Bus restoration
Bus restoration isn’t as straightforward as you think.
FTN 710W arriving at Wardly direct from Go Northeast Sunderland Road depot in 2006 CC A Shepherd
4710 was withdrawn in 2006 as life expired driver training bus just as 4681 was. In fact, both were sold to the respective groups by the CEO of the company, Chris Moyes. 4710’s restoration was handled by Alan Shepherd and Arthur Petersall. Initial work included fitting the original seats and attending to the many-body defects. This is something that we would later find out wasn’t done correctly at all. 4710 came out in 2008 at the Tyne Bridge event but promptly ran out of fuel.
4710 at Howland’s park and Ride Event
One of the events that 4710 entered was the NEBPT Howlands park and ride event. The National 2 was the only ex Northern Mk2 National on the road in the northeast at this point. After a season 4710 was put into the store as Alan Shepherd had left the NEBPT. She was put on the for sale page but attracted nothing but dreamers. So she layout out the action for quite a few years.
Collection day at Hetton.
Spin-on a few years to 2012. I had received information that the NEBPT wanted to sell 4710 as a matter of urgency. So with a view to buying her for the NNRG Ian and I made the trip to Hetton to inspect her. What we found was something that was not only well worth saving but something that was in quite a good state of repair. 4710 still had a tone of problems but nothing that could not be sorted out at the right locations. The first stop was GNE Chester LE Street for a 3-week stay. The braking system was stripped down and re-fitted with new parts and components. New front chambers replaced the rusty ones. 3 new air tanks were fitted, the rear brake chambers were replaced, lots of air pipes and oil pipes were witted. The next stop was The Eden in West Auckland. In the garage, attention was given to the electrics and exhaust system along with the bodywork. Finally, at Saltersgate the rear lights and bumper were repaired. She was test-ready just 13 weeks after we collected her in January 2013. 4710 has had major work done to her during the 2013/14,14/15,15/16,16/17,17/18 off-seasons.
As she is now.
Now 4710 is in a very select club. A club of 3. The only 3 exes Northern National 2 are left in existence. After years of work and thousands of pounds spent we are hugely proud of our National 2. However, our 40-year-old veteran won’t be out until July 2022 as I want to continue the restoration of our iconic National 2 so she is still with us to celebrate her 50th birthday.