Aldenham Works
Encyclopedia
The Aldenham Works, or Aldenham Bus Overhaul Works, was the main London Transport
Bus overhaul works. It was located on the edge of the Hertfordshire
village of Elstree
and not Aldenham despite being officially called Aldenham Works. In its heyday, 50 buses a week were overhauled there, and it was the most comprehensive bus overhaul operation in the world. It was opened in 1956 and finally closed in November 1986. The buildings were demolished in 1996.
site at Elstree had originally been bought for the Northern line extension to Bushey Heath, as part of the 1930s New Works Programme
. The site was to have become the main Northern Line
depot with Golders Green depot closing. Essentially complete at the outbreak of World War II
, the railway extension works stopped due to the hostilities. The site was modified for use as an aircraft factory, producing Handley Page Halifax
bombers as part of the London Aircraft Production consortium, together with Handley Page, Duple Coachworks, Park Royal Coachworks and London Transport. After the war and despite the completion of the works and extensive construction of much of the Underground extension, the Northern line plan was finally dropped in September 1949.
With the wartime bus fleet worn out and the existing Chiswick Bus Works struggling to cope, it was decided to redevelop the site for bus overhaul, specifically body and chassis structures, with Chiswick continuing to specialise in the running units (engines, gearboxes, etc.). Construction of the new facility began in 1952. The existing buildings were extended and converted into a bus overhaul works over a 53.3 acres (215,697.6 m²) site, with its own staff canteen, social club and office blocks as well as the famous main building, test circuit and tilt test shed where London buses were subjected to being tilted on an inverter to assess stability. The site also had a power station on site to provide power for the works.
Although Aldenham had dealt with new vehicles and accident repairs from about 1945 it did not start full scale overhauling of bus bodies until 1949/50 and until 1955 chassis' were still dealt with at Chiswick. At first buses were dealt with on an individual basis, with each chassis and body being re-united after overhaul. A small number of changes of body among the RT family of buses was made during the period up to December 1955, at which point the 'works float' system of overhauling was re-introduced after being suspended during World War Two. This meant that vehicle identities were again changed around so as to make full use of licenses. In most cases, each bus arriving in the works was replaced by an identical one carrying the same identity, which meant that it was back on the road the same day in the majority of cases. The system came into full operation in January 1956. The works were officially opened on 30 October 1956, at which date it had a staff of 1,800, which was expected to increase to 2,500.
The post-war standardisation and huge size of the London Transport fleet allowed maintenance along modern production line principles, with work being carried out on a number of buses at once. Several mechanics could focus on specific parts of the vehicle rather than a single mechanic working on a single bus at a time.
Aldenham covered:
Aldenham turned the overhaul of buses into an industrial operation. A bus entering the works would first be inspected and any repairs required would be identified. The vehicle would have its body
removed from the chassis
, and then the running units such as brake system, axles, springs and other safety critical parts apart from the engine and gearbox would be removed removed from the chassis and would be inspected and, if needed, overhauled (at Chiswick works). Each one of these sub-structures would be sent off for inspection and overhaul on its own line at Chiswick. The bodies would be placed on an inverting frame and rotated to access the underside so that road debris
could be removed by steam cleaning
. The body would then be moved by travelling crane to one of the many parallel bays in the main shop area. The body was placed on stands with staging all around for maximum access to all parts of the body.
The overhaul would include such necessary work to return the bus to virtually "as new" condition, and would be tailored to each vehicle depending on condition. For example, the body would have any damaged panels replaced or repaired, seats repaired and re-covered and any updates or modifications to the interior made. The chassis would be inspected, tested and have any service components changed or adjusted. This system of standard interchangeable components meant that when the chassis was ready to be rebuilt into a bus, the first available engine, transmission and body that had been 'outshopped' would be fitted.
It was highly unlikely that a chassis would leave the works with the same body, engine or gearbox that it entered with. Indeed, it was even possible for a bus to enter the works in the morning, and a bus carrying the same fleet number and registration number to leave the same day - although a completely different vehicle.
Once the chassis and body were re-united, the completed vehicle would be test run around the factory site, which would include a brake test. Providing all was well mechanically, the bus would pass through the paint shop for a new coat of paint and varnish and would be fitted with new fleet number and ownership transfers. Following fitting of newly covered seats and re-certification, it would be despatched out to the receiving garage to return to service.
This modular system meant that buses could be overhauled in a fraction of the time that it would take if each bus was attended to on an individual basis. It was this attention and thoroughness that was largely responsible for buses such as the RT
, RF and Routemaster
lasting so long.
One of the unusual aspects of the Aldenham overhaul concept was the "Works Float" System. As chassis generally took less time to overhaul than did the bodies, this would have resulted in chassis cluttering up the works awaiting completed bodies. This required the number of bodies in the overhaul system to be greater than the number of chassis in the works. To provide this, a number of vehicle identifications became part of the works float and disappeared off the road, sometimes for years. Effectively, these buses ceased to exist except on paper, to provide the necessary spare components to allow the works float system to operate. This system permitted the number of road licences held to be less than the number of buses in existence, the unlicenced vehicles effectively being the vehicles under overhaul - a considerable financial saving. A system of separate chassis and body numbers was utilised to keep track of these major components. The works float system ceased in the mid 1980s when the practice of body separation was abandoned.
Later off the peg buses such as the DMS-class Daimler Fleetline
were less suited to this style of maintenance due to the bodies distorting if removed from their chassis. These vehicles would be overhauled but without separating the body/chassis - indeed, many of them did not last long enough in London Transport service to receive overhauls. Overhauls of vehicles of this type were therefore carried with the vehicle in "built up" form. LT had to set aside a separate area of the works for this type of work away from the "normal" work. Lifting jacks to raise vehicles were installed to enable access beneath. This type of overhaul resulted in the bus being off the road for weeks or even months, and was a very inefficient use of vehicle fleets.
In 1970 London Transport's country area buses were transferred to the state-owned National Bus Company (NBC) as London Country Bus Services
. This helped to dramatically reduce the workload of Aldenham, with London Country establishing its own overhaul facility at Tinsley Green
near Crawley in Sussex. With NBC in control, its vehicle purchases included more off the peg rear engined buses to replace London Transport standard RTs and Routemasters.
Aldenham was also used to prepare new buses for service, and they would be delivered to the works for preparation. Major accident repairs would also take place at Aldenham if the local garage could not handle the work in question. Typical of this would be the replacement of a top deck lost in collisions with low bridges.
Staff at Aldenham were transported in by bus, with buses running from over 40 London bus garages every day. The fleet included redundant RTs and later used ex-British Airways
front entrance RMA vehicles.
However, as financial pressures led to a decline in bus maintenance standards, the scope for overhaul of vehicles was reduced. London Transport's Bus Works Restructuring Programme 1983-4 was followed in October 1985 by the decision to discontinue the practice of completely overhauling each bus every four or five years. This, a shrinking fleet and the arrival of numerous types of non-standard bus not suited to the Aldenham concept made it increasingly uneconomic, and closure in November 1986 was inevitable. Indeed, by this time, the very existence of London Transport as a bus operator was under review, with private sector operation under competitive tender eroding its domination.
Bus overhaul was moved to Chiswick Works on a much smaller scale, then taken over by a short-lived private company called BEL (Bus Engineering Limited).
The site was acquired by Slough Estates, a property developer and stood mostly empty except for occasional storage of cars on the vast site until being demolished in July 1996 to make way for the Centennial Park business park.
Aldenham was an ambitious concept, even in its early days and never worked to its full capacity (part of the works site was leased to British Leyland as a repair and spares storage centre). The cessation of overhaul of buses by Aldenham became evident in an increasingly shabby fleet, not helped by the upheaval in London Transport
prior to privatisation of the bus service
. The much reduced maintenance also resulted in shorter service life with fleet renewals becoming much more frequent.
Aldenham was the subject of much film time, including a 1957 British Transport film, entitled "Overhaul", about the work taking place at Aldenham. In 1962 the opening ten minute scene of Cliff Richard's musical film Summer Holiday was filmed at the Aldenham Works, and Cliff's character and friends are all supposed to be mechanics at Aldenham works. Whilst on lunch on a rainy day, they come up with the idea of converting an RT bus into a mobile home and the next 5 minutes shows them at work to the track Seven days to a holiday
. These scenes were all shot in the works during the summer shutdown, and employees were used as genuine extras. One shot even shows Cliff on an RT suspended from the crane above the works.
The last film of the derelict works took place in 1992 for the BBC series "Perpetual Motion" which featured the story of the Routemaster
and widely on the changes at London Transport. The episode featured samples from overhaul, and later repeated the shots this time of the derelict works with the original voiceover dubbed onto the footage. Access to the site after closure was difficult, and few images exist of the site after closure.
Buses in London
The London Bus is one of London's principal icons, the archetypal red rear-entrance double-deck Routemaster being recognised worldwide. Although the Routemaster has now been largely phased out of service, with only two heritage routes still using the vehicles, the majority of buses in London are...
Bus overhaul works. It was located on the edge of the Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
village of Elstree
Elstree
Elstree is a village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire on the A5 road, about 10 miles north of London. In 2001, its population was 4,765, and forms part of the civil parish of Elstree and Borehamwood, originally known simply as Elstree....
and not Aldenham despite being officially called Aldenham Works. In its heyday, 50 buses a week were overhauled there, and it was the most comprehensive bus overhaul operation in the world. It was opened in 1956 and finally closed in November 1986. The buildings were demolished in 1996.
History
The London TransportLondon Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
site at Elstree had originally been bought for the Northern line extension to Bushey Heath, as part of the 1930s New Works Programme
New Works Programme
The "New Works Programme, 1935 - 1940" was the major investment programme delivered by the London Passenger Transport Board , commonly known as London Transport, which had been created in 1933 to coordinate underground train, tram, trolleybus and bus services in the capital and the surrounding areas...
. The site was to have become the main Northern Line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
depot with Golders Green depot closing. Essentially complete at the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the railway extension works stopped due to the hostilities. The site was modified for use as an aircraft factory, producing Handley Page Halifax
Handley Page Halifax
The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing...
bombers as part of the London Aircraft Production consortium, together with Handley Page, Duple Coachworks, Park Royal Coachworks and London Transport. After the war and despite the completion of the works and extensive construction of much of the Underground extension, the Northern line plan was finally dropped in September 1949.
With the wartime bus fleet worn out and the existing Chiswick Bus Works struggling to cope, it was decided to redevelop the site for bus overhaul, specifically body and chassis structures, with Chiswick continuing to specialise in the running units (engines, gearboxes, etc.). Construction of the new facility began in 1952. The existing buildings were extended and converted into a bus overhaul works over a 53.3 acres (215,697.6 m²) site, with its own staff canteen, social club and office blocks as well as the famous main building, test circuit and tilt test shed where London buses were subjected to being tilted on an inverter to assess stability. The site also had a power station on site to provide power for the works.
Although Aldenham had dealt with new vehicles and accident repairs from about 1945 it did not start full scale overhauling of bus bodies until 1949/50 and until 1955 chassis' were still dealt with at Chiswick. At first buses were dealt with on an individual basis, with each chassis and body being re-united after overhaul. A small number of changes of body among the RT family of buses was made during the period up to December 1955, at which point the 'works float' system of overhauling was re-introduced after being suspended during World War Two. This meant that vehicle identities were again changed around so as to make full use of licenses. In most cases, each bus arriving in the works was replaced by an identical one carrying the same identity, which meant that it was back on the road the same day in the majority of cases. The system came into full operation in January 1956. The works were officially opened on 30 October 1956, at which date it had a staff of 1,800, which was expected to increase to 2,500.
The post-war standardisation and huge size of the London Transport fleet allowed maintenance along modern production line principles, with work being carried out on a number of buses at once. Several mechanics could focus on specific parts of the vehicle rather than a single mechanic working on a single bus at a time.
Aldenham covered:
- Body rebuilds
- Repaints
- Major accident repairs
- Seat trimming
- Destination Blinds
- New bus preparation
- Tilt testing
Aldenham turned the overhaul of buses into an industrial operation. A bus entering the works would first be inspected and any repairs required would be identified. The vehicle would have its body
Coachwork
Coachwork is the body of a horse-drawn coach or carriage, a motor vehicle , a railroad car or railway carriage. Usually reserved for bodies built on a separate chassis, rather than being of unitary or monocoque construction...
removed from the chassis
Chassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...
, and then the running units such as brake system, axles, springs and other safety critical parts apart from the engine and gearbox would be removed removed from the chassis and would be inspected and, if needed, overhauled (at Chiswick works). Each one of these sub-structures would be sent off for inspection and overhaul on its own line at Chiswick. The bodies would be placed on an inverting frame and rotated to access the underside so that road debris
Road debris
Road debris, a form of road hazard, is debris on or off a road. Road debris includes substances, materials, and objects that are foreign to the normal roadway environment...
could be removed by steam cleaning
Steam cleaning
Steam Cleaning involves using steam for cleaning. Its uses include domestic applications in cleaning carpets, and industrial uses in removing grease and dirt from engines.See:* Vapor Steam Cleaners* Carpet Cleaning with steam....
. The body would then be moved by travelling crane to one of the many parallel bays in the main shop area. The body was placed on stands with staging all around for maximum access to all parts of the body.
The overhaul would include such necessary work to return the bus to virtually "as new" condition, and would be tailored to each vehicle depending on condition. For example, the body would have any damaged panels replaced or repaired, seats repaired and re-covered and any updates or modifications to the interior made. The chassis would be inspected, tested and have any service components changed or adjusted. This system of standard interchangeable components meant that when the chassis was ready to be rebuilt into a bus, the first available engine, transmission and body that had been 'outshopped' would be fitted.
It was highly unlikely that a chassis would leave the works with the same body, engine or gearbox that it entered with. Indeed, it was even possible for a bus to enter the works in the morning, and a bus carrying the same fleet number and registration number to leave the same day - although a completely different vehicle.
Once the chassis and body were re-united, the completed vehicle would be test run around the factory site, which would include a brake test. Providing all was well mechanically, the bus would pass through the paint shop for a new coat of paint and varnish and would be fitted with new fleet number and ownership transfers. Following fitting of newly covered seats and re-certification, it would be despatched out to the receiving garage to return to service.
This modular system meant that buses could be overhauled in a fraction of the time that it would take if each bus was attended to on an individual basis. It was this attention and thoroughness that was largely responsible for buses such as the RT
AEC Regent III RT
The AEC Regent III RT was a variant of the AEC Regent III. It was a double-decker bus produced jointly between AEC and London Transport. It was the standard red London bus during the 1950s.-Prototype:...
, RF and Routemaster
Routemaster
The AEC Routemaster is a model of double-decker bus that was built by Associated Equipment Company in 1954 and produced until 1968. Primarily front-engined, rear open-platform buses, a small number of variants were produced with doors and/or front entrances...
lasting so long.
One of the unusual aspects of the Aldenham overhaul concept was the "Works Float" System. As chassis generally took less time to overhaul than did the bodies, this would have resulted in chassis cluttering up the works awaiting completed bodies. This required the number of bodies in the overhaul system to be greater than the number of chassis in the works. To provide this, a number of vehicle identifications became part of the works float and disappeared off the road, sometimes for years. Effectively, these buses ceased to exist except on paper, to provide the necessary spare components to allow the works float system to operate. This system permitted the number of road licences held to be less than the number of buses in existence, the unlicenced vehicles effectively being the vehicles under overhaul - a considerable financial saving. A system of separate chassis and body numbers was utilised to keep track of these major components. The works float system ceased in the mid 1980s when the practice of body separation was abandoned.
Later off the peg buses such as the DMS-class Daimler Fleetline
Daimler Fleetline
The Daimler Fleetline is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis built between 1960 and 1973 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, and from 1973 until 1980 in Farington, Lancashire, England. However, the last complete vehicle did not enter service until 1983...
were less suited to this style of maintenance due to the bodies distorting if removed from their chassis. These vehicles would be overhauled but without separating the body/chassis - indeed, many of them did not last long enough in London Transport service to receive overhauls. Overhauls of vehicles of this type were therefore carried with the vehicle in "built up" form. LT had to set aside a separate area of the works for this type of work away from the "normal" work. Lifting jacks to raise vehicles were installed to enable access beneath. This type of overhaul resulted in the bus being off the road for weeks or even months, and was a very inefficient use of vehicle fleets.
In 1970 London Transport's country area buses were transferred to the state-owned National Bus Company (NBC) as London Country Bus Services
London Country Bus Services
London Country Bus Services was a bus company that operated in South East England from 1969 until split up and sold in 1986 under Margaret Thatcher's government's bus deregulation scheme.-Creation:...
. This helped to dramatically reduce the workload of Aldenham, with London Country establishing its own overhaul facility at Tinsley Green
Tinsley Green, West Sussex
Tinsley Green is an area in the Borough of Crawley, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. Originally a hamlet in the parish of Worth, it was absorbed by the New Town of Crawley in the 1940s and became part of the Pound Hill neighbourhood...
near Crawley in Sussex. With NBC in control, its vehicle purchases included more off the peg rear engined buses to replace London Transport standard RTs and Routemasters.
Aldenham was also used to prepare new buses for service, and they would be delivered to the works for preparation. Major accident repairs would also take place at Aldenham if the local garage could not handle the work in question. Typical of this would be the replacement of a top deck lost in collisions with low bridges.
Staff at Aldenham were transported in by bus, with buses running from over 40 London bus garages every day. The fleet included redundant RTs and later used ex-British Airways
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
front entrance RMA vehicles.
However, as financial pressures led to a decline in bus maintenance standards, the scope for overhaul of vehicles was reduced. London Transport's Bus Works Restructuring Programme 1983-4 was followed in October 1985 by the decision to discontinue the practice of completely overhauling each bus every four or five years. This, a shrinking fleet and the arrival of numerous types of non-standard bus not suited to the Aldenham concept made it increasingly uneconomic, and closure in November 1986 was inevitable. Indeed, by this time, the very existence of London Transport as a bus operator was under review, with private sector operation under competitive tender eroding its domination.
Bus overhaul was moved to Chiswick Works on a much smaller scale, then taken over by a short-lived private company called BEL (Bus Engineering Limited).
The site was acquired by Slough Estates, a property developer and stood mostly empty except for occasional storage of cars on the vast site until being demolished in July 1996 to make way for the Centennial Park business park.
Aldenham was an ambitious concept, even in its early days and never worked to its full capacity (part of the works site was leased to British Leyland as a repair and spares storage centre). The cessation of overhaul of buses by Aldenham became evident in an increasingly shabby fleet, not helped by the upheaval in London Transport
Buses in London
The London Bus is one of London's principal icons, the archetypal red rear-entrance double-deck Routemaster being recognised worldwide. Although the Routemaster has now been largely phased out of service, with only two heritage routes still using the vehicles, the majority of buses in London are...
prior to privatisation of the bus service
Privatisation of London bus services
The privatisation of London bus services was the progressive process of the transfer of operation of London Buses from public bodies to private companies....
. The much reduced maintenance also resulted in shorter service life with fleet renewals becoming much more frequent.
Aldenham was the subject of much film time, including a 1957 British Transport film, entitled "Overhaul", about the work taking place at Aldenham. In 1962 the opening ten minute scene of Cliff Richard's musical film Summer Holiday was filmed at the Aldenham Works, and Cliff's character and friends are all supposed to be mechanics at Aldenham works. Whilst on lunch on a rainy day, they come up with the idea of converting an RT bus into a mobile home and the next 5 minutes shows them at work to the track Seven days to a holiday
Summer Holiday (album)
Summer Holiday is an album by Cliff Richard and The Shadows. It is the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The album itself topped the UK Albums Chart and three tracks from the album were equally successful topping the UK Singles Charts as number one singles.-Track listing:Side one#"Seven Days...
. These scenes were all shot in the works during the summer shutdown, and employees were used as genuine extras. One shot even shows Cliff on an RT suspended from the crane above the works.
The last film of the derelict works took place in 1992 for the BBC series "Perpetual Motion" which featured the story of the Routemaster
Routemaster
The AEC Routemaster is a model of double-decker bus that was built by Associated Equipment Company in 1954 and produced until 1968. Primarily front-engined, rear open-platform buses, a small number of variants were produced with doors and/or front entrances...
and widely on the changes at London Transport. The episode featured samples from overhaul, and later repeated the shots this time of the derelict works with the original voiceover dubbed onto the footage. Access to the site after closure was difficult, and few images exist of the site after closure.