John Shearman 1945 - 2024 RIP
255 would never have been acquired or saved from the scrapper's torch had it not been for the foresight and dogged determination of John Shearman, who remained a part of the group until he sadly passed away aged 78 on 19 March 2024.
His achievements and impact in the preservation world are touched on in a short biography, written by Rob Lanham, who is part of this group - it has been reproduced here.
John used the time after his diagnosis well, and set up future provisions for all his vehicles, in addition to those he had a keen interest in. He paid one last visit to see 255 early in 2024, when he was able to, and we took him out for one final ride.
He requested that there be no special service for him, which was a shame, as it would have been a gathering of many who he had assisted with his in depth knowledge, or financial assistance in saving a British built vehicle for future generations to enjoy.
Nonetheless, his legacy lives on and he is able to rest in peace.
Latest Project - May 2023
Our next project is to get 255 looking like this...
Plans to return the outside appearance to something nearer the original condition are contunuing.
The above image shows 255 when still quite young. It has the CCFL logo on the side and a normal sized advert panel.
Additionally, 255 sports a full set of sun shades above the windows, including the front upper deck.
The other significant difference are the roof mounted lights, which can just be seen proud of the domes.
The image of Carris260 (above) is interesting as it appears to have a white bonnet top (which makes the vehicle look less bulky), and another image of the same date also confirms it had black mudguards (difficult to tell on the top image).
The side blind above the platform, which was painted over, had never been an issue. However, due to the livery change, it was agreed that we should bring it back to life.
At the same time we are also bringing back the rear destination blind, which involves building a frame from scratch as well as making alterations to the rear blind panel in a similar fashion to the side blind.
AEC images show that the original affair had set back window glass without a rubber surround. The only way to accomplish this was to ask our body specialist to construct a bespoke panel based on the original plans. A job for the future would be to get blind gear back in the box and working plus treat the rear blind in the same manner.
You will note from the image below that 255 now has roof lights and the sunshades. Last autumn, we also added the semaphore indicators, when, upon investigation, 255 still had the void in which to install these and after quick trawl around, a set of indicators were sourced and tested. We now need to change the rear light confiuration too, but as we run with a modern light bar, it won't be a problem on the road.
A slight change was made to the side front lights which were altered to be used as indicators along with the semaphores. This was done with safety in mind, due to the low visibility of the semaphores, especially at dusk.
Our first visit after the recent body changes was to Showbus at the Buckingham Railway Centre in September 2024.
Not all the repainting has been done, and when complete will include C.C.F.L logos in place of the current Carris roundels. We hope to attend this event again in 2025.
We will show the bus unadorned for a while, until we decide on appropriate adverts.
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