1957 double decker bus maintenance documentary

equalsql

As a kid growing up in Southampton in the 1960s I practically lived on the old double decker buses used by the city's corporation back then. My dad's best friend worked at the Portswood bus station as an engineer. He made some ashtrays from old pistons which he engraved for my parents wedding back in 1958.  Consequently, I have always loved them old red buses so was delghted to chance upon this great video with footage from 1957 that starts in black &white but then goes colour , showing how these great old beasts of transport were serviced. A true YouTube gem this is.

Any of you older fella who remember being able to just hop on those old buses might appreciate this.

Emp_Fab

Oh I’m gonna enjoy that tomorrow!  It’s a bit late tonight to start watching it now.  Thanks for that!

Chalky

Remember the tilt test on the old Routemasters. With a full top load and no load downstairs they had to tilt to 28 degrees without toppling, and typically they'd go to 30 degrees and still not topple.

boogieman

Can’t get the link to work? I press the play button and it just whites out. 

Emp_Fab

@equalsql ; That was great.  I loved that.  Took me right back to my childhood (almost... I was born around the later clips, but my mum and dad would certainly have experienced that).

Two things struck me....  have you noticed how old almost all of the workforce are ?  Almost everyone is over 50 I would say.  Very strange !!

Secondly, I dread to think what happened to the poor buggers spraying the buses day in, day out, with just that tiny particle filter mask on.  Inhaling solvents for 8 hours a day, five days a week is going to kill you eventually.

equalsql

Glad you enjoyed it @Emp_Fab.
I don't think they needed to worry about face masks in those days as everyone smoked so much their lungs where protected by a thick layer of nicotine and tar. 
(like the 'white' paint on the roof of the top deck of the bus they are servicing.. lol)

Fretwired

Fascinating .. started watching and watched the whole thing .. sad the works closed. Thanks for sharing.

scrumhalf

Thank you, that was brilliant.

The 8-year old me would have considered that as being close to porn.

koneguitarist

A friend of mine collects vintage double decker buses, will pass this on. 

boogieman

Emp_Fab said:

Two things struck me....  have you noticed how old almost all of the workforce are ?  Almost everyone is over 50 I would say.  Very strange. 

I think they’re probably not that old. People from that era just seem to look much older than they actually were, partly to do with the things they’re wearing I guess. Looking back at photos of my parents in the 1950s, they looked middle aged even when they were only in their late 20s. 

Nitefly

koneguitarist said:

A friend of mine collects vintage double decker buses, will pass this on. 

@koneguitarist - what, model ones or full-size?

TTony

Emp_Fab said:

Two things struck me....  have you noticed how old almost all of the workforce are ?  Almost everyone is over 50 I would say.  Very strange !!

Not strange if the country was not long out of a war that killed millions of 18-30 year olds.

Fretwired

TTony said:

Emp_Fab said:

Two things struck me....  have you noticed how old almost all of the workforce are ?  Almost everyone is over 50 I would say.  Very strange !!

Not strange if the country was not long out of a war that killed millions of 18-30 year olds.

The UK didn't lose millions of people in WW2. Military deaths were 384,000 and civilians about 67,000 - together they represented 0.95% of the population.

koneguitarist

Nitefly said:

koneguitarist said:

A friend of mine collects vintage double decker buses, will pass this on. 

@koneguitarist - what, model ones or full-size?

Full size real ones.