Support for Heritage Skills

NARTM will be exploring the many specialist skills it takes to restore, maintain and drive the nation's historic buses and coaches in Episode 6 of The Bus Inspectors podcast, scheduled to drop in early Autumn.

Sam Carter (left), Project Curator of the London Transport Museum's Heritage Skills Retention scheme, with presenter of The Bus Inspectors podcast, David Sheppard.

The next episode in the series, brought to you by NARTM, will be discussing what these skills are and the importance of preserving them for the future. It will also consider how museums, preservationists and industry can work together to help.

In August, NARTM visited Sam Carter at the London Transport Museum (LTM) to hear how the museum's Heritage Skills Retention Project is making a difference. As well as identifying the skills which are in shortest supply, the project hopes to gather intelligence and encourage collaboration within the movement to support and grow niche suppliers and craftspeople.

Regular seminars have provided both a heartbeat to the project and an opportunity for representatives from across the heritage movement to come together the discuss common ground.

Delegates at the London Transport Museum's Skills Conference in May 2025.

Among the guest speakers at this year's spring seminar was David Sheppard, presenter of The Bus Inspectors podcast. He set the importance of skills retention within the wider context of challenges facing the heritage vehicle movement, such as succession planning, changing interests and an ever growing national collection - issues discussed in The Bus Inspectors podcast so far.

In episode 6, The Bus Inspectors will also be exploring how industry can play a part in skills retention, with examples of successful collaboration between the preservation movement and today's bus industry.

A recent project for Stagecoach Yorkshire apprentices has been the restoration of this former GMT Metrobus, a commercial project with benefits for both sides, undertaken for the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester.

The podcast visits the Chesterfield depot of Stagecoach Yorkshire, where Engineering Director Jack Abbot guides us through the mutual benefits collaboration can bring for museums and operators when it comes to developing and retaining skills. Keep an eye on The Bus Inspectors' YouTube channel for an exclusive tour (coming soon!) of a project currently in the works...

Episode 6 will launch in early-Autumn, but you can catch up with the series so far in our short video or hear the episodes in full here.