The Lincoln Vintage Vehicle Society

Whilst travelling the country to acquire even more Vintage Things, I was passing by Lincoln and had time to stop at the pioneering transport museum. Many years ago, when I was but a lad, I received a Blandford book of buses as a Christmas present and it contained illustrations of several vehicles owned or preserved by members of the Lincoln Vintage Vehicle Society. I read this tome frequently - well, looking at the colour pictures was more like it - and it seemed to me that something special was happening up at Lincoln. The Lincoln Vintage Vehicle Society, or LVVS, had a special aura about it. It was the benchmark for other enthusiasts whose enthusiasm also got the better of them. From what I could make out, nearly everyone in Lincoln had a Leyland Lion parked beside their bungalow or a Guy Arab in pieces.

Over the years, those self same vehicles occasionally popped up on my radar to reinforce the pioneering status of the LVVS. Visiting the LVVS museum was something of a pilgrimage and I was at last able to see the work of this happy band of preservationists for myself in a snug modern building on the outskirts of the city.

The weather outside was terrible but in this waterproof shed were many old friends that had been plucked from under the cutting torch at the eleventh hour when they could have been lost for ever. That was the kind of last minute heroics the LVVS went in for. There wasn't much space between the items in the collection but this gave the sense that they'd been squeezed into all the available space. And as the rain drummed on the roof, they all felt very safe and sounds and smelt wonderful of grease, oil and paint.

Phrases like "in preservation", "preserved" and "rescued for preservation" ran throughout the Blandford book of buses and my youthful mind conjured up members of the LVVS throwing themselves in front of slavering scrap men. Preservation sounded like a sanctuary for worthy things. But not every worthy thing lasted long enough to be appreciated before those slavering scrapmen - today we call them recyclers - did their dirty work.

The Lincoln Vintage Vehicle Society was founded back in 1959 as a small network of like-minded enthusiasts who wanted to save some of the old buses that at the time were coming to the end of their working lives. They had a little money and a certain amount of space but tremendous enthusiasm for the vehicles of yesteryear. It was their enthusiasm that outweighed the problems. It wasn't a question of value, either. These old wrecks were worth nothing but scrap value and were not yet curiosities. The members of the LVVS simply liked these old buses and coaches so much that they couldn't bear to see them disappear. To most of their contemporaries they must have seemed quite mad. Nowadays this sort of behaviour is almost acceptable and the vehicle preservation is big business but back then it was just inexplicable, laughable almost.

The LVVS were doing something new. Saving old cars had already become socially acceptable. The film "Genevieve" went a long way to achieving this. During the fifties steam railways like the Festiniog and the Talyllyn were being preserved and by the sixties no-one seemed to question this (not that it stopped Dr Beeching axing all those branch lines). By this time, traction engines were rarely scrapped and rallies where they could be enjoyed were rapidly growing popularity. But clapped out commercial vehicles and old buses were just old scrap - weren't they?

Not to people like Vincent LeTall, Sid Twell or Bryan Challand they weren't. Individually they might not be able to buy an old bus and get it home but together they pooled their resources and managed to get them working again.

Bearing in mind what buses were available back then it must have been like having the keys to the sweet shop.

The LVVS quickly set the standard for renovation with its first restoration and continued to raise the bar with every subsequent one. High quality cosmetic states weren't enough, The old buses had to go, too.

The earliest members thought big right from the start. It wasn't just the size of what they chose to restore - it was the scope of what they set out to achieve. They wanted a museum to put all their Vintage Things in and after 3 or 4 years had a three acre site including dry storage. One old bus, an ex-Lincoln Corporation Leyland Lion that had been rescued from Jersey, of all places, was dry stored for 25 years until it was restored as part of an apprentice training scheme. Their attitude was very much save it now, store it and look after it somehow until eventually we'll get around to finishing it.

That's exactly my approach!

Vincent Le Tall also collected Austin motor cars and his collection formed the nucleus for a car collection that's still growing and includes a 1936 18, a 1928 10/4 and 1934 16 Berkeley saloon that once ferried Wilfred Pickles to and from his hotel in the Lake District.

My favourite, though, is this 1937 Ford V8 shooting brake that had originally been owned by the Countess of Yarborough as an estate car on her, er, estate. Obviously a discerning lady, she wondered what to do with this old car when it got a bit long in the gear tooth and decided the LVVS were the ones who could bring it back to life, which they did - eventually. It took them the best part of 35 years to get around to it but a single individual working alone would probably have lost interest in the project long ago and scrapped it. Thanks to the LVVS members, it eventually received the skilled treatment it deserved.

Regular readers will know I have a lot of time for Ford flathead V8s but this woody is a peach. The bodywork is handbuilt and fortunately was in good condition. Rust of the steel body panels was more of a problem so the body had to come off the chassis - welding and wooden structural members don't mix. As usual with LVVS projects, the result was well worth it.

It wasn't long before other items for the collection began presenting themselves to the LVVS and some of them were in very good condition.

Car collecting is not the same as preservation. Car collecting is trendier. You don't actually preserve anything with car collecting, just buy one already done up and brag to your mates down the pub about how much it's appreciating in value. Often, if any money needs spending on it, the Vintage Thing gets moved on quickly. How many times have you heard people say "I couldn't justify the expense"? This behaviour seems to be socially acceptable.

But if you quietly take something apart and begin to restore it often people complain. It is apparently socially unacceptable and can result in the Vintage Thing itself being scrapped despite the initial best intentions of the owner and enthusiast. But thanks to organisations like the LVVS, the benefits of this initially aberrant behaviour are gradually being realised.

Car restoration is quite different from merely car collecting and much more time consuming. Actually bringing some old piece of machinery back from the dead is far more rewarding although not in monetary terms (not something many car collectors understand). The LVVS members might not have been able to justify the expense either under severe cross examination but that never stopped them.

But commercial vehicle collecting is even trickier. Once you've got them, they're so much bigger and require special skills.

In one corner of the shed was an Albion HD55 6x4 lorry that had been operated by Smiths Crisps. The LVVS is currently re-panelling the box van body with the help of someone who served his apprenticeship doing this sort of thing. He'd done a wonderful job and it seems almost a shame to paint over the shiny fresh aluminium panels. I just hope he can teach someone else to do this because that sort of apprenticeship simply isn't happening anymore.

Some of the trucks from the early thirties had massive petrol engines instead of the big loyal diesels commercial vehicles have today. This 5-litre straight six powered a Leyland fire escape. I was expecting it to be a sidevalve but it's actually overhead valve and it's rated at only 33 horsepower although I reckon this is the RAC rating. This fire engine would do 55 mph despite weighing nine and a half tons. Petrol consumption was 6mpg. I can't help wonder what this engine could do in a contemporary sports car chassis. Maybe someone in the VSCC could try this?

I also liked the AEC Monarch tipper truck in the livery of Bracebridge Mental Hospital. It wasn't actually used for carting loonies around - it was for the coal used to heat the hospital - but I understand that some people have raised objections to this truck appearing in its original livery.

One old bus, this Bristol K5G, had been driven around the world during the early seventies by a group of students in a real life adventure inspired by Cliff Richard and The Shadows. Not wishing to see it scrapped as they became more sensible and settled own to less hedonistic life-style, they presented it to the LVVS who restored it to full working order.

I got talking to the lady behind the desk and she said they use the old buses on services through the city of Lincoln when they have open days in November and at Easter when the workshops to the museum are also open. (Now that would be interesting.) On that day, they will have 25-30 vintage buses in operation around Lincoln. Cornwall's a bit far but I admit I'm tempted. I didn't see anything of the city itself and to see it from the top deck of a globe trotting bus probably can't be beaten.

My favourite bus was the Guy Arab fitted with a Ruston & Hornsby six cylinder air-cooled engine. I'd heard about this machine some time ago. Instead of an elegant Guy radiator, complete with "Feathers in our cap" radiator cap, it had a curious snout made up of louvres. Ruston & Hornsby engines were made in Lincoln and it seemed sensible to Lincoln City Transport to try some one the local products in one of their buses. The result had startling performance for its day but was incredibly noisy. They were popular for their speed and waiting passengers often knew the bus was coming because it was so much noisier than the water cooled variety. Downstairs the bus conductors had to mime. Fortunately, the LVVS adopted this historic machine and stocked up on ear plugs. Deutz engines are air cooled and have a very good reputation. There seems to have been a lost opportunity for Rustons here who were one of the few traction engine manufacturers to adapt to the internal combustion engine. Just think what might have been achieved if they'd developed this idea further.

The LVVS made the headlines in 2007 when they bought an Allegro for 1500 quid. The media latched on to what they called "Allegromania" and adversely criticised the LVVS for alledgedly wasting money but in view of the numbers destroyed on Top Gear it's probably more historic than ever. And it was LVVS money so none of The Sun's business. I've said it before and I'll say it again (Vintage Thing No.23) - the Allegro is a much maligned car so I was surprised but pleased to see one here in Lincoln. What do the media know, anyway? It was also in very good condition.

The lady behind the desk told me that membership is falling gradually and there are some long term concerns that not enough youngsters are coming forward to learn the skills necessary to keep these Vintage Things going. I suppose there generally are less youngsters in our aging population but I would love to know how to panel a commercial vehicle as beautifully as that Albion. The LVVS are not just coachbuilders - they seem to be able to do anything between them.

So what was the vehicle that I would like to take home with me most of all? That Ford V8 woody. I told them so, too, but they said I couldn't have it. I don't mind. I reckon it's in better hands.