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The restoration of the bus is costing around £250,000 – more than half of which was spent on purchasing original parts such as the bus body, engine and chassis. The remainder of the grant that we have secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund covers a whole range of activities including an apprenticeship programme and collections support. It is also funding a programme of learning and participation which will ensure communities across London will have the chance to see and learn about B2737, B-type buses and their role in the First World War through community exhibitions and a touring programme.

 

 

 

Now thats more like it, I can well believe the restoration costing near the 100K mark.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, I hope this is what you all have been waiting for. We have today handed over to London's Transport Museum the 'B' type bus having completed phase 1 of the restoration. My thanks to Roy Larkin for putting right some of the facts and figures previously mentioned. The restoration is based on the chassis of B 2737, this spent its last working days with the National Omnibus Co. Chelmsford and its remains found on a small holding at nearby Cock Clarks. The body used in this restoration had been sold to East Surrey Traction Co., Reigate in the early 1920s and survived as a garden shed at Horley. Engine, gearbox and other mechanical parts have come back from Australia where some 40 of these vehicles were sold second hand in the early 1920s with B 237 surviving to be traded in by an outback farmer in 1971 to a Melbourne commercial vehicle dealer. The whole has been restored at my workshop and completed two months ahead of schedule. B 2737 entered service from Mortlake garage in March /April 1914 replacing aging De Dions which were put into store by the LGOC only to re-enter service some 4 months later !. B 2737 was taken along with all its sister vehicles by the WD in September 1914, ,some of this last order still at the Walthamstow works under construction were immediately bodied as general service lorries. Phase 2 will come in September this year when almost 100 years to the day the vehicle will be refinished as a troop carrier and hopefully return to France and Belgium during September and October this year.

 

 

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]92232[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]92233[/ATTACH]

Richard Peskett.

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks for the detail on itinerary in France.

 

Very disappointed as we will be traveling north through Poperinge with the Crossleys on the 18th, the day before the B type will be there!

 

Do you know the details of when the bus passes will through Dover or Calais as our paths will cross!

 

I would have loved to see it.

 

Tom

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Thanks for the detail on itinerary in France.

 

Very disappointed as we will be traveling north through Poperinge with the Crossleys on the 18th, the day before the B type will be there!

 

Do you know the details of when the bus passes will through Dover or Calais as our paths will cross!

 

I would have loved to see it.

 

Tom

 

Sod's Law at work Tom, I will be meeting up with the bus at Ypres for the last post on the 20th. It will be in Poperinghe on the 19th to open an exhibition, but unfortunately I didn't fancy going over on the 18th to return in the evening of the 19th to pick the Mrs up to go back again on the 20th, so had to turn down the invitation to the exhibition opening and hastily rearrange holiday to be at Ypres for the first night. Fortunately that will leave 2 weeks to get the Mrs back on side as we'll be out of the Western Front area for most of it.

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Full details of when and where the bus will be in the next couple of weeks can be found on the London Transport Museum web site. We are this week refinishing it into its wartime livery etc. at Covent Garden and it will be on display on Covent Garden Piazza on Friday this week. On Saturday and Sunday it will be on display at the Museum Depot , Acton. Images here of it today arriving at Covent Garden and now in its undercoat. The bus has been totally restored in our workshops and has now covered about 200 miles in central London in its original guise as it worked 100 years ago on route 9.100_6211.jpg

 

 

Richard Peskett.

Contractor to LTM.

100_6206.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Circumnavigated Sods law and delayed the crossing by a few hours to see and ride on the B type bus in Poperinge, an interesting experience as the dignitaries were up top and I was all boarded in beneath, it gave a good impression of how it must have been at the time and I guess the lower seats would probably have been the preferred seats at the time.

A beautiful day with sunshine which made a spectacular sight around the town square.

The down side was having to drive up the M20 in the dark with the Staff Car, with Tender and Trailer carrying a Fokker D V11 Airframe. Pictures posted when I get them.

Anyone if they have the chance should see the B type whilst it is in MT guise.

Tom

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