Five Cylinders to Wednesbury - a Cab Ride!

A real-time cab ride from Aldridge Transport Museum (Aldridge, near Walsall) to Wednesbury in the unique Birmingham City Transport lightweight Daimler CLG5 3002, with its Gardner 5LW engine and Daimler preselector gearbox and fluid flywheel. While the sounds of the Gardner can be clearly heard, the camera in the cab didn't pick up the characteristic hum of the Wilson gearbox when idling in neutral. After a good run, we took part in a Transport for the West Midlands Fun Day at Wednesbury Bus Station, and gave lots of free rides (not on the video).
Before anyone comments, generally the bus (empty) was started in second gear, which was the practice in the 1950s (and the driver was taught in the 1960s by London Transport, who also insisted on second gear starts, unlike BCT who favoured starting in first). This was the first time 3002 had been on the road publicly for nearly a year, while work was done on the brakes and a few other details, so we were pleased with an easy and trouble-free run.
The bus is normally on display at Aldridge Transport Museum and operates free rides on the Museum Running Days - see the website (amrtm.org) for details and for an easy way of making donations.
For the record, the video was recorded on an Olympus E-PL6 camera with an Olympus 9mm fish-eye bodycap lens.
Music : Lurking Sloth by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
creativecommons.org/licenses/...

[@lloydpenfold486]

Nicely driven, Martin!

[@aldridgetransportmuseum9171]

Thanks, Lloyd. It's great to have a drive in a preselector from time to time, my favourite transmission.

[@JulianBeddow]

I remember going to school on one of these buses,wen it was our turn to get off we used to swing on the back pole .bus fair was only 2p from barnes lane to rushall,.. Happy days,

[@stuartmiller6492]

A race horse is good for a mile a cart horse is good for all day

[@martinburke362]

5lw massively overworked in a double decker

[@aldridgetransportmuseum9171]

3002 was specially built as lightweight compared with the normal Birmingham standard to see whether a 5LW would suffice. It's usually OK, but hills can be a bit of an issue when fully laden.

[@lloydpenfold486]

Most of the mid- to late 1930s fleet was 5LW engined, and the COG5's were by no means underpowered.

[@hfraat25]

Though a 5 cylinder it does not sound even.