Celebrating a British icon 11
RT1136 to RT1148, and these
instantly became my favourite
RTs.
Logically, there is no reason
why one particular group of
buses should be any more
favoured than any other out of
4,825 more or less identical ones,
but such are the ways of bus
spotters.
Not that they were really
identical, but we will come to
that in a minute. Inside the RT,
and this is what counts, it was
a masterpiece of design and
there was a smell like nectar –
perhaps I exaggerate slightly- a combination of the Rexine-
covered seats and fresh paint.
To quote the London Transport
Museum, the RT featured
‘advanced streamlining, bright
interior, comfortable seating,
smooth new diesel engine,
air brakes and a preselector
gearbox’.
The town of Croydon was
also served by green London
Transport buses from seven
Country Area garages. The first
green RTs went into service in
July 1948, north of the river,
at Tring garage. A month later,
Leatherhead in Surrey received
its first RTs and these soon
appeared in Croydon. One of the
first batch of green RTs, RT604,
was still at work with what had
become London Country Bus
Services, part of the National Bus
Company, at Chelsham garage in
1978.
To be strictly accurate and
make no false claims, the
overhaul system that London
Transport employed meant that a
bus that emerged after overhaul
possessed neither the same body
nor the same chassis as when it
went in. Only the number was
the same and not the bus. That
utterly confused us bus spotters
and a lot of other innocent
bystanders too.Different designs
By now, production of new RTs,
RTLs and RTWs was in full flood.
It was a wonder to behold. By the
end of 1949, 2,518 had arrived.
Although in a sense the 4,
RTs produced were of a standard
design, as were the 1,631 RTLs
and the 500 RTWs, there were
many variations, particularly
concerning the bodywork.
The 120 Cravens RTs departed
farthest from the norm, being
essentially of that company’s
standard, with five window
bays instead of four, although
internally the difference was less
marked.
I mentioned that the position
of the number indicator came
down from the roof in late 1948,
but production of buses with this
feature nevertheless continued,
on Cravens and Saunders RTs,
the last of the latter, RT4267,70 Years Ago
LEFT: Green
London Transport
Country Area
RT2119, new in
1949, operating
one of the longer
routes out of
Croydon.