A ride in an RT.

Evening All,

I went to the Epping Ongar Railway on Sunday and used the heritage bus link from Epping to North Weald. RT3238 in London Transport 'Greenline' livery was doing the honours and I have put a few minutes of video on my YouTube channel. So if you like the sound of an AEC Regent III, join me for the ride. Hold very tight please - ding-ding!



Hope it's of interest.

TTFN,

Ron.

 

A proper bus. None of this modern rubbish.

 

It certainly took me back a bit. I could have been a three year old going to visit my auntie!

 

Me too - I used to use that bus route (and the Epping-Ongar tube) regularly in the 70s & 80s.

 

Nice video, I used to ride on those, albeit in country area livery, in the 60s/70s on the 311 between Radlett and Bushey. Nice memory jogger.

 

I've driven one of those (long ago and not in London) The BRSCC had one as a circuit control bus at Rufforth and I get the opportunity to drive it fro one end of the airfield to the other. I remember it well because I finished up with a black thumb nail, I got my thumb in the gate gearchange of that air assisted Wilson pre select gearbox when selecting another gear.
9.6 litre AEC engine.

 

Like others, I travelled on RTs regularly as a child/teenager (part of the school journey) and riding one of them again at the Epping Ongar a few years ago was quite a thrill. What did strike me then was how small they were compared with many present day buses.

Steve B

 

The RT was probably the best bus ever produced for London Transport along with its Leyland derivatives, the RTL and RTW ( W for wide, 8' rather than 7' 6" ). My father was a driver at Catford Garage and preferred the AEC version saying the engines were much smoother and slightly more powerful. The design was from 1939 with most being built post war up to 1954. The last examples lasted until the late 70s so they served London well.
This is the one that started it all, RT1 in Parliament Square on a special photographic event in 2014

 

I reckon I could still just about fit into that cab..

 

In Bradford (West Yorkshire) we received some second hand RT's in the late 50's and they gave at least 10 years good service. From distant memories of many rides on them they seemed to cope well with Bradford's many steep hills. RT172 (Bradford 410) is preserved and has been restored in full working order complete with roof route box.
Link:
Double Deck Buses | West Yorkshires premier transport group | Aire Valley Transport Group (avtg.co.uk)

 

They coped OK on the routes crossing Shooters Hill. Apparently, there were two distinct gearboxes, with different ratios. Faster for green buses, better acceleration for red 'uns.

The crazy thing was that their replacements (the original DMS) were nowhere near as reliable and the lack of prepaid tickets back then meant OMO was considerably slower than with RTs.

It has to be said, the heating arrangements left something to be desired in a cold winter, more especially if the front droplights had been badly locked off.

A YouTube clip from not so many moths ago showed a few (yep, LHD) are still in harness on scheduled services ar UCLA, where the platform position somehow suits what they need round the campus .... and where the workshop head honcho reckons them so well built, he can keep 'em running more or less indefinitely!

 

I remember the London country RT's I used to travel on them most week ends going from Woking, to Guildford it was a much longer route, that the Aldershot & District service, because it would go out to Send, then Ripley, before turning round and going over newlands corner, that was some hill BTW, before dropping down to Guildford. I think it was from Kingston We also used to get a green line coach Going as far as Welling Garden City, to Woking, It was strange seing London buses out in leafy Surrey, but saying that, i can remember, when i used to go to Brooklands College in Weybridge, catching a red London transport bus from Weybridge Station into the town its self.

 

For those who like such buses the Amersham and District Motorbus Society have their Chesham running day this Sunday https://www.amershammotorbussociety.co.uk/ (Click events tab) Apart from the inevitable RM's previous years have featured a wide mixture of RT's and RF's and other old buses recreating some of the routes around the Chilterns.

 

In London Borough of Havering, we got the first DMSs but they were so unreliable that about a year later the routes reverted to RMs (Which lasted another few years until replaced by Leyland Titans).

 

My bus route to secondary school was RT for a few months after I started. On the corner, by the school, an enormous pile of pupils would simultaneously descend the rear staircase and leap off the moving bus. Woe betide any conductor who tried to stand in the way. Happy days.

Then they ‘upgraded’ to DMS ☹️

 

In my old neck of the woods, a couple of years after the last RTs went, Abbey Wood* (AW) and Plumstead** (AM) were replaced by the new Plumstead garage (PD) and for a few years, virtually the entire MD fleet was concentrated there. I recall the early ones (then based at NX) damned nearly pulling 'wheelies', so far up did they rear under hard acceleration. Either they were detuned a bit, or drivers just got used to the sheer grunt of the things! After the long reign of the RTs and RMs, the soft, rolling suspension of the Scanias made several folks feel seasick!

I had a surprise last Saturday afternoon, when I saw a very well turned out red RT sitting at the Old Steine bus stand, here in Brighton. Presumably a charter of some.description. B&H buses have an RML (re-engined and it sounds bl--dy 'orrible) and a there's preserved RTL lives around here, but that was the first bog standard RT I've seen in many moons

*an old tram depot **there was a red GS, used as a staff bus, which lurked at the back of the old Plumstead garage for years

 

In London and lost for something to do Christmas Day?

https://1950s-vintage-bus-hire.co.uk/Christmas-430/

 

Yes I remember the red RF's in Weybridge, route 219 to Weybridge Vickers Works. Later blinds were cut to show Weybridge BAC works.
Travelling from New Haw to Heathside school I couldn't be bothered with the red RF for two stops. I had my RT or RLH mileage from New Haw.

Cheers, Neil

 

The OP"s film has reminded me of one I made in 2014.

 

Earlier that year there was a celebration of 75 years of RT buses:

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

TTFN,

Ron.