# Any Routemaster fans/drivers/mechanics on here?



## simon the viking (3 Aug 2020)

I've had a article pitch accepted for a national magazine for an article about Routemaster buses (old not the Boris Bus) I've tried to join a couple of bus forums but waiting for accounts to be activated and its been a week on one!

So as above really.. anybody got any short anecdotes that they wouldn't mind me weaving into to the article, I would have to name you but first name only in the article. Particularly interested in any mechanics who worked at Aldenham works... I know all of the is a long shot on a cycling forum but....

The main part of the article is an interview with a hire company who owns 3 and obviously some history about them


----------



## Sharky (3 Aug 2020)

An old school friend - Dave Farrier is a bus enthusiast. Haven't seen him for over 50 years, but did swap emails with him a couple of years ago. He sells photos of buses, but may have a story or two to give to you in return for a fee or publicity.

http://www.spanglefish.com/davefarriersbusphotos/
Good luck - you can mention my name - Keith from PGS


----------



## fossyant (3 Aug 2020)

My son drove one for a few yards when he was in Primary (sat on drivers knee). He was spotted by one of the Primary Teachers in the driving seat...

We've got a local enthusiast who was friends with FIL so we had a few trips locally.


----------



## simon the viking (3 Aug 2020)

Sharky said:


> An old school friend - Dave Farrier is a bus enthusiast. Haven't seen him for over 50 years, but did swap emails with him a couple of years ago. He sells photos of buses, but may have a story or two to give to you in return for a fee or publicity.
> 
> http://www.spanglefish.com/davefarriersbusphotos/
> Good luck - you can mention my name - Keith from PGS


Thanks email sent!


----------



## Sharky (3 Aug 2020)

simon the viking said:


> Thanks email sent!


Let me know what happens- cheers


----------



## Drago (3 Aug 2020)

The only anecdotes I have involve fights or doing things with young ladies, so I'd probably get banned if I told the tale. I do love the old buses. Proper machines, designed to work correctly, and to do so for decades.


----------



## irw (3 Aug 2020)

I know (through reading the wikipedia article the other day) that it _wasn't_ a "Routemaster", but an "AEC Regent III RT" that Cliff & his chums took on a jolly to Athens in the "Summer Holiday" film!

Edited to add:
Don't know if it's of any use at all to you, but again, according to wikipedia, the opening ten minutes of the film were filmed at the Aldenham works...


----------



## simon the viking (3 Aug 2020)

And frank spencer didn't roller skate behind one either that was AEC Regent III as well, I did read about the 7 days to our holiday song being filmed there... I want to check out the fact that wikipedia claim that a bus could come in a 9.00 am and leave at night... original fully refurbished chassis fitted with different engine and body but same bus.... Triggers broom? ..


----------



## irw (3 Aug 2020)

My goodness...they'd never be allowed to do some of that now! My favourite bit is 2:00 to 2:15!


----------



## simon the viking (3 Aug 2020)

irw said:


> My goodness...they'd never be allowed to do some of that now! My favourite bit is 2:00 to 2:15!




Ah! the crane scene.... yes filmed without a stunt double! great seeing a young Melvyn 'Gloria' Hayes again.... Used to watch this film during the school holidays along with wonderful life and the young ones


----------



## simon the viking (3 Aug 2020)

Drago said:


> The only anecdotes I have involve fights or doing things with young ladies, so I'd probably get banned if I told the tale. I do love the old buses. Proper machines, designed to work correctly, and to do so for decades.


Go on you've intrigued me now... you cant leave it at that!


----------



## Drago (3 Aug 2020)

Sorry, I cant. Some misery guts will accuse me of being puerile, and some peace hippy will take time out from saving the lentil to accuse me of being sexist.


----------



## slowmotion (3 Aug 2020)

Here's some bus porn...…..the Gibson ticket machine. They looked and they sounded absolutely wonderful, especially if they were operated by a lady who a seven year old schoolboy secretly fancied.


----------



## simon the viking (4 Aug 2020)

Sharky said:


> Let me know what happens- cheers


David has replied, unfortunately he doesnt have any first hand experiences of them just lots of photos, he did say it was nice that you remembered him though


----------



## DCBassman (5 Aug 2020)

Did drive an RF single decker once...


----------



## simon the viking (5 Aug 2020)

DCBassman said:


> Did drive an RF single decker once...


Now if you had started driving a double decker and ended with a single decker that would be a story! James managed it

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzwXNvMyZd8


----------



## Sharky (5 Aug 2020)

Less is Moore


----------



## sheddy (5 Aug 2020)

Saw a privately owned one, top deck converted to allow a massive scalextric circuit.
But may not have been a Routemaster.


----------



## Smokin Joe (5 Aug 2020)

sheddy said:


> Saw a privately owned one, top deck converted allow a massive scalextric circuit.
> But may not have been a Routemaster.


Now that is cool.


----------



## CanucksTraveller (5 Aug 2020)

My dad was a conductor, then driver, and finally driver/conductor on Greater Manchester Transport buses, I can't quite remember them having rear loading buses but I know they had Leyland Titans when he started. 






As I got to an age where I could go to work with him at the depot it was then Leyland Atlanteans. 






Apologies for the digression from Routemasters, but bus threads don't come along so often in these parts.


----------



## simon the viking (5 Aug 2020)

I've finished the first draft of the article in question just waiting for feedback from the Routemaster owner I interrogated interviewed before I polish it and and send it to the magazine.... does anyone want to read the draft? complete with a few photos I took.... PM me with email address


----------



## SkipdiverJohn (2 Sep 2020)

simon the viking said:


> . I want to check out the fact that wikipedia claim that a bus could come in a 9.00 am and leave at night... original fully refurbished chassis fitted with different engine and body but same bus.



It didn't work quite like that. What happened is that the overhaul programme was planned and each vehicle in the fleet was due to have it's visit to the works every 4 years or so. On the date a particular vehicle was due in, a driver would collect it from whichever garage it was based at and take it to the works. At the same time, another newly-overhauled bus of the same type already in the works, would assume the identity of the incoming vehicle, so there was no break in the licensing. Anyone standing outside the gates to the works, would indeed see the "same" vehicle entering and leaving on the same day - except it wasn't the same vehicle at all. Most Routemasters, technically are "ringers", that is their true identity is not the what it's registration plate and bonnet number would suggest. Only a very small number of them have a kosher ID, because they were non-mainstream in some respect (such as the first and last ones built) and were overhauled as one-offs without body, sub-frame or identity swapping. 
To facilitate this system, at any one time there would be maybe a dozen bodies and a dozen sets of mechanical units sitting as work in progress within the works. These parts came from the first batch of vehicles that were taken into the works at the start of an overhaul cycle, and were not dispatched from the works until the completion of that cycle, which could be several years later. These identities were delicensed for the duration and disappeared from London's streets for years, until they became the last ones left in at the end of the cycle, when they were sent out again. Very few if any of them would carry any of their original mechanical or body parts, the originals having been long since sent out carrying a different identity!
The system was known as the Works Float and is a subject in it's own right. It all came to an end around 1985/86 when Routemaster overhauls were scaled down as they had started to withdraw them, then the works closed and the facility to lift and swap bodies freely no longer existed. The GPO also operated a similar system , but without the in/out same day aspect, where vehicles were dismantled into their component parts then newly overhauled ones reassembled from kits of parts.


----------



## simon the viking (2 Sep 2020)

SkipdiverJohn said:


> It didn't work quite like that. What happened is that the overhaul programme was planned and each vehicle in the fleet was due to have it's visit to the works every 4 years or so. On the date a particular vehicle was due in, a driver would collect it from whichever garage it was based at and take it to the works. At the same time, another newly-overhauled bus of the same type already in the works, would assume the identity of the incoming vehicle, so there was no break in the licensing. Anyone standing outside the gates to the works, would indeed see the "same" vehicle entering and leaving on the same day - except it wasn't the same vehicle at all. Most Routemasters, technically are "ringers", that is their true identity is not the what it's registration plate and bonnet number would suggest. Only a very small number of them have a kosher ID, because they were non-mainstream in some respect (such as the first and last ones built) and were overhauled as one-offs without body, sub-frame or identity swapping.
> To facilitate this system, at any one time there would be maybe a dozen bodies and a dozen sets of mechanical units sitting as work in progress within the works. These parts came from the first batch of vehicles that were taken into the works at the start of an overhaul cycle, and were not dispatched from the works until the completion of that cycle, which could be several years later. These identities were delicensed for the duration and disappeared from London's streets for years, until they became the last ones left in at the end of the cycle, when they were sent out again. Very few if any of them would carry any of their original mechanical or body parts, the originals having been long since sent out carrying a different identity!
> The system was known as the Works Float and is a subject in it's own right. It all came to an end around 1985/86 when Routemaster overhauls were scaled down as they had started to withdraw them, then the works closed and the facility to lift and swap bodies freely no longer existed. The GPO also operated a similar system , but without the in/out same day aspect, where vehicles were dismantled into their component parts then newly overhauled ones reassembled from kits of parts.


Thank you for your reply, I did get to the bottom of it in the end by speaking to a garage who owns 3, I included a brief description of the process that does match your post, so thanks for the confirmation! The 1600 word article has been accepted by the magazine and will be published in the new year!


----------



## weareHKR (8 Sep 2020)

SkipdiverJohn said:


> It didn't work quite like that. What happened is that the overhaul programme was planned and each vehicle in the fleet was due to have it's visit to the works every 4 years or so. On the date a particular vehicle was due in, a driver would collect it from whichever garage it was based at and take it to the works. At the same time, another newly-overhauled bus of the same type already in the works, would assume the identity of the incoming vehicle, so there was no break in the licensing. Anyone standing outside the gates to the works, would indeed see the "same" vehicle entering and leaving on the same day - except it wasn't the same vehicle at all. Most Routemasters, technically are "ringers", that is their true identity is not the what it's registration plate and bonnet number would suggest. Only a very small number of them have a kosher ID, because they were non-mainstream in some respect (such as the first and last ones built) and were overhauled as one-offs without body, sub-frame or identity swapping.
> To facilitate this system, at any one time there would be maybe a dozen bodies and a dozen sets of mechanical units sitting as work in progress within the works. These parts came from the first batch of vehicles that were taken into the works at the start of an overhaul cycle, and were not dispatched from the works until the completion of that cycle, which could be several years later. These identities were delicensed for the duration and disappeared from London's streets for years, until they became the last ones left in at the end of the cycle, when they were sent out again. Very few if any of them would carry any of their original mechanical or body parts, the originals having been long since sent out carrying a different identity!
> The system was known as the Works Float and is a subject in it's own right. It all came to an end around 1985/86 when Routemaster overhauls were scaled down as they had started to withdraw them, then the works closed and the facility to lift and swap bodies freely no longer existed. The GPO also operated a similar system , but without the in/out same day aspect, where vehicles were dismantled into their component parts then newly overhauled ones reassembled from kits of parts.


Interesting read, thanks for sharing...


----------



## CanucksTraveller (17 Mar 2021)

Holy thread resurrection Batman, but I had nowhere else to put this.... (sorry Simon!)

I've just become the happy owner of an Almex A ticket machine, as used by my Dad (and me, when he let me) in the 70s. I've been looking for a good example for a long time and finally this came up and at a decent price. To at least tie it in to the OP, I gather these were used by London Transport conductors in the 70s too.


----------



## Eric Olthwaite (17 Mar 2021)

It was a childhood joy to get onto the exit platform shortly before my stop, hook my arm around the vertical pole, and swing out a little as the bus went round a corner.


----------



## simon the viking (17 Mar 2021)

what a great peice of history you've got there!

my article was published in Febs edition of Best of British Magazine... its gone off the shelves now but is still available on Readly the magazine app if anyone wants to read it


----------



## Mark Grant (17 Mar 2021)

When I was doing my Vehicle Mechanic training in the REME in '83/4 part of the course involved a Saracen (I think) armoured vehicle. We were told it had a Wilson pre-select gearbox which the Routemaster also used.


----------



## fossyant (17 Mar 2021)

CanucksTraveller said:


> My dad was a conductor, then driver, and finally driver/conductor on Greater Manchester Transport buses, I can't quite remember them having rear loading buses but I know they had Leyland Titans when he started.
> View attachment 539983
> 
> 
> ...



My dad was a mechanic for GM Busses (Hyde Road and Stockport Charles St). Some of my 'marbles' were old bearings ! I also have a couple of Atlantean name plates somewhere.


----------



## CanucksTraveller (18 Mar 2021)

fossyant said:


> My dad was a mechanic for GM Busses (Hyde Road and Stockport Charles St). Some of my 'marbles' were old bearings ! I also have a couple of Atlantean name plates somewhere.


That's wonderful! My dad worked out of Hyde Road depot, I remember the skid pan there and the dramatic demonstrations of what a double decker skid looked like!


----------



## SkipdiverJohn (18 Mar 2021)

CanucksTraveller said:


> I've just become the happy owner of an Almex A ticket machine, as used by my Dad (and me, when he let me) in the 70s. I've been looking for a good example for a long time and finally this came up and at a decent price. To at least tie it in to the OP, I gather these were used by London Transport conductors in the 70s too.



If Almex machines were ever used by LT conductors, rather than just OMO drivers, it must have been an extremely rare occurrence. I have personally never seen a LT conductor issuing tickets using anything other than a LT-designed Gibson machine, apart from literally a couple of occasions when a bell punch type ticket was issued instead. That was an emergency measure and only ever happened if the conductor's Gibson machine malfunctioned or they ran out of ticket roll.


----------



## CanucksTraveller (18 Mar 2021)

SkipdiverJohn said:


> If Almex machines were ever used by LT conductors, rather than just OMO drivers, it must have been an extremely rare occurrence. I have personally never seen a LT conductor issuing tickets using anything other than a LT-designed Gibson machine, apart from literally a couple of occasions when a bell punch type ticket was issued instead. That was an emergency measure and only ever happened if the conductor's Gibson machine malfunctioned or they ran out of ticket roll.


I stand corrected, I've seen LT "take your ticket" stickers on Almex machines so I assumed they must have been used on the LT network at some point. Possibly a rare occasion, possibly never happened and the stickers are an anomaly. You seem to know more about LT machines so I'll bow to that.


----------



## SkipdiverJohn (18 Mar 2021)

I'm not saying you're wrong, LT certainly did use Almex machines, and it's possible on occasion they might have also been used on crew buses. But if they did, it was not common practice, as the standard LT conductor issue was the Gibson A14 machine which was carried on a purpose-designed leather harness. I believe they are quite collectable now! Some I've seen on eBay have been silly money.


----------



## fossyant (18 Mar 2021)

CanucksTraveller said:


> That's wonderful! My dad worked out of Hyde Road depot, I remember the skid pan there and the dramatic demonstrations of what a double decker skid looked like!



We went on a skid pan driving evening with work at Hyde Road. It was ace. We got to spin some old busses, and newer ones (I'm talking 25 years ago) - we drove and were passengers, so we either piled to the back of the bus, or the back of the upstairs. I used to go to the Charles Street garage alot as a kid, usually on a saturday.


----------

