RT75 12/04/14

www.londonbusmuseum.com/rt75

Various RTs running on route 22 in London this Saturday, including RT1 on its first runs after restoration (£10 separate fare - all other buses free)

http://www.londonbusmuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Route-22-120414-timetable.pdf

http://www.londonbusmuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Route-22-120414-timetable-RT1.pdf

 

And I'll be stuck at work.

 

If it's any consolation, I'm off to Carlisle. Knew it would be the wrong day to book a railtour!

 

......and good fun it was too!
My photos from Saturday with RT's running on route 22 in London can be seen here. http://paulgildersleve.smugmug.com/...April/38500310_3pFRVm#!i=3181166564&k=9tR4m5N

 

A nice set.

 

The AEC's tick the right boxes for me over the Leylands. I drove one of the AEC's........................once, only for a short distance, trapped my finger in the gate of the gear change.
They ALL looked well.

 

Victor - when I were a lad we had two routes passed the end of our road 75 Croydon - Woolwich Free Ferry and 108 Crystal Palace - Bromley by Bow. The 75 was allways an AEC RT and 108 always a Leyland RTL. ~It is very subjective, esp after 40 or more years, but I always thought the RTL had a better ride from a passengers seat, softer springs maybe.

Dave

 

I have always preferred the RTs to the RTLs but maybe that's because most of the routes that I knew and used were RT operated. RTLs were in other parts of London and therefore alien! To my ears, the RTs with their AEC engines always sound much more melodious than the fruity growl of the Leyland engined RTLs.

Having said that, I was quite happy to photograph all three versions of the RT family in London last Saturday and if anyone would like to have a look my pictures are here :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/train-pix/sets/72157643860751494

Alternatively, this is the first picture in the Photostream :

DB446. RT3183 in Piccadilly. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

 

It looks like I was in a privelidged part of London. We could sample the two types on the same roads between Upper Sydenham and Catford Rushey Green.

I will share a silly story for RT buffs. The 75 and 194 shared much of the same route, both AEC, but turned off in Lower Sydenham to head for Forest Hill. Mon to Sat the 75 was a Catford garage turn. The 194 worked out of Elmers End. For some reason on Sunday Elmers End provided some 75s. Once when coming back from Penge on a 75 one Sunday the driver took the left turn. He thought he was on a 194. Stoped by the conductor we backed in a sidestreet to turn and recovered our route.

Dave

 

I'd pay good money to have an hours driving experience with one in Central London (if I could manage to mount up)
I'll dust my long expired licence off, I've still got the PSV badge, BB62286. It's 35 years since I last drove a bus.

 

If I remember right its not just the climb up but the door was not that wide. If I can climb into a LMS brake I am sure you would make it into a RT

 

A few nice little anecdotes there.
My photos from the Sunday at Brooklands can now be seen here http://paulgildersleve.smugmug.com/...nds13/38563185_RLgCZt#!i=3187137542&k=cHMbpFW

Regards,

Paul

 

Nice, very nice, where else can you get bonnet lifting handles like those. Those machines, all of them, had character, character that's sorely missing in todays modern vehicles.

 

Quite right. Every part was designed to look good, regardless of what he had to do.

Paul

 

Can you still remember how to handle a pre-selector gearbox Victor?

As an aside, I wonder how many members of this forum have ever driven a vehicle with a Wilson pre-selector gearbox and fluid flywheel?

 

I have finally got my picture from the London Bus Museum's Spring Gathering onto Flickr and if anyone would like to see them, this is the first one in the Photostream :

DB493. RT1 on route 462. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

Clicking on the picture will enlarge it and take you to the others. Alternatively, they can be found in this Album, together with some pictures taken at a previous event at the London Bus Museum :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/train-pix/sets/72157627961488028

Hope that they are of interest.

 

I most certainly can, I don't think a fella can ever forget. A great bit of kit. I remember (just about) having a go in a large Daimler car that had a Wilson pre select box in it AND the guy who owned it had had to scrap the original engine and somehow he'd managed to fit a 4 cylinder Gardner diesel and mated the trans. to that. It worked, until the Gardner started to shake the coach built body to bits. Rumour had it that way way back the Daimler had been an ex Royal limo.

 

Me! A chum at school had a Lanchester 12.

 

Well, that makes three of us then! I can't claim to have driven an RT, but I did have a couple of Lanchesters and a Daimler or three many years ago. The Lanchesters were a Ten and an E18. The Daimlers were a Consort and a Conquest plus a 104 which I think had the Wilson 'box. With I could afford to run can like that now!

Here's the Lanchester E18 :
1478. 1935 Lanchester E18. c.1969. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

And here's the Daimler 104 :
1539. c.1956 Daimler 104 Lady's Model. August,1972. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

 

Not central London Victor, two video clips of RTs at the London Bus Museum's Spring Gathering last weekend :

RT1431 :

RT3491 :

Listening to those old AEC engines took me back a bit I can tell you.