When England was English. This is how we like our country. Fantastic upload.

These types of jobs kept the youth busy and taught them valuable skills , instead of running around the street aimlessly!

@ChangesOneTim

2 жыл бұрын

They ran around aimlessly as well...in their spare time!

This was an era where public safety was considered above private profit. I worked for a coach company and we did the same thing except removing bodies. If it was removable, it was removed. Even road springs were stripped down. Proper maintenance, not the quick oil change and through it out as happens these days.

Thanks for archiving all these vintage documentaries, Joanne - it's a real joy to watch these films.

@windbag45

Жыл бұрын

It's a pleasure

I world have loved to have lived in London during that era. I love everything about it.

@dereksbuilds8289

Жыл бұрын

Yes it was special,

@stevedickson5853

3 ай бұрын

Changed a bit these days..

I was a coach and bus builder for 40 years. The Route Master was a fantastic bus design for a city like London. Todays (BORIS BUS) in my view is horrible and if you look at the bus from the front and imagine a face it looks like it has suffered a stroke. The RM should of been replaced with the same design with a new engine Londoners loved them. I understand the new RM cost £350,000 per unit from Wrights the ALEXANDER DENNIS ENVIRO DOUBLE DECKER WAS FAR FAR CHEAPER AND LOOKED BETTER. When I visit London I love to see the old RMs on heritage routes not many left now but some are in transport museums thank god.

@windbag45

3 жыл бұрын

Three words really, Wheelchairs, Buggies and disabled. The routemaster couldn't really deal with that so had to go in the end, sad though that be

@TheMusicalElitist

2 жыл бұрын

@@windbag45 Yes, heaven forbid we make vehicles more accessible...

@edward002gaming

Жыл бұрын

Yest but the regent type

@danwoodhouse9290

Жыл бұрын

One thing that was wrong was branding it as "New Routemaster" When in reality it had nothing to do with the proper Routemaster.

@srfurley

7 күн бұрын

@@danwoodhouse9290 Totally agree. I am no fan of the New Bus for London. I will however say one thing in its favour, they are being kept in very good condition, inside and out. They still look almost like new, and the first ones were introduced before the Olympics so they must now be approaching the end of their 14 year intended lifespan.

Another majestic British Transport film

Was an apprentice welder at Aldenham made redundant in 1985 thanks Maggie. A fantastic place to work, the good old days.

@mannythelimodriver6003

Ай бұрын

Why thanks to a Aggie? To young to know

I remember it all too well with those wonderful RT’s both green and red, all gone to pot, if only they could have remained on the road in 2020.

@leytonexile

4 жыл бұрын

Epping Ongar Railway operate RT type buses on their 339 service from Epping Station to Shenfield Station. Weekends from Easter to October. (Coronavirus permitting!)

I never really tire of seeing this video...

Aldenham really was world class when it came to the Routemaster depot 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

@jamesfrench7299

Жыл бұрын

Not many Routemasters yet. These are their simpler predecessor the RT(L).

What an amazing place and time to have lived

The scale and capability of these engineering workshops is mind-blowing what a fascinating piece of film, many thanks for posting ....

I remember watching this film among others when they were used as Colour TV trade test films when I was young.

Makes me wish I could have been around back then. Had to be better than now.

@TheMusicalElitist

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, and here you are replying on your computer at home. Something that hadn't been invented yet. What makes me laugh about you boomers is that you hark back to a "simpler time", all the while not understanding the irony that you're sharing your opinion (pointless opinion at that), on a digital platform.

@Thecrazyvaclav

2 жыл бұрын

Yea the smog, cold non central heated houses, warm beer, poor wages, must have been great

@stevedickson5853

3 ай бұрын

Look at London now..horrid place, will never be the same again, and wear a stab vest when visiting and hope you don't get mugged by our new third world visitors.

Fantastic film showing the 1950's in colour as most footage from that era is only black & white.

Amazing logistics organisation bringing all those components together at the end

Why does everyone think these are Routemasters? Every single one is an RT (Regent). The film was made in 1957. The Routemaster dates from 1959.

Brilliant film, I’d loved to have seen Aldenham working. Thanks for sharing.

Impressive maintenance procedure, I was born this year in 57, at UCH .Great piece of film,enjoyed the whole thing,

Really enjoy,d this ,i started as an Engine boy apprentice,at Upton park Garage 1970 ,transferred into the Stores Dept,and then into Chiswick works on progress chasing,returned to the garage,s on the Float,eventually back to where I began at U,and then ,spent the the last years off Service,on decommissioning, U, WH,T L,RD,AP .then took Severence,shame it's all gone now,also spent time on the introduction off the Pilot fleet off Dms,SMS fleet also, visited Alderman on Progress work, "the good old Days".

@windbag45

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it.

Fantastic film for a fan of transports and history, advanced concept at Aldenham Works, and a víctim of thatcherism I suspect....

@ChangesOneTim

2 жыл бұрын

Same was done to the railway. Despite the obvious efficiency of modular replacement using standardised parts across much of British Rail's fleet, the Thatcher government turned public opinion against inefficient, lazy, nationalised monopolies that ran old, dirty, smoky and unreliable transport operated and maintained by heavily-unionised workers who hated any change, wasting taxpayers' money by going on strike every five minutes....

Excellent film. Such dedication, attention to detail, and professionalism. Most of the technicians in this film are part of the wartime generation and their dedication is clear. It is also interesting to see the public of London; all pre immigration, all British, all going to work. Sadly none of this remains; buses are boring boxes like any other bus and half the babies born in London are to mothers who were not born in the UK. All in the last 50 years.

@Eddiecurrent2000

4 жыл бұрын

Change the record. Xenophobic halfwit. There were thousands of immigrants behind the rebuilding of the UK.

@yup.4901

3 жыл бұрын

@@Eddiecurrent2000 Simp

@GeorgeSmith1066

3 жыл бұрын

I agreed with you until the part where you started banging on about immigration. Sad.

@yup.4901

3 жыл бұрын

@@GeorgeSmith1066 Someone's got an internet bride 🤣🤣

@steveluckhurst2350

2 жыл бұрын

Wow, how quickly a film about buses stirred up all the bigots! Surprised not to see the word "indigenous" thrown around.

Tyburn Road in Birmingham did exactly the same hi quality work

These Buses are Legend now...

No doubt about the London Buses each a work of art of practicality and good engineering

Superb! This was highly interesting!

Execelent!! Vídeo! Fantastic I Love Bus!!!! Joanne this vídeo is a present! Thanks !!! Thanks!

Good luck getting this level of service in our present times. Too costly I would think. Back then employing folks wasn't in crime to be punished by the market forces.🤔🤔

Love this.

Craftsmen everywhere

love watching programs about Aldenham

3:02 "Now like a shotgun cartridge going into the breach, the bus moves towards disintegration". Poetry!

Well put together video love the RTs

I worked at both Chiswick and Aldenham bus works sometimes you could sit on the buses when doing the tilt test and skid test Fun times with little health and safety Also remember working with a couple of guys that were extras in the Summer Holiday movie

Brilliant!

Thanks for posting 👍

Amazing, what an operation. Surely the envy of the world at the time, one bus out every hour. Very interesting this, I wonder how many people were employed by London Transport at its peak?

@decentman3181

2 жыл бұрын

London Transport was the envy of the world. Now, thanks to its destruction and dismemberment by Thatcherism, what is left doesn't even rate any more.

Vary impressive, I wonder if they still do that for the Buses, if they have that factory still and how much did they get paid back then. I feel like this is a good system, it creates jobs, and keeps public transport operational. Any Brits in here, I would appreciate some Insite. Thank you.

@windbag45

14 сағат бұрын

Unfortunately the whole industry has been privatised and buses are not as well looked after as they once were. Once privatised the only concern for any company is profit

The good olds day - when Great Briton was GREAT !

Fantastic

No computers and it worked very well

I wish we had these in America

@jamesfrench7299

Жыл бұрын

If you guys hadn't opted for independence, you may have. Instead you became a country of GMs (for many decades).

@srfurley

7 күн бұрын

There are a few Routemasters that were taken to America. I am amazed that they are allowed to operate there, with an open platform on the ‘wrong’ side of the bus. They are used as a sort of British novelty, not for normal service.

Good old days

One of the three pillars of London buses now history. Aldenham, Chiswick and AEC Southall.

@ChangesOneTim

2 жыл бұрын

The AEC works also overhauled the underfloor engines that powered some of British Rail's once vast fleet of diesel multiple units (DMUs) built in the late 1950s/ early 1960s. They were essentially a 150hp horizontal version of AEC's bus engines. It wasn't by accident that BR built a DMU depot at Southall; engines could almost be 'swung over the fence' to/from AEC next door.

@jamesfrench7299

2 жыл бұрын

Oh gosh, I recall seeing pictures of railway lines going to the works. It was appalling their main rival bought them. It should have been prevented on national interest grounds. Joint ventures only, like the road train. Kept autonomous otherwise.

@jamesfrench7299

Жыл бұрын

@@ChangesOneTim did they overhaul other engines as well as their own?

@ChangesOneTim

Жыл бұрын

@@jamesfrench7299 IDK for sure, but it's possible that B.U.T. derivatives were

Very intéressant document

Good grief the future looks brilliant doesn't it.

This overhaul shop was highly organised I see brilliant I think and plenty of jobs for people is this similar to to day 2022

Muito legal 👏👏👏😃

Perfect! That's how it was done back in 50's. That's how it should be done today 2024. Things were made to last. Single use culture was unheard thing. In this respect things have not gotten better.

imagine all of this hard work just to be gone because most of them is scrapped

These are 👍

That's cool men

Where have all these skills gone ?

@stevedickson5853

3 ай бұрын

..to robots..

Full overhaul every 4 years! Not a long time that!

@unions100

4 жыл бұрын

Hello hello hello !!!! That’s because buses where much used, Fuller in them days

@TheDoosh79

3 жыл бұрын

@@unions100 but only 150,000 miles in those 4 years, not much by today's standards.

@succulent951

Жыл бұрын

That's how long the rust prevention lasted!

@stevedickson5853

3 ай бұрын

It's London of course they needed an overhaul every 4 years and looked better for it

Brilliant, but how did they overcome the regulations regarding chassis/engine numbers relating to that vehicle as they would be different when the bus left the works?

@stewartsmotorcycles.315

4 жыл бұрын

In short, they didn't bother with mere regulations! London Transport being a quango were a law unto themselves. When I was a driver on route 207 in the early eighties, I remember being told by an inspector en route to change buses at Hanwell, because the bus I was driving was supposed to have gone to Aldenham. Upon pulling onto the forecourt at Hanwell fully loaded, the maintenance staff not only swopped over the number plates, to the newly re-conditioned Routemaster that was waiting for me on the forecourt, they swopped the tax disc too! Wouldn't get away with that nowadays I suspect.

@christopherhulse8385

4 жыл бұрын

Regulations different for LT, they have to be for large fleets, as long as it's all documented.

@xanadudawn

4 жыл бұрын

@@christopherhulse8385 London Transport weren't insured either. They used to cover their own liabilities. Wouldn't be allowed now either

@CycolacFan

3 жыл бұрын

I imagine chassis number remained the same regardless of what body was used, engine swap would be the same as with any vehicle it was just performed and no one cared.

@npet6842

2 жыл бұрын

@@xanadudawn Same as the Police

1 an hour!

The past is, indeed, a foreign country. 1957, that's five odd years before Cliff Richard worked at Aldenham.

What a wonderful video. I wonder if they do buses here in the states like that, or, do they crush them and buy new ones? I don't think I have seen a video like this made here.

@jamesfrench7299

3 жыл бұрын

I doubt they do it anywhere now, including London. Now they only give a respray once or twice in their lives, replace an engine here and there and run it into the ground and throw it away!

@d.chance

3 жыл бұрын

@@jamesfrench7299 I do believe you hit that one right on the nose ! Throw them away, and yes, the tax payers will buy the new ones.

@TheDoosh79

3 жыл бұрын

@@d.chance Well they will have done the maths against running a maintenance shop on the scale of this one, Vs the cost of just replacing them.

@decentman3181

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheDoosh79 It's more than just maths and cost; this facility ensured that London's buses were kept in excellent condition, lasted a long time and ultimately provided passengers with reliable transport. In today's world of concerns about the environment, repairing and maintaining what we already have is far less damaging to the environment than buying new every few years.

@warmike

2 жыл бұрын

@@jamesfrench7299 I know Saint-Petersburg does something like that for trams

Joined up thinking and organisation, something that does not exist any more. What a pity.

@davesaunders3334

3 жыл бұрын

Of course it does you tit. Why do people say such stupid things?

@robertaurens5665

3 жыл бұрын

@@davesaunders3334 Not in government

Fantastic but sad too because the UK had it all and gave it all away!

@jamesfrench7299

Жыл бұрын

Australia has followed. At least you guys manufacture cars.

@simongleed

Жыл бұрын

It’s an illusion James! Uk on its arse, people attitude towards work stinks, it seems the tail is wagging the dog!! I own a business and I cannot wait to find someone crazy enough to buy it.

tyhis is agood video but time's are a changing and its good that are corntree have moved on from these time's . brexit being did is a big help to are econonomy and standard's in general .

Bloomin' 'eck . It ain't 'arf 'ot mum .

Oui à la base ils ce sont inspiré des calèches à étages de 1900

Did they always wear a tie or was just for the occasion? It seems to me unnecessary and even dangerous if the tie gets caught by a machine.

@tonydelo7292

4 жыл бұрын

Keep your uneducated tracksuit wearing comments to yourself

@alloneword7427

4 жыл бұрын

Shoes, trousers, shirt and tie were pretty common in the work place back then, regardless of the industry.

@CycolacFan

3 жыл бұрын

Fella in the crane even wearing a hat.

@TheLuisg92

3 жыл бұрын

@@alloneword7427 Thank you for your educated response. Since I am not From the UK, there are things that are unkhown.

@davesaunders3334

3 жыл бұрын

@@tonydelo7292 - You brainless, no-class sack of shit.

The health and safety pundits would be in a mental health facility watching real people working with their bare hands, although standards are much better now

Pip Pip Cheerio Bob’s your Uncle

How many buses did London Transport have in order to have this number off the road? Running the rebuild centre must of cost a fortune,

@CycolacFan

3 жыл бұрын

About 8000 according to the film narration.

@charlesregan4576

3 жыл бұрын

It also ensured reliable, decent and safe buses for the people of London and the Home Counties to travel on. Buses and trains were regarded as a public service back then in those pre Thatcher days and not as a means to a short term profit for the few at the expense of the many.

@npet6842

2 жыл бұрын

@@charlesregan4576 Your knowledge of transport decline in Britain is rather poor , old chap .

@charlesregan4576

2 жыл бұрын

@@npet6842 @N Pet On the contrary, 'old chap', my post is factual and sets out what such work on the stock achieved; it also explains the ethos underpinning public transport in those days, and how its decline under Thatcher resulted from the destruction of that ethos. Perhaps that is beyond your limited understanding, 'old chap'. Is that why you hide behind a pseudonym?

Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?

Look at all those well dressed, happy, slim people. Not like today's McDonalds and kebab eating layabouts.

These were craftsman not mechanics!!

Full overhaul every 3.5 to 4 years and 150.000 miles? That seems excessive and wasteful. You don't do that to commercial aircraft and the regulations there are much more strict...

@jamesfrench7299

Жыл бұрын

It kept the fleet in tip top shape and up to a standard of presentation. It was a well oiled machine that was very efficient at achieving that end for an 8000 strong fleet. The buses carry thousands of people each with absolute constant stop starting every day for those four years. It was quite sensible actually. If they left them much longer to keep plying the streets, standards would have visibly fallen.

History should not be "colourized".

Great video, London of yesterday, Londanistan of today.