Workshop Manual.
Albion model CX19 Gearcase. To Dismantle and Inspect.
Remove top gearcase cover……. No, look, if you need it ring me.
Before getting near any such gear case there needed to be a few intermediate steps. I turned up on Friday at Kings Cross Station, reserved ticket in hand, and was thrilled to find that unwittingly I had booked myself on the 10 AM Edinburgh Express, still known 70 years later as The Flying Scotsman. (Just to confuse, ONE of the locos once used to draw it is called ‘Flying Scotsman’, after a racehorse I believe).
At 2.38PM precisely we arrived at Edinburgh Waverley, 640 km in 4.5 hours. It FLIES. And by 3.20 I was in Dunfermline, for the Scottish Bus Museum, being met by Jasper Pettie who owns or has a finger in 12 antique motor buses, mainly Guys, but also a Leyland TD5, just like my TD4 to listen to. AND he let me have a drive of it later: much needed because I have yet to really master the gear changing in mine. There are two schools of thought; the rapid change and the slow change advocates.
Also at the museum resides Sydney Albion no. 1877, (mine is 1892, yet they are only two chassis numbers apart, due to the mixing up that occurs in shipping and body building). 1877 is called “Sydney” here, which suffices to distinguish it --all the other buses come from Scottish Motor Traction (SMT) or Western SMT, McGill’s, Alexanders of Falkirk, Glasgow Corporation, etc.---. It is getting a massive rebuild, new framing, panels, engine, gearbox, steering, all new tyres, you name it. Because it is the only model CX19 in the country, it is greatly prized in the land of its creation. Glasgow had heaps but they were all scrapped before the preservation movement got into its stride. The chasses were built at Scotstoun, only a mile or two upstream from Clydebank where the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth (I) were built. I felt as if I was visiting a sacred site when we were taken to South Street where the huge Albion Motors works used to be, during the Albion Tour in September.
After some hearty male bonding over a steering box and gearbox, on a freezing cold day (about –3 deg. outside) we had lunch. I was asked would I be wanting a haggis pie; sensing a small test of intestinal fortitude I said yes please; after all any pie is just a pale shadow of its main constituent. When did you last have a meat pie that tasted like a freshly barbecued steak? Haggis pie, Scottish Bridies, steak pies and tea. I LOVE haggis pie---after all it’s just oatmeal plus lamb mince now, (they aren’t allowed to use offal any more) topped with potato and parsnip mash. For heat we were lucky (Davie Philp brought it from his workshop) to have a mini jet engine, running on diesel, see gearbox photo, top right. It blasts hot air at you and sets fire to your clothes if you get too close.
I have never pulled down a gearbox of any sort--- it was a learning curve, but Davie and John both once ran their own trucking companies so had some idea of where to start, plus some serious gear for undoing large bits which had been tightly together for forty years. From parts of the original Sydney gearbox and an identical Albion truck gearbox we now have an as-new box, from which will emanate the magic sounds that CX19s produce.
The amazing thing is that there are people all over the world to whom this sound appeals, plus plenty to whom it doesn’t. But then lots of people pay to hear Barry Manilow sing.
On the train back, armed with new knowledge, I paid particular attention as we left Grantham and passed by a village called Little Bytham. Here in 1938, a train hauled by “Mallard” (another racehorse namesake, I think) set the still unbroken record for steam of 126 miles per hour, also on the Edinburgh / Kings Cross express. I felt I had been over historic ground for quite some days.
Back at Kings Cross at 4.49 PM (due in at 4.48), I flourished my newly acquired ‘Oyster Card’ at the tube turnstile, which deducted the fare from the card, and let me into the bowels of the earth to be whisked back to Wood Green in 15-20 minutes.
And it was my birthday: for dinner darling Penelope had rustled up casseroled lamb shanks, Emma had bought a bottle of French claret, and some care parcels from Australia needed to be opened. Tired but happy I retired to the cot, the central heating doing its thing properly now, and I wonder if we’ll ever want to come home? Oh dear, more decisions!
Editors Note:- LOL… you are joking of course! Ed.
Kings Cross Station.
New Frame
John & Paul
Chassis painted
Remove top gearcase cover……. No, look, if you need it ring me.
Before getting near any such gear case there needed to be a few intermediate steps. I turned up on Friday at Kings Cross Station, reserved ticket in hand, and was thrilled to find that unwittingly I had booked myself on the 10 AM Edinburgh Express, still known 70 years later as The Flying Scotsman. (Just to confuse, ONE of the locos once used to draw it is called ‘Flying Scotsman’, after a racehorse I believe).
At 2.38PM precisely we arrived at Edinburgh Waverley, 640 km in 4.5 hours. It FLIES. And by 3.20 I was in Dunfermline, for the Scottish Bus Museum, being met by Jasper Pettie who owns or has a finger in 12 antique motor buses, mainly Guys, but also a Leyland TD5, just like my TD4 to listen to. AND he let me have a drive of it later: much needed because I have yet to really master the gear changing in mine. There are two schools of thought; the rapid change and the slow change advocates.
Also at the museum resides Sydney Albion no. 1877, (mine is 1892, yet they are only two chassis numbers apart, due to the mixing up that occurs in shipping and body building). 1877 is called “Sydney” here, which suffices to distinguish it --all the other buses come from Scottish Motor Traction (SMT) or Western SMT, McGill’s, Alexanders of Falkirk, Glasgow Corporation, etc.---. It is getting a massive rebuild, new framing, panels, engine, gearbox, steering, all new tyres, you name it. Because it is the only model CX19 in the country, it is greatly prized in the land of its creation. Glasgow had heaps but they were all scrapped before the preservation movement got into its stride. The chasses were built at Scotstoun, only a mile or two upstream from Clydebank where the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth (I) were built. I felt as if I was visiting a sacred site when we were taken to South Street where the huge Albion Motors works used to be, during the Albion Tour in September.
After some hearty male bonding over a steering box and gearbox, on a freezing cold day (about –3 deg. outside) we had lunch. I was asked would I be wanting a haggis pie; sensing a small test of intestinal fortitude I said yes please; after all any pie is just a pale shadow of its main constituent. When did you last have a meat pie that tasted like a freshly barbecued steak? Haggis pie, Scottish Bridies, steak pies and tea. I LOVE haggis pie---after all it’s just oatmeal plus lamb mince now, (they aren’t allowed to use offal any more) topped with potato and parsnip mash. For heat we were lucky (Davie Philp brought it from his workshop) to have a mini jet engine, running on diesel, see gearbox photo, top right. It blasts hot air at you and sets fire to your clothes if you get too close.
I have never pulled down a gearbox of any sort--- it was a learning curve, but Davie and John both once ran their own trucking companies so had some idea of where to start, plus some serious gear for undoing large bits which had been tightly together for forty years. From parts of the original Sydney gearbox and an identical Albion truck gearbox we now have an as-new box, from which will emanate the magic sounds that CX19s produce.
The amazing thing is that there are people all over the world to whom this sound appeals, plus plenty to whom it doesn’t. But then lots of people pay to hear Barry Manilow sing.
On the train back, armed with new knowledge, I paid particular attention as we left Grantham and passed by a village called Little Bytham. Here in 1938, a train hauled by “Mallard” (another racehorse namesake, I think) set the still unbroken record for steam of 126 miles per hour, also on the Edinburgh / Kings Cross express. I felt I had been over historic ground for quite some days.
Back at Kings Cross at 4.49 PM (due in at 4.48), I flourished my newly acquired ‘Oyster Card’ at the tube turnstile, which deducted the fare from the card, and let me into the bowels of the earth to be whisked back to Wood Green in 15-20 minutes.
And it was my birthday: for dinner darling Penelope had rustled up casseroled lamb shanks, Emma had bought a bottle of French claret, and some care parcels from Australia needed to be opened. Tired but happy I retired to the cot, the central heating doing its thing properly now, and I wonder if we’ll ever want to come home? Oh dear, more decisions!
Editors Note:- LOL… you are joking of course! Ed.
Kings Cross Station.
New Frame
John & Paul
Chassis painted
4 Comments:
Just a few quick thoughts.
The dilemma between slow and quick changing of gears. My wife has solved that problem - simply don't change gears. Park on the down slope of a hill, start off in third gear and leave it in that gear for the rest of the day. It works! Go round corners slightly faster than usual. Never actually stop. This is the biggest problem as it means thinking ahead to some degree when approaching traffic lights and when parking at the shopping centre (Ever wondered why the concrete pillars are so thick?).
Stripping the gearbox. Have you tried WD40?
The photo of John and Paul. Paul is obviously a fan of "All Creature Great and Small".
Lamb shanks - heaven.
Peter S
Speaking of WD40 - one of our workers said she put it on her arthritic knee, I thought that she was joking and LOL'd - was then told that she really does use it and she said it works!!!!!
Just googled the Flying Scotsman, it was quite interesting.
Kerry
David,
Thanks very much for coming up to Scotland and helping us to completely dismantle the two CX19 gearboxes. Your help was invaluable. Now when do you think you can manage to get your ass back up here and help put them back together again???
Only kidding, both geaboxes are now fully reassembled and not a single straight cut gear wheel left over. And if you find any needle roller bearings in your turnups we don't want to know about it.
I hope none of that haggis pie you dropped went into the gearcase, as the remains of the dead haggis might affect the whine of the box. The cut of the gears, as you often point out, was carefully set by Albion engineers to produce two notes, each one an octave apart, in order to achieve far better sound effects than the competition. We don't want our gearbox to end up sounding like Barry Manilow, or worse still, a Leyland! (a postwar one of course.)
Finally, surely Peter S in his posting is not comparing a CX19 gearbox to the back end of a cow? I'm afraid if word gets out about that, a fat-shim will be issued on him.
Looking forward to your next visit.
Paul.
Absolutely riveting David!
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