Routemasters

Here's something I've also sent in for the MBF Journal, which is in the queue waiting for the opportune moment to print. The editing comes courtesy of Yorkshire Area Secretary John May, but the words and photos are my own. 

Hopefully it lifts the lid on why there's so many Routemasters in the fleet. 

Click on the photos for a larger view. 

"My interest in Routemaster buses goes back 15 years when I conducted some of them during a summer job in Cornwall. In my first job after graduating from University I conducted some of the fleet of Classic Bus North West on weekend hire work before I relocated to the South East when I joined Stagecoach as a bus scheduler. 

Up until I conducted RMs I never really 'got' the fascination the enthusiast world has with them.

Now, there are around 30 Routemaster buses in my Southwest Buses model fleet. 

They are generally ones that have a personal connection for me and use identities of buses I've conducted. 

Most of them have modern running units (such as Cummins B series/Scania engines and modern automatic gearboxes). So whilst the buses themselves are 'old' the running components are reasonably modern and thus simpler to maintain. 

Almost all of the ‘as-built types’ (RCL, RMA, RMC, RMF, RML and the standard RM) are represented in the fleet, but there are plans to create an RME (front entrance RMA extended with a full bay to make a 72 seater, and to find another open top ERM). 

An RMA and sufficient bits from a scrap standard RM are owned, I just need to be sufficiently brave to have a go with a hacksaw and hope I don't remove fingers in the process. I treat them as private hire coaches, rather than local service buses and run them on wedding hires, birthday and school prom work, so the buses themselves work half of the year normally on weekends. 

The work dovetails nicely with my school contracts. A large portion are the post 2001 TfL 'Dartmasters' - the vehicles bought in by Ken Livingstone and sent to Marshalls for new engines, gearboxes and interior refurbishments. 

Once that work was completed the first of these entered traffic in spring 2001, and when the last normal service buses were retired in 2005 these Dartmasters were the ones kept to run the Heritage services, 9 and 15.

I tend to source RM models fairly cheaply via a number of locations, typically ebay but usually toyfairs. The more distressed the better as they're less than £2. Often I'll have buying sprees where I build up a stock of 'to do's' then I work through them. The events of 2020 have meant I am down to an emptyish box now, what with all the free time I've been blessed with! 

RMA 11 and standard RM 1245 (photo 1):
Few of the fleet have the traditional AEC engines fitted, but the RMA and this standard RM are exceptions. The real RMA 11 spent time in Dorset working with Verwood Transport, then Green Rover before sale in 2004 to Western Greyhound in Cornwall. 

It was the first RM that I conducted on service work. The model is an out of the box EFE bought in 2018. As the model didn't have a destination screen fitted I added one, before putting it into service. RM 1245 was the first RM bought by my current fleet, after it began in May 2009. 

Of course, there are earlier examples, but they served with Blue Bus, my first fleet and were retained after the sale. The model was an unboxed EFE in Stagecoach stripes which needed some remedial paint work. 

This morphed into a repaint of all-over red with a white central band and in 2014 it was repainted out of Humbrol red using my normal acrylics and the central band changed to yellow. 

The real bus was the only one bought from the TfL batch in 2000 to not re-enter service, due to its poor structural condition.

RCL 2240 and RMC 1485 (photo 2):
The real RCL 2240 at one time found work as a mobile bar for Bombardier – there’s a photo of it in this guise taken at a beer festival at the well-known Barrow Hill Roundhouse near Chesterfield in 2012. RMC 1485 was one of the last batch of standard-length coaches built. It spent time in London Country, NBC green and an LT red and gold livery for the Express X15 service before going to Lothian Buses for the Mac Tours service, and then finished up with Ensignbus.

RM 1164 and RM 1018 (photo 3):
RM 1164 is the model that Corgi/OOC produced of one of the RMs that Stagecoach operated in traditional East Midland livery of mustard, cream and chocolate. The personal connection in this one is that it was based at Mansfield where I passed my PCV test. 

RM 1018, new in 1961, was withdrawn in 1993 and sold to Reading Mainline before being rebuilt in 2000 for the London refurbishment fleet and allocated to Sovereign. After sale in 2005 it led a chequered career before going to Nova Scotia in 2011. The model is an Oxford Diecast example.

RM 1568 and RM 191 (photo 4):
An interesting comparison of Seerol (left) and the Oxford (right) castings. The modern day Oxford model is based on the Seerol casting, though the main difference is the wheels, and the drivers signalling window adjacent to the bonnet, straight edge present on the Seerol, missing on the Oxford. 

The Seerol model arrived in October 2018 in somewhat battered condition and I have a small album of photos showing the transformation from arrival to entry of service. 

As for the real bus, it was one I conducted in Lancashire. 

RM 191 is the Oxford model - originally a yellow Blackpool bus, bought by my late father at a York Racecourse toyfair. It was in a box of models handed to me in 2013 a few years before his passing. 

The real RM 191 is now an afternoon tea bus in London, but spent 4/5 years in Somerset with Nippy Bus of Martock where it was used a wedding/prom bus. 

Nippybus later achieved national notoriety in 2017 when the owner sacked his entire workforce via text in order to 'achieve his dream of not having to work here anymore'......

EFE & Oxford open tops (photo 5):
There are 3 or 4 open top examples in the fleet also - one of which has been awaiting recommissioning since 2016 and shows no sign of a return any time soon. Branding on the EFE bus is for a City Tour of London which needs a couple of vehicles - normally it is run for groups as a private hire. The EFE bus arrived in February 2016. 

The Oxford model was one of a pair I found at the Bath & West Showground Toyfair in December 2017, for £3.99 each. The top deck has been glazed using clear acetate sheet, as has the rear bottom deck window. Oxford don't glaze these on the open top buses.

 

RMs Seerol, Oxford, EFE & Corgi (photo 6):
A line up of the different diecast RMs available on the market. The blue lined EFE bus is of note in being one of my £3 scrap bin finds from the 2016 EFE open warehouse sale. 

I bought 10 at the time, some just needed the incorrect transfers removing and a touching in of some of the paintwork, three of them needed the glazing units replacing completely as they were fogged, and of those three, two needed a full repaint. This blue lined example was one of these, completed in 2018 the same time as the oxford open toppers. 

Silver Jubilee Routemaster (photo 7):
For the London Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee RM1650 was operated by First in a version of the Silver Jubilee livery worn by it and 24 other RMs in 1977. Between these times it had operated in the Blackpool Transport fleet and then Reading Mainline.

Open–top ERM (photo 8):
The open top 'red' Routemaster was acquired last year and is an extended (by a full bay) Seerol RM converted to open top."