Leyland PD3 double-decker bus TBC163 was registered and entered service in Leicester in 1958, staying in service until 1974. After some time out of use it became a driver-training vehicle until in 1981 it was sold and partly converted to a children’s Playbus but never used. By 1991 it was free to anyone who would restore it and the Leicester Transport Heritage Trust brought it back to Leicester.
It was in a bit of a state to say the least, with rotten bulkheads, most handrails and poles missing or bent, no seats, fluorescent lights cut into the ceiling coving panels, no floor coving, a hole in the upstairs floor above the engine bay to accommodate a slide, missing glazing and a hole in the nearside bodywork where a cupboard had been created to house gas bottles as part of the unfinished play bus conversion. On the plus side it had an aluminium framed body that was otherwise in good condition. This is what saved the bus.
Stripping off paint and lower panels was the easy part. Repairing the damage to the roof where strip lights had been installed was not.
But these were not the only modifications; as a driver-training vehicle it had had the bulkhead behind the driver removed and this complex glass panel had been lost. Fortunately a panel was located from a donor vehicle and this allowed the team to recreate the bulkhead.
Mechanically the vehicle was sound, with only re-commissioning required. The interior was another matter: no seats, hand rails or floor coverings. Hand rails were made, painting completed, windows made to work and refitted with new rubber.
Neither did it have any interior lighting, bell or bell pushes. Suitable replacements were found in the Trust’s stores.
Seats should have been easy surely? But who knew that in 1968 when the maximum permitted width of a bus increased from 8 feet to 8 feet 2.5 inches, that the width of seats changed from 34 inch 35inch! TBC 163 needed 34” and they were not easy to find.
Covering the 34 inch seats was a further challenge: leather was too expensive and the vinyl later used by Leicester City Transport was now out of production. 50 metres of something close was ordered which the trimmer installed in three weeks.
Metal floor strips needed de-rusting, cutting to size, priming, undercoating, top coating, drilling and countersinking before they could be fitted. Over 1,500 holes were drilled before small screws were used to fix them in place, each screw screwed in by hand.
By the time of the successful MOT test 26 years had elapsed.
Of the original members of the TBC163 group most have had to stand down, though new members have joined. Of that whole group of 10, the only two who have been there from beginning to end are our Lifetime Achievement Award winners today Karl Tecklenberg and Martin Southam.