Shipshape preservation
Page 47
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History happens quickly these days. Talk about the days when fuel cost four bob a gallon and it seems like an •age ago, but in fact it was as recent as 1962—which was the year that BRS Ipswich branch took delivery of a Bristol HA6G tractive unit, 427 EYO, that has just been retired. The veh:cle was on Manchester night trunks until eight years ago when it was moved to Felixstowe for an easier life as a dock
If these photos bring back memories you're perhaps older than you feel ! With wheels like that, the single-deck bus looks like the original juggernaut (yes, know about the Hindu one), but in fact they're part of an exhibition of tinplate toys which is open at the Bethnal Green Museum, London (part of the V and A) until January 25. Not surprisingly, many of the toys are buses and vans : the little French vah is dated around 1935. I'm not sure that they arouse nostalgia
runabout.
Now, courtesy of Southern BRS, it has returned "home"— to Ipswich Transport Society, whose 45 vehicles are all of Ipswich origin. Now they're looking for a suitable ;trailer to make up a correctly dated outfit.
The vehicle's return after 400,000 miles has meant a reunion with BRS Ipswich branch engineer John Lomax, who remembers the day the
in me so much as a vague resentment : I recall as a child that was always cutting myself on the sharp edges, and when I prised a toy apart in anger or curiosity it often turned out to be re-used tinplate carrying some such compelling printed message as: "Fray Sento:"