Revell 1/24 AEC Routemaster concepts

[Mossie]

If you wanted to a heavy conversion the cutout cab could be useful.  Cut the back right down and you could do all sorts of things to it, TEL or missile transporter (I'm thinking of the AEC Mandator Blue Steel Transport here), SPG, any number of engineering conversions.

Something on these lines:

[Aircav]

Single decker open top, now that would be different.  

[Hobbes]

You could do one in Malta livery:

[McColm]

I had a thought on the way to work this morning, of removing the; engine and drivers position, removing the front wheels and converting the rest of the body into a trailer for my Peterbilt truck. I've seen the prices for 1/24 trailers and they are roughly the same price as the Routemaster kit.

[Mossie]

There's a local bus type that could modelled real world, the Beverley Bar Bus.  These were a number of bus types operated by East Yorkshire Motor Services and fitted with a specially pointed roof so they could fit (very snugly) through the North Bar (bar means gate in some parts of Yorkshire).  Now I always thought there was a Routemaster so converted, but a search on the net reveals it to be a Regent V.  I guess Martin could tell me if it's a simple conversion or not?

EYMS definately operated Routemasters some years later on the 56 service in the 80's and 90's.  I heard it was because they got hold of them so cheaply that it was econmical to run them with a clippy on board, certainly the 56 is no tourist route.  I was supposedly killed when an EU edict dictated that busses shouldn't carry conductors and nice new shiney buses in the old blue and cream livery replaced them.

One of my co-workers kept bugging me to buy it, and as an enticement, said I should put the "Spice Girls" in it.
I told him: "Don't be stupid! Nobody makes Spice Girls in 1/24 scale....Okay! I have Spice Girls figures in 1/24th, but I'm NOT putting them in it!"

I had totally forgotten I'd aquired those horrid figures years ago. I always planned to convert them into something less...skanky.



Alvis Pi

You could always do Cliff Richard if you wanted more credibility.....

[NARSES2]

Chop it proportionally to a single deck: have the roof where the  first floor used to be, and two narrow rows of windows. Bonus if you can put the body lower on the chassis as well.

The one the lads in the pub did was similar to that but about 1/2 way between a double decker and single decker. Use it for pub outings to the Derby etc.

EYMS definately operated Routemasters some years later on the 56 service in the 80's and 90's.  I heard it was because they got hold of them so cheaply that it was econmical to run them with a clippy on board, certainly the 56 is no tourist route.  I was supposedly killed when an EU edict dictated that busses shouldn't carry conductors and nice new shiney buses in the old blue and cream livery replaced them.

Didn't realise it was  EU ? I'm certain that there is still a heritage route in London (38 Victoria to Hackney ?) that still has conductors on an RM ? Always thought they got rid of them on a purely financial basis ?

One of my co-workers kept bugging me to buy it, and as an enticement, said I should put the "Spice Girls" in it.
I told him: "Don't be stupid! Nobody makes Spice Girls in 1/24 scale....Okay! I have Spice Girls figures in 1/24th, but I'm NOT putting them in it!"

I had totally forgotten I'd aquired those horrid figures years ago. I always planned to convert them into something less...skanky.



Alvis Pi

You could always do Cliff Richard if you wanted more credibility.....

Alvis may well have been spared that film coming from the other side of the pond 

[tigercat]

They missed a trick  in the film  they claim the bus will be tough as a tank, safe as a bank , pass as a hotel first class. Surely that means armour plating a  half track conversion  , gun turrets and chandeliers

Extract From Summer Holiday


4 Days to a holiday and we know before we're through,
our bus will be safer than any bank,
tough as an army tank.
We will check everywhere, though it's hard to get there.

3 Days to a holiday and those sunny skies of blue.
By the time that it leaves our shed,
our bus will be bright red
and we know that we will...
(...paint Pa-ree redder still!
Voilà!)

2 Days to a holiday, all of the inside to do,
so this old London bus can pass, as a hotel first class.
We'll make everything fit.
Including...(Ah, yes, that's it)

[Mossie]

Didn't realise it was  EU ? I'm certain that there is still a heritage route in London (38 Victoria to Hackney ?) that still has conductors on an RM ? Always thought they got rid of them on a purely financial basis ?

I'm going on memory, but that's what I was told at the time, although I was suprised at the time that such an edict would be passed.  It could be Chinese whispers, I would have thought it was more likely to be a company decission.

Here's some pics from the net of the Beverley Bar Bus:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59632097@N02/6003783566/
http://www.thewheel.karoo.net/images/Beverley%20Bar%20large.jpg

[Weaver]

My mum and dad used to work on the buses in Stockport (just south of Manchester) and the change from clippies to OMOs (One Man Operated) happened in the 1970s due to financial considerations (half the wage bill) without any involvement of the EU as far as I know.

The front-loading Routemaster could be entertaining: when Stockport switched from open back loaders to front loaders with doors, she had at least one guy jump off the kerb at the place where the platform should have been, only to hit the side with a thump and land on his bum in the gutter.... Other crews had similar experiences.

I once saw an extraordinary vehicle at a bike rally that gives me an idea for the Revell kit. It was an ex-Post Office Luton-Bedford van (that's a 7.5 ton van with an oversize body, for non-Brits), with the entire bodyshell of a VW Camper glass-fibered onto the top of it! (and yes, the camper's pop-up roof was up, for that essential extra space..... ). Now given that Revell have also got their 1/24th VW Camper in production, how about putting one on top of a Routemaster? You could call it the AEC Zigguratt.......

[Martin H]

Now I always thought there was a Routemaster so converted, but a search on the net reveals it to be a Regent V.  I guess Martin could tell me if it's a simple conversion or not?

The only thing the Regent V had in common with the Routemaster was the AEC badge above the radiator.

The AEC Regent family predate the Routemaster. The RM was the direct replacement for the AEC Regent based RT class that served London Transport from the Mid 1930's to well into the 1960's when the RM started to appear

The RM was/is what is known as an Intergral. It has no conventional chassis, the running gear was attached directly to the AEC built body work. Where as a Regent V would have a separate body from a third party, coach built onto the chassis. In some cases where the body work needed replacement, a brand new body would/could be built by another coach builder and fitted to the existing chassis. A practice that still happens.


I did a quick web search for your Bar Bus, and came up with a photo of a Leyland Titan PD2 with Roe built body work as an example.
                                       

[Rheged]

There's a local bus type that could modelled real world, the Beverley Bar Bus.  These were a number of bus types operated by East Yorkshire Motor Services and fitted with a specially pointed roof so they could fit (very snugly) through the North Bar (bar means gate in some parts of Yorkshire).

Mrs Rheged was born in those parts, and tells me that at least a couple  of the Beverley buses were branded as "Barmaster"  instead of Routemaster

[PR19_Kit]

The only thing the Regent V had in common with the Routemaster was the AEC badge above the radiator.

The AEC Regent family predate the Routemaster. The RM was the direct replacement for the AEC Regent based RT class that served London Transport from the Mid 1930's to well into the 1960's when the RM started to appear

The RM was/is what is known as an Intergral. It has no conventional chassis, the running gear was attached directly to the AEC built body work. Where as a Regent V would have a separate body from a third party, coach built onto the chassis. In some cases where the body work needed replacement, a brand new body would/could be built by another coach builder and fitted to the existing chassis. A practice that still happens.

We don't call him 'OGL' for nothing you know, our Martin H is a fount of all wisdom. 

Now that I've seen piccies I've realised I travelled on one of those pointy-roofed buses in York when I lived at RAF Topcliffe way back when. My brother and I would annexe the front seats just so we could shout and yell that it was about to hit the gate of course. 

[pyro-manic]

I reckon a Dawn of the Dead/The Gauntlet style version with armour and mesh over the windows etc. Chainsaws and ram spikes are an optional extra.

[Mossie]

My mum and dad used to work on the buses in Stockport (just south of Manchester) and the change from clippies to OMOs (One Man Operated) happened in the 1970s due to financial considerations (half the wage bill) without any involvement of the EU as far as I know.

It was well after that, all the buses I remember as a kid were front loaders.  A check on the net reveals the Routemaster were brought in in 1988 and retired in 2001.  Four were converted after this time as open top tour buses for use in Scarborough.  It was when they retired that I heard about the EU edict, probaby from a bus driver but I don't remember fully.

More here:
http://www.eyms.co.uk/content/enthusiasts/nostalgia.aspx

Now I always thought there was a Routemaster so converted, but a search on the net reveals it to be a Regent V.  I guess Martin could tell me if it's a simple conversion or not?

The only thing the Regent V had in common with the Routemaster was the AEC badge above the radiator.

The AEC Regent family predate the Routemaster. The RM was the direct replacement for the AEC Regent based RT class that served London Transport from the Mid 1930's to well into the 1960's when the RM started to appear

The RM was/is what is known as an Intergral. It has no conventional chassis, the running gear was attached directly to the AEC built body work. Where as a Regent V would have a separate body from a third party, coach built onto the chassis. In some cases where the body work needed replacement, a brand new body would/could be built by another coach builder and fitted to the existing chassis. A practice that still happens.


I did a quick web search for your Bar Bus, and came up with a photo of a Leyland Titan PD2 with Roe built body work as an example.
                                       

I thought you might say that!  I see what you mean, it's a similar process to Fire Engines.  I'll probably never even buy one, but I might like to have done the Beverley Bar Bus so I guess that's out, unless I whiff it! Still, there's quite a few options for a local Routemaster, the eighties red and white scheme, the retro blue and cream or a Scarborough open top.  It'd certainy be different to all the red London buses that will be done.

[Hobbes]

It was well after that, all the buses I remember as a kid were front loaders.  A check on the net reveals the Routemaster were brought in in 1988 and retired in 2001.  Four were converted after this time as open top tour buses for use in Scarborough.  It was when they retired that I heard about the EU edict, probaby from a bus driver but I don't remember fully.

could the EU regs have been about the open entrance instead?