1910 B type London Bus

[Philip]

The B type London omnibus first picked up and dropped off farepaying passengers on 18th October 1910. The buses proved to be a success, and so a total of 2,900 of them were eventualy built. The last was withdrawn from regular service on 12th October 1926. Over a thousand of them were used as troop carriers during WWI. In public use the external seats were supplied with individual tarpaulin covers in the event of rain. Alas, the driver had no such luxury as their ability to see around them and indicate turns was considered more important than mollycoddling them in a windowed cab. C'est la vie. The fenders between the front and back wheels were fitted after a rise in the number of accidents involving the rear wheels and were designed to prevent folks from falling under said wheels. The slatted design was chosen so that if some poor soul were to be entangled underneath it could be cut through in a timely manner.

There have already been some examples of old London buses shown on the forum, including Alan G's excellent example, but as far as I can make out this one has not featured before. It was published by Time Travellers, Clwyd, Wales, a long time ago. Scale is 1/20 and the model is 36cm long. The parts are mostly die-cut. Building was like the curate's egg. Part placement was somewhat fanciful for some parts and downright impossible for a couple of others: the stair assembly, for example, needed quite a bit of filling and painting because of this. Or it may be me. But I'm glad it's done 'cos it's a colourful beast and always seems interesting to look at.

Some pictures of "Old Bill" at the Imperial War Museum, London: AEC B Type Bus (B43 Old Bill) | Imperial War Museums

[Michael Mash]

Colourful beast indeed . . . and splendid work!
What a pleasure. And you provided excellent photos from all angles.
Mike

[Tapcho]

Such a fine model Philip. The kit offers a good presentation of the real thing and tops it with very appetizing graphics. Good work. Hope you don't mind me adding a picture of the cover of the kit - multiple somersaults in time reaching the present days by you.

Tappi

[Tim Crowe]

An impressive model

Copies turn up on eBay from time to time

Tim

[MacSongLi]

Very unique. You did a great job.

Gary

[Vermin_King]

Outstanding work, sir. Thanks for sharing

[Tom Lapinski]

Excellent build!

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And hi, Philip. Well done on your Edwardian era bus. With the upper deck resting on a handful of slender window frames it brings to mind the old phrase, “No visible means of support.” The seven spoked artillery wheels at the front are new to me, too. I believe I remember this model from my earliest days of paper modeling in the mid-1980s. Good, clean build.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[whulsey]

Nice work.

[AlanG]

First, congratulations Philip on a lovely model. Had I been aware of this and been able to get a copy I might well never have gone ahead with my own design. It looks pretty well proportioned and as others have said very colourful. I am not surprised that you had trouble with the stairs. They are very tricky both to design and construct, being a complex shape and supported only at the ends. You seem to have coped well though.

Originally Posted by Thumb Dog

The seven spoked artillery wheels at the front are new to me, too.

There seems to have been some variation in the design of the front wheels. Pre-war batches had 8-spoke wheels which look as though they could have been made from steel sheet with stiffeners welded on transversely, though they might have been cast that way. Later batches had cast artillery wheels with rectangular cross-section spokes, in both 8-spoke and 7-spoke versions. It seems as though these were interchangeable, as there is a photograph in the London Transport Museum collection which shows B5015 in 1927 with seven spokes on the driver's side and eight on the left! Rather oddly, the restored B340 in the London Transport Museum has the same arrangement.