Hi Everyone,

Guess What? 2719 is back on the road!!! She went in for MOT on Thursday and apart from a couple of minors, she now boasts a brand new Class 5.

I had a deadline to finish her for Friday!! At 11pm on Thursday night we applied her final top coat and left her overnight to dry. I spent Friday cleaning her down and then drove her to house where her first passengers were waiting. As i pulled up the the house there was big cheers from everybody pleased to see her.

We arrived at the prom in style and she was by far the star of the show, towering over the limos. I felt very proud of our achievements and look forward to continue with the restoration.We have lots of work to do but even though 2719 is far from finished, she certainly created a lot of interest and turned a lot of heads.




Sorry about the size of the pictures, i will post more later

Cheers for now

Chris

This is such good newa............and indeed an amazing story !! Im sure that many people doubted that it would ever happen!! Congratulations and GOOD LUCK with future progress !!!!

A great achievement Chris - well done!! I'm sure your daughter was very proud of her Dad!!

Out of interest, could you tell us what paint you used please (once you've recovered from the exertion!) - was it sprayed or brushed and what type/colour code?

Nice pics chirs mate and nice birds as well

Brian

PERSONALLY & Frankly I find the very idea of such gorgeous and well dressed women on our forum far more exciting than paint , next time I see you I'll try to pursuade you of the merits of the difference .heee heeee

The lady in the BLUE DRESS simply does it for me, blonde is not the important part, but then the others are too small in the photos size to tell more.

Put me down for one please Mr Arnold >> NEXT TIME OUT I'LL CONDUCT for you on principal ...

me too chirs sir and bring the ladys

Thank you Gentlemen for your comments,
however being as one of the young ladies is my daughter, and they are all only sixteen, i think the conversation should end there.

The paint used is PPG and gun finish, application was two coats on top of etch primer, process used was wet on wet. This was just a quick fix to get colour on for the night and only the repaired and replaced panels painted. We now have the pain staking task of rubbing her down completely making sure that all imperfections removed, bearing in mind that alot of the parts were reclaimed from scrap buses and are not in pristine condition. Although getting her back together was an arduous task, i think the next step of attention to detail is the tricky part.

I guess the question is how far do you go and at what part of the rm's life do you try to recapture. Personally i would like to make 2719 look like she did when she rolled out of Park Royal, others i think would like her to look how she was just before she came out of service!

Your thoughts gentlemen please, i need to make a decision as i would like to have her ready to show at Duxford

Ta muchly

Chris

I was wondering where this thread was going regarding the girls in the picture?! The clue was Chris was getting it ready for his daughter's prom!!! Bloody brilliant.

Chris, amazing job on 2719. Bet you're pretty chuffed. Hopefully I'll be getting one soon and can't wait to start rennovating!

Karl

Firstly Chris, please allow me to add to the many comments already made complimenting you on the terrific job you have done with 2719 - she really is a credit to you.

As to how to present your bus - well, this is the old question again - what constitutes 'original?!

My own personal view and I would stress that this is very much a personal view, is this. Your vehicle currently carries body B2722, so to restore 2719 to how she looked when outshopped new from Park Royal would not strictly speaking be accurate, so why not compromise and show her how she looked when outshopped from her last Aldenham 'Body Swap' overhaul in 12/74 when she appeared with her current body? This would be the 'White Roundel' livery, with white fleetnames and cantrail band, traditional trafficator 'ears' etc., etc.

Are you planning on restoring her inside as well with tungsten lamps and traditional decor?

At the end of the day though Chris, she's YOUR bus - present her exactly how you want and pay no attention to the nit pickers and number crunchers!

I look forward to seeing 2719 at Duxford and to saying hello to you too.

Cheers
S

You beat me to it Steve! White roundel wins everytime with me nowadays. I do believe i am seeing more and more painted in this livery too rather than the colours when first built. There is of course the route branded ones like the KentishBus 19's, or the 15's with the yellow roof for example or perhaps howabout the BTS colours on the 13's this RML would have actually carried or even Arriva colours the list is neverending i guess..
Still Happy (aka Mark)

The biggest problem everyone of us faces now as opposed to yesterday is simply that as hours tick by more and more 'stuff ' will be taken from scrappers and infact much of the what you'll need is no longer available other than from those WHO HAVE FOR YEARS BEEN HOARDING !!!! and will NEVER ACTUALLY USE IT won't even admit to having any it anyway

You must therefore decide on just what you can do with whats readily available to the level YOU are finally pleased with and to hell with what the purists want as its your bus.

Tungsten lighting --- some folk have the parts but generally there is nothing left anywhere to do a complete bus other than FROM GENEROUS OWNERS who might help you get enough to do the whole bus maybe not.

TARTAN MOQUETTE .... AVAILABLE BY THE ROLL in length of 25 metres x 50 inch wide per rolls delivered to your door. Seat squabs OR boards are easy to remake or repair if req'd.

ALL Paint colours are all available , many repair parts for such items as windows are available FROM OTHER MEMBERS == hoarders !!

Mechanical parts are available EXCEPT certain items which when and if needed will identify themselves.

Some items depending on what you want just do not exist, many on the other hand can be remade / fabricated / timber used is generally ASH for underside of platform edge -- class 6 failure IF in poor condition and the tester should observe this part as it quite an important safety item -- Floor covering from TIFLEX is available direct from them , Glass is available OR better still get your own cut from pattern and toughened , various RUBBER EXTRUSIONS ARE AVAILABLE from RM ASSOC' ....

so Chris you'll see much is out there the rest is your choice and decision where you go , and finally I just happened to think the lady in the gorgeous blue dress was very ladylike in appearance ... nothing wrong with that and nothing else intended.

Ha Ha, Don't worry Alan, no offense intended or taken. Thanks again for the info, i think i will do some research into what she would have looked like when she rolled out of Park Royal and see what i come up with. I know she is my bus and my taste is my choice, but i believe that being gien a second chance as it were, it would only be right to do her proud

If anyone has some early pics or info, i would appreciate it

Cheers

Chris

What a superb job Chris, congratulations to all involved.

The bottom line is it's your bus and if you are providing the cash to bring her back to life then it's what livery you would be happiest with on you pride and joy!

A quick search of fotopic brings up the following photos of your bus:

1986 in Aldwych, (my favourite livery)
http://busesaroundlondon.fotopic.net/p45506229.html

Rear view from 1983
http://busesaroundlondon.fotopic.net/p38989150.html

Sovereign livery from 2006
http://jimmysroutemasterpage.fotopic.net/p35611300.html

final Arriva livery
http://stevemaskell.fotopic.net/p47892834.html

There also some nice illustrations of RML liveries at Ians Bus Stop:
http://www.countrybus.org/RML/RML.html#top
http://www.countrybus.org/RML/RML2.html#top

Hope this helps

Gary




visit www.bestbusintown.org for updates on our preserved buses, including RM910.

If you're going for the ex-Park Royal look, then 2719 would have had gold fleet numbers, gold underlined 'London Transport' fleetnames and the Flake Grey cantrail band. A nice livery in my opinion and the one I remember most as a young lad.

As you say, do some research and see what you think - there will be plenty of help/opinion on here to guide you!

Cheers
Steve

well do chirs to her mate i hope you pic one of the liverys in pics to do her in i like the arriva and the bts on her

Whilst thinking about what livery to finish 2719 in, i suppose i ought to turn my thoughts to the standard graphics and their positioning. Does anyone have a diagram showing where the gold London Transport lettering etc goes? Also all the fonts used in various other places? i would like to have her looking the nuts on the outside at least for Duxford!

Thank you

Chris

Hi,Congratulations Chris on getting 2719 back on the road after all your hard work.
I'm also a fan of the roundel livery that Gary favours from the mid 70's onwards(That's from my number crunching days during the 80's). It was clean,simple & suited the routemasters very well.
Steve is also right in that the flake grey livery was very pleasing on the eye as was the gold with underlined fleetname. My personal opinion is that there are now almost to many in the gold livery & hopefully the white roundel may start appearing in some numbers soon. No offence meant to the owners of the gold liveried vehicles as they're all well finished & make a good sight where ever they appear but there are a lot of them !
You could paint yours like this as it would be a good representation of how she looked during her stagecoach/arriva days & if you didn't put any fleetname on her you would then have the best of both worlds ? A good representation to MOST people of the 1960's & 70's routemaster & you also have a very good example of one of the refurbs ?
It's totally YOUR choice & what ever YOU are happy with not the synics out there as it's Your bus not theirs.