12 The London Bus
not arriving from North Wales
until February 1951. Such a high
number for a bus of what was
now an antiquated design was
because the various builders were
allocated numbers in blocks.
Two visual variations that
considerably altered the look
took place in 1950. With the
introduction of spray painting in
the spring of that year, instead
of having cream around the top
deck windows, buses became
either red or green all over, the
only relief being a cream band
between the upper and lower
decks, which looked okay when
brand new, but soon took on
a rather dull aspect. Colourful
advertisements all over the bus
improved things.
Then in the autumn the
full destination blind display,
abandoned during the war years,
was at last restored.
In that year, the astonishing
total of 1,828 new buses entered
service, the greatest number of
new buses ever introduced in
London in one year, before or
since. Not only were prewar and
wartime buses being replaced,
but the final withdrawal of
trams began on the night of
30 September/1^ October.
The last new RTW took up work
in December. The Metropolitan
Police was wary of allowing 8ft
wide buses into central London, but
was convinced after trials and these500 Leylands became a feature of
some of the busiest routes serving
the City and West End.
Thirty-six of the new RTs were
painted in Green Line livery
and put to work out of Romford
garage on the intensive 721 and
722 services, replacing wartime
Daimler double-deckers and
prewar STL Regents. Internally
they were to pure bus specification,
but they looked smart.Delivery is completed
Another 873 new buses were
put into service in 1951 and
655 in 1952, which also saw the
complete elimination of trams
from London, and 602 in 1953.
Production of the RT and RTL
ended in 1954, the very last,
RT4794, arriving in November,
although the highest numbered,
RT4825, arrived in March.
RTL1631, the last of the new
Leylands, arrived in November.
The halcyon days were already
over. Patrol rationing had ended
in May 1950, car sales really took
off, although for many young
men and women their first car
was a prewar Austin Seven.
There was less demand for public
transport, particularly in the
evenings as people preferred
to watch television rather than
venture out to the cinema, and
63 new RTLs and 81 RTs went
straight into store.
The following year withdrawalof the non-standard Cravens-
bodied RTs began, these still
excellent vehicles being snapped
up for many years’ service with
new owners all over Britain. Then
in 1957 standard postwar ones
began to be withdrawn, the oldest
registered ones first, even though
this meant that the bodies might
be only four years old.
The 151 original RTs ended
passenger service in May 1955,
except for a brief foray into
the Country Area by seven in
1956/57. Gradually the stored
RTs and RTLs entered service
in the place of their withdrawn,
older fellows, the very last —
green RTs — taking up work
in the summer of 1959. Many
of them appeared in Croydon,
initially without advertisements
and, while not quite sparkling
after five years in store, were still
a fine sight.
In order to complete the story,
I must mention the lowbridge
double-deck fleet, which was
still needed and consisted of
76 RLH-class Weymann-bodied
AEC Regent IIIs of purely
provincial design delivered in
1950 and 1952, 715 AEC Regal
IV single-deckers (class RF and
RFW) plus 84 GS-class 26-seat
Guys delivered between 1951
and 1953, but the story of those
single-deckers must be left for
another The London Bus in
another year. ● MHCB70 Years Ago
RIGHT: One of
the last RTs to
go into service
was Weymann-
bodied RT4776,
delivered in July
1954 and not put
on the road for
another five years
when it went to
the Country Area
garage at East
Grinstead. This
shows it on one of
its first days in use.