The ‘Bus Inspectors’ project has been launched with an extraordinary mission – visiting museums and storage locations nationwide to grade every heritage bus and coach on historic significance. Its first podcast has been released. Nick Larkin reports
More than 10,000 buses and coaches are preserved in the UK, each with its own story. Although they have many different owners and are located across the country, they can be seen as a form of national collection. But what about their future?
Enter ‘The Bus Inspectors.’
The team was set up by the National Association of Road Transport Museums (NARTM) last month as ‘a group of transport lovers, experts and historians who are scouring the country’s museums and collections on a mission to give each of the
nation’s historic fleet a grading as to its significance.’
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Yes, every single one. The mammoth task includes identifying vehicles which together should be prioritised to survive long-term as a representative selection telling the story of public road transport.
The object is also to promote the joys of heritage vehicles by sharing stories and information about them and their place in transport and social history.
First to be assessed are the 6,000 preserved PCVs owned by museums, societies and other organisations which are members of NARTM. No small task, but it’s also planned to eventually cover vehicles outside of those confines, including privately-owned ones.
The project has released the first in a series of podcasts with contributions from, among others, NARTM president Lord Peter Hendy of Richmond Hill, Ray Bignell from the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust, and Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust Chairman Steven Booth.
Topics include the appeal of vintage buses to the general public as well as enthusiasts, and the future of the preservation movement with the need to recruit more younger people. The work of the Bus Inspectors and the usefulness of grading vehicles are covered and there are some wonderful bus reminiscences.
NICK LARKIN
It’s produced by David Sheppard, a professional broadcaster with more than 20 years’ experience as a BBC presenter as well as running a studio and communications business.
David has been a preservationist since the age of seven, is a lifetime trustee of the Thames Valley & Great Western Omnibus Trust and has a small fleet of 1960s Bristol vehicles from Western National and West Yorkshire Road Car as well as working with his dad on a Hants & Dorset Bristol FLF.
Appropriate bells and engine notes add atmosphere as David begins the podcast by saying:
‘This is not a bus. It’s a great big green and cream time machine. Even when there is no-one sitting on it it’s somehow still full of people from the past. The people who built it, the people who worked on it. The people who used it to go to work and the people whose lives worked because of it. It’s a piece of our kingdom, a part of the places it served – the places it’s helped to build.”
But he adds: “OK it is a bus but if you have been lucky enough to ride on one of the nation’s vintage buses or coaches you know they do quite literally transport you to another place and time.”
David also says: “It’s because of stories and personal connections that so many of UK’s buses and coaches have survived, because we want them to live on with but generations evolving, interests changing and growing competition for resources can preservation really mean forever?”
Lord Hendy comments: “Old buses are quite easy to acquire, which means there are quite a lot of them, and if it’s true that younger people are more interested in vehicles that they’ve seen on the road when they were young then this huge preponderance of vehicles built in the ‘40s, ‘50s ‘60s and perhaps ‘70s may not all have homes in the next 30 years.”
Getting Good Grades
The Bus Inspectors will use a scoring grading system to assess the historic significance of preserved buses. This had been long awaited, NARTM even having been encouraged by the Heritage Lottery Fund to come up with a scheme.
Grading is widely used in many parts of the UK heritage sector as a tool to recognise and protect important survivors – the listing of buildings is well-known but there are also schemes in the historic transport world, such as ships.
Ray Bignell of the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust has been involved with the NARTM scheme: “The primary reason is to identify the ones we want to survive in a healthy condition in the very long term – at least 50, 60, 70 years ahead, as a representative sample of vehicles that tell the story of the evolution of passenger road transport,” he says on the podcast.
The scoring system involves questions to assess different aspects of a vehicle’s design, operation and history. Its social and regional significance, age, rarity, unique aspects, authenticity and originality are all considered: how typical is the vehicle type? Is it a prototype?
There’s also ‘star quality,’ aspects of the vehicle which maybe of considerable public interest such as claims to fame, or an exceptional place in history.
Ray also comments: “You will often read about a church or civic structure granted money by the Heritage Lottery Fund because it needs restoration work. If it’s Grade 1 or Grade 2 listed it will a far better chance of getting that funding. That’s a very good analogy of what we are doing.”
Steven Booth, chairman of the Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust, says: “We have been fully engaged in the grading scheme, making proactive steps to assess what it is that we’ve got and to locate the things that are truly significant.”
He adds: “If I have some worries about the future it’s that we won’t be able to save everything. Before too long a lot of the people who had saved and cared for vehicles would not be able to look after them the way they had, or be no longer with us.”
Lord Hendy points out that all vehicles were cherished by their owners but working out which ones most deserving to be in collections in the future ‘is a really sensible thing to do.’
Podcast Information
To listen to episode one, ‘The Nation’s Historic Fleet,’ log on to thebusinspectors.com. It’s also available via platforms such as Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Podcasts.
Watch out for the second podcast, the date of which is still to be announced, in which subjects will include a tribute to pioneer preservationists; issues affecting preservation such as the need for accommodation, sourcing parts, the complexity of modern vehicles and the eventual problems of finding fuel are set to be discussed in the future.
Elephant in the room
The ‘elephant in the room’ is the lack of younger people joining the bus preservation movement, according to the podcast. Bus Inspector Paul Statham says “the biggest challenge is the fact that the majority of us who of are involved in preservation are probably 70-plus and getting older. We are not getting younger people coming in to take over – and when I say younger I mean under 50, but we need people even younger if it is to carry on forever.”
NARTM president Lord Hendy comments: “We know from the London Bus Museum and I think it’s true from bus preservation that younger people are interested but they want to get involved with things that they know. The vehicle parc is very firmly skewed to those vehicles which were remembered by people of my age, 70 and a bit older and a bit younger. They don’t necessarily appeal to really young people because they never experienced them.”
Ray Bignell of the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust says: “Overwhelmingly, for a lot of the groups the people who are keeping the show on the road are mainly in their 60s, 70s or even older. That’s isn’t to say there aren’t some younger people involved but the people who have the time and expertise to run an organisation tend to be at the higher end of the [age] spectrum.”
The podcast introduces listeners to Luke Williamson and his friends in North Devon, who have have just clubbed together to save their favourite bus, an East Lancs Lolyne-bodied Dennis Trident. “This vehicle is a 2000 model which makes it 24 years old this year. I’m 20, four years younger than the bus. These buses need to be preserved because they are what we are going to remember in 50 years’ time. When I’m 70-odd I’m going to look back on this vehicle hopefully and still see it driving around or least in a museum where it will be safe and go ‘I helped saved that’ and it will be something to be proud for the rest of my life.”
Comment
The Bus Inspectors have a major task ahead, but one that really could have a massive impact on the future of preservation. Grading will highlight any important vehicles, which could be useful in ensuring they are preserved, and help attract funding.
The aim of compiling a list of buses and coaches which together form a representative selection to cover road transport history is also not enviable as it’s not just the oldest and most rare vehicles that would be included. A significant more modern machine could score well on points.
Every preserved vehicle has its fans, and private owners/groups in particular will normally go for a bus or coach they either like or has significance to them rather than merely buying something to save for the good of the nation. It is emphasised that no-one is suggesting that vehicles gaining low marks in grading shouldn’t be preserved, thank goodness.
Some of the most popular vehicles such as the AEC Routemaster and Bedford OB survive in sizable numbers and command good prices. Many earn their keep as commercially-operated heritage vehicles. Any preserved bus or coach needs a person or people to provide accommodation and look after it; and no-one can really think that every one of the 10,000 vehicles currently in preservation, being joined by more each week, can survive, in the long term.
Let’s support the Bus Inspectors and the efforts to safeguard the most significant.
