How I wish I could say that the following pictures are from a new super-store called `Routemasters Are Us` that has everything a preservationist might need!

Dream on.......

Aldenham Works 9 Oct 1983.

oh memories ........... thanks Neil for some superb photos.

And how ironic is it that all three of the Routemaster fleet numbers in the last photo all survive some 34 years later !

My bus number (if any): RM1368

Plain to see that the weak point of the bonnet is on the angle above the flap.

Wow that brings back memories Neil!!
The bonnets and grilles came in from the garages and from the dismount to a Control Store where items were put into "economical batches" for repair. They were then taken to 442 Shop (Parts Reconditioning) and were stripped down. Most of the men in this shop could not work in the High Bay due to restricted movement caused by illness or skin conditions. So there was little heavy work.

All parts being marked as A to be removed for access or X scrap, as can be seen in Neil's 3rd picture down on the RM rear Frame. However at Aldenham, "scrap" didn't mean scrap! It meant "for reconditioning", something my Foreman explained to me on my first day of actual production work when I screwed up a metal frame and chucked it in the bin ! :)

The stripped bonnets and grilles went away to an external contractor when I was there, but I believe at a later date a GRP shop was set up at Aldenham.

Repaired bonnets and grille frames, locks, cables, hinges, mesh grilles, badges timber parts etc etc were kept in the shop stores and the same number of bonnets and grilles as came in were rebuilt from the salvaged parts plus new/reconditioned parts from the stores.
When finished the items were inspected and went into the main stores for issue to garages or the Works. Those to the Works for overhauled buses went through the paint line on specially constructed trailers as if they were a bus.
442 shop also did RM N/S wings, cab doors, rear frames, staircases, platforms, drivers seat assemblies and much more. All these items being repaired in a similar way to that described for the bonnets and grilles. Although damaged cab door frames were irreparable and 100% really scrapped :)

The other picture is in the pre-repair control stores for the adjoining Chairs & Rails Shop. I worked there for a short while, here apart from hand rails, seat frame and drop light window repairs, battery crates were refurbished as well as inserts being put into new RM pillars. Not the most interesting job at Aldenham and one the apprentice normally ended up with.

Happy to answer questions about the topic if you want to know more...

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

Fascinating!!! ... but what a fantasy - a superstore full of all the Routemaster parts you could ever possibly want ............wow..........!!!! "Dream on" indeed, what a dream... Thanks for great pictures and background story Neil and Brian!

My bus number (if any): RML2302

Brian (as in Brian W - Brian J appeared as I was typing this!!!)

I think it would be really helpful if you could add the explanation / info to many of the other pictures that I took at Aldenham during the course of many visits. I have probably around two hundred pictures taken all over the inside of the site. Not just the obvious buses on Paint Line / Licensing Garage / High Bays / Accident Shop but pictures from places where buses didn`t go. Acid baths, stove enamelling, seats, screens for printing blinds etc. All are relevant to Routemaster processes.

Was the Stove Enamel section also the Bonderising section as a shared space or were these two separate shops?

But I`ve only had a few of this vast stash digitalised so far. It would take ages to get them all done but if that ever happened I would have, as was the intention when I took them, a complete set of pictures of every part of the overhaul process from point of entry for seat removal / panel marking up to Licensing Garage release but with all the shops / sections shown too that worked on parts rather than on an actual vehicle.

I probably have a similar number of pictures taken outside too. Awaiting a visit to the Accident Shop, the Vic Berry cutting up of one hundred RM`s, and much more. But getting that lot digitalised is too time consuming to do anytime soon........

Happy to Neil, time permitting ! Although I worked there off and on for 13 years and did the guided Tours for schools and groups in mid 70s there were areas that still remained a mystery to me!
For the tours we mainly followed a bus around.
As far as I know the bonderising was the application of primer to metal parts, this was in the same area as the stove enamel , but obviously separate processes. Some small parts were dipped and air dried, others spayed with primer, these went through mini ovens, as did the final colour stoved items of course. I left Aldenham at the start of 1978, only to go back regularly in my auditing jobs, much had changed by 1986.

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

Brian

`Guided tours for schools in the 1970`s` WHAT???? How did I miss that opportunity? I went to school barely ten miles from Aldenham. That would have been a dream visit for me. Not sure about my class mates though. What was the visit criteria or protocol for being granted a visit?

In the other form within my year there was a lad whose surname I envied - Leyland - and his dad worked at Aldenham! You would no doubt know Len who I eventually met years later as I think he had something to do with the `overhaul` of RM 1.

As far as I know you applied to 55 Broadway or the Works Manager for visits Neil. The Tours were normally on Wednesday afternoons, the students who came were 15+ and also we had groups from Technical colleges. I did most of the visits from 1975 to 1978. Trouble was as I had worked in the High Bay and everybody knew me, as soon as I walked in the Shop a gentle chorus of "he knows all about it ! He knows all about it," could be heard arising from the buses from certain of my "mates" :)

Yes I knew Len Leyland, he was a good friend and colleague for quite a while at Aldenham and later at Chiswick as he became the Apprentice Supervisor, which may explain his involvement in RM 1. I worked on his gang during my apprenticeship, he was on RMs/RMCs. It was like most of the gangs very friendly and supportive of one another and we all helped each other out.
Len features in the "Overhaul" film, a very young Len is the one taking a panel off an RT in the body shop scenes.

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

Looks like the bones for another Capital transport or Haynes Manual for the iconic and unique Aldenham Overhaul Works here while the opportunity is available - not sure what the readership take up would be though - certainly be very interesting for us - over to you Andrew ?

My bus number (if any): RML2747

It's funny looking at all those grilles. I had the task of fixing a few at HL and stripping them down was easy but took a while. Getting the few bits to repair took and age and we often robbed AEC for bits and often did a straight swap.

Although these were supposed to be sent to Aldenham, we were often left without a replacement or enough spare ones to have as a float. That meant a bus being off the road for too long. More got damaged by shunts in the depot than out on the road!

So we did the easy fixes in the coach painters space. But looking at those Aldenham ones they are primed in Chiswick Pink but already fitted with full time and a badge. When I stripped them down, they were all red under the trim but no sign of any primer or over paint.

One time we had a lad arrive at the depot who had a grille off an RM in his car. RML grilles don't have a number plate so there's no easy identification.
It had fallen of a service bus and the driver carried on. He stopped and picked it up but was not able to catch up with the bus so brought it to the nearest depot he knew.
We dutifully took it and thanked him. And it became a very welcome float spare. Turned out it had come off a bus from Shepherds Bush who ended up waiting a week for a replacement. We kept schtum!

So sorry passengers on the 88 for reducing your service but an sure your fellow passengers on the 207 appreciated it!

That isn't Chiswick Pink Jack, that is the base colour of the GRP!
There was never a shortage of grilles for garages, I suspect Hanwell's problem lay closer to home with a District Storekeeper who was lazy and had no idea what he was there to provide parts and order them for the District. Even his own garage staff broke into the Stores as he wouldn't provide a counter service while he was having his tea break!

The reason why you couldn't get piece parts for grilles was they were issued, like rear frames and staircases as a maintenance item ie complete and ready for fitting and painting to save garages time. The lack of coach parts was in many cases down to Foremen not sending in reqs and District storekeepers not processing them!

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

Wonderfull,great pics,thanks for sharing,must have been loads of usefull parts skipped when Aldenham closed,parts people now are paying a fortune for,what a difference a few years make!

My bus number (if any): RML2551

I'm not naming names but you've hit the nail directly on the head Brian. That was a big problem. But the union was used as a huge front for skiving that would be unimaginable today, the most trivial issue would bring a work to rule or a go slow. Even with some of the stuff currently going on, at least there are real issues this time.

We lived in nearby Borehamwood and I went on a school trip around Aldenham when I was fifteen. That was in 1966 and all these years later the place still holds a fascination for me. I watched it get pulled down in 1996, a sad time but I did recover the two signs from the front and sides of the building together with the enormous bullseye signs. The front one is in the LT Museum at Acton, the side one is at Cobham.

My bus number (if any): RM 912

I had cause to be in the area about five weeks ago so I called in to `Aldenham`. The access into the Business Park that now occupies the site isn`t on the alignment of the original way in off Elstree Hill. I would guess that the new way in cuts across the Staff Bus parking area as was and also through the site of the canteen. Thereafter, to drive through the Business Park (which was pretty much devoid of people and activity on a Saturday afternoon) there was nothing to remind me of how the place once was. I half expected that the main road through the site might be on the alignment of the former southern perimeter road - but it isn`t. I think it actually runs through what would have been the middle of the building. The northern perimeter road doesn`t exist either but the fence and woodland beyond it is still recognisable.

The course of the old entry / exit road can be discerned by looking at the pylons and power lines which ran almost over the security building situated along the approach road. I think it was to do with the open day in 1983 that I once had cause to arrive at Aldenham at dusk. The power lines were glowing orange and making a loud humming noise. The security guys said they really didn`t like being so close to them. I wasn`t keen on it either but I didn`t have to be there for more than a couple of minutes!