RESTORING A SYDNEY LEYLAND TD4

Movie Star!

2009-10-02T17:43:00.013+10:00

In 2004 Philip Myers, film maker, and friend Jillian Barlett as director embarked on a project to make a film about Sydney Bus Museum, where the Leyland now resides. The Museum's home, the old Tempe tram sheds, was under threat of sale to developers. A spirited political campaign was undertaken: twelve double deckers blockaded Macquarie Street city, thousands of letters to MPs were signed by ordinary citizens, and the day was won.
Philip and Jillian's film had its premiere at an inner city cinema, the Dendy at Newtown, with invited guests arriving by TD4 and AEC Regent. En route, in King Street Newtown, this remarkable shot was taken quite by chance by a professional photographer (Paul Santelmann), who just happened to be there.

The movie (28mins) is available on DVD with nearly 1 1/2 hours of extras, for $39.95 post paid from the museum shop: info@sydneybusmuseum.com
The scene in King St outside the cinema was almost worthy of Oscars night...
photos by Philip Myers

A Day on the Town

2007-02-09T16:00:00.000+11:00

It has been said that there is a fine line between hobby and mental illness. For the bus enthusiast and in particular the amateur restorer, the line is even more uncertain. Matters such as the position of the intermediate steady bracket on the left hand staircase rail (was it above the top deck floor boards or below?) start to assume deep significance. And was it nickel plated or chromium plated?

However, I am still of sound enough mind to know that for a bus, after years of living rough, then receiving treatment, undergoing convalescence and then coming out of retirement, appearance on the streets of Sydney carrying passengers after a 48 year absence from the work force is no big deal.
But for the owner and his family, members of the Historic Commercial Vehicle Association, and many members of the public it was a great event.
Australia Day, January 26th 2007 was a brilliant sunny day: it always is. For some reason no matter what the weather leading up to the day, and on subsequent days, the day itself has been fine in living memory. This lends itself to some brilliant photographs and I attach some here. click on a photo to enlarge it

This shot was taken by Pennie Griffiths outside 333 Bobbin Head Rd. on return from inspection at Tempe Museum. The bus had just completed its very first journey of any kind since completion.

ONCE EVERYTHING WAS ASSEMBLED, AND BEFORE ANY OPERATION WITH PASSENGERS COULD BE CONTEMPLATED IT WAS NECESSARY TO OBTAIN A CERTIFICATE OF ROADWORTHINESS. As a car club, The Historic Commercial Vehicle Association is entitled to register members' vehicles under the Conditional Registration scheme, whereby anything over 30 years of age qualifies so long as a suitably approved member inspects it. One of our members is a former RTA Vehicle Inspector and well-qualified to find any weaknesses. With some trepidation I set off for the Museum at Tempe, into pouring rain. That 12 volt wiper motor from Jasper Pettie in Scotland came into its own and coped brilliantly. My fears centred largely around the brakes: TD4 and TD5 Leylands were notorious for the pedal effort necessary to achieve modest retardation, mainly due to the rather complex vacuum / hydraulic system. But on the day with some minor adjustment we achieved 60% on the Tapley Meter: marvellous!

Reversing out of the drive at 333 Bobbin, the new paint on m/0 1579 just glows. Since registration the radiator has been polished, the Leyland and Titan badges have been highlighted in black, and an odd touch from the 30s, the leather strap to hold the crank handle from swinging has been reinstated. The yellow patch at eye level will become the number plate: in the pre-war era the rear had a number plate, but the front one was painted onto the bodywork. It will say NSW m/o 1579.

THE "FLEET" TOGETHER: 1936 Leyland TD4, the former m/o 1579, and my 1946 Albion CX19, formerly m/o 1892, wait side by side outside the Sydney Town Hall.
David Wilson rather daringly stood nearly in the middle of George Street City to get this shot of my two double deckers together on the great day. Craig Parkinson is driving 1892.

STILL TOGETHER, THE ALBION AND THE LEYLAND IN ELIZABETH STREET, OPPOSITE DAVID JONES STORE, SETTING DOWN PASSENGERS AFTER A CIRCUIT OF THE CITY. photo Phil Bugby

FROM L to R, m/o 2186, a Leyland model OPD2 of 1948, m/o 1579 obscured, and Albion 1892 wait for traffic lights in George Street outside Town Hall, as they head north towards Circular Quay. photo David Wilson

TAKEN FROM THE BACK PLATFORM OF ALBION 1892, BY ITS CONDUCTOR, TRISTAN PHIPPS. The two buses have crossed Park Street and are about to stop outside the Queen Victoria Building.
The sign hanging down below the destination "WYNYARD" is the 1930s version of today's display telling the passenger "via Burwood Plaza", etc.

ITS JUST AS WELL THAT SOME PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKE PHOTOS FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD SOMETIMES. So many shots are of the "nearside" of a bus, but Phillip Bugby made a point of standing across the street outside David Jones to get this well-lit photo of 1579 setting down and loading passengers at the corner of of St James' Road. Some day I must arrange for a similar photo shoot in York Street city, posing the bus in exactly the same spot as the 1938 photo seen in the very first entry in this blog: "Back in 1937" posted June 2006 (see Archives).

AFTER COMPLETION. PENNIE MADE A POINT OF MOVING THROUGHOUT THE BUS RECORDING THE FINISHED ARTICLE. Downstairs looking forward, visible at floor level is the polished aluminium clutch and flywheel cover with its flowing "Leyland" script.

AT THE SUGGESTION OF GWILYM'S FIANCEE EMILY, I MADE FEW BRIEF 'ADS' DESCRIBING THE ORIGINS OF THE BUS AND ITS JOURNEY TOWARDS RESTORATION. John Dunn's book about the history of the Waddington concern, later Commonwealth Engineering, makes it clear that this bus would have been half finished when the move from Camperdown to Granville occurred. It's a moot point as to where it was actually completed.

ON THE TOP DECK, LOOKING REARWARDS. THE GENERALLY DARK FINISH ON TRIMS, AND THE PAUCITY OF INTERIOR LIGHTING ARE FEATURES OF PRE-WAR DECKERS.

DURING RESTORATION YEARS BEFORE, AS I CAME TO ENSURING THAT THREADED SOCKETS IN THE TOP DECK FLOOR GOT FITTED IN THEIR CORRECT POSITIONS, IT WAS OBVIOUS HOW LITTLE LEG ROOM PASSENGERS IN THE TOP DECK FRONT SEATS WOULD RECEIVE. AND EVERYONE COMMENTS ABOUT THE LOW CEILINGS: PRE-WAR BUSES LOST ABOUT AN INCH HERE COMPARED TO POST WAR ONES. And the driver's cab is pretty cosy, too.

ONE OF THE PERIOD ADS I MANAGED TO SAVE MANY YEARS AGO, NOT FROM THIS BUS THOUGH. This one would date from the 1960's. Are you regular, or do you worry? I do.

Take a Seat

2006-12-18T20:55:00.000+11:00

Fitting seats to the bus is pretty much the thing you do on the last day; the seats just get in the way of doing everything else, like putting in handrails, buzzer pull cords, interior trims, windows, etc.

So with all those things seen to, it is time to revisit the seats. These have been coming together for a long time, since a set of seat frames was scrounged from the collection of old ones at Tempe Museum, destined for the scrap heap. They had their legs inset 6 inches from the aisle, being from post war deckers, so all legs were cut off with the angle grinder, and welded back on flush with the aisle end. Then all the seat tops, in their rusty chrome, were cut off using a jig to ensure each cut was identical. Having been in the weather for some time they were pretty rough looking, but a friend who just happens to own a sand blasting and powder coating business offered with great generosity to refinish them. That done, they just sat, immaculate in their glossy brown, stacked up in the workshop for a couple of years.
New seat tops were made this year, and sent to the plater along with all the other hundred or so bright parts. Tempe yielded a set of seat cushions, all about 50 years old so the Dunlopillo had turned to black crumbs, and a couple of good seat backs to act as a pattern for making new ones.
So all was on hand: frames, tops, cushions and backs, and the great moment arrived: virtually the last stage of the whole restoration.

SLEEVES HAVE BEEN TURNED TO DIAMETER (FROM OLD MALLEYS WHIRLPOOL SPIN TUBES) SO THAT THEY ARE A PRESS FIT IN BOTH THE NEW SEAT TOP AND THE REFURBISHED SEAT FRAME. THEY ARE BEING KNOCKED INTO THE SEAT TOP BY WHACKING ONTO A SOLID BLOCK OF WOOD.
THE TOPS THEMSELVES ARE ALL NEW, MADE OF 1.25 INCH STEEL TUBE, BENT TO SHAPE BY A SPECIALIST TUBE BENDER. STEEL LUGS, CUT BY LASER AT QUITE MODEST COST, I THEN WELDED ONTO EACH TOP, BEFORE SENDING IT FOR POLISHING AND PLATING. This process is easier and cheaper than trying to replate just the top of the old seat frame. And the old seat tops were quite badly pitted from salt left by sweaty palms over decades, so that polishing them was well nigh impossible. I tried once.

USING A LEATHER FACED HAMMER, CUSHIONED WITH SOME OF THE WRAPPING PROVIDED FOR THE NEWLY-PLATED SEAT TOPS BY SWIFT ELECTROPLATERS, TO PRESS THE SLEEVES INTO THE SEAT FRAME ON EACH SIDE. The seat frames were sand blasted and powder coated by my friend Phil Dixon in Parkes.

USING THE LEATHER HAMMER, THE SEAT BACK IS TAPPED SNUGLY INTO POSITION IN THE FRAME. The seat backs are mostly new, with some exceptions, made from 2"x1" wood, covered with Masonite, Scumbled to give the leather-look paint finish, then upholstered. The shiny bit along the corner is 1/2" crescent section aluminium, drilled and nailed onto the seat back to prevent scuffing of the upholstery edge by hands hastily grabbing the seat as the bus lurches.

USING THE DRILL AS A SCREWDRIVER, NEW SCREWS ARE USED TO SECURE THE SEAT BACK AFTER DRILLING CLEARANCE HOLES THROUGH THE MASONITE INTO THE WOOD FRAME. AFTER A VAGUE ALLOWANCE FOR THICKNESS OF UPHOLSTERY, AND THE UNCERTAIN FINAL SIZE AND SHAPE OF FRAME AFTER ALL IT HAS BEEN THROUGH, THE NEAT FIT OF THE SEAT BACK INTO ITS FRAME IS A PLEASANT SURPRISE! The process will consume nearly 200 screws.

THE FIRST COMPLETED SEAT AWAITS ONLY BOLTING TO THE FLOOR AND WALL, AND A SEAT CUSHION WHICH JUST DROPS INTO POSITION.

Fitting out the Interior

2006-12-18T17:54:00.000+11:00

The last few weeks have been like a 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle.Nearly all the parts were there, but needed to be matched to existing holes in the bodywork, or new holes made. And some parts had to be made, where it suddenly emerged that they were missing.
First step was to lay the malthoid flooring to the bottom deck floor and rear platform. These had been left bare so that paint spots could fall from ceiling and framing without causing a mess.
Then all the glass panes could go in: twenty windows along the sides top and bottom, made up of one fixed pane and one sliding pane each, the drop windows at front upstairs and behind the engine bay downstairs, fixed and sliding panes beside and behind the driver, and the fixed pane at the back of the lower saloon.

MALTHOID ON THE FLOOR DOWNSTAIRS AND GLASS IN PLACE IN THE FRONT BULKHEAD. Some of the 2,000-odd screws are visible. Regular visits to Bomond Trading, Brookvale, have had to happen as I surprised myself by running out of the required screws: 8 gauge and 10-gauge, pan head and countersunk head, but above all, with slotted heads. Phillips screws just weren't around in 1937, and now it's getting hard to find slotted screws because everyone wants the easier Phillips head type, which don't let your screwdriver slip off and go skidding across your nice new paintwork.
I was moved to count all the panes: there are 69 altogether, including ten in the driver's cab alone. Rather surprisingly I found the ones behind the driver, which were missing 20 years ago (see Archive: First Find the Bus to Restore, June 2006) and of which I had found one to use as a pattern for cutting the three new ones which were needed, were all about 15mm too tall! My pattern had been from a post-war decker; pre-war windows are smaller......
More than one visit to Tempe, with camera, was needed to explore the relatively untouched, but unrestored, Leyland TD5 there, no. 1438. Thus was it possible to find just how certain mystery items slotted together, and to identify pieces which were just missing from my stock of bits.

A SHOT TAKEN INSIDE m/o 1438, THE UNRESTORED 1938 LEYLAND DECKER AT THE MUSEUM. THE SLIDING PANES BEHIND THE DRIVER ARE AT RIGHT, THE DROP WINDOWS BEHIND THE ENGINE AT LEFT. THERE IS NO COVER STRIP OVER THE JOIN BETWEEN TWO SHEETS OF MASONITE ACROSS THE FRONT WALL! THIS SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN STANDARD PRACTICE.
Even the sliding panes behind the driver are a moot point: there is a view that the far right hand pair were not even fitted in these buses as built. And when they were fitted it was as a pair: post war buses have one large pane which slides to the left and allows the conductor to hang his head and shoulders into the cab to discuss the events of the day. Now that 1379's cab has its right hand side panes fitted, you can hardly get your head through the aperture, let alone shoulders.

Click on a photo to enlarge it.
THE CHANNEL SECTION TRIM AROUND THE TRIANGLE WINDOW IS VISIBLE, AND AN ABSOLUTE DOG TO FIT.. It has to fit snugly into the scumbled Masonite hardboard panel, be spaced away from the hidden steel framing with wood blocks of varying thicknesses so the screws don't crush the soft aluminium channel, and hopefully it hides the edges of the glass and the putty. In the event, the putty shows from the inside on most of them. Disappointing and hard to fix. After eight such trims (four on each deck) I was getting better at these and then there were no more to do.....
And so a pattern began to emerge: decide on the order of assembly, then learn how to go about the process of fitting of a particular group of parts. No sooner were they all in, than it was time to move on to a new group of parts and learn how they should go in.

THERE IS NO SAYING THAT THESE PHOTOS SHOW THE ORIGINAL CONDITION OF m/o1438; IT HAS BEEN OVERHAULED AT LEAST THREE TIMES IN THE GOVERNMENT'S WORKSHOPS, BUT IT'S THE NEAREST GUIDE AVAILABLE TO THE LIKELY APPEARANCE OF A 1937/38 DOUBLE DECKER'S INTERIOR. THIS SHOWS THE COVER STRIP OVER THE JOIN BETWEEN TWO SHEETS OF MASONITE, THE CAPPING ALONG THE TOP OF THE MASONITE, THE PILLAR CAP AND ITS LITTLE INSERT ACTING AS THE COVER OVER THE JOIN IN THE CAPPING STRIP.
The interior trims consist of: masonite lining, finished with a scumbled paint effect to simulate leatherette; metal trims, or cappings, along the top of all these panels, which hook over the raised inner edges of the waist rail cappings where the window panes sit; channel-section curved trims fitting around the triangular windows at each end of top and bottom decks; steel pillar caps which incorporate little rubber buffers to stop the sliding panes hitting them; various valances mostly around the tops of windows; cover strips over joins in masonite; the massive longitudinal mouldings acting as advertsement holders and wiring conduits; and large vinyl-covered curved liners inside the roof domes at the rear upstairs, made of heavy cardboard.
MOST OF THESE CAN BE SEEN IN THIS VIEW UPSTAIRS:

THE TOP DECK LOOKING FORWARD. The steel mouldings which act as racks for advertisement boards, with the lower one also concealing wiring to the interior lights, are going in above the windows.
The metal cappping trims along the top of the interior lining are new, as is the lining, and in most cases the sill into which they are attached is new too, so it was a matter of learning how best to find the position for the new screw hole and then getting to work on them all, bottom deck then top deck.
I found a material called Customwood which was virtually identical to the original and had it covered by an upholsterer, who put in the necessary piped edge where they meet the rear window upstairs. The stuff bends easily and is really more like coardboard than wood.

THE OFFSIDE TOP DECK. The vinyl covered Customwood lining carries a light and the frame to hold the convex mirror which allows the conductor a good view of goings-on on the top deck, from his position on the back platform. Along the top edge of the vinyl are two cappings: why not one piece? I'm not sure. The front one is steel, the rear is some more Customwood covered with vinyl, which leads into the metal valance over the emergency window.

THE DISTANT VIEW OF THE SAME CORNER SHOWS THE CAST ALUMINIUM STAIR TREADS IN PLACE, AND THE TWO STANCHIONS AT THE HEAD OF THE STAIRS. THE ONE ON THE RIGHT WILL CARRY A CURVED HANDRAIL RISING FROM THE BOTTOM DECK. The scumbled masonite gives way to the steel lining of the stair well. The vinyl covered Customwood trims to each side of the emergency exit window have piped edges where they meet the window. These panels were made of steel in post-war deckers.

ON THE TOP DECK LOOKING FORWARD. THE VALANCES ABOVE THE TRIANGLE PANE AND THE FRONT DROP WINDOWS ARE IN. THE LITTLE BLACK DOTS IN THE EDGE OF THE PILLAR CAP ARE THE RUBBER BUFFERS. David Wilson once again was able to provide the essential, genuine, item: a set of about 40 new rubbers to fit to the pillar caps.

ON THE BOTTOM DECK, RIGHT HAND REAR. AT THE OFFSIDE BOTTOM DECK, BAY 7, OR OSB7 IN BODYBUILDER'S SHORTHAND.
THE FLOOR AROUND THE BASE OF THE REAR WHEEL ARCH HAS MALTHOID LAID, AND THE MASONITE LINING IS IN, WITH ITS CAPPING STRIPS. THE EMBOSSED CAP ON THE VERTICAL PILLAR HAS A LITTLE EXTENSION IN ITS BASE TO ACT AS A COVER FOR THE JOINT IN THE CAPPING STRIPS.

AUTOVAC UPDATE

2006-12-18T17:47:00.000+11:00

Mmmmmmm. After trying to buy some sort of synthetic oil-proof gasket material and being offered nitrile sheet at $68 a roll, I thought of more basic materials. Cork.
I found I had some 4mm. thick cork sheet left over from making a rocker cover gasket for something years ago. So the sticky gummy mess of rubber has been cleaned out of the three-way cock and cork carefully cut and drilled to fit snugly. Not an instant cure but there is still some adjustment left on the securing nut.....

New Photo

2006-12-03T18:44:00.000+11:00

This brilliant shot of m/o 1379 came to me from David Wilson recently, but was taken by David Taylor in about 1960 at Burwood depot in the inner west of Sydney, on Parramatta Road.
At this stage 1379 was in use as a driver trainer, as was m/o 1244, behind it to the right. These two would probably have been the oldest buses in the fleet, and were kept for training new recruits to handle the few Government Transport buses still with crash gearboxes. By 1960 the majority of the fleet consisted of double deckers with preselector or synchromesh gearboxes, and underfloor-engined single deckers also with preselector transmissions.
But at Brookvale, on the Northern Beaches routes, there were still the Albions, with crash boxes, so for some strange reason Burwood drivers had to learn the techniques of the crash box.
The bus to the left is a Leyland model OPD2, dating from about 1950. The two old girls date from the mid-1930s.

Firing (?) Up The Electrics

2006-11-09T22:59:00.000+11:00

Well over a year ago, before our departure for UK, the cab wiring had been brought up to the point where starter, turn indicator, brake and parking lights would work but the interior lamps had been left as loops of wire hanging out of the bodywork. Their fuses had been pulled so that short circuits were avoided. Fuses are there for the good reason that if serious shorts occur, the fuse blows and cuts off power to that circuit before the bus catches on fire. You hope.
Once the ceilings had been painted, interior lamps could be fitted, along with buzzer pushes. As I came to fit the second buzzer push, downstairs on the left of the arched entry to the lower saloon, I noticed a gentle spark as the wire stripper bit into the second of the two wires. Odd, I thought: the fuse for that circuit isn't even installed. So I went to the cab, inserted a few of the seven fuses mounted on the bulkhead above and behind the driver's seat, to see what was what.
When I turned the driver's cab light on, the horn blew! Oh hell......
I had ghastly visions of wiring, fitted anything up to two years ago, having been penetrated by drilling and screwing to fit some body part, and so shorted to the body. Or, had I badly misinterpreted the peculiar separation of the four battery connections, which allow for 12 volt lighting (batteries in parallel) and 24 volt starting (batteries in series)? Don't panic, I thought, breathe deeply, go about this in a methodical way.....
Bit by bit, I checked circuits with a multimeter, and found that there was a dead short of the negative terminals of both batteries to the body. This should not be: the system uses two wires, a negative and a positive, for everything. So nothing, negative or positive, should ever contact the frame of the vehicle. (Unlike all motor cars of the last 60 years or more, which use the body as the return, so that only one wire is needed for each electrical item).
Proceeding along all the negative connections I eventually found the offender: the blinkers. These are off the shelf, car part shop specials, designed for using the body as the return half of the circuit, and so had had to be insulated from the body with fibre or plastic washers and sleeves. In the rush to get the bus mobile again at Loftus and get it back here, I had refitted the blinker near the driver's door with a discoloured steel washer, which looked like a fibre washer, and there was my dead short to ground (or body).

THE BLINKER BEHIND THE DRIVERS CAB DOOR. THE TWO PHILLIPS SCREWS HOLD THE FITTING TO THE BODY, AND ARE NOW CORRECTLY SECURED WITH RED FIBRE WASHERS. Don't tell anybody that there are Phillips screws here: historical accuracy demands that they be slotted head screws. Phillips had not been invented in 1937. When the orange lens is fitted they are out of sight.
Yet with that fixed, there was still a short circuit from the buzzer push wiring, to ground. Was there a bit of wire crunched between two body parts, and making contact with the frame? I desperately hoped not. There would be a lot of dismantling to get at that. So far I had only fitted one push switch, the one at the head of the stairs. I pulled it out, and tested again: short gone. The hole for the push switch was just that little bit tight, and with the "new" switch of appropriate appearance wired and fitted, there must have been just a vestige of contact with the surrounding metal. Phew.

THE CONDUCTOR'S BUZZER PUSH AT THE HEAD OF THE STAIRS. IF YOU THINK THE INTERIOR FITTING-OUT IS A BIT ROUGH HERE, IT IS: THESE BUSES WERE PUSHED OUT AT THE RATE OF TWO A WEEK TO DO A JOB. CARRY PEOPLE.
How could this have blown the horn?
Once I had sorted out the non-working interior lights: another story, but suffice it to say that fuses that after 50 years looked all right, weren't. Some had fuse wire that was corroded through where you couldn't see it. And one light switch made the right cliccking noise but no electrical contact. So, with new fuse wire all round, and one switch removed, cleaned and refitted, the interior lights worked, the cab light worked and didn't blow the horn, and the buzzer worked.

THESE TWO SHOTS OF THE LOWER DECK WERE TAKEN WITHIN SECONDS OF EACHOTHER, WITH THE INTERIOR LIGHTS ON, AND WITH THE SAME CAMERA SETTINGS. THEY CAME OUT QUITE DIFFERENTLY. The level of illumination is in keeping with the period: there are six lamps downstairs, each of 12 watts, making 72 watts in total. Not even the power of a 75-watt domestic bulb for the entire space!
The buzzer I now found was buzzing so well it sounded more like a horn: it had been the noise when the cab light was turned on, not the horn. The buzzer is adjustable, and on the bench I had adjusted it to its maximum, but fitted to the cab wall with all that metal to resonate against, it nearly made me jump out of my seat. the horn doesn't sound much different. Now it just hums politely.

THE BUZZER WITH ITS COVER OFF. The screw and nut in the centre of the circular diaphragm is the adjuster. In for louder, out for quieter.
I can see why drivers complained about the buzzer, and why post-war it was changed to a bell, which is more musical, and can be heard by driver, and passengers, and conductor, without having to be loud.
The scale of the buzzer is impressive: it is housed in a solid cast aluminium box, the electromagnet which operates it is the size of one of those tiny marmalade jars one gets in sets from Scotland, and it will last forever. Your mobile phone can produce hundreds of different ring tones, show pictures, send texts, etc etc and is about the same size. Technology....

Not the Autovac Again

2006-10-26T21:17:00.000+10:00

About three months ago I thought I had the leaking Autovac stopcock problem solved, using rubber as the material for the sealing washer. It was uncertain whether that rubber would be resistant to attack from diesel oil: it isn't. The thing is leaking again and the rubber edge leaves black on your finger tip.

The tip of rubber can be seen poking out of the circular body of the three-way cock on the right. Unfortunately I didn't make the camera focus on the stop-cock: the engine cover took precedence. But if you click on the photo you can just see that on the hexagonal mounting flange above it says "OFF", and "RESERVE" to the right. On the face to the left out of sight it says "RUN". That is what the cock is for: to provide a reserve supply if you run out of fuel on the road. Seeing that all Government buses were refuelled without fail at the end of every shift, and had 35 or 40 gallon fuel tanks, it was a feature unlikely ever to be used.
Next try: use rubber from a piece of an old tyre inner tube, cadged from the tyre service. This should be butyl rubber and oil-resistant. If not, high quality cork sheeting may have to be resorted to: the original was this material but it's not easy to find nowadays.
The Autovac is such an integral part of Leylands of the mid-1930s and the three-way cock so inseparable from it, that whatever the problem it will be overcome.

Where Do You Get the Parts?

2006-10-26T19:32:00.000+10:00

A frequently asked question, by friends, visitors, strangers on learning what is being restored, is "Where do you get the parts?" Always in those exact words.
At first I was taken aback by the question and would say "Oh, from wherever.." but slowly learned to explain that parts when needed are one of the following: either you buy then from a hardware shop like Bunnings, a specialist fastener supplier or a motor spares shop like Auto-One, or you make them, or they are provided by friends here or in the UK who have had the foresight to preserve such things from other, derelict, vehicles of the era, or they are made to order by specialist trades, or they are cannibalised from another bus, or they come from my stash of oddments collected over years, bower bird fashion. For 35 years I have compulsively hoarded anything that looked useful. Bits of wood, metal, nuts, bolts, screws, wire, pipe, tube, electrical fiitings you name it, and unbelievably the collection just keeps coming up trumps.
Having just had the task with my brother and sister of clearing out our parents' home in Canberra with its 50 years of accumulated treasure, I am very mindful of what awaits my children when I shuffle off. I don't imagine they will see my hoard as the priceless treasure it is, so the question is how and when to downsize!

A case in point is this:

Under the staircase is a luggage area. Its front wall is the bulkhead to the left in this shot. Out of sight to the right under the stairs is a doorway to the unused space under the first four steps. A look at the TD5 in the collection at Sydney Bus Museum, Tempe revealed that there is a door here, missing from 379. Chances of finding another are zero, so a new one was made from sheet steel, with a half-round swage rolled in it, and so-called wired edges: ie the sharp edges of the steel rolled over 3/16" wire all around the circumference. Brian Mantle told me the trick to this: allow 3x the diameter of the wire, and cut to that depth into a piece of 1/2" steel bar with a hacksaw. Pushing the bar over the cut edge, lift it up to form a lip all the way around the sheet, lay the wire into the lip and tap with a small hammer so that the steel rolls over the wire. Bingo: a wired edge.

In all its red glory this is the door, with wired edge, swaged rib an inch or two in from the edge all around to stiffen it, and to be a bit decorative, and with a DRTT-pattern latch and butterfly hinges taken from an old destination display hatch out of an early underfloor-engined single decker sold for scrap. The other side is painted brown, to fit in with the convention that red is exterior, brown is interior.

After Painting: the Bright and the Dark Side Revealed

2006-10-23T19:37:00.000+10:00

Safely back in the garage at Turramurra, work on fitting all the bright parts could begin, and the job of applying Malthoid flooring to the bottom deck and rear platform.

THE BOTTOM DECK IS PARTIALLY RECOVERED IN ITS ORIGINAL 1937 FLOORING MATERIAL, MALTHOID. TODAY ONE CAN ONLY BUY TWO-PLY MALTHOID, WHEREAS WADDINGTONS USED 5-PLY. SO A FIRST LAYER OF THE 2-PLY ROOFING MATERIAL IS LAID FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER COAT OF BRUSH-ON SEALER AND THEN A LAYER OF THE DAMP COURSING WHICH HAS A SANDY FINISH. THE RESULT LOOKS THE SAME AS THE ORIGINAL AND IS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME THICKNESS. The centre aisle however has been laid with a single thickness of 5-ply from a roll 12" wide which came to me from I forget where years ago. The same roll has provided all the malthoid for stair treads, so I suspect it was a Government bus workshops stock item for just these purposes. In the distance it can be seen that the clutch housing does not align with the centre of the floor aisle: the engine, gearbox, drive line and differential are all offset to the left.
It is mildly amazing to me that a product like Malthoid is still around today, after being on the market for at least 80-90 years, maybe more. Today it is known as a roofing or damp coursing material, whereas in 1937 it was widely used for flooring, being waterproof and non-slip and hardwearing. It is bituminous woollen felt, dusted with sand if it is to be used as damp coursing. It was in this guise that it was used as flooring for all Sydney's buses in the 1930s 40s and 50s. Elsewhere in the world it is known as Pabco, Ruberoid, Ormonoid, and many other brand names. To hold it down one uses cut tacks and bitumen sealer in brushing form, and this stuff also does well as a preservative of the wooden floor boards: the bottom deck floor is original, after 70 years. A four litre can of sealer set me back $32 at Bunnings, plus 5 litres of turps to keep the brush clean. Also from Bunnings came blued cut tacks: an item of hardware not as easily found today it was 20 years ago.
Laying Malthoid is dusty, dirty, messy and not my favourite activity, but once done it is there for the next 50 years or so!

AROUND THE BOXES ENCLOSING THE REAR WHEELS AND DIFFERENTIAL WAS AN EDGING OF RIBBED RUBBER MOULDING. MY FRIEND DAVID WILSON IN HIS INFINITE WISDOM MANAGED TO SNAFFLE SOME STOCK OF THIS FROM THE GOVERNMENT BUS WORKSHOPS BEFORE THEY CLOSED THIRTY YEARS AGO, AND HERE IT IS, FORMING A CUSHIONED WEARING EDGE TO THE BOXING. IT IS TACKED IN POSTION AND THE MALTHOID IS LAID OVER IT, UP TO THE EDGE OF THE RIBBING. The hole in the top of the left hand box is an access hatch to the differential oil filler. In all English double deckers of the period, the drive line is offset to the left to keep the centre aisle floor level low.

Wheel boxes largely complete, and the hatch in place over the diff oil filler. Nearly ready for passengers to trample it down.
The other side of recent activity is fitting all the lovely chrome plated fittings for hand rails and posts, signal arm, sun visor etc.

ON THE BACK PLATFORM, SOME OF THE MANY HANDRAILS AND POSTS HAVE APPEARED. THE CENTRE ONE NEAREST THE CAMERA WILL NOT BE FITTED UNTIL ALL THE SEATS HAVE BEEN CARRIED INSIDE. THIS WILL BE ONE OF THE LAST THINGS TO HAPPEN, AS SEATS JUST GET IN THE WAY OF OTHER THINGS. THE RAILS UP THE STAIRCASE, WHICH WERE MISSING FROM THE BUS AS RECEIVED, WILL BE BENT FROM NEW TUBING USING THE ONES FROM ALBION 1615 AS PATTERNS. Compare this shot with the one of m/o 1629 taken in 1938, below, in "A Blaze of Colour". NOTE: You can save any of these photos to your own computer by clicking on the picture and, holding the mouse clicked, dragging the shot to your own desktop.

ANOTHER BRIGHT SPOT AMIDST THE GLOOM OF MALTHOID IS THE COVER OVER THE CLUTCH AND GEARBOX. LEYLAND WERE NOT AVERSE TO USING THIS AS A CHANCE TO ADVERTISE THEIR NAME, SO THE WORD APPEARS IN FLOWING SCRIPT ON AN ALUMINIUM ALLOY CASTING WHICH IS HIGHLY AMENABLE TO POLISHING. USING A BRASS-BRISTLE WIRE BRUSH IN AN ANGLE GRINDER THE WORST OF THE CORROSION AND SCRATCHES CAME OFF EASILY AND A BIT OF COARSE WETAND DRY FOLLOWED BY A FINER GRADE, THEN A STEEL WOOL SOAP PAD, THEN METAL POLISH BROUGHT IT UP FAIRLY WELL. A PROFESSIONAL POLISHER COULD HAVE MADE IT LOOK LIKE A MIRROR, BUT THEY WERE NOT LIKE THAT IN 1937.

The Result Exceeds Expectations!

2006-10-08T18:42:00.000+10:00

Early Sunday morning I left home to catch the train to Central, and bus to Loftus (Track work meant no trains on the Illawarra Line). In the workshop where the painting was done the bus had been turned around the previous day after being moved to allow shunting of trams. The rear view is one I had not seen before. The gloss on that red is a treat to behold.

Rob Gregor the painter had come with his wife Pat and a friend with whom Rob been a NSW Railways coach painting apprentice 40 years ago, to see the painted bus emerge. Rob and I stand in front of our proud creation.
The finish on all panels is wonderful and a tribute to Rob's old-fashioned art of coach painting which can achieve a result akin to a spray job, but using a brush.

On Sunday 8th October I saw the finished bus outside in bright sunlight; it's better than I had ever hoped for.

Near the entrance to Sydney Tramway Museum, 1379 poses outside the facade of the YMCA Building from Pitt/Bathurst Streets City, beside a Sydney P Class tram of the 1920s. The two, in these colours, would have been seen together in Sydney streets throughout the 1930s and 40s. photo: Ian Kates

From Loftus up the Princes Highway to Tempe, and the Bus Museum, where two new tyres have to be fitted. For many years the bus has sat on four tyres instead of the normal six, so two old tyres came off the front wheels, to be replaced with new, and to be fitted to the rear so as to have two on each rear wheel.

The tyre fitting press at Tempe Bus Museum makes removing and fitting tyres a lot easier than bashing away by hand. Ian Mair generously gave his time to help with this job.
The tyres came from China (at $180 each, with tubes and rust bands): on one side they are branded "Double Star". On the other they carry a raft of Chinese characters, so trouble was taken to ensure that they were fitted to the rims with the English facing outwards, despite this being not exactly 1937 wording. However the story is that the moulds for these tyres are the original Olympic Trojan ones from Australia, sold to the Chinese, and therefore quite in character for tyres used on this bus during its life. Certainly the tread pattern is that of an Olympic Trojan tyre. Given the mileage this bus will do, they are ideal.

The tricky job begins of reversing off Bobbin Head Road down the drive into the workshop.
The run from Loftus has been a treat. The bus runs quietly, smoothly and at last I have got the hang of the gearchange, even to the point of doing it without the clutch, timing the change by the sound of the engine and allowing for road speed. The steering is light and precise, and the engine hums like a sewing machine, but being a Leyland 8.6 litre it has that wonderful howl at higher revs, produced by the gears driving the overhead camshaft. The only reason I am restoring this bus is to hear that sound again.

Back at Turramurra Works in Bobbin Head Road, after an absence of four weeks. Now to fit flooring, windows, seats, handrails, plated fittings and interior trims and interior lights.

Before and After

2006-10-04T20:08:00.000+10:00

Over the engine bay the cant rail was bad. The new front header rail, the side one, the ceiling and the gussets are now resplendent in cream.

Meanwhile on the driver's side the story was much the same. I admit that the mirror is not of the 1930s pattern: it is the larger post-war one, but much the safer for it, yet still about 50 years old in design. (instead of 70).

Soon after arrival at Turramurra from Tempe in 1996, the bare frame, engine and chassis was steam cleaned prior to beginning major frame repairs. Now the headlight is back in its 1937 position, and somehow the red livery looks far more dazzling than any black and white photo of that era.

With the cab floor out it was easy to stand on the ground to attend to all the many aspects of the drivers cab: wiring, controls, stripping of paint, and the drivers seat.

Upstairs, viewed from the stairwell, the distinctive pre-war corrugated kick plates now cover all the repairs to the framing, and the massive angled brackets holding the top deck down to the floor are now painted in their correct brown.

On the back platform all traces of post war green have gone, and the panels await nothing but the black lining below the windows and between colours.

A Blaze of Colour

2006-09-26T17:22:00.000+10:00

As the red and cream go onto the outside at last, after doing a myriad of small details inside and on loose components which will get fitted later, the realisation dawns that photos of pre-war buses in black and white simply do not do justice. The effect is dazzling. The sight of hundreds of these buses in red and cream on the city streets in the 1930s must have been quite uplifting.

MY FIRST BOO-BOO AS PAINT PROJECT MANAGER: I FORGOT THAT THE CREAM HAS TO COME DOWN SOME WAY ONTO THE REAR PLATFORM'S FRONT BULKHEAD. THIS HAS NOW BEEN RECTIFIED, AND BLACK LINES WILL BE APPLIED, CONTINUING AROUND FROM THE SIDE PANELS.

AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOORWAY ROB APPLIES CREAM UNDERCOAT OVER THE RED SO PAINSTAKINGLY APPLIED ONLY A FEW DAYS AGO. The watering can is to apply water to the floor to keep dust down.

The same view of a bus newly bodied by Waddington, showing how the lines fit in. One difference is that as built, this bus has no conductor's box, which is the triangular door visible in its open position in the colour photos above. In the John Dunn book about Waddingtons/Comeng, this bus has been identified as number 629, a Leyland TD5 built in mid-1938. If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you can see that the entry way to the lower deck is not arched: it is the later angle-braced type.

WHILE ROB BEAVERS AWAY ABOVE, I TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO REMOVE THE TROUBLESOME VIBRATION DAMPER (THE LARGE ROUND THING AT LEFT). The damper itself proved to be fine; the looseness and severe vibration is from the flange mounted on the shaft coming out of the centre bearing (the smaller round thing to left of centre). Rather surprisingly this flange is splined onto the shaft, not mounted on a tapered section of shaft with a key to keep it rotating firmly on the shaft. All I could do was tighten up the retaining nut, now hidden back inside the damper, with a fat spring washer to discourage it from loosening until something can be done. Maybe an Albion drive flange, which does mount onto a keyed taper, can be used if the shaft coming out of the centre bearing can be ground to a taper and a keyway milled in.

September 29th:
(click on any photo to enlarge it)

The last three bays of red top coat go on the upper deck. Rob is wearing disposable paper overalls to minimise dust risk.

The red paint is beautiful stuff: as supplied to the London Transport Executive, it is that red used on the classic London bus, and is specifically for brushing. It dries more slowly than spraying enamel and gives the painter time to lay off or touch up as required. This can of red has been in stock for over fifteen years but has not deteriorated in any way.

The roof, the top deck windows, and the cream around the lower deck windows are all done. Now only the final coat has yet to go on the lower deck red panels, but after the long weekend (Labour Day), Rob will undertake the black lines which separate the bands of colour.

Before applying the red to the lower deck, Rob masks the cream above so that splashes from the brush do not mar the fresh paint.

Starting the final coat of red for the bottom deck; laying off vertically after making a heavy application of paint, spreading it horizontally, and going around the edges of the panel. In Rob's left hand is a small 1" brush to touch up around rivet heads, along the raised swages in the panels, and near the masking tape.

PAINTING BEGINS!

2006-09-17T12:10:00.000+10:00

A massive gap in the smooth flow of restoration was ended on Monday September 11th 2006.
Rob Gregor, a professional bus painter with the Port Botany depot of the State Transit Authority of NSW, took some long service leave and began work.
Thanks to the good offices of the Sydney Tram Museum at Loftus, the work is being carried out in an annexe to their workshops, where there is space to erect scaffolds for access to the high up panels, and a well-lit area. Unfortunately it was soon found to be a very dusty area, and the first items to receive paint, some interior pillar covers, showed fearful dust contamination after sitting to dry. So with my trusty aide Craig Parkinson, we moved the bus outside, washed it down and then hosed out the interior of the annexe, which exorcised the demon dust. Next step was to acquire some undercoat to mix 50/50 with colour to make a first coat. And a large quantity of Prepsol, to remove wax and grease and dirt from the surfaces to be painted.
A first try at full painting of a test panel was not very encouraging, as there were very visible brush marks in the final finish. The rear of the same panel was cleaned up and at the second try the result was satisfactory.

ROB, THE BUS, THE ANNEXE AND THE SECOND TEST PANEL SHOWING THE FINAL RED OF THE MAIN PANELS OF THE BUS.
Not seen are about 100 small items of mainly interior trim, pillar covers, advertisement racks, window trims, etc. painted in the brown paint from Scotland, called Nussbraun, "Nut Brown"; I believe the paint was made in Holland, and sent out to me at great expense in freight by my friend Paul Adams of Albion restoration fame (see links: Restoring a Sydney Albion).
However it is beautiful paint which flows out perfectly, leaving no brush marks and dries not too quickly, so there is time to 'lay off': ie do a series of smooth downward brush strokes with a very broad brush to remove excess paint and leave the painted surface evenly coated. Thinking about it, I think it's bit like the difference between Belgian chocolate and some others: the consistency is incredibly smooth, achieved by microfining the particles of colour.
There is a another dimension to the bus' presence at Loftus. Tuesday September 19th is the occasion of the launch of a book by John Dunn, a history of Comeng (Commonwealth Engineering) which in a previous incarnation was Waddington's Ltd, builders of the body of this bus. The speaker will be ex-MP Tim Fischer, and the bus will be a fine example of a pre-war Waddington body. The book is available from the bookshops of both Sydney Tramway Museum and Sydney Bus Museum, at $59-95 plus postage. It is lavishly illustrated with cars, buses, railway carriages and locomotives, steam and diesel, by Commonwealth and its predecessors.

IN THE BELIEF THAT PAINTING WOULD HAVE BEEN DONE AT LEAST 18 MONTHS AGO, I HAD STRIPPED THE ROOF OF ALL PAINT AND LEFT IT BARE. Unfortunately the metal strips covering the joints between the aluminium roof panels are steel, and they had a heavy film of rust on them, so Rob is seen here coating them with metal primer. The gutter visible here was full of dust and has been vacuumed clean.

THE SAME SCENE, WHERE ROB HAS PROGRESSED TO THE REAR OF THE ROOF WHICH HAS BEEN CLEANED ALL OVER WITH PREPSOL TO REMOVE DIRT, WAX AND GREASE.

SYDNEY HAD JUST HAD A WEEK OF VERY HEAVY RAIN; ABOUT 5 INCHES HAD FALLEN TO EVERYBODY'S RELIEF, AND IT FINED UP JUST AS OUR PAINT JOB BEGAN. If not, drying of the gloss paint could have been affected. Here Rob begins the job of applying a mix of 50/50 undercoat and gloss brown to the roof.

Some of the hundred or so small items of interior trim in brown: the ones on the left hold safety rails along the nearside top deck windows. The DRTT got sick of passengers losing arms and heads by leaning out as the bus passed a shop awning or tree.

The distinctive "Camperdown" arched entry to the lower deck saloon. Very soon after this bus, the entry became rectangular with heavy angled braces at each side.

The ceiling in the lower deck has received its undercoat and first colour coat. Sept. 18th.

Rob applies cream 50/50 undercoat to the lower saloon entry: from this point inwards the ceiling is white.

Rob squeezes into the driver's cab (minus the seat) to apply cream undercoat to the ceiling and pillars.

The ceiling over the engine bay is also cream, including the engine top cover and some of the bulkhead behind the autovac.

A view from the mezzanine floor in the main workshop, where the bus has been moved for the Comeng book launch on September 19th. The roof has had its colour coat.

THE REAR PLATFORM has acquired its final colour coats, but not the lining out in black between colours. Visible here are: LTE bus red, Nussbraun, and British Standard Colour 352, pale cream. The latter two were supplied with much effort and persistence by my dear friend Paul Adams in Paisley. The red had been acquired by David Wilson for use on the London RT bus and other Sydney pre-war buses at Tempe Museum.

THE DRIVERS CAB IN FINAL COLOUR: the door has yet to be done , also in brown around the frame. The complexities of the colour layout can be seen: I have had to use post-war buses as the pattern for this, in the absence of any early photos of 1930s bus interiors. Here's hoping......

The stair well, in brown, with the red putting in an appearance on the stair valance (?) Is that what one calls it?

By the afternoon of September 23rd really visible action had begun. Back in the annex, somewhat freer of the dust problem, undercoating of the broad surfaces on the top deck began. Rob Gregor is seen, on the rather safer hydraulic scissor lift, applying a first coat of 50/50 white undercoat and red. The cream around the windows has been done. Rule 1: start at the top and work down.

The Gearbox and Other Details.........

2006-09-16T13:01:00.000+10:00

After the false dawn on the painting of the bus, when it went across to Smithfield in Western Sydney (under its own power) only to have a quote for $26,000 plus GST for painting in two-pack enamel, new plans are in place. It will be painted by Rob Gregor, who painted our Albion double decker 25 years ago, by brush, and so well that it still looks good and not a brush mark can be seen.
En route to Smithfield and then back to Turramurra, a nasty noise was evident in the gearbox: a clicking sound in second gear. So the gearbox came out and was overhauled here using bits gleaned from another box of the type to make one good box out of two. Click on a photo to enlarge it.

USING THE CHAIN BLOCK AND EYE BOLT IN THE SOCKET THOUGHTFULLY PROVIDED BY THE BODY BUILDERS IN THE ROOF OF THE BOTTOM DECK, THE GEARBOX, SEPARATED FROM THE ENGINE, IS HOISTED CLEAR OF THE CHASSIS INTO THE LOWER SALOON

THE APERTURE PROVIDED IN THE FLOOR OF THE BOTTOM DECK IS NOT ENOUGH TO LIFT THE GEARBOX STRAIGHT UP: AFTER LOWERING IT TO THE FLOOR IT HAS BEEN SLUNG FROM ITS REAR FLANGE AND LIFTED ON END INTO THE LOWER SALOON. FROM THERE IT NEEDED TWO MEN TO CARRY IT OUT TO THE REAR PLATFORM TO THE WORKSHOP FOR DISMANTLING

WHILE STILL IN SITU, THE GEARBOX WAS DRAINED OF OIL AND THE SIDE PLATE REMOVED. NOW, OUT OF THE CHASSIS AND RESTING ON THE LOWER DECK FLOOR, THE PROBLEM IS REVEALED. THE CENTRE PORTION OF THIS TOOTH HAS A LARGE CHIP OUT OF IT, BY WHAT MEANS IS UNCERTAIN: BECAUSE THE CHIP IS NOT AT THE FRONT OF THE GEAR IT IS UNLIKELY TO BE ROUGH ENGAGEMENT.

AFTER STEAM CLEANING THIS BECAME APPARENT: THE DATE OF ASSEMBLY, 13th DECEMBER 1938. THE BOX IS THEREFORE FROM A LEYLAND TD5, BUT AS IT IS IDENTICAL TO A TD4 BOX, IT HAS BEEN TAKEN FROM THE STORES AND FITTED AT THE BUS'S LAST OVERHAUL IN 1955. Elsewhere, on the top of the case, three sets of initials are stamped, and a type number, GB9B, and a reference number, probably its serial number. It shows the pride in workmanship that the team of three responsible for final assembly of the box, just twelve days before Christmas in 1938, have identified their job, but it may also be a means for Leyland Motors Ltd to identify those responsible if that box should have given trouble under guarantee!

AFTER DISMANTLING, STEAM CLEANING AND REPLACEMENT OF DAMAGED OR WORN PARTS, THE GEARBOX IS REASSEMBLED

VIEW FROM THE REAR OF THE BOX, PRIOR TO REFITTING THE SELECTOR MECHANISM AND THE SIDE COVER PLATE

THE GEARBOX SLUNG FROM THE CHAIN BLOCK HAS BEEN MATED BACK TO THE ENGINE AND CLUTCH HOUSING. While the box was out the opportunity was used to dismantle clean and overhaul the clutch, which showed signs of having had a birds' nest in it! It was full of wisps of grass and fluff. The pressure plate was sent away for machining smooth, although for its age it was not in bad shape with some very minor surface crazing.

RESPLENDENT IN A COAT OF SILVER PAINT THE GEARBOX AND DRIVE ARE READY TO ROLL. We can't wait to find out how it sounds and whether the clutch brake behaves itself.
Answer: the gearbox is fine but the clutch brake now works so effectively that it makes the upward gear shift quite tricky; one has to shift very fast or else fluff the change altogether. The technique, as advised by Craig, is to shift by barely depressing the clutch pedal, moving to neutral, clutch up while engine revs die away to idle, then again barely depressing the clutch move to the next gear. In other words, don't use the clutch brake at all, which comes in when the pedal is fully depressed.
The newly refurbished drive then highlighted a second noise problem: a shudder from the prop shaft and quite noticeable vibration at road speed. After arrival at Loftus a quick scramble around under the bus revealed that the vibration damper ironically is the problem: it is loose on the shaft. This will require removal of the universal joint at the centre bearing mounted on the chassis cross-member about halfway along the shaft, to expose the large nut securing the damper. As it has been loose for some time there may be some minor wear on the tapered hub of the damper, but it will enable it to be inspected closely for wear in the friction linings, and refitted in a cleaned and painted condition. This will have to wait until painting is complete because the process needs the bus to kept mobile at all times.

While you Wait for Painting....

2006-08-12T20:12:00.000+10:00

While the brown and the cream paint was ordered and being packed and shipped from Scotland, it was time to ensure that once painted, all components of the bus, mainly the interior, were ready to instal right away. This included seat frames and their cushions, plated parts, all the many panes of glass (the driver's cab alone has ten panes including all the sliding ones) and interior lamps.

SOME OF THE TEN PANES FROM THE DRIVER'S CAB, ONE OF WHICH CARRIES "DO NOT SPEAK TO THE DRIVER WHILST BUS IS IN MOTION", AND SOME OF THE METRE UPON METRE OF FELT-COVERED ALUMINIUM CHANNEL FOR HOLDING THE GLASS.

THE FITTINGS FOR THE 16 INTERIOR LAMPS HAVE BEEN POLISHED TO THEIR ORIGINAL GLORY.

LAMPHOLDERS FOR THESE PRE-WAR LAMPS ARE UNUSUAL: THERE IS ALMOST NO SPACE BEHIND THE LIGHT FITTING TO ACCOMMODATE SOCKET AND CONNECTIONS. They are actually domestic 240 volt holders of the period, made of brass and ceramic. I HAD ONLY 9 OF THE REQUIRED SURFACE MOUNTING HOLDERS, BUT BY GREAT GOOD FORTUNE IT WAS FOUND THAT TRAMWAY SOCKETS ARE THE SAME AND LOFTUS HAD SOME SPARES. AT LEFT IS ONE OF THE THREE CONDUCTOR'S BELL-PUSHES.

THE DRIVER'S MECHANICAL SIGNAL HAND. Before the advent of multi-lane roads and suicidal traffic this sufficed as both stop and right turn indicator. Pushed part way out it signals stop, and after squeezing a trigger and pushing it out fully, it signals right turn. A little lamp on the other side of the black housing comes on to illuminate it at night, operated by contacts visible here. Apart from the hand itself and the housing, all parts are newly replated.

THE TWO GENUINE CAV HEADLAMPS WITH RIMS REPLATED, REFLECTORS POLISHED WITH SILVO, AND BODIES STRIPPED AND PAINTED.

A SET OF INTERIOR LAMP "FISHBOWLS". SOME WERE FOUND TO BE ABOUT 3mm SMALLER IN DIAMETER THAN OTHERS, AND SIMILARLY THERE ARE SMALLER AND LARGER LIGHT FITTINGS. LUCKILY A MATCHING NUMBER OF EACH HAS BEEN GLEANED, ALTHOUGH ORIGINALLY THEY WERE PROBABLY ALL OF THE ONE SIZE. The one that looks half black, is: it goes behind the driver's cab and is designed not to shine forward.

AFTER SOME CONSIDERATION THE DECISION WAS TAKEN TO GO THE EXTRA YARDS AND PAY MORE TO HAVE THE SEATS RE-UPHOLSTERED IN LEATHER AS THEY WERE IN 1937. THIS TURNED OUT SURPRISINGLY TO BE NOT ALL THAT MUCH DEARER: ANOTHER 20% ON TOP OF THE SAME JOB IN VINYL.

THE DRIVERS CAB. SEAT CUSHION AND SQUAB NEWLY DONE IN LEATHER TO THE ORIGINAL PATTERN.

A PILE OF SEAT BACKS AND CUSHIONS STORED READY TO THROW IN ONCE THE SEAT FRAMES ARE BOLTED DOWN.

THE UPHOLSTERER ALSO HAD A BASH AT RETRIMMING THE DRIVER'S SUN VISOR. IN LEATHER. IT LOOKS A BIT BAGGY, SO MAY NEED SOME MORE STITCHING TO TIGHTEN IT UP.

A FEW OF THE 150 OR SO ITEMS OF HARDWARE WHICH HAVE BEEN REPLATED IN CHROME. THE USE OF CHROME IS NOT STRICTLY ACCURATE: IN 1937 THEY WERE DONE IN NICKEL. HOWEVER, DON AT SWIFT PLATERS, SILVERWATER, EXPLAINED THAT IN THOSE DAYS THE PROCESS WAS DIFFERENT. NICKEL WAS DEPOSITED, THEN POLISHED TO PRODUCE A MIRROR FINISH. TO GET AROUND THIS, TODAY'S METHOD USES A NICKEL ALLOY WHICH PRODUCES ITS OWN LUSTRE, BUT TARNISHES AFTER A FEW YEARS. NOT WANTING TO BE FOREVER POLISHING UP ENDLESS NUMBERS OF BRIGHT PARTS, I OPTED FOR CHROMIUM PLATING, WITH ITS SLIGHTLY BLUER LOOK. THE PURISTS, INCLUDING ME, WILL HAVE TO MAKE DO.

THIS IS THE AUTOVAC, A CONTINUOUS SOURCE OF LOW LEVEL DIFFICULTY. THE THREE-WAY COCK UNDER THE LEFT OF THE BLACK BOX OOZES DIESEL FUEL QUIETLY OVER A LONG PERIOD, LEADING TO A STICKY, DUSTY MESS ALL OVER THE BULKHEAD. I HAVE TRIED OIL JOINTING, CORK, AND FINALLY RUBBER AS THE SEATING MEDIUM FOR THIS COCK, AND SO FAR SO GOOD (AS OF 10 DAYS). A RECENT VISITOR'S COMMENT WAS WHY NOT GET RID OF THE COCK AND REPLACE IT WITH A NEW COUPLING? HERESY! THE MESS ON THE BULKHEAD IS A TD LEYLAND FEATURE, SO WE MUST PERSIST BUT AT LEAST DELAY THE PROCESS.

The end of the second millennium

2006-06-25T19:32:00.000+10:00

This is Part Three, the final, of the edited text of an article published in Australian Bus and Commercial Vehicle Heritage Magazine, reproduced by courtesy of the editors, Eileen and John Birchmeier. Click on a photo to enlarge it.

Sometime during 2000 in the midst of the work on the top deck, I was advised that a whole pile of seat frames at Tempe were to be sorted through and the surplus disposed of, so I thought I had better bite this bullet, selected a set of decent looking frames and by scientific packing fitted all thirty of them in my Mitsubishi van. However they were all post war frames, with the legs set in from the aisle by about six inches. Pre-war seats have the legs right on the aisle and they are also about 20 mm lower in height. So every seat frame had its legs cut off and measured and refitted right at the end of the frames, on the aisle. This was completed by Easter 2001, and they were all placed in position in the bus to see that the tops lined up. Note that some of the tops appear to have slightly different radius curves at their ends: this will be fixed when they all get new tops.

LOOKING TOWARDS THE STAIRCASE UPSTAIRS, SEAT FRAMES HAVE BEEN SET IN PLACE TO CHECK FITS AND ALIGNMENT WITH THREADED SOCKETS IN THE FLOOR. NOTE HOW THE LEGS STAND AT THE AISLE, TENDING TO CATCH PEOPLE'S FEET. THIS WAS REMEDIED IN POST-WAR PRODUCTION
These are stacked up outside still awaiting sand blasting and priming before receiving new chrome plated tops far cheaper than trying to replate the old tops, which are pretty rusty and pitted from sweaty palms.
Then not wanting to face the mudguard problem, I made a new side destination box (out of the steel from a Hoover dryer) to replace the battered and rusted one, with new lights and wiring and mounts for the winder mechanism.

AN OUTSTANDINGLY MESSY SCENE; THE PARAPHERNALIA OF A RESTORATION. THE NEW DESTO BOX IN PLACE (CENTRE TOP, IN WHITE), THE CAB DOOR ABOUT TO RECEIVE ATTENTION FOREGROUND, AND A NEW DIAGONAL BRACE AND LETTER BOARD CAN BE SEEN CENTRE LEFT IN THE LAST WINDOW BEFORE THE REAR PLATFORM

A CLOSE-UP OF THE NEW SIDE DESTINATION BOX MADE FROM HOOVER DRYER PANELS. THE LAMP FITTINGS ARE THE ORIGINAL CERAMIC AND BRASS MOUNTINGS, TO, TAKE FESTOON LAMPS (12 VOLT IN THIS CASE). UNDER IT, THE LATTICE FRAMING OVER THE REAR PLATFORM ENTRANCE IS ALSO NEW TO REPLACE RUSTED SECTIONS April 2001
The cab door then got a makeover with some new framing. But eventually I had to face the music.
The mudguards were terrible. Even Brian Mantle, looking at the driver’s cab one, said ‘it’s pretty bad’. It is in two halves, an inner and an outer. The inner half was not too bad, but a mess where it joined to the cab floor boards and needed the whole bottom edge remade. The outer half was dented, torn and rusted away in many places. I started to panel beat it using oxy to try to shrink out the creases, not very successfully, and thought of Alan Fletcher who had a number of TD5s and might be able to help. He said to come and have a look and in July 2001 I raced up to Seaham imagining a semi-perfect mudguard just needing a bit of dressing and welding here and there.
Alan’s front guards were worse off than mine. However, as we discussed the problem he generously donated a slightly modified post-war PD2 guard which, if I remember correctly, was meant for a Bristol double decker. It had the same external profile as a TD guard, but was different across the front and inside the cab and was slightly larger in diameter. The offside front guard now consists of the front twelve inches of the original, the middle of the PD2 guard, made narrower and reduced in diameter by cutting and shutting at several points, and a new rear flared section made from a Malleys washing machine rear panel.

SCANNED FROM A VERY POOR PRINT THIS IS THE ONLY PHOTO OF THE OFFSIDE FRONT MUDGUARD TO SURVIVE.
AT LEFT IS AN UNUSED GUARD FROM ALAN FLETCHER WITH ITS RUST CUT OUT, CENTRE IS WHAT WAS LEFT OF THE ORIGINAL AFTER HAVING THE FRONT 12" CUT OFF IT, AND RIGHT IS THE FINAL ARTICLE BEFORE GRINDING AND SANDING SMOOTH.

THE VIEW OF THE ENGINE AND CAB THROUGH THE CAB DOOR AFTER STEAM CLEANING. THE PIPE POINTING DOWNWARDS AT TOP LEFT WILL CARRY THE WIRING TO THE STARTER, YET TO BE REFITTED. THE THREE RECTANGULAR APERTURES BESIDE THE ENGINE ARE THE DRIVER'S HEATER: SLIDING PANELS IN EACH ONE CAN BE RAISED TO LET NICE WARM AIR FROM THE ENGINE BAY IN DURING WINTER!
Whilst this was going on with the two front mudguards off the vehicle, the cab and engine area got some attention. The cab was stripped of everything and a new mounting bracket made where the offside mudguard attaches to the firewall under the driver. The old one, very rusted, was full of dead matches, many hundreds of them. Obviously drivers lighting a fag would drop the match with their right hand onto the bit of floor just behind the mudguard, so I guess there were about twenty-five years’ accumulated droppings there!

THE BUS HAS BEEN DRAGGED OUT OF ITS SPOT TO PERMIT STEAM CLEANING OF THE CAB AND ENGINE BAY AREAS. THE NEW FRONT SCUTTLE IS OBVIOUS, WITH THE ORIGINAL MOUNTING FOR THE OFFSIDE HEADLAMP REINSTATED AND THE DRIVERS AIR VENT RAISED BACK TO ITS 1937 POSITION (SEE THE 1938 SHOT OF THE BUS, IN "BACK IN 1937", BELOW)
The starter was overhauled and refitted, after steam cleaning the engine and chassis area. These got a coat of paint and a lot of details were attended to in the cab area. After stripping the interior of the cab of all paint and debris, much time then went into restoring all the gear in the cab: switchboards, fuses, wiring, buzzer, instruments, instrument board, voltage regulator, conduits, etc. A new front scuttle was made to permit the refitting of the headlamp bucket and the driver’s vent in their 1937 positions. Alan Fletcher gave me a genuine TD driving light switchboard to replace the missing one. This needed serious restoration to unjam all the switches and corroded terminals.
It is identical to an Albion CX19 one except that the starter switch is blanked off. (The TD4 has a weird 12v/24v changeover switch on the firewall behind the driver’s right leg to operate the starter). From model TD5 onwards this oddity was resolved by making the whole system 24 volts. I was surprised to learn later on while visiting UK that virtually all the their TD4s were converted to 24 volt systems. The reason for the difference was that as diesel engines came into common use in bus fleets, it was found that a 12 volt starter simply did not have the grunt to turn over a cold diesel engine with 15-1 compression ratio. A petrol engine with 4-1 compression, no problem.
The engine and diesel injection gear were next in line: these got a good clean up, a jammed fuel pump element was freed up, the timing and phasing of the pump checked and the injectors tested for correct atomisation.
In this way 2001 passed pretty quickly. Another wish list was made for 2002, including refitting the hydraulic brake mechanism, finishing all the mudguards, rewiring the whole bus, etc, etc.
The brakes were overhauled, with Marion Brake and Clutch Service in Belmore resleeving all the cylinders. The servo was tarted up, re-united with the master cylinder and the whole lot reassembled to the vehicle. With the cab floor out it was easier to get the tricky adjustment of the front pull rod from pedal to servo. All the lines were flushed through with methylated spirits under pressure, and repairs made to damaged sections. New hydraulic hoses miraculously came from Marions. The big vacuum pipe from tank to servo was badly crushed, so a new one was made by a plumber friend who sweated off the old fittings and brazed them onto the new 1 1/8 inch copper pipe obtained from Hornsby scrap metal, and did a very neat job of making a 90° bend in it. The heavy battery cables were made up and fitted to the changeover switch and starter, then the new cab floor could go in and be covered with malthoid.

MY FRIEND BARRIE KEYS, A PLUMBER, BRAZES THE SALVAGED FITTINGS ONTO A NEW MAIN PIPE FROM VACUUM TANK TO BRAKE SERVO. THE PIPE TO RIGHT HAD BEEN SQUASHED FLAT AFTER ARGUMENTS WITH EARTH BANKS OR TREE STUMPS DURING THE BUS' LIFE IN THE COUNTRY
A new instrument board (made of wood and polished) was cut out of Pacific maple, the nearest thing I could find in appearance to the original. The metal instrument panel, after stripping two layers of brown paint from it, turned out to be black stove enamel with the Leyland logo in delicate white lettering in the centre. I gave it to an artist who touched up the lettering in model makers enamel. Very energetic enquiries were made to find a Smith’s eight-day clock to replace the missing one. Ron Button put me onto Barry Cliff in Elanora who had one! I had seen them for sale on the net for up to $600, and although Barry’s one was rough, he only wanted $80. Later Paul Adams from the Albion Club in Scotland, who had also been looking on my behalf, announced he had found one in very good order, and wanted nothing for it, as a quid pro quo for some assistance with Albion parts. Anybody want an $80 one?

AT LEFT ARE THE INSTRUMENTS INCLUDING REFURBISHED GAUGES FOR OIL AND VACUUM, SPEEDO AND 8-DAY CLOCK. AT RIGHT IS THE DRIVING LIGHT SWITCHBOARD
Then it was back to the mudguards. The nearside guard needed two patches about twelve inches square welded into it, a new inside bottom edge where it abuts the chassis, and a new rear flared section, plus many small dents removed. Two new mounting gussets which sit inside the guard out of sight were made and welded in.

THE UNDERSIDE OF THE LEFT-HAND (NEARSIDE) MUDGUARD, CLAMPED UPRIGHT TO PERMIT EASY ACCESS. THE TWO PATCHES AND THE NEW LOWER SECTION CAN BE SEEN. THE ARROW IS TO REMIND ME WHICH WAY IS DOWN: I FOUND MYSELF LOSING TRACK OF WHICH WAY UP I WAS SEEING IT
The roof front canopy had some serious dents in it, visible in the photo taken at Yeoval, so it was taken off and panel beating began. Brian Mantle advised taking it onto the lawn and stamping on it as a first step. I actually did this on a flattened washing machine carton and it worked. Then a lot of gentle tapping with a wooden hammer plus some body filler made it look pretty good.
On a friend’s suggestion, in mid-2002 I put an ad in Manly Backpackers Hostel to find a casual worker to do the horrible job of stripping off the ceilings, top and bottom deck. Danny, a young man from Queensland turned up and did a superb job, using a cup shaped wire brush in a four inch angle grinder. This took some weeks part time, and I then got him to strip off all the external panels using paint stripper, on which he also did a beautiful job. The ceilings were primed in grey etch primer. Now was a good time to install all the new wiring for interior lights, buzzer, tail/stop lamps, desto boxes, etc. The wire came from Hornsby scrap metal: somebody had just cleared out a whole pile of part reels of wire in all sorts of colours and sizes, perfect for the job and paid for with aluminium cans and scrap from my washing machine activities.

At last the possibility of repanelling could be contemplated. First though, one thing had to happen. Many years earlier at Tempe a new steel panel had been made for the front wall of the back platform, the one under the little window next to the seat over the nearside wheel arch.
This panel needed an external return edge welded onto it, all the way from top to bottom, and curved to the shape of the body. I had put this off because the weld looked so hard with every possibility of lumps or burn holes resulting. But the mudguards had gone well, so I gave it a go and the result was pleasing after a bit of grinding smooth and some filler. Now the first body panel could go on. Not just yet. First, more mudguards.

THE NEARSIDE REAR WHEEL ARCH HAS BEEN REPLACED, WITH THE ORIGINAL THREE SWAGES REPRODUCED. THE EXTERNAL MUDGUARD IS HELD IN PLACE WITH MAGNETS TO GAUGE HOW IT WILL FIT. IT HAS BEEN HEATED, SHRUNK, PANEL BEATEN AND WELDED TO RETURN IT TO SIZE AND SHAPE, AND WILL GET A NEW INNER FLANGE

A NEW INNER FLANGE TACK WELDED ONTO THE RESTORED NEARSIDE REAR MUDGUARD
The two rear ones got new inner flanges, plus the outer faces heavily straightened and shrunk back to original diameter after many years of dents and tears had caused them to stretch to the point where they were bigger (49.5”) than their wheel arches (48”). Then the two rear wheel arches were remade in new metal with their characteristic pre-war swaging. Danny cleaned out and primed the chassis in those areas with the old wheel arches out of the way, and the wheel arches were welded in and their interior valances, those curved panels that sit under the two longitudinal rear seats, got new bottom edges where rust had attacked them, and were bolted in. It was now early 2003.
After Danny tore up all the old malthoid from the bottom deck floor some repairs were made to floor boards here and there and also to the boxing around the rear wheel arches. For some reason I felt the urge to make and fit the steel core of the eyebrow over the cab/engine bay. The steel for this had come from the same sheet as the offside rear wheel arch, so was lying around waiting to be used. The old one, although horribly rusted and plated over with two layers of aluminium to hide this, was able to provide a rough pattern for the new one. To my horror, I found on offering this up to the bus that I had cut off the front of the top deck floor boards too short. They have to stick out far more than I had expected. I was forced to cut and bend a batten and fix it across the front edges of the boards. The curve is pretty severe, but with much clamping and screwing, and the use of liquid nails, the batten went on and stayed on. I left it clamped for two weeks while the liquid nails hardened and it didn’t spring away at the ends. A borrowed planer was used to create the correct curve on the front of the batten. So the steel part of the eyebrow went on, got nailed in place and was left to await the aluminium sheathing which is the very last panel to be fitted onto the bottom deck.

CURVING DOWN THE SIDE OF THE BODY IS THE RETURN WELDED ONTO THE REAR PLATFORM BULKHEAD, A NECESSARY PRELIMINARY TO FITTING THE FIRST EXTERNAL PANEL
Up to this point almost everything that had been done, except the mudguards, was distinguished by the fact that it was all going to be covered up eventually by panels or flooring or trims. Exterior panelling is different: it shows! I sought advice from a real expert in the field, Chris O’Brien. Chris has generously given his time to ensure that the outer surfaces of the frame are good enough to take panels without creasing bowing or buckling. After considerable checking, the first panel, the nearside rear just in front of the back platform, was fitted on 15 June 2003. This was not a new one: the old one had a few minor dents and scratches which were dressed and filled with primer. This was partly because making a new one was quite tricky due to the need to match the shape of the wheel arch.

CHRIS O'BRIEN (CENTRE) AND SELF TRY NOT TO LOOK TOO EXCITED AS THE FIRST PANEL IS HELD UP IN PLACE. THE POP RIVETING TOOL WOULD NOT ACCEPT 1/4" RIVETS AND SO A SEARCH BEGAN FOR ONE THAT WOULD. NOT EASY TO FIND, IT TURNED OUT.
About half the original panels will be reused, but the rejects have not been wasted. They are cut up to make smaller items for other areas, such as sill covers, pillar caps and the two rear panels behind the back platform. In all only nine 8 x 4 sheets of aluminium will be used, obtained at rock bottom price thanks to Mal Morgan.
Once the first panel went on all the other bottom deck ones just seemed to fall into place. New ones are easy to make using the guillotine at Tempe and the precious swaging tool, for which the correct dies are on loan from Brian Mantle. There was a bit of caution needed with the panels that have swages curving up and over the engine bay and back platform, but under Chris’s eagle eye these have turned out beautifully. Similarly with the aluminium cladding of the eyebrow, which has a swage running across it from side to side and has to meet the cant rail swages neatly. Chris has a calm and patient approach which produced a successful outcome.
Brian also gave me his beautifully made rear destination box to replace the one removed and thrown away, probably in 1953 at the bus’ last overhaul. This is now in place with its mechanism and winder restored, as is the side box, made new a couple of years ago. A tiny flaw now emerges in the route number boxes: in 1937 they were a two-digit display. I have reluctantly decided to retain the 3-digit display because 1) it makes life easier and 2) it enables today’s three-digit routes (eg 444) to be displayed.
The whole of the bottom deck is now panelled and by the time this text appears the top deck should be largely completed. After that only the roof remains as a major battle zone. It still has quite a few dents and needs to be stripped of paint. Although most of the original syndicate members have melted away, Gwilym still helps me when he can, David Wilson helps with advice on obscure body detail and, best of all, with small components which have gone missing over the years, while Brian Mantle is a fount of wisdom on body building techniques.
With the bottom deck panelled it is now possible to look at the interior with some interest. I was anxious replace the small enamelled rego plates which appeared on the front and rear bulkheads downstairs. Vic Solomons lent me m/o 1567, which has all the digits necessary to make a 1579 copy (by turning the 6 upside down) and I began to ring enamellers. These days all they want to do is your bath, and that not even in vitreous enamel, but I found a very helpful lady at Australian Craft Magazine who put me onto Ken Joyce in Dulwich Hill who does jewellery and vitreous enamelling. He happily took on the job, so we will have two m/o1579 plates in yellow and black, in the correct numeral style, one of these days. David Wilson and I are still trying to find somebody who can make several copies of a pre-war 44” destination roll, not only for this bus but for other pre-wars that need them. Not surprisingly, some of the old skills are hard to come by.

THE TWO VITREOUS ENAMEL FACSIMILE NUMBER PLATES WHICH WILL GO INTO THE LOWER DECK, ONE AT EACH END BULKHEAD. I suppose they were meant to reassure passengers that the bus was actually registered as such.
From time to time it appears to me that the works described above are taking a very long time to complete. The feeling only increases when one reflects that from June 1937 when m/o 1579 hit the road, to approximately June 1940 when bus deliveries ceased owing to World War Two, a total of about 320 buses were delivered to the Department of Road Transport and Tramways. Of these, over 300 were bodied by Waddingtons – a rate of two per week. Maybe it is easier to make new than to fix old ones.
Recently I heard on the radio a discussion about the things it takes you most of your life to learn, but nobody ever tells you. One was there is a fine line between ‘hobby’ and mental illness. I wonder. Finally, can anybody help me with photos of the interior of a pre-war decker, showing the original signwriting?

Anatomy of a Restoration

2006-06-25T18:58:00.000+10:00

This is Part Two of the edited text of an article published in Australian Bus and Commercial Vehicle Heritage Magazine, reproduced by courtesy of the editors, Eileen and John Birchmeier

Every so often I look around for something easy and dramatic to do, rather than face the hard stuff like rusted frame parts. The bus had come with a radiator, although not the one shown in the photos taken at Yeovil, where all the gilled tubes were missing. In all there were enough parts to make three radiators, but I soon found that there were two makers of radiators for TD Leylands: Coventry Radiator and Presswork (CovRad) and Leyland Motors Ltd (LML). Not a single part from one type will fit the other, except the screw cap! So the bits were sorted through to see what would produce the best outcome, which is now a CovRad. Brian Mantle had given me a brand new unused radiator grille, but unfortunately it was for LML, and would be hard to fit neatly. But luckily from somewhere there turned up a CovRad one, a little battered but easily straightened and welded up, and after sandblasting and priming it looked first class. The main difference is that its mounting holes are in different places, and because the vertical grille bars are much closer together in the LML version, there is no way to make new holes without cutting into a bar. Arthur Gillott gave me a brand new filler cap to replace the heavily mauled one. Now all that is needed is the curly bit of pipe that joins to the bottom of the radiator and squeezes past the front chassis crossmember. I have lots of Albion ones, so a bit of judicious cutting and welding may do the trick.
Actually I later found the original Leyland one, carefully placed so I would not lose it, in with the Albion ones in my parts stash.....

THE COMPLETED RADIATOR MADE FROM THE BITS OF THREE OTHERS AWAITS ITS REFURBISHED GRILLE AFTER BEING WATER-TESTED,
Then, all the top deck window sills (waist rails I discovered recently they are called) were made new and replaced, and the top deck generally rendered structurally intact.

NEW WAIST RAILS (SILLS) MADE FROM ODDS AND ENDS OF SCRAP STEEL LIE READY TO GO IN. THE PHOTO IS DATED APRIL 1998
The flooring of the top deck, which is actually part of the bottom deck, and forms its roof, was rotted for one or two feet in from the front and rear, and for about twelve inches in from each side. It may have been possible to just patch this – but a huge problem arose, of how to curve just three or four feet of new tongue and groove board down at the front and rear. By this time I was getting pretty gung-ho about making and fitting new components, and I decided to simply replace the whole floor, thus giving plenty of leverage to get the front and rear to curve down. Even so, it still proved to be quite an undertaking.
To start with, the top deck had to be lifted clear of the bottom deck. This was no problem. Every single one of the feet of the top deck pillars where they bolt to the floor had rusted away. There was virtually nothing holding the top deck on! One symptom of this fact was that the bottom edges of some of the top deck panels had holes worn in them from rubbing to and fro on the top edges of the bottom deck. A heavy wood and steel beam was made up and inserted under the sills of the second front top deck window, and a heavy screw jack set up over the centre of the very strong bulkhead forming the firewall behind the engine and cab. Gingerly the jack was extended. The beam didn’t bend. The sills (newly fitted) didn’t tear away from the top deck pillars. The firewall didn’t disappear downwards onto the garage floor.
The entire top deck frame lifted 18 inches at the front, AND remained straight from front to rear, without sagging in the middle. The new sills and skirt rail and sections of pillar that had been renewed all took the strain. All credit to the designers of that frame: it is very strong.

THE OFFSIDE CANT RAIL AND ABOVE IT THE CORNER OF THE TOP DECK; 'X' FOR GOTTA GO
At this point the badly deteriorated lower front corners of the top deck could be accessed easily. They are very complex, having the rounded corner pillar, two skirt rails, and two angle braces all meeting at the one place. Luckily there was a short length of the rounded corner pillar section lying around at Tempe, somewhat different in dimension but having the correct radius curve. The necessary short pieces of skirt rail at side and front, plus the angle braces, could all be made up and welded into place along with new mounting brackets which enable the corners to bolt to the floor at front and side. These corners took weeks, with great care needed to maintain alignment in all directions.

NEW PILLAR BASES HAVE GONE IN ON THE NEARSIDE, AS WELL AS A NEW SKIRT RAIL. THE WIRE AND TURNBUCKLES FROM SIDE TO SIDE OF THE FRAME ARE THERE TO ALLOW IT TO BE ADJUSTED PRECISELY FOR WIDTH, AS WITHOUT ITS FLOOR BRACKETS BOLTED DOWN, THERE IS NOTHING TO PREVENT IT SPREADING AT THE LOWER EDGES
Then came the feet of all the top deck pillars. Compared to post-war deckers, these have huge angled mountings which protrude into the top deck floor area (look upstairs in Leyland 1438 and AEC 1286 to see what I mean). One and one only bracket escaped replacement: the third one from the front on the offside. I kept it for old times’ sake and because it was only slightly corroded. New ones were folded up from metal obtained from Wilkins Servis washing machine panels. These were a boon – 1mm thick, and galvanised and painted.

A VIEW INTO THE TOP DECK FROM THE STAIRWELL, WITH ROTTED FLOOR BOARDS REMOVED ON THE OFFSIDE AND NEW PILLAR FEET IN PLACE. THE SOLE SURVIVING FOOT IS THIRD FROM THE FRONT, STILL IN DARK PAINT.
The vehicle is now an amalgam of Wilkins Servis and Malleys washer, Hoover washer and dryer, Vono bed base and sheets of galvanised iron scrounged from roadside cleanup days and North Ryde waste treatment station! The original oregon floorboards, each of which was one length from front to rear, would be taken up one at a time and replaced with new boards milled to size from recycled hoop pine which I was advised would bend easily without cracking when the time came. However the recycler in West Botany Street Rockdale just smiled when I asked for single boards, some up to eight metres in length. The best they could provide was 5.2 metres. So every board would have to have a join in it somewhere along its length, and care was taken to stagger the joins so they didn’t all occur at one roof bow.
Firstly however, it dawned on me that some of the outer extremities of the lower deck roof bows had rust in them, and so could not have boards screwed to them just yet, and the cant rails (I call them) over the engine and cab were useless.

A VIEW OF THE CANT RAILS OVER THE ENGINE BAY. WITH THE TOP DECK FLOOR REMOVED ACCESS TO THESE WAS A LOT EASIER
A sheet metal firm at Brookvale folded up a new front header rail for over the engine bay and cab. It is seven feet long and the folder at Tempe can only take four feet max. The cant rails, which are curved, were made at Tempe then cut at three or four inch intervals on their inner edges with a hacksaw, and welded up to create a curved box section. With the first three feet of boards torn up at the front, a new ceiling of thin galvanised sheet was laid in over the cab/engine bay.
The diagonal windows on each side at the rear of the bottom deck got new diagonal braces and letter boards above them. The frame over the rear platform entrance was totally remade, using Vono bed base side rails (1.5”x 1.5” angle) and steel strip. The framing under the nearside rear destination box was remanufactured, having been affected by water leaking onto it from the leaky putty around the fixed window above it. The driver’s cab door aperture needed repairs, so that the door could be trial fitted to ensure that the new cant rail above it was in the right place, and the shape of the door space had not suffered from all the goings-on around it.
Brian Mantle was in the background all this time, advising how to curve a box section, how to create a pillar in top hat section, how to ensure a straight line from front to back – in short pretty well everything I didn’t know about sheet metal work. Meanwhile my control over the welder got better and better, until I now feel almost confident about undertaking a weld in any position. However it remains true that welders have minds of their own and have good days and bad. The government should do something about it.
At last the bottom deck around its top edges was good enough to receive floor boards.

FLOOR BOARDS GO IN. THE BEAM AND JACK FOR RAISING THE TOP DECK FRAME CAN BE SEEN. THE WEDGES AND BLOCKS WERE TO AID IN CRAMPING THE BOARDS CLOSELY TOGETHER.

During the process, great care had to be taken to find the sockets attached under two of the boards for seat attachment, which were faithfully reproduced. At this point it was noticeable what a tiny amount of room there is between the upstairs front seats and the front windows. People were nimbler then. After many months of frame repairs and laying of floor boards, the top deck floor was complete. It looked superb in fresh clean hoop pine and it was a shame to think it would all be covered in dirty old bitumen paint and malthoid.
However at the front and rear, uncut edges of floorboard stuck out into thin air. They had to be curved down, mainly at the centre, to meet the header rail at the front and the frame over the back platform at the rear. I thought about this for a long time, having abandoned the idea of steaming the boards to curve them, because each board would have to be steamed and curved before I laid it, making a real nightmare of trying to match the curves perfectly. I had even bought an old copy of Woodwork in Theory and Practice by John A Walton, my old woodwork teacher at Canberra High School, to find out how to make a steamer and do the curving. Relying on the fact that the cant rails and header at the front were new and strong, I thought I would put a beam under these and a strong plank over the floor boards above and try to draw the ends of the plank and beam together with 5/8” threaded rods and nuts at each side.
With all this set up, I started tightening the nuts on the threaded rods. The hefty 12” x 2” builder’s plank just curved up in the middle, and the boards moved down about two or three inches of the six inches needed. Some major weight was needed on the centre of the builder’s plank. The top deck was available, so it was lowered on its jack onto the rear of another beam resting fore and aft on the plank and poking out over the front of the bus, where it was tied with fencing wire to the front chassis crossmember to stop it swinging up. This did the trick, and eventually with the help of lots of kettles of boiling water, the boards agreed to curve down evenly to meet the front header, where they were attached with heavy 1/4” roofing screws, two per board, into the header rail. After a few days I apprehensively took the weight off the jack, but all the planks stayed put. The strength in those planks is one of the major reasons that the four passengers in the front seats don’t fall down onto the engine and driver.

LOOKING FORWARD FROM THE STAIRWELL, THE NEW MALTHOID FLOORING COVERS UP THE BEAUTIFUL HOOP PINE BOARDS
In order to surface the floor the top deck had to be raised again, at its original jacking point, and malthoid was laid, moving the jacking point around a bit to enable the flooring to be laid all the way across. Malthoid is miraculously still available from Hardware and General at Brookvale, but called damp coursing, in up to one metre width.

BITUMEN PAINT IS USED TO CEMENT THE MALTHOID DOWN. THE NEW SILL RAILS LOOK AS IF THEY HAVE BEEN THERE FOREVER
With the malthoid down the top deck was ready to be firmly reunited with the bottom deck for possibly the first time in thirty years. Each pillar footing now has four bolts holding it down, through the floor boards to the bottom deck framing, plus another four bolts at each of the corner mountings at front and rear. I remain amazed that it didn’t blow off during the tow from Tempe to Turramurra.

FIRST HESITANT STEPS IN LOWERING THE TOP DECK ONTO ITS NEW FLOOR. THE TWIN ROWS OF BOLTS FOR THE SEAT MOUNTINGS ARE VISIBLE IN THE FLOORING.
It was now December 2000, the end of the millennium. The new millennium (the real one) would begin in 2001, with a list of goals for the year. This included getting the top deck bolted down (completed in the first week of January) , completing the lower deck frame repairs, and the MUDGUARDS. Also at this time I committed myself mentally to restoring the bus to 1937 condition, with high headlights, full swaging of body panels, and wide destination boxes. Up until now I hadn’t really thought about this, except to imagine that red and cream would look nice.

First Steps

2006-06-14T21:07:00.000+10:00

This is Part One of the edited text of an article published in Australian Bus and Commercial Vehicle Heritage Magazine, reproduced by courtesy of the editors, Eileen and John Birchmeier

When I was young, four years old, my parents moved to Canberra. This was a bit of a culture shock for me – I had grown up with trams, steam ferries, double deckers, electric trains, steam trains of all sorts, and all the sights and sounds of Sydney Harbour. Canberra had the muddy, weedy Molonglo River and some boring AEC Regal half cabs.
One Grandmother lived at Northbridge, on Sailors Bay Road, so staying there in school holidays meant TD4s and TD5s taking off outside the front door on route 207. I thought they sounded rather special. When the chance came many years later to join a syndicate at Tempe which owned a TD4, fleet no. 1379 in its final days, I jumped at it. My Albion CX19, no. 1892, was largely restored, except for returning the interior to bus configuration, so I felt able to take on a new challenge.

ALBION 1892, NOT THE LEYLAND. WORK PROCEEDS ON THE INTERIOR DURING 1993/5 TO RESTORE IT FROM MOBILE HOME USE TO BUS CONFIGURATION

Fleet number 379, a 1936 Leyland Titan TD4, was bodied by Waddingtons Ltd. at their Camperdown works on Pyrmont Bridge Road. It was ready for the road on 29 June 1937 (officially it entered service on 30 June), and was registered m/o 1579. This was 1200 above its fleet number, a disparity soon to be remedied. In fact an AEC Regent was carrying the m/o 1579 plate by 1939, the latter vehicle having also been bodied by Waddingtons, but at their new Granville works. Just prior to this, Leyland m/o 1579 became m/o 1379, and fleet number 1379, which it carried until its withdrawal in 1963. I am assuming that it was overhauled in 1943, after the mania for camouflage painting had subsided, when it received the simplified red and cream livery, with broad black bands and no lining-out of the body swaging. In about 1948 at its next overhaul it received the post war green and cream, with the same broad black bands, and on 15 December 1953 (fifty three years ago now!) it received the green and cream with narrow black bands, this time picking out the upper of the two swaged lines on each deck.

AT YEOVAL NSW, SHOWING THE VERY FADED COLOURS OF THE 1953 PAINT JOB. THE SHOT ALSO SHOWS THE EARTH BANK WHICH I SUSPECT DID THE REAR PLATFORM NO GOOD AT ALL photo Brian Mantle

Remnants of all these four colour schemes became visible on various body parts during restoration. The restoration is to take it back to 1937 condition, so it is no longer ‘1379’. It will probably be known as 379 or m/o 1579.
Restoration began in 1990, after the bus was towed back from Yeoval, first to Kellyville, where the HCVA had a storage yard, and then to Tempe Tram Sheds when the Association was granted its lease in 1986.

A CHARACTERISTIC OF THE PRE-WAR BUSES WAS THE PAINTED-ON FRONT NUMBER 'PLATE'. THE BUS SITS IN THE WORKSHOP AREA AT TEMPE IN AS-FOUND CONDITION. DAVID WILSON HAS UNEARTHED A BETTER RADIATOR FOR IT.
The syndicate of owners expanded from David Wilson and Brian Mantle to myself plus my son Gwilym, then only 7 years old, and my friends Peter and Kathy Howick. Peter’s distinction is to have been one of ‘Overland Five’ who drove a Bristol K6G ex-Wilts and Dorset Traction, with Eastern Coachworks body, to Australia via Turkey, Afghanistan, Bombay, Perth and Sydney in 1971. (That bus by the way survives in tourist service at Taupo New Zealand).
The first stage of restoration was to remove every panel, window and trim to permit repair of the frame. The rear platform had been crushed by being reversed into the bank a bit too enthusiastically at the Yeoval property. Other areas, especially the cantilever beams over the engine bay and cab, were clearly badly rusted. After the work done on Albion 1892 in the early 1980s, none of this seemed too hard.

AT TEMPE BUS MUSEUM IN 1990 WITH ALL PANELS REMOVED AND WORK ABOUT TO BEGIN ON THE BACK PLATFORM AND STAIRCASE. THE RUST CAN BE SEEN IN THE CANT RAILS OVER THE ENGINE BAY AND IN THE SILLS UPSTAIRS

In early 1990 I enrolled at Hornsby TAFE for a MIG welding course, and soon after bought a DueMig welder for $500. It has been fantastic, and will weld anything from less than 0.5 mm up to 10 mm or more. The four of us, Peter, Kathy, Gwilym and I put in many hours at Tempe, removing all the panels and trims and labelling them, stripping paint from the top deck ceiling, and rebuilding the rear platform with new framing and a new floor of recycled cypress pine tongued and grooved boards. The staircase was renewed from top to bottom, as well as some of its supporting frame, and a new pan made for the top step where it protrudes into the bottom deck roof. An entire new skirt rail was fitted from front to rear on the near side top deck, also along the bottom of the lower deck on each side.

THE PAN FOR THE TOP STEP IN PLACE WITH THE ORIGINAL BELOW IT

THE TOP STEP FROM INSIDE THE STAIRWELL. IT IS A NATURAL TRAP FOR WATER, AS THE WOODEN STAIR TREAD HOLDS RAIN DROPS, FROM THE WINDOWS ABOVE, AGAINST THE STEEL

And then in August 1993, things went a bit quiet. Although Gwilym and I did a few things to finish off the staircase in early 1994, Peter and Kathy moved on to other interests, and I undertook the restoration of the interior of my Albion ex-m/o 1892 back to 1966 condition. It re-entered Museum service as a bus for Motorfest 1996, the first time it had carried ‘fare paying’ passengers since 1970, and after twenty-two years as the family’s private mobile home. This enabled it to be moved from Turramurra to Tempe, thus leaving space for 1379. ‘Fast Eddie’ towed it to Turramurra with poor old Gwilym (aged 15) in the cab holding on for grim death. A few more dents appeared in the roof as the bus was manoeuvred in reverse down the drive at 333 Bobbin Head Road, into the garage where it now resides. At last quality restoration time could be put into the project.
The logical plan was to repair the framing by working from the top down, and from the rear forwards. There is a reason for this. Say the frame in a certain area is rusted in the top deck and in the bottom deck area below it. If you cut out the defective bottom deck members, the weakened top deck may collapse into it, thus destroying certain vital alignments and dimensions. Acting on this theory I started off by making a new upstairs rear emergency window. The old one was hanging off and a complete ruin, and at that stage in decker design there were many variations in that window so finding another one was unlikely.

First Find the Bus to Restore

2006-06-10T20:01:00.000+10:00

Years after its sale in 1963 by the Department of Government Transport, as the DRTT had become, 1379 sits quietly mouldering in the bush at Yeoval in central western NSW, after its discovery by enthusiast David Wilson on 13 October 1976
PHOTO: DAVID WILSON

As best as I can discover, m/o 1379 was the oldest bus in the DGT fleet when it was withdrawn. It had been retained longer than other TD4s because it became a driver training vehicle at Burwood Depot, used to train drivers in the tricky art of operating a crash gearbox. Such a box has no synchromesh, no automatic assistance of any kind, and if you time the shift wrongly you get a "crash". I was to discover years later that many such 'crashes' had taken their toll. Other driver trainers were Leylands m/o 1235 (until 1961) and m/o 1378. (Thanks Vic Hayes for this info).

1379 sits at the Department of Government Transport Bus Workshops Roberts Road, Chullora, unregistered, awaiting disposal after being withdrawn from service. The date is probably 1961 or 1962.
It went to an individual at Wellington, NSW where it operated as a mine haulage engine by the simple expedient of attaching a cable to the front cross-member and reversing the bus to raise a skip or bucket from the base of the mine shaft.
When David Wilson tracked it down it had acquired many dents and a certain amount of rust in the body framing, but it had the virtue of being a TD4, therefore rare, and fairly complete, and able to be driven albeit without its hydraulic foot brakes.
Afterwards it went to a wool and wheat property at nearby Yeoval where it appears to have been used as accommodation, possibly for shearers. (Note the frig and cabinet in the photo above).

AFTER A MOVE OF SEVERAL MILES FROM ITS LAST LOCATION THE LEYLAND LOOKS RATHER SADDER. EVEN THE CONDITION OF THE FARM NOW LOOKS RUN DOWN

EVIDENCE THAT THE INTERIOR WAS USED AS ACCOMMODATION; STOVE, BED AND KITCHEN CABINET. NOTE THE LAMP FITTINGS STILL IN PLACE, THANK HEAVENS

THE HOT CENTRAL WESTERN SUN HAS FURTHER FADED THE GREEN PAINT, AND THE FRIG, AT RIGHT, IS VERY MUCH OUT OF USE.

ALL THE RADIATOR TUBES HAVE BEEN REMOVED PRESUMABLY FOR THEIR SCRAP VALUE, AS THEY ARE BRASS AND COPPER. THE ROOF HAS ACQUIRED A GOOD SIZED DENT, LEFT.

IN THE MOVE TO ITS NEW SITE THE BUS MUST HAVE BEEN REVERSED INTO THIS BANK OF EARTH A BIT ENTHUSIASTICALLY BECAUSE THE REAR PLATFORM AND FRAMING AT THE REAR WAS BADLY BENT AND NEEDED COMPLETE REBUILDING. THE UPSTAIRS EMERGENCY EXIT HANGS BY A THREAD All five photos above: BRIAN MANTLE

David Wilson and Brian Mantle arranged its recovery and it was towed back to Sydney to an open field full of preserved buses at Kellyville, the nucleus of the Sydney Bus Museum collection. When the Historic Commercial Vehicle Association was granted the lease of the former Tempe Tram Sheds in 1986 it went there, where I became aware of it.
.

Back in 1937

2006-06-01T20:36:00.000+10:00

TWO LEYLAND TD4s, SO NEW THAT ONE OF THEM HAS NOT HAD ITS LINING-OUT COMPLETED, STAND IN THE DOMAIN, IN 1936. THEY ARE NOS 235 (m/o 1435), WITH GEARLESS TRANSMISSION, AND 229 WITH CRASH GEARBOX, BOTH WADDINGTON STEEL FRAME BODIES. 235 later had the troublesome gearless transmission removed and a crash box fitted; it went on to survive in service until 1961.

By 1937 the New South Wales Department of Road Transport and Tramways was really getting into its stride as a bus operator. The Department was formed in 1933 to compulsorily acquire many private bus firms and combine the operation of tramways in several cities throughout the state, and buses in Sydney and Newcastle.
A ragbag of routes and vehicles was taken over and immediately the hunt was on for a suitable standard vehicle design to handle large passenger loadings. Most of the private operators' buses had been single deckers, many of US origin, but a double decker was chosen as the basis of planning. The first examples for the DRTT had wood framed bodies, but these rapidly disintegrated under the severe strains of less than perfect road surfaces, hilly terrain and heavy loads, so steel framing was tried and after a couple of experimental designs the body style used on my Leyland was made the standard.

LEYLAND TD4 NUMBER 266 IN THE DRTT FLEET HEADS TWO TD3s WITH WOOD FRAMED BODIES BY SYDWOOD OF BANKSTOWN NSW. PHOTO ca 1937, ON THE VISIT OF THE ADELAIDE BOYS BAND TO SYDNEY.

THREE TD4 LEYLANDS HEADED BY FLEET NUMBER 213. THE FIRST TWO BUSES HAVE EARLY CLYDE ENGINEERING METAL FRAMED BODIES, WHICH DO NOT HAVE THE DISTINCTIVE TRIANGULAR WINDOWS HIDING DIAGONAL BRACING. THE THIRD BUS HAS VERSION THREE OF THE STEEL BODY, BY WADDINGTONS LTD, CAMPERDOWN NSW. IT HAS ROUNDED EDGES TO THE TOP DECK, FRONT

THESE TWO PHOTOS SHOW THE SECOND ATTEMPT AT A STEEL FRAMED DESIGN, BY WADDINGTON, WITH ITS DISTINCTIVE HARD-EDGED CORNERS AT THE FRONT OF THE TOP DECK

THIS SURVIVOR IS A TD4, FLEET NUMBER 238 AND IS SCHEDULED TO BE RECOVERED FROM A SITE IN QUEENSLAND

A SNAP FROM THE FAMILY ALBUM. MY FATHER-IN-LAW WAS AN ARMY OFFICER WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR SCHOOL CADETS. A GROUP OF ELDERLY EX-GOVERNMENT BUSES OWNED BY WEST BANKTOWN BUS SERVICE AND HEADED BY A LOWBRIDGE-BODIED TD4 DELIVERS CADETS TO CAMP, PROBABLY INGLEBURN, IN 1956. THE SECOND BUS, THEN M/O 691, WAS m/o 1229 IN DRTT SERVICE AND CARRIES THE FIRST WADDINGTON STEEL FRAMED BODY. photo Mrs R. Rodd.
Large orders for hundreds of bus chasses were placed with British manufacturers under the encouragement of Empire Preference trade agreements. Suppliers included AEC (Associated Equipment Company, London) Leyland Motors Ltd. in Lancashire, and Albion Motors in Glasgow. From 1935 onwards until the Second World War halted production, almost all were bodied by The Waddington Motor Body Co of Camperdown, Sydney. By mid-1937 pressure on production facilities had grown such that this company established a large new factory on a greenfield site at Granville NSW near Parramatta.

A NEWLY COMPLETED LEYLAND TD5 AT THE NEW GRANVILLE SITE, POSSIBLY THE FIRST OFF THE NEW PRODUCTION LINE

TWO VERY TIRED OLD LEYLAND TD4s WAIT FOR DUTY AT GORDON AVENUE DEPOT HAMILTON IN NEWCASTLE. M/O 1375 IS IDENTICAL TO 1379, AND 1408 MAY BE ONE OF THE LAST BODIES BUILT AT WADDINGTONS' CAMPERDOWN WORKS.

THE SUBJECT OF RESTORATION: FLEET NUMBER 379 PHOTOGRAPHED IN YORK STREET CITY IN 1938, BARELY ONE YEAR INTO SERVICE, HAVING JUST COMPLETED A RUN FROM NORTHBRIDGE ON ROUTE 2 (NOW ROUTE 202)

Now, some explanation is needed of the disparity between the fleet number and the registration numbers of the buses above.
In 1933 the registration numbers m/o 001 to m/o 1000 were set aside for buses belonging to private operators. DRTT registrations began at m/o 1001, carried at that date by a Leyland TD1 bearing fleet number 1. However private bus numbers soon swelled and a further 200 m/o plates were reserved to them, so that DRTT numbers were revised to begin at m/o 1201.
Thus, until late 1939, DRTT registration numbers were always 1200 above the fleet number. However this anomaly was resolved by simply making the registration number equal to the fleet number plus one thousand, a system which applies to this day for STA (State Transit Authority) buses.
And so in the both above photographs, dating from prior to 1939, m/o plate numbers are 1200 above the fleet number. By 1940, my Leyland, 379, had become m/o 1379, a registration it carried until eventual sale in 1963.

MY LEYLAND AT THE HEAD OF A NUMBER OF BUSES QUEUED IN BARTON ST CIRCULAR QUAY TO OPERATE A 'TRAMLESS SUNDAY' IN 1948. BY THIS DATE TRAMS WERE ON THEIR WAY OUT AND EFFORTS WERE MADE TO SAVE COSTS BY USING BUSES WHEN PATRONAGE WAS LOW. photo Vic Hayes

November 2006 update: ANOTHER PICTURE RECENTLY RECEIVED OF 1379 STILL IN SERVICE IN ABOUT 1960, IN ITS ROLE AS DRIVER TRAINER AT BURWOOD DEPOT. BEHIND IT TO THE RIGHT IS m/o 1244, AN EVEN OLDER TD4. photo DAVID TAYLOR
Interestingly, and showing the endearingly haphazard approach of the DRTT to bus maintenance, 1244 has its front air vent still in the original, higher, position which it occupied when the offside headlamp was mounted in the front scuttle. This feature has been restored in 1379.