08-02-2016, 12:13 PM
I think we all admire the stamina of people who take on such mammoth projects. Some require a lot of manpower - such as the rusty hulks recovered from Woodham's Scrapyard on Barry Island and now fully restored to steam and hauling trains on our Heritage Railways and some, of course, on the main line.
Bus restoration is probably on a par with an OB van, although if that includes the upholstery and varnished wood interior, it almost certainly requires the assistance of people with specialised skills in that area.
There is a single decker Bristol bus nearing completion at the Lincoln Transport Museum which I've been following for several years. On this particular body the cab area and destination blind box are all beautifully flowing curves with several pieces of timber mated together. It was also completely rotten and to see the craftsmanship involved in replacing the wood and grafting it into the remaining sound timber was fascinating. In a way it is a shame that the outer body skin now covers up all of this up and nobody will ever see it again!
If anybody is looking around it for the first time when I'm up there, I usually tell them that when I first saw that bus it was in two piles - one of sawdust and one of rust!
Details of some of the more recent restoration activity can be seen here but, alas, there are no details of that intricate curved wooden body frame although some of the pictures 'with its clothes on' give you some idea.
Bus restoration is probably on a par with an OB van, although if that includes the upholstery and varnished wood interior, it almost certainly requires the assistance of people with specialised skills in that area.
There is a single decker Bristol bus nearing completion at the Lincoln Transport Museum which I've been following for several years. On this particular body the cab area and destination blind box are all beautifully flowing curves with several pieces of timber mated together. It was also completely rotten and to see the craftsmanship involved in replacing the wood and grafting it into the remaining sound timber was fascinating. In a way it is a shame that the outer body skin now covers up all of this up and nobody will ever see it again!
If anybody is looking around it for the first time when I'm up there, I usually tell them that when I first saw that bus it was in two piles - one of sawdust and one of rust!
Details of some of the more recent restoration activity can be seen here but, alas, there are no details of that intricate curved wooden body frame although some of the pictures 'with its clothes on' give you some idea.
