The Friends of King Alfred Buses (FoKAB) have recently made their biggest ever new investment in equipment for their Hampshire workshop.
With a fleet of eighteen buses to look after and an annual programme of MoTs for each vehicle to pass, having good access to the undersides is absolutely essential.
Last month, FoKAB took delivery of a set of four pillar lifts provided by Totalkare, which have now been brought into service after the necessary training for the volunteers who are going to use them.
The total value of the investment was almost £15,000. This is a very large sum for the Winchester-based charity, which depends upon its members and the wider public for its revenue.
Said FoKAB’s Engineering Trustee, Henry Pratt: “Our previous set of lifts came to the end of their life and had to be disposed of, so these new lifts are very welcome indeed. We were lucky to be able to procure this set of nearly new lifts in excellent condition. We have bought them from well-known supplier Totalkare, whose after-sales service support has been impressive”.
The first bus to be lifted into the air was a 1964 AEC Renown double-decker (which was found near Washington DC more than thirty years ago and repatriated from there). This bus is preserved in the red NBC Hants & Dorset colours that it carried in later life after the takeover of King Alfred’s buses in 1973.
Header Photo: The new pillar lifts by Totalkare make easy work of lifting this 1964 AEC Renown from FoKAB’s collection, so that attention can be given to the underside.
Photo Credit: Catherine Ellison-Pretious.
