Friends of Classic London Buses of the Fifties For those actively involved in or supporting the preservation of London buses, coaches and trolleybuses of the past On Sunday 23rd February the Epping-Ongar Railway held an event to commemorate 50 years of London Country Bus Services Ltd. Can it really be that long ago? The event will be reported upon later in this Newsletter, but to open proceedings, here is Keith Valla's shot of RF 180 and RMC 1507 in Old Harlow. In what some readers might choose to interpret as “typical” London Country practice, the two Green Line vehicles (the RF now downgraded to bus livery, of course) are being utilised on non-Green Line work, but fifty years ago it was a case of using whatever was actually in running order to cover the schedules. The RF also lacks the radiator filler flap which while I am sure was something unintentional, might again be regarded as not entirely unknown in those days. Newsletter 164 April 2020 Opening Lines One of our regular and prolific contributors to the Newsletter recently wrote to me as follows: ”I was at Acton "Depot" on Wednesday to say my goodbyes to Bob Bird as he has now departed from the site. I have used the staff canteen on the first floor on a number of occasions. There are usually a number of deposited old road and rail magazines but on Wednesday I noticed the two most recent FoCLBotF (January and February) Newsletters. They were unstapled and obviously came from one of our recent recruits who had printed them off for those visiting the site (there are quite a number during the week). My concern is that some are getting to see the Newsletter for nowt, which concerns me as there is a lot to do on your part in putting the Newsletter together for which we hope the subscriptions cover the cost of production and postage. I remember some time ago you made comment regarding the forwarding of e-mailed versions of the Newsletter to non-members, so perhaps a similar message regarding its printing might hit the right spot. Quote the foregoing if you need to.” I have so quoted and I can confirm that the subscriptions cover the costs of production and postage. They do not provide any “income” for me or indeed any of the others 1 who are involved in operating this little organisation, and before someone raises the question of the copies sent to London Bus Museum members, I can advise that these, while free to the recipients, are in fact financed. I am pleased that the Newsletter attracts so much interest and that non-subscribers enjoy reading it, but play fair, chaps (or chapesses) and please don't freeload off the rest of the paying members, it's not fair to them. The London Guy Special Peter Gomm I must explain this NOT a review, just a few observations. I had few dealings with the class in service restricted to travelling to work in the early 1960s. For about a year I worked for the RAF at Bovingdon Airfield and lived in Boxmoor. The 316 picked me up at a stop outside my home which was great but not so good was the walk from Bovingdon village to the airfield which was about three quarters of a mile, especially in bad weather. One of the buses I would travel on was GS 17, then allocated to HH. Little did I know then that I would be involved with it many years later. This came about because of the threat of it being vandalised, the owner keeping it on his drive and it being viewed as lowering the tone of his neighbourhood. Whilst it was with us I saw a piece in a magazine which had a small picture of the front of a bus with the caption, "Somebody should save this Austin bus". I immediately recognised a GS in a rather poor state and thought it might give us some spares for 17. It turned out to be GS 32 which was serving as an office/store to a builder. I spoke to John Clarke and we agreed to ask Ward Jones to look and collect it back to his yard. The seats had been welded to form benches round the saloon, otherwise it was nearly complete but in a very poor state as shown on page 197 of the book. It was agreed that it wouldn't be scrapped but John would take it on and those who have seen and travelled on it will agree he did a grand job. Above: Judge for yourselves – here is restored GS 32 in Railway Street, Hertford, returning to the bus station during a running day on 3rd June 2001. In this photograph by Martyn Hunt, John Clarke himself is at the wheel. The Perkins badge on the grille is a little non-standard addition. Since those days, John has passed the bus on to another owner. 2 “Let Him Have It!” Peter Osborn In answer to Brian’s question about the 109 (previous edition). The 109 was about 18 months old in November 1952, running from Purley round the Embankment loop (both directions) in replacement of tram routes 16 and 18. It was worked by Brixton (BN) and Thornton Heath (TH), but both using RTs, I’m afraid – 88 of them. North of Brixton, the peak service was 56 buses an hour – truly a tram replacement. The only RTL allocation was a brief period in 1964 when BN put out three on Saturdays, during the period when their main allocation switched from RT to RTW. After they finished in 1966, both garages provided RTs right up to a short-lived replacement by RMs in 1976; the route converted to DMs in 1978. ...and from John A Gray: “A part answer to Brian Clarke’s enquiry in newsletter 163 is given in the photograph on page 12 of London’s Classic Buses in Black & White (Gray: Capital Transport Publishing, 2001). RT 4003 on the 109 is overtaking a (disabled?) tram anti-clockwise along the Victoria Embankment at the time: thus, AECs. I’ll leave as to which garage the bus was allocated to those better equipped to say . though the caption suggests Brixton, previously a tram depot. Pinewood Studios, Gibsons and blinds Peter Larkham Graham Smith beat me to it with his info about the RT at Pinewood on the cover of Newsletter 162. I attach two photos, one confirmatory of the location, taken on the occasion of the Slough/Windsor Running Day 2011 organised by the Amersham & District Motor Omnibus Society. Chris Wills' RT 3254 has just arrived on 457D. It is outside the old "Main Entrance" where stars, producers etc. would drive through in their Cadillacs, Rollers or taxis. The entrance is now further to the right, and much less glamorous. The second photo (next page) was taken as part of an elaborate "route re-creation" in 2008 with Ensign's two Cravens RTs, taking in the 385, 158 and 114, finishing with a photoshoot at Bakers Road, Uxbridge. So you now have photos of Cravens RTs on both 457C and D. Perhaps Graham will know whether the buses worked as 457D to Pinewood, then 457C to Uxbridge, reversing the process on the way back to Windsor. 457 (via George Green) and 457A (via Upton Lea) were the "main line" services, not serving Pinewood; there was even an earlier 457B, almost entirely unrelated, which was renumbered 400 (there is a photo in Peter Aves' Green All Over) 3 Above: RT 1499 at Baker's Road, Uxbridge Martyn Hunt's account of his exploits on 25 September 1983 stirred some memories, as I too was at that final Open Day at Aldenham Works. It was touch and go, as our first child was due around then, but domestic management gave permission for me to go and I'm glad I did for a number of reasons. I bought my first Gibson from a pile of brown fibre cases. It cost £40, had no printing plate, but was a Country Area machine with date wheels instead of ticket prices. I think it had been used by LCBS for conductor training, as it still carries an elaborate sticker, instructing which "old money" values should be used for decimal fares. Several years later I was honoured to spend a morning with the late George Sawyer, who had been Gibson's assistant during the development of the prototypes. He had been coaxed out of retirement to resume heading up ticket machine maintenance at (by then) Chiswick Works under BEL, rather than Effra Road (under LT). He had warned me he could only see me for as long as it would take (five minutes?) to buff LONDON TRANSPORT off a spare plate and fit it, but when he realised I was interested in the machines' history, he showed me his collection of (almost?) every type of Gibson there had ever been, including (there may have been even more) long ticket, Central, Country, decimal, Douglas Corporation, West Bridgford, Melbourne, Athens and the Chiswick Conductor Training School, which used Perspex casings so that the interior workings of the machine could be demonstrated. Gibson had been an ideas man rather than practical, so George did the machining and assembly at each stage of the design and prototype process, and between them they eventually cracked it. As the man who knew more than anyone else about the machine (including Gibson himself - but note whose name is remembered!), he was adamant that it should never, ever be oiled.