A fare of the heart
A RETIRED bus driver and his wife have pulled out all the stops to restore a rundown 1949 singledecker to its former glory.
Lionel Tancock, 68, grew up fascinated by transport and worked as a bus driver for more than 40 years.
He jumped at the chance to buy the 1949 Bristol bus – registration EMW 284 – as a fixer-upper in 1983.
The pensioner, from Radford, Somerset, had to hunt down special seats to fit the 7ft 6in bus width – the limit from the time.
Now he and wife Julie, 62, drive it around with pride and took it to a bus rally on Sunday to show people what public transport was like all those years ago. Lionel said: “I’ve been interested in transport ever since I was a little boy.
“I worked as a bus driver but I always wanted a bus of my own.
“It was originally a coach, doing longdistance journeys.
“When I first got it, the bus was all rubbed down and some bits were missing – all it had was two rotten seats.”
Lionel was single when he first bought the bus for £650 from a farm near Andover, Hants.
Over the years, with help of friends, he renovated the bus and when he met and married Julie she loved it too. Their beloved bus started being built in 1947, according to details on the chassis, but the bus was not taxed until 1949. Lionel said: “Where it was between 1947 and 1949, we don’t know – probably in storage somewhere.”
It was decommissioned in 1962, at which point it ended up at the Enham Alamein disabled village in Andover.
Lionel believes it might have been used to take retired soldiers on day trips.
The seating needed to be entirely re-fitted and had to fulfil specific size
When I got it, all it had was two rotten seats
LIONEL TANCOCK BUS RESTORER
Pensioner brings 1949 single-deck bus back to life
requirements to fit the bus. Lionel explained that when the vehicle was built, buses couldn’t be any wider than 7ft 6in. But he hunted down replacement seating from an old bus in Guernsey that fitted the space.
He even managed to source original seat covers and had the seats reupholstered to make it as authentic as possible.
Now Lionel and Julie travel around the UK showcasing the bus.
On Sunday Lionel and Julie took the vehicle to the Cotswold Vintage Bus Rally at Stow-on-the-Wold. He added: “We show it to people so they can see how travel was in the old days.”