A great unknown - but had Aldenham stayed operational well into the years of mass Routemaster withdrawals, would there have been a steady flow of work to convert sold buses to customers requirements. What if a restructuring of Aldenham allowed for outside work to be taken or just work for outside customers buying an LT vehicle? It wasn`t to be. So, only a few RM`s had any Aldenham treatment post withdrawal. It was known that work carried out there wasn`t cheap but the ease of which a Routemaster could be `transformed` was never likely to be matched for speed and knowledge until Aldenham closed and other places had to learn.

Here`s RM 1949 on June 13 1985 having just arrived back at the Sales Department site after an Aldenham conversion.





RM 1949 stood out on arrival at the Sales Department for having the `cleanest` inspection sheet that anyone had ever seen. Each bus was thoroughly inspected by the Rolling Stock department prior to arrival at Bus Sales and it was quite usual for two pages of defects and observations to be listed on most buses. But RM 1949 had just a few lines. It was very tidy underneath and seemed an unlikely candidate for withdrawal. But it had damage to the whole of the n/s roof as if it had bashed against a tree bough. Not bad enough to withdraw the bus but cosmetically awful. It seemed a waste of an otherwise good bus but about a week after it arrived, a customer request came in for an RM to be converted to front entrance and open top. It was the perfect vehicle. Bit of an optical illusion, but does the bus look shorter when viewed from the near side?

At Aldenham we were not allowed to tender for external work, although external contractors could tender for our work. We could undertake work for external parties as long as it used "spare capacity". The only place that had such capacity was the paint line and a few trailers for M&S were done. However, these had to take second place behind buses and were costed under rules laid down for accident claim charges, ie included everything including the kitchen sink.

Despite the best efforts of the local management to get the work through faster and less expensively to encourage more customers, these efforts were thwarted at every turn by Chiswick, both CME and RS and deadlines were not met.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960 RMC 1458, RM 1585 and loads of RTs

From Ian's Bus Stop RM page.

RM1949 ALD949B 6/64 new to Aldenham: 2/5RM9, Leyland O.600
exterior o/s illuminated ad panel
7/64 H into service on 30
9/64 H into store
12/64 H ..and out
65-6 H
12/67 H to Aldenham repaint, and return
12/68 H into store
used on 11
from last bodyswap with B1944
9/84 AG w/d from service
6/85 bought by Dolphin International Displays (St Albans)
converted to open top, o/s exit
7/85 exported to USA: Los Angeles, California

My bus number (if any): RM967 (Driver & Restoration Consultant, bus owned by Tom Ireland)

Looks like the exit is on the wrong side then!

My bus number (if any): RTL 960 RMC 1458, RM 1585 and loads of RTs

Neil and Brian

With Chiswick closed and the only option for wiring harnesses being the expensive vehicle manufacturers I began manufacturing these at Stamford Brook accident centre. These were supplied to all cardinal garages. When I put forward a plan to expand to supply the whole of LT I was told "we are trying to make everything smaller so it can be sold, not expand it with mini works"

It appears to me that these places could have survived if run like a private company but the reality is the only way to get rid of the inherent systems that slowed production and increased costs was to shut them. Unfortunately that meant losing skills as there were few opportunities to move to local companies doing the same thing.

My business started within a few weeks of me leaving following a request from Fulwell stores for parts and I went on to supply most of LT from my garage based workshop.

RM1949. That entrance is perfect to have a wheel chair lift. Fully accesible RM's!

David

My bus number (if any): RML 2276 M1001 T806