Dominator 100 repanelled

Leicester Dominator 100 has returned to the workshop and a pause in its restoration whilst other projects progressed. The offside is now being repanelled and the restoration will depart from the original East Lancs specification, by using sealent to stop water ingress! Another major exercise though is the replacement of all glazing rubbers. The original design used standard claytonrite rubbers with mitred corners to fit the square-edged frames instead of the more typical radius corners. Unfortunately, as the rubbers shrank this gave rise to four points on every window where water ingress could occur!

A King Alfred discovery - Panther 419

King Alfred the Great is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England from the vikings. Now the picture shown could be mistaken for the carcass of one of the long boats that the invading vikings travelled in, but it is actually the skeleton roof structure of King Alfred Panther 419!

The roof framing of 419 was loose and the original Plaxton construction can, at best, be described as flimsy! We have stripped down the main longitudinal areas for renewal but, as part of the process, the structure will be improved upon.

Budapest Tour buses go blue

All three of the ex-Lothian open top Leyland Olympian buses acquired through Ensignbus have now been exported to Hungary for use on a new sightseeing tour in Budapest. The buses are former Lothian E303/304/335MSG, built in 1988.

The BusWorks has converted the buses for right-hand drive operation with additional door and door opening/closing warning devices required for passenger service in Hungary.

After their successful 1,000 mile road trip across Belguim, Germany and Austria, the buses have passed their certification in Hungary and the first two buses, E303MSG and E304MSG have been re-sprayed in the operator's blue livery and await vinyls for the Budapest tour.