After years on a scrap heap, 1960s Leicester Bridgemaster bus ‘217AJF’ returned to action at Abbey Pumping Station museum’s recent bus running day.
Passengers including the Lord Mayor and city mayor had rides on the AEC Bridgemaster, which has been restored by four members of the Leicester Transport Heritage Trust.
One of the four, Reading Transport CEO James Freeman, told CBW: “We heard on the grapevine that this old bus was on a scrap heap near Glasgow and some of us went up to take a look.
“We bought it in 1997 for a few hundred pounds and since then we’ve spent £130,000 of our own money paying for it to be put back together, and now it’s running and gleaming and even smells like it’s just come out of a showroom.”
James concluded: “People can’t quite believe it when they look at it.”
The Bridgemaster, named due its low height to fit under railway bridges, was one of 10 used in Leicester between 1961 and 1971.
