Omnibus 179 - May 2007
HLF - POWER & GLORY
The new Power Hall was fully open to the public on the 6 May Operating Day and received glowing reviews. It will now be open each weekend for the remainder of the season. Members attending the AGM on 2 June will be able to see it in all its glory.
The actual ‘formal’ opening will take place later in the year. The Trustees are trying to settle a date with the relevant dignitaries.
It was also planned to hold an informal evening for members and friends on 26 May but this has been postponed due to lack of time to organise, plus short notice to members as this edition of ‘Omnibus’ went to press later than planned. This too will now probably take place later in the year.
Dave Taylor
The new building was formally handed over to the Trust on 2 March although some minor items remained to be dealt with. After months of having builders on site every day it seemed remarkably quiet! However, this was short lived as in mid-March the contractors doing the interpretative display arrived on site. Whilst they had initially predicted completion of the displays by Easter this did not prove to be the case. Fortunately all our publicity had only billed the new hall as being open from May so it was not too much of an embarrassment. In fact the public did get a taste of things to come as they had access to the hall even if some areas were barricaded off. At the time of writing, the contractors expect to finish their work by the end of April.
Having possession of the hall allowed more buses to be put in and as part of the preparation for the Easter several buses destined to be displayed in the hall were slotted in to their correct position. This in turn allowed several Trust owned buses which have never had an indoor space to go inside for the first time. The Scania Hall was totally reorganised with several of the 36-foot buses being grouped together. Before these were put in place the Fleetline chassis was taken through the electric vehicle hall and is now displayed on the small piece of roadway left by the EV Hall roller shutter door.
Placing buses in their anticipated places in the Power Hall turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The first thing the contractors doing the display required was space to put up gantries! Hence a further reorganisation took place. Fortunately the only two buses that did not need to move were the two that can’t move under their own power. By the early May bank holiday weekend it is anticipated everything will be in its rightful place and further buses, mainly from the Shire Hall, will be transferred to the Power Hall.
Externally much has been done to improve the appearance of the site. The area in front of the Power Hall is set up as a bus station and Museum services now depart from there rather than the car park. The utility shelter, two Bundy clocks and various bus stop poles have been painted and the ex-Pershore Road cantilever shelter will be refurbished in due course.
One essential was to have fencing in place to separate the car park from the rest of the Museum – essential to stop people getting in for free! This is all done with ex. GWR fencing and thanks to the hard work of a number of volunteers this was not only all in place but all fully painted by Easter. Geoff Hodkinson, being one of those involved, counted that over 500 vertical posts needed painting! Gates were also required and Pete Murphy has fabricated these; painting is now in progress.
Mention has previously been made of the café refurbishment, assisted by a grant from the Association of Independent Museums. This has included new floor covering throughout and new kitchen units. This was all completed by Easter although not without a last minute hitch when one of the few things being re-used – a water heater – sprang a terminal leak on Good Friday. Fortunately a new one was sourced and fitted on Saturday allowing café service to be provided as normal on the open days.
Turning to the vehicles, the good weather in March and April has allowed painting work to progress. Both the Wolverhampton Guy, SUK3, and the Wolverhampton trolleybus are now complete fully painted although some signwriting remains to be done. Previously, SUK3 had many Perspex, plywood and aluminium “windows”. New glass has been acquired for all these and was fitted in mid-April. Although of course there is much wrong ‘under the skin’, the transformation of this bus to form an exhibit in the new hall is amazing!
Work on the Douglas Guy Otter is progressing well. The exterior paintwork has been rubbed down ready for painting and Andrew Wiltshire is refurbishing the interior. Pete Murphy’s next job is to repair as far as possible the front grille and bonnet area – not an easy job! Also with more glass in place than it has had for a long time is the Tilling (see separate notes). Finally, for the vehicles due to be in the new hall, the Smiths battery-electric mail van is now in the process of being painted, all the restoration work having been completed.
Yet another bus to have attention to the windows is West Bromwich Daimler 248 which has had the front nearside glass replaced. The bus also now has a full complement of seats with the return of several seats from the upholsterer.
Now we are entering our bus operating season, work has been done on a number of vehicles in the operational fleet. The Bristol L5G successfully passed its Class VI test on 21 March in the company of privately owned Fleetline NOV796G. Although it had been hoped that the Museum’s Fleetline 3780 could fulfil the need for a large capacity double-decker, investigation revealed rather a lot of mechanical work needing attention, so the owners of the NOV-G volunteered to fill the gap. The intention is that 3780 will gradually be brought up to scratch. Also, just in case you are wondering why the Museum’s 6311 is not fulfilling the large bus gap, the problems with its Leyland engine are still being worked on; again, it will return to the road in due course but was not a short term solution.
The other members of the Museum’s Class VI fleet for 2007 are the Cheltenham Lodekka, Birmingham Guy 2976, the Wendaway S23 and Midland Red S15. All apart from the S15 were in use on the Easter weekend and the S15 should be back in service for the May event days.
Phil Ireland
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 e-mail us
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