A Crosville Lodekka arrives

Crosville Motor Services' owned Lodekka SRU981 arrived at the BusWorks today for interior refurbishing and a partial repanel, plus full repaint. Built in 1956 for the Hants & Dorset fleet, the vehicle has had several owners since 1997 and at some point the original interior was stripped out and replaced with soft trim.

Although more commonly associated with North Wales and Cheshire operations, the name Crosville is now used by a family owned private hire business in Weston-Super-Mare and SRU981 is amongst their classic bus operating fleet.

UCOC Lodekka 651 gets painted

Painting of United Counties Lodekka 651 back into Tilling Green & Cream has now started, completing the Busworks' work programme for the restoration of this vehicle to operating condition. During its time at the BusWorks, 651 has had its rear axle area completely rebuilt to remedy severe corrosion of the subframe and has had timbers replaced prior to repanelling. All glass and window rubber is new, whilst the interior has been restored including specially commissioned green treadmaster.

Upon the completion of painting 651's owners, the Rushden HTS group will complete the engine, gearbox and electrical work required to complete the vehicle's restoration to an operating condition.

FOKAB 419 - roof reframed

FOKAB Panther 419's roof has now been reframed following the arrival of the kit of parts from our specialist joinery contractors. Our newly recruited joiner assembled the parts and shaped all the joints last week, with the result that the body frame of 419 is no much more robust. The next step is to repanel the roof and reassemble the interior panelling and light fittings.

BusWorks gets the Message

Isn't it just typical - you wait ages and then three come at once! We now have three 3-axle buses at the Busworks as the two Big Bus Olympians are joined by an ex-Stagecoach Dennis Dragon, M680TDB.
The Busworks has won a £75,000 contract with the Message Trust, an award-winning Christian organisation working to improve the lives of young people in deprived areas of Greater Manchester. Over the next few months, the bus will be converted to include computer, games and wifi terminals, beauty boutique, recording studio and a state of the art "limo lounge" and counselling area. The BusWorks was chosen after other competitors were eliminated from the bidding process. Two additional jobs have been created at the BusWorks to deliver this project, both of whom have significant experience in bus conversion work.

Big Bus Olympians arrive for conversion

The first two tri-axle Olympians have arrived at the BusWorks this week for conversion work prior to export. They are part of a batch of former Hong Kong 12-metre Olympians recently withdrawn from London service in advance of higher emission standards in the London Low Emission Zone. As part of the preparation work, the BusWorks will move the centre door to the offside, reduce the overall height to 4 metres and respray the buses. E338NUV and F90SYE made the journey north to Blackpool on 11 October. Though now 24 years old, both buses are in excellent condition, having been well looked after by Big Bus Tours.

The summer fruits of Busworks...

One of the rewards of running the challenging business of bus restoration is seeing the 'fruits of our labour' at events and running days throughout the country, particularly during the summer months. With 150+ projects now completed, the chances of bumping into these buses again is obviously quite high, but two noteworthy projects spotted recently are the Eastern Counties RE864 and London Country Routemaster RML2456.

864 was exhibited at Showbus where it has been described as "one of the stars of the show...it positively sparkled" whereas RML2456 in NBC green was busy carrying passengers at the recent Amersham running day.