Behind the Scenes with the London Bus Museum
10 April 2021
At the start of November our friends at the London Bus Museum closed their doors for a full refresh of the Museum. For this blog in the Behind the Scenes series we’re sharing the story of their refresh so far.
It started with herding the entire vehicle collection from their semi-permanent positions to either being corralled together in what was the “Modern Hall” or spend time outside on the Finishing Straight. With an empty space created the floor cleaning began. Not everything could be handled by the in-house bus cleaning department, so a couple of specialist machines were bought in for the floor and for access to the roof spars.
With the cleaning almost complete work could commence on repositioning and improving the shop area, including a provision of an insulated platform floor with underfloor heating. Beyond the shop, work continued in recreating an improved War Zone, a separate display area rather than a walk through, to enter being the choice of the visitor.
Upstairs the balcony was converted from artefact storage to a new area that could also be used for learning activities.
Milli Tant, the AEC Militant Recovery Vehicle of the Brooklands Recovery Engineering and Salvage Team was called in to help move the K-type chassis from its temporary home atop a sea container to the new position within the museum. The unique new display compares a basic bus chassis from 1920 to that of 1949.
Alongside the refresh the team has been busy planning activities and events for 2021. The season starts on Sunday 11th April when there will be a running day on this historic Route 65.
Throughout the day they will be running old buses running along the long historic route 65 between Ealing and Leatherhead. Trips on the historic route are free. More details about the day can be found here.
Watch the London Bus Museum refresh updates on YouTube
Milly Tant manoeuvring the K-type chassis.