LVVS 2010 open day

What have you got in your shed? Other people's work-in-progress is always fascinating

Ever since dropping in on this pioneering society's museum last year, I've wanted to visit their open day when they open up the big doors and drive their buses all around the city of Lincoln. Not only that but a load of their mates bring their buses and coaches over as well.

In the end I got a good deal on rail travel (two singles were cheaper than a return and way cheaper than driving up) and went up for a couple of nights to get my fix and see the Imp in the cathedral.

As a supporter of lost causes, I was very pleased to see that someone else cares about the Austin Gypsy.

The Lincoln Vintage Vehicle Society have been setting the standards of commercial vehicle restoration for decades. Looking around their workshops was particularly interesting for me. There was an early Austin Gypsy with rubber suspension - later ones had cart springs and fell victim to BL's post-merger rationalisation in favour of the Land Rover. This fire tender came from Ruston & Hornsby's factory in Lincoln. I was once offered the 2.3 litre engine out of a similar machine that had been on St Michael's Mount. The rest of the fire engine rotted away but the engine lingered until this century. I got as far as asking if the engine was seized but then heard no more. I fear it may have been weighed in for scrap by now. They are pretty lumpy motors.

Restoring a double decker is like eating an elephant - one bite at a time. I did indulge in a Cadbury's Double Decker though. It seemed most appropriate fare for the time and place. Which reminds me - the tea and home made cakes laid on were very, very good. The ladies expressed concern that they might have made too much. This was a very good marketing ploy. Along with many others, I enthusiastically saw to it that none was left.

But it's the bigger stuff that impresses. You can restore motorbikes indoors by the fire. Cars take up a lot of room when they're dismantled but buses and lorries are huge by comparison. They are simply too big for most individuals to contemplate. The answer, as shown by the LVVS, is to get like-minded individuals together so that they can pool their resources and save the stuff they like. The internet is ideal for doing this sort of thing these days although I can't think of any examples right now. Could be an opportunity here if anyone's listening. The point is, though, that the LVVS, among others, has done this already, long before the internet.

This Midland Red C1 motorway coach has its own club to look after it - the 3301 Preservation Society. Not only has it been rescued and restored, its future seems better assured than a Vintage Thing looked after by just one person. I reckon it looks fantastic.

The other point of my visit was to have as many rides as possible. My plan was to catch the classic buses themselves from the city centre, close to where my B&B was, but they weren't stopping at the bus station but at a point between there and the railway station. I know where this is now but I kept seeing buses driving out of the city and decided to follow them on foot. It took most of the morning to get there and I am a fast walker. Also, I wasn't entirely sure where the museum but I found it after navigating by the November sun and asking the conductor on one of the buses when it stoppe dat some traffic lights. Consequently, I missed out on some riding time.

This is the interior of the Chevy coach. Note vases with flowers on the a pillars - travel was so much dignified in the thirties. Maybe I'll try this one another year.

I would've liked to ridden in the little Chevrolet coach that served for many years in the Lake District and a pootle around in one of the society's Austin cars would hav ebeen good, too, for although I've seen loads and loads of Austin 10s and 18s, I've never ridden in one.

My father's side of the family, who live in Sussex, often talk with nostalgia about Southdown buses. Now I know why. Gear changing is a highly regarded skill - the cognescenti on board were giving marks for artistic interpretation

I did, however, manage to sample a 1946 Leyland Tiger in Southdown livery (so some way from home), a 1929 Leyland Lion LT1 with elegantly low slung Applewhite coachwork and one of my favorites the Ruston-powered Guy Arab.

When new, this 1929 Leyland Lion had concrete floor panels. Consequently, vehicles of this type were known as the Fireproof Leylands.

The Leyland Lion was the subject of an epic restoration project. After a working life of twenty years as a bus it became a snowplough. In 1954, it was sold into preservation but langusihed outside for five years before being donated to the museum. Fortunately, the LVVS could store it under cover and there it remained for 25 year until selected for resurrection by the enlightened Lincoln City Council as part of an apprenticeship training scheme.

The Ruston powered Guy took me back into the city on the final trip of the day.

The Ruston powered Guy was a local experiment. Originally built with a Meadows engine that was not entirely satisfactory, it subsequently acquired a secondhand Leyland unit and when this wore out the bus languished for two years until 1960 when Lincoln City fitted an 8.6 litre air cooled engine built just down the road by Ruston & Hornsby. This was originally designed for use in drag line navvies and tradition has it that the result was very noisy and liable to fry the driver with its heat but a bit of a hotrod. Having ridden on it, it didn't seem any noisier to me than its contemporaries but not so much quicker, either. In November I expect any extra engine heat was quite welcome.

All day travel cost the princely sum of £5 and services went on after darkness when a final convoy set out for an atmospheric trip back into the city. Similar events are held every Easter and November.

I never knew any of these old wagons in their heyday but it was surprisingly enjoyable wallowing in the public transport of yesteryear. Conductors insisted on giving out tickets of the era, marked ½D in some cases, and the interiors were often as striking as the exteriors with all sorts of surprising flourishes.

And so, as the light fades upon the public transport of yesteryear, it's time to think of home.

As for the Imp in the cathedral, it wasn't yer actual Hillman Imp, but a medieval child of the devil.

As far as I know, Lincoln was the only place to be blighted by the presence of Imps

The story goes that old Nick sent them out to play one windy day and they blew into the city of Lincoln where the magnificence if the cathedral was initially so awe-inspring that they behaved. But this didn't last long. They soon began tripping up vicars and threw stones at the stained glass, whereupon the angels told them to stop it. "Stop us if you can!" replied the Imps, so the angels did and turned the Imps to stone. One still exists in a pillar near the altar - not very well sign posted I might add.

Lincoln will always be associated with Imps

It occurs to me, however, that if ever they are restoring a part of the cathedral, a gargoyle in the shape of a Hillman Imp - perhaps gushing water from its heater hose/water pump/head gasket - might be a good modern take of the Lincoln Imp.

But for well-tended, high performing Hillman Imps, which no longer suffer these problems thanks to modern techniques, sympathetic maintenance and material advances, "Stop me if you can!" is a bloody good slogan!