Buses of Yesteryear

	Buses of Yesteryear
	Staines Riverside 10th August 1997

The day started with my last trip on a yellow London Buslines Leyland Olympian working route 90 to arrive at Hatton Cross in plenty of time for the 09:30 441C to Staines worked by RT3491. I was horrified to read in the Buses of Yesteryear programme that it has an 11.6 litre engine in place of the original, but it still sounds like a real AEC and showed 60kph on the tacho along the Great South West Road.


RT3491 at Hatton Cross ready to start work on Special Route 441C	The Sunday only 441 from Heathrow Central to Windsor via Staines is worked by London Buslines Darts	Just before it was painted First(f) Ealingbuses red London Buslines L26GAN	G48XLO after transfer to Ealing Buses as their LA48 for work on E1

Less than 10 buses were scattered round the car park when I arrived and I was able to get a clear shot at everthing I wanted as the vehicles entered. With over 70 buses attending and limiting myself to one 36 exposure slide film I could only photograph less than half of them. Multiple shots of the more interesting vehicles means that only a sample of the Routemasters and none of the provincials went onto film. To my amazement I totaly forgot to take a group shot of the 3 Ts !!

This page is dedicated to the single deckers

Three grand old ladies from Cobham


T31 1929 AEC Regal preserved since 1956	T504 1938 AEC Regal III last of the AEC halfcab single deckers	TD95 1949 Tiger PS1 the Leyland equivalent to the Ts

The buses of the Sixties to remind my of my schoolboy gricing.

A very high percentage of the GS class survive in preservation, their size making them an easy bus to house. The RF is one of my favourite buses ever since I went to school by red RF on Route 211 in the early 60s.


GS42 looking in fine fettle	AEC Regal IV RF113	Almost qualifying as a single decker low-bridge Regent III RLH48 completes this trio of green buses

Then of course there are a generation of buses best forgotten !!

I have been asked to point out that "Was this the bus that killed AEC ??" was a retorical question about the whole Merlin-Swift-Bus Reshaping Plan debacle and not a personal slight at SMS369 ! Friends of King Alfred may remember MS4 in other colours pretending not to be an ex-London bus.


AEC Swift SMS369, preserved complete with automatic fare collection machine.	MS4 rallied in London Transport livery for the 1st time.

About 12:30 I had a wander round the "market" and strolled down the HighStreet to administer the cooled Heineken. I saw RP90 on its way to Hatton Cross and worked out from the timetable that it would return to Staines Bus Station on its way to Windsor at 13:27 so I could photograph it and catch the 13:48 departure for Hatton Cross. I was hoping for the Barton AEC RegentV but got MTL's unrefurbished RML. Back at Hatton Cross I took some shots of the Buslines Olympians on 90 as I'm going to be busy for the next few weekends and over the August Bank Holiday Weekend the 90 is being split to form Metroline route 90 & London Buslines route 490 with both worked by Dart SLFs.


RP90 at Staines Bus Station on 441C Event Service	RML903's all over red MTL paint job contrasts with its "Showbus" features and unrefurbished interior	Blue Triangle's RT3871 waiting to depart on the Heathrow Circular Tour