98 The London Bus
Less refined
The Guys definitely
lacked the
refinement of the
later STL or the RT.
They had the five-
cylinder Gardner
5LW engine, a
unit that urban
operators like
Birmingham and
Manchester had
been specifying
in their double-
deckers; London
might have
preferred
the beefier
six-cylinder
Gardner 6LW,
but these were typically allocated
to operators with hilly terrain.
The Guys had sliding mesh
or constant mesh gearboxes
that tested London drivers
who had become used to the
preselector gearboxes that were
better suited to intense urban
conditions.
The London Guy Arabs were
allocated to eight garages
and performed impressively
throughout the war and in the
early postwar period, but it was
inevitable that London Transport
would want to sacrifice non-
standard buses in favour of its
in-house RT design.
When production of the
postwar RT started up, it
progressed with a vengeance.From the first deliveries in mid-
1947 to the end of 1949, more
than 3,100 RT family buses had
joined the London fleet – that’s
an average of three-and-a-
half buses a day. By the timedeliveries had ceased in 1954, the
RT family of AECs and Leylands
totalled just short of 7,000
buses – so it was clear that this
impressive influx would allow
older and non-standard buses toLives after London
ABOVE: A 1953
Duple trade press
advertisement
highlighting
the lightness of
the bodywork.
GAVIN BOOTH
COLLECTION
ABOVE RIGHT:
A posed press
photograph of
one of the first of
Edinburgh’s rebuilt
and rebodied Guys
with its driver
and conductor
inspecting
the access to
the engine.
GAVIN BOOTH
COLLECTION
RIGHT: Well-
laden Guy 315
(former London
Transport G377)
in Princes Street,
Edinburgh on a
tram-replacement
service, passes two
of the remaining
trams. It shows
it as delivered,
with non-opening
side windows.
JOHN FOZARD
Preserved
Edinburgh
314 (based
on London
Transport G77
new in 1943),
restored with
its replica
original
front, at
the Scottish
Vintage Bus
Museum.
GAVIN BOOTH