BBPG

DMS115 (EGP 115J) is the oldest DMS in private preservation and is owned by Bob McLeod. DMS115 started her working life at Wandsworth (WD) garage, which is also where Bob started too.

When we first saw DMS115, it was parked up with some other buses in Ellesmere Port and looking rather forlorn and unloved in the corner.

DMS115, as we first found her in Ellesmere Port (c) Martin Clitheroe

In a similar fashion to DMS1911, both had been kitted out with sinks and bench seating around the upper deck and covered in gallons of blue paint!

The lower deck (c) Martin Clitheroe

The upper deck (c) Martin Clitheroe

Since acquisition, Bob has worked tirelessly on 115's restoration. The back doors were fortunately still intact, but had been panelled over. This was removed and the back doors now work on the taps, the blinds are back in place and seat frames have been installed on both decks.

Shortly after these pictures were taken, 115 drove down from the north west to Kent in one journey and then onto Retrobus in East Sussex without incident, so she's certainly a sound bus! She's in good company, being stored alongside DMS1911 and DMS2456.

Bob's next aim is to re-panel the exterior where necessary. It can be noticed in the pictures above, a nasty dent in the nearside front corner. In late May 2010, Bob removed the panel to get it straightened, and it was noticed that the wood underneath was not in the best of health, so Bob decided to remove the whole lower front to replace the wood.

Bob working on removing the front panels from DMS115 to replace the wood framing underneath (c) Stuart Boxall

In recent weeks, to deal with holes cut in both the nearside and the offside, Bob has removed the panels to work on the framework underneath. Meanwhile, Stuart has been working on the inside, removing the ceiling panels to get them stripped of paint. It's all go!

The offside panels removed ready for re-panelling (c) Martin Clitheroe

The nearside panel removed, showing the box structure that was created for the hole that was made (c) Martin Clitheroe

Stuart getting to grips with removing the internal panels, in order to get them stripped of paint. The blue is very obvious for all to see! (c) Martin Clitheroe