Preservation for 3238 started on 9 June 2015, when the four of us arrived at Arriva's Northfleet Garage to collect P238 MKN. The handover didn't take very long and we were soon on our way to Go-Coach, Otford, who had kindly agreed to carry out the necessary pre-MOT work for us. Go-Coach were quick to carry out the work and 3238 was returned to us on 14 June.

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Three days later, we presented 3238 for the MOT at Pro Tune, Maidstone, the testing facility being housed in part of the Arriva Bus Deport at Armstrong Road, where it duly passed. The journey down from our base on the London/Kent border had though been rather fraught, as 3238 was prone to cut out once the engine got warm after prolonged running. Anyway, that luckily did not form part of the test, but an equally troublesome trip home ensued.

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                                             First MOT pass in preservation, Darren with the certificate, Armstrong Road, 17 June 2015

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The first rally in preservation for 3238 was on 21 June, when we attended the North Weald event. Despite this being a nice day for weather, we were fortunate not to encounter any of the cutting out issues, experienced earlier in the month.

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The 26 June was a lovely evening weather wise, and so 3238 enjoyed an evening run out around Orpington with Tom Gurney's recently acquired ex Yorkshire Tiger Marshall bodied Dart, V355 DLH.

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The next significant event occurred on 19 July when we moved base, still in Kent, and further evening road runs for photos took place on both 23 July and 31 July.

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The Herne Bay Rally was on 9 August, and 3238 performed on the free services from the rally site to and from the station, and along the sea front. The vehicle didn't perform that well on these services suffering from throttle issues which made the vehicle unpleasant to drive. This was also a baking hot day, and so the inevitable engine cut out fiasco once again set in for our long journey back to base.

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Following this rally, 3238 was once again sent to Go-Coach for some further repairs including a new fuel pump. Meanwhile we also set about removing more of the red 'death' stripe applied by Arriva upon withdrawal, plus removal of the advert framing and a thorough clean of the interior of the blind box glazing. By now we were also experiencing problems with the windscreen wipers, and so we tried some alternatives we had acquired.  

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By 1 September, it was time to loose the tatty Arriva livery for a nice coat of Maidstone & District cream and green and so the vehicle headed off to Mardens Commercials at Benfleet. The repaint took a couple of weeks and we collected 3238 from Essex on 16 September, resplendent in it's new guise. We refitted the blinds a couple of days later.

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The big bus event of the year 'Showbus' was taking place on 20 September at Donnington. 3238 was entered but we were still encountering problems with the engine cutting out on long runs, so we decided against the long trip north. Instead on a glorious day, we took 3238 out for some photos around Kent, which turned into a long run, and the vehicle performed faultlessly. We had another run out for photos in the dark on 26 September and obtained some very nice images.

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The last rally of 2015 for 3238 was the Canvey Island event on 11 October. Being cooler, plus we didn't run much above 30mph, we didn't encounter our cut-out issues, and the vehicle performed on the free service between Labworth Park and the museum site for most of the day. Arriva had also sent sister Dart, 3191, to the event, and the opportunity was taken to pose the pair for photos for the last time. Sadly, we would get the opportunity to strip parts off 3191 the following year, but at least it helped in the preservation of 3238. On returning from Canvey we experienced further issues with our wipers, so we replaced them again during the month, but they were not much better, and there were further problems encountered on 25 October.

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Each year we knock up a Calendar which we hand out to our friends at the end of the year. We therefore headed out for some calendar pictures on 22 November, and a friend kindly fixed our blower motor, and slid underneath the vehicle to turn our heaters on - much appreciated!

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3238 took part in a 'private' road run to the Christmas Market at Rochester on 13 December before finishing the year off with another night photo run on 29 December.

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So that's the story of the first six months in preservation for 3238. 

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