AEC "Merlin" AML588H (ex-London Transport MBA588 of 1969)

Reg No: AML 588H
Operator: London Transport
Chassis: AEC Merlin

The Merlins (in fact known by all but London Transport as "Swifts") were perhaps the most unsuccessful type to run in London. As well as a focus for Union troubles, their length limited their turning ability (especially in garages), radiators were over-small, and gearboxes prone to fail.

Almost 700 were bought by London Transport between 1966-1969, with the incentive of the 25% "new bus grant", but perhaps prematurely. All chassis came from AEC's famous Southall works in Middlesex, motive power courtesy of a transverse 6-cylinder diesel engine of 11.3 litres (their "AH691"), rated at 165bhp and mounted beyond the rear axle. Bodies were all from the renowned Metro-Cammell-Weymann shops in east Birmingham: a very traditional pair of aluminium skins fixed onto horizontal beech rails and vertical fillets in steel hoops between each pair of window bays. Fibreglass and rubber made up extremities on the roof and skirt.

As new buses the "MBs" were advanced, and quite expensive at c.£9000: the more so when withdrawn from London service after only 8-12 years, when many passed to scrappers for £400 each. Dozens did fare better, however, offering years' more trouble-free running in Australia, Mauritius, and (often more briefly) in Belfast. Film catering companies and airport handling authorities also took some, favouring the large "standee" space between the separate entrance and exit.

598 units ran in red livery, with a "flake grey" waistband; 67 served the "Country area", in Lincoln green with canary yellow. This bus spent its working life on the central flat-fare "Red Arrow" services, based at the south London garage of Walworth, near Camberwell. It was delivered in May-69 to LT’s Aldenham Works, originally registered VLW588G and bearing fleetnumber MBS588, but was down-seated (to increase provision for standee passengers to 48) before entering traffic in Sep-69 as MBA588.

My example is hence one of the later units, but also among the more notorious. It was the first London Transport vehicle to sport the solid 15-inch white roundel, their main graphic device for 15 years from 1975. It featured within an experimental livery worn from Aug-72 to May-76, which became the template for corporate colours until 1978.

This bus ceased revenue-earning service in Jun-81, and next became the Feltham Community Association shop. Its third life was as a garden playbus, taking it to Sussex in 1998, but where its owner realised restoration was beyond him.

Like most bus enthusiasts, I’m fond of this type (and the 10m-long "SMSs") because they filled the 1970s roads where I grew up, in Harrow and Edgware. I’d always enjoyed collecting bus numbers, then graduated to Instamatic slides, and finally (I thought) printing my own mono and colour photos. I never really wanted to own a bus: much better, I would tell my wife, to just enjoy others’ hard labours at the occasional rally. Then, at the end of my 30s, I rode on a newly-restored London RF and thought "Am I just a passenger?"

So, rather serendipitously, I found myself being offered this Merlin in late 1999 ... by a man I’d never met, who had heard I was interested in another in a Warwickshire boatyard (which I’d found by telephoning round while in bed with flu that Spring), and which he’d in fact towed there in 1983 to swap for an earlier single-decker!

Since that time, my Merlin has been a fun recreation and my vital hands-on therapy. I cannibalised a second bus (MBS217) at Long Marston in 2000, then moved 588 to the Wythall site in Feb-02. That year I stripped the offside, treating and replacing timber below the windows. It was repanelled by late 2003, and I did the bulk of the same to the nearside in 2004. I remain indebted to others’ skills for an engine refit at that year’s close. I hope to repanel nearside, with front and rear, during 2005 ... and maybe even apply a first coat of red.

After that, lots of mechanical attention sholuld follow, plus new floor-covering, retrimming seats refixing their frames, and replacing burgundy Rexine on the walls. Family commitments and birthday-money permitting, I hope the bus will be complete c.2010.

Tim Clayton
Kings Heath, Mar-05
 

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