August 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of my first ever visit to London, in the company of my parents and aged 15. I had been champing at the bit for a long time before then. It was the red buses that were the original lure. I can trace my first stirrings to when I was six years old, when my father returned home after several weeks away, working at what was then London Airport in Hounslow. He brought a little goody bag of gifts – the contents included a Corgi Toys Ford Consul, a Matchbox die-cast excavator, a Gamages catalogue, and some London Transport bus maps. I spent many hours poring over these maps and tracing the bus routes. From photographs, I became aware of the RT family that were the backbone of these routes, supplemented by the 6-wheeled trolleybuses. All looked very handsome and impressive. I just had to be there to see and sample for myself.
By August 1965, the trolleybuses had gone, but the RT family was still predominant. I remember us sampling the 105 and 88 bus routes during our far-too-brief five-day pioneering visit. The 88 was still in the hands of the Leyland RTLs, which gave me a soft spot for the breed.
Thanks to the Classic London Bus Society and its re-enactment of former LT bus routes, I was able to reacquaint myself with the RTL type, most recently on this run to unfamiliar corners of south east London. Here, the London Bus Museum’s RTL139 (KGK803) poses for a photostop at Brockwell Park. Ensignbus stalwart Bob Stanger is at the wheel.
Posted by st_asaph on 2015-04-17 16:10:58
Tagged: , rtl , london_transport , ensignbus , london_bus_museum , rtl139 , kgk803 , double_decker , brockwell_park , tclbs , classic_london_bus_society , 7rt