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BPH 106H SM106 Restoration 2018A |
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Day one of 2018 was spent on a surprisingly successful session at the garage (LL as it will be known from now on) taking advantage of some of the jobs that had been shoe-horned into the tail end of 2017. While the green paint was out for painting the rear pair of entrance door leaves I had seized the opportunity to paint the inside of the air intake boxes and erase the legacy of Numark Pharmacy's pale grey paint job. I also did the box cover which carries the draught-seal brushes and covers the operating poles for the entrance doors, so all the painted parts were ready for assembly. Putting the air-intake covers in place has become a familiar task, but still they fought me, and ended-up popping into the aperture. Curses! The next attempt went so smoothly I was left wondering what had gone wrong previously. The ensemble looked so pretty that I had to go and put the kettle on. Next came the rather less amusing task of fitting the rear leaves of the entrance doors. I have learned that the inner leaf which bolts onto the arms of the actuator pole can be treated in isolation, since (with worn rubber seals) the outer leaf can be hung onto the inner once it is safely in place IF you remember to unbolt the guide-roller arm first. Much lighter and easier to handle. Tapered bolts of two lengths are used to engage captive nuts which slide along the upper and lower edge of the door leaf. Quite easy to find the way in by feel alone when you get the hang of it. Titter ye not! Unless, in the case of the upper edge the captive nut won't sit flat and the threads cross immediately it engages the bolt. I spent nearly an hour fiddling with it and lifting it up and down to find that the bolt would engage perfectly when on the bench. In the end I packed the space under the nut with tissue paper so that it sat straight; and was rewarded by immediate engagement. Whack on the guide arm and the job was done. A new set of rubber bumpers was inserted into the appropriate holes, and the internal handrails were fitted; note that the external plates are stainless steel and were not painted (according to the official Park Royal works picture) which made the job much easier and quicker.
Cold weather and condensation are the bane of winter life, so an appropriate task had to be found to keep the project moving. The prototype door-nosing rubber has arrived from Mannerings and had to be offered up for comparison and a trial fitting, but the deviation from true dimensions, though small, were enough to prevent any attempt at insertion. Feedback will be offered. A vexatious problem that has become apparent only in the new garage is a noticeable list to starboard suggesting that the driver's side front road spring is defective. So the bus was jacked-up and the front wheels removed so that access to the springs could be gained. Measuring the gap between the top of the spring and the bottom of the chassis rails showed that the driver's side is sitting nearly an inch and a half lower than the other. Bedtime reading will be how to remove the springs for attention. During this operation I was surprised by a knock on the door and it was James from Hull, who like Len is the custodian of a Bristol LH. It seems that you can never escape from LH, even if you are an SM. After their departure I had one of those "Must Complete Something" urges, so I sorted the scrap metal in the old wicker skip from the Woollen Mill and found by chance the scrapped Checkmate panel from the exit step-well. As I had been looking at the area of panelling behind the exit, I thought that it would make a patch over the improvised heater air-intake. It may be oxidised, but matches the kicking plate in the saloon perfectly. Hacksaw, Surform, Drill, Pop-rivets X 4; sorted. I also measured-up for the missing steel stress-panel in front of the wheel arch before falling dusk sent me scurrying home to the stove.
My chassis manual and parts list are fairly specific on the point that removing the road springs and axle are not a particularly big job, and the space gained through their absence can be utilised profitably to continue the cleaning and painting of the chassis. I made a phone call to Owen Springs at Ellesmere Port and had a useful conversation once it had been established that I was a nutter and that the vehicle was a sort of Reliance coach. The process goes like this: I remove the springs, they pick them up from Colwyn Bay, take them away for attention and look in their extensive library for the necessary data to re-temper or rebuild as appropriate, check the pins and bushes and bring them back. Given the effort involved in removing one spring, there is little point in not checking the nearside unit at the same time, and it it will make a better starting point for a novice since it is easier of access and does not have a steering link attached. As the weather for Easter Monday was forecast to be poor (snow did materialise at moderate altitude) I organised a day-pass and got stuck in. Having already jacked up the front of the chassis and installed stands under the frame it was necessary to take some tension off the springs by supporting the axle too. Then there started a long and strenuous tussle with some large and reluctant nuts and bolts attached to the nearside spring. The nuts on the spring-pins and shackle-pins were well lubricated and easy enough, but the nuts on the clamp-bolts were simultaneously tight and fiddly - particularly the upper, inside bolt which could not be approached with a spanner without cutting away a small projecting part of the GRP wheel-arch moulding. As ever, familiarity with the job soon began to emerge, together with the realisation that the clamp-bolts could not be removed from the shackles while they were in place in the supporting bracket, and therefore the pins could not be withdrawn to release the spring. According to the parts diagram, the shackles were installed upside-down! The only remedy was to separate the supporting bracket from the chassis outrigger, which was awkward but fairly straightforward. Then it was a set-to with my new, long-reach 1.25 inch spanner on the clamp bolts which hold the axle onto the spring. It was only possible to make them budge by hanging onto the chassis with my arms and pushing on the spanner with my feet, but eventually and with great reluctance the nuts were loosened and the clamp-bolts drawn up through the top plate which attaches to the damper arm. It proved very useful to move the brake drums by turning the steering from lock to lock and making space in front of, or behind the axle as necessary. Finally the axle was supported on a trolley jack, lifted off the stand and lowered gently by just enough to allow the spring to be separated at the front by withdrawing the pin (surprisingly easy) and then slid out backwards beneath the chassis. In doing so, all the clamp-bolts from the shackles started to fall out, which I thought was an unnecessary insult. The axle was then raised again and set on its stand, and it was time for pictures and packing-up to go home. Enough of a work-out for one day!
While capturing those reference pictures I had a look at the job that would follow on the driver's side. In particular the automatic lubricator has obviously stopped sending oil to the front spring-pin, and while a grease nipple has been installed, it does not look as if it has been used often enough, so I am prepared for a worn and corroded item in due course. The off-side shackles are also apparently upside-down, but we know how to deal with that. What struck me was that the spring itself looked different, and looking closely it became apparent that its profile was concave downward, while the profile of the nearside spring was (as expected) concave upward. The difference would certainly explain the droop on the driver's side - but it is an extraordinary failure mode! Let's hope we can pull it all back together in due course. Good news came recently from Peter who owns MBS90 and has found some handrails attached to spare SMS doors that he obtained for spares (but don't actually fit his bus). Once again the stuff that folk have stashed away in attics and garages proves to be truly amazing. After hearing quite by coincidence that Steve's SMS97 has also been in dock with a springs problem, I was patched through to Paul Morris, who had done the work (and a deal of other stuff relating to steering ball-joints, too). We had a good chat, and I discovered that 97 is the same as mine, and that Paul was able to remove the offside spring without undoing the steering drag-link ball-joint. This fills me with glee, I must say. I am really grateful to AEC guru Paul for his sympathetic ear, because up here I am really out of it. Mountains we have, but vintage AECs are thin on the ground! Further good news is that the sample rubber nosing for the entrance doors is probably as good as we will achieve without starting afresh, so I shall be pressing the buttons immediately to start production of 8 pairs of nosing - enough to satisfy established and probable demand for a while. When I shall next be at LL I don't know, as the weekend after Easter sees the Garston Running Day, and I couldn't miss that as it is based upon Watford Junction, which is unusually accessible from North Wales if the trains are actually running, which they were at least from Crewe. High time for a rare Pendolino trip on VT7501 due at 10:34h, hoping to connect with a 347 at WFJ.
The good news was that VT7501 ran perfectly to time, albeit on the slow line all the way, so I walked out into an extraordinary crowd at Watford Junction and worried for a while that there was such a crush that I would not find a seat on the 347 departure at 10:40h. But MB90 came promptly onto the stand and we boarded quickly, so I installed myself on the nearside bench seat and introduced myself to the crew, with whom I had spoken at length but never met. Bang on time we departed for Harefield in the care of a very competent and youthful driver who was well able to get the best out a machine now just past her 50th birthday. Last time I was on a 347 at Harefield was probably not long after her 4th birthday, but we will let that pass (and it would have been on an RML). Peter very kindly passed over the exit-door handrails which he had identified among his spares pile, and so it was with a warm, grateful and entirely happy feeling that I stood in the gentle rain with all the other enthusiasts awaiting the arrival of the 309 for the next leg of the journey. I cannot remember riding on a GS in London Transport service, but it is extremely likely, given the debut of the type at Hitchin garage on the 383 to the Oakfield Estate. The happy chuckle of the Perkins engine and the soothing transmission noises made the run to Rickmansworth a delight, but the steep start off the lay-by was taxing the older vehicles and the traffic lights were a curse. Soon an RT hove into view on the 803 and we were off to Garston Garage. Riding an RT on country routes has always been a sheer joy, and one that I have missed sorely over the years. In fact, one of my last rides on an RT in service was an 803 all the way from Maple Cross to WGC - and almost alone on the bus with my Green Rover, hardly able to believe that I could get so close to home in one limited-stop hop. In those days drivers did not 'spare the horses', so it was exhilerating as well as convenient. GR looked forlorn, since the front offices are now disused, but soon there came RML2456 on a 306, but not with Steve at the wheel as expected. However, at the Junction a crew change put Keith Valla in charge, so when we arrived at Beechen Grove I was able to say hello and shake his hand before setting off through the vast construction site that seems to be putting a roof over the whole of Watford town centre. After lunch it was back to Clarendon Road to catch whatever came along, which turned out to be an 803 with Steve at the wheel of RT3226, who spotted me instantly standing at the stop with my hand out and waved as he pulled-up. It was good to meet, because it has been a few years since we last did and it was his leap of faith that saved SM106 (if I can only fulfill my promise). At the junction it was meetings again, as Keith Wright was on hand, capturing a Mercedes Citaro (lovely buses) in charge of a 724 to St. Albans. Then it was time for a run out on an RF to Chenies as a 336, and return in increasingly heavy rain, which steamed-up the windows and made for a certain camaraderie among the passengers. Now an RT ride is always like a magic carpet, but with the engine at the front it is refined. An RF with its lusty A219 engine right under the offside bench-seat is a different beast and you always know what's going on - BUT I think it has to be my favourite ride and there is no other vehicle that integrates travelling comfort with mechanical refinement so magnificently. Climbing the hill from Chorleywood Station in 2nd gear with a full bus was worth coming down for, and it made me think that the Metropolitan Railway posed interesting challenges to the buses that connected with local towns and villages. Obviously the lines were mostly on the valley floor, and each of Rickmansworth, Chorleywood and Amersham had significant to severe gradients away from the stations. The run into the Junction seemed quicker than expected, and that was the last trip for me. Time for a cup of coffee and a bit of bus-spotting from under what shelter was afforded by the re-developed station building, before boarding the 17:06h to Crewe via Stoke-on-Trent.
While in a philosophical mood, I have to say that I actually preferred the down Desiro (350-101, for the record) as a travelling environment to the Up Pendolino, which was claustrophobic, noisy with random alarms and congested. The Desiro, in contrast was spacious, quiet and surprisingly comfortable (and similarly filled to capacity) - and although the top speed is only 110 mph the acceleration is awesome. The routing meant that I was at last able to ride over the Norton Bridge flyover, and as the ticket cost only a little over one-third of what Virgin were asking, I felt generally very satisfied. If London Northwestern can fill 8 cars to Birmingham followed 10 minutes later by 4 cars to Crewe via Stoke (both after depositing 4 cars at Northampton) there is an obvious dent in Virgin's revenue. It was also interesting to see two dozen passengers alight at Stone, and half the train at Stoke-on-Trent, showing that there is a worthwhile market for 'stoppers'. After incessant rain all day, there was irony in driving west from Crewe and following a brilliant Venus as she sank into a perfect, late-evening sky. That was quite a day, and my travel bag made a nice clinking sound from the handrails that it contained. Thank you Peter, and well-done to the team from Amersham & District Motorbus Society for a great timetable and good organisation. To the vehicle owners I say that it was a joy to travel on routes I remember from the 1970s, and that their dedication in keeping their buses in tip-top condition is a great credit to them and the vintage transport movement. Now, an Epsom-based running day with a green Swift rostered for a turn to Bookham Station would be an awesome occasion...........
Anyway, back to the real story. A second day was spent in performing a similar exercise on the driver's side spring, which decided it didn't really want to play. Mostly it was repetitive work, but without any diversion to undo the shackle clamp-bolts - except that the rear-facing clamp bolts on the axle were exceptionally reluctant, and with the track-rod in the way they were more difficult of access. Using the open end of the spanner didn't work because it sprung off and with risk of rounding the nuts, and the ring end of the spanner couldn't engage because of the cranked end not reaching round the track-rod. In the end I found that for limited travel I could just fit the ring-end upside down, and while hugging the brake-drum and pushing with all the force I could muster from my legs I detected that first crack of movement opening-up. After that it was just arduous inching round the spanner, but I was in no shape to attempt the removal of the spring until the following Sunday. Dogs and grandchildren need regular exercise, and one of our more adventurous outings is to the Gwydir Forest, which has the benefit of lead-mining heritage and proximity to LL. So the whole gang, with four dogs, spent a good hour in the forest letting off steam, followed by a play on Bws Taid and disappearing to a caffi for lunch while leaving me in peace to continue the struggle. As anticipated, the spring-pin did prove difficult to extract, but not particularly so. Because of the way it is fitted, the pin will probably sit some distance down its bushes, meaning that tightening the nut will draw it out until all the threads are used up. As it was rather dry and dirty, it didn't want to pull out like its opposite number, so I tapped it back in with some oil applied and eventually it gave in. As I tightened the nut right to the end, the pin began to turn, so it was pulled and turned and eventually dropped out. The rear end already being free, it was time for a cup of tea and summoning fresh energies. As before, the front of the spring was well-stuck, but using the trolley-jack to raise the spring off the axle and drop it as fast as possible it began to loosen and give way. The spring was rocking on the axle with no way out, but I realised that lifting the rear-end was possible, causing the front to drop out of the bracket and slide out under the cab. After that it was just grunt to heave it out - don't underestimate the weight! Photographs were taken, notes were made and it was off home as fast as possible. One serious issue that I uncovered was the tendency of the axle to turn on the stands due to the weight of the hubs, which was troublesome and bodes ill for the eventual re-installation of the springs - but that's for another day.
Now, having said that notes were made, the findings have to be stored somewhere safe - and where better than on the web? For budding spring-afficionados, here is the recipe for a chassis type 4MP2R. The near, or LEFT side has 7 long leaves held by the clamps, and 3 short leaves. The driver's, or RIGHT side has 8 long leaves, 2 short leaves and a wedge. This raises all sorts of questions, and there are hints in the chassis manual. Why are they different, and why is the stronger-looking consist on the offside? Someone once told me that someone had told him that stronger springs were specified on the nearside to offset the camber of the road, but it seems far-fetched to me. I promise that I will pass on any interesting outcomes from having the springs checked over. When we arrived home my wife was unimpressed by the state of Tegid (our latest recruit), who required a bit of Swarfega, but I'd say that was fair enough for a spaniel's first day at a bus garage. The plan had been to bring the springs home, but as I couldn't lift them into the car without assistance a special mission was necessary with lifting tackle in the form of my neighbour John (thanks a million) when the mission gathered pace due to Owen Springs' transport schedule i.e "tomorrow". Rapid examination by an expert eye instantly detected a broken leaf on the offside unit, which was expected but not proven. Another side-mission has been the house martin nestboxes, which are intended to compensate the residents of the old garage at Trefriw for its ultimate demolition (OK, so they were swallows, but I'd rather have residents outside than inside and house martins are more threatened than swallows). Hanging the completed condominium on the wall was surprisingly easy, so no great delay to the main mission ensued.
Thereafter, the chassis clean-up proceeded and I found myself on the eve of the 2018 Llandudno Transport Festival hard at work preparing the chassis with scraper, wire-brush and paraffin-soaked paint-brush. Finally, the first paint of the season was applied and I beat a hasty retreat with my young spaniel assistant Tegid to Bodafon Fields where his training on vintage-vehicle duties commenced. The highlights of this year included riding again on LTT 913, Whiteways 1949 Bedford OB, on which I had ridden as a geology student while travelling to a summer mapping-course at Beddgelert in 1975. The Sunday trip around the Great Orme was taken on RF281, and on Monday another first was driving young Tegid on a trip around Craig-y-don on T122 under the watchful eye of the ever-patient and amenable Tatjana from the NorthWest VRT. All-in-all a fantastic weekend, though a detox to clear my system of dust and diesel fumes was indicated.
A holiday in Scotland is looming, so I have to get onto Owen Springs to see how the assessment of springs, pins and bushes is playing out. You will read the story here in due course, but for now here's a shot of Tatjana not running me over on Nant-y-gamar Road.
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