Early Sunday morning I left home to catch the train to Central, and bus to Loftus (Track work meant no trains on the Illawarra Line). In the workshop where the painting was done the bus had been turned around the previous day after being moved to allow shunting of trams. The rear view is one I had not seen before. The gloss on that red is a treat to behold.
Rob Gregor the painter had come with his wife Pat and a friend with whom Rob been a NSW Railways coach painting apprentice 40 years ago, to see the painted bus emerge. Rob and I stand in front of our proud creation.
The finish on all panels is wonderful and a tribute to Rob's old-fashioned art of coach painting which can achieve a result akin to a spray job, but using a brush.
On Sunday 8th October I saw the finished bus outside in bright sunlight; it's better than I had ever hoped for.
Near the entrance to Sydney Tramway Museum, 1379 poses outside the facade of the YMCA Building from Pitt/Bathurst Streets City, beside a Sydney P Class tram of the 1920s. The two, in these colours, would have been seen together in Sydney streets throughout the 1930s and 40s. photo: Ian Kates
From Loftus up the Princes Highway to Tempe, and the Bus Museum, where two new tyres have to be fitted. For many years the bus has sat on four tyres instead of the normal six, so two old tyres came off the front wheels, to be replaced with new, and to be fitted to the rear so as to have two on each rear wheel.
The tyre fitting press at Tempe Bus Museum makes removing and fitting tyres a lot easier than bashing away by hand. Ian Mair generously gave his time to help with this job.
The tyres came from China (at $180 each, with tubes and rust bands): on one side they are branded "Double Star". On the other they carry a raft of Chinese characters, so trouble was taken to ensure that they were fitted to the rims with the English facing outwards, despite this being not exactly 1937 wording. However the story is that the moulds for these tyres are the original Olympic Trojan ones from Australia, sold to the Chinese, and therefore quite in character for tyres used on this bus during its life. Certainly the tread pattern is that of an Olympic Trojan tyre. Given the mileage this bus will do, they are ideal.
The tricky job begins of reversing off Bobbin Head Road down the drive into the workshop.
The run from Loftus has been a treat. The bus runs quietly, smoothly and at last I have got the hang of the gearchange, even to the point of doing it without the clutch, timing the change by the sound of the engine and allowing for road speed. The steering is light and precise, and the engine hums like a sewing machine, but being a Leyland 8.6 litre it has that wonderful howl at higher revs, produced by the gears driving the overhead camshaft. The only reason I am restoring this bus is to hear that sound again.
Back at Turramurra Works in Bobbin Head Road, after an absence of four weeks. Now to fit flooring, windows, seats, handrails, plated fittings and interior trims and interior lights.
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