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Notes About This Vehicle |
| London Transport was formed on 1st July 1933, though in reality little changed that day. The Underground by then had been operating all sub-surface and tube lines except the Metropolitan, as well as the majority of local buses. |
| The new ‘London Transport’ was heavily based on the former Underground group, including continuing its use of its headquarters at 55 Broadway. Nevertheless, the date did mark the start of a new era in public transport in London. What didn’t change was the continuance of the bespoke design of buses to run in the capital, culminating with the Routemaster. |
| A number of events were organized to mark this 50th anniversary and two buses were re-painted in special commemorative gold liveries. Being the obvious choice numerically, RM1983 was so painted in April of that year, whilst Titan T747 was temporarily re-numbered T1983 as the other. Neither of them carried any commercial advertising. |
| RM1983 was now nearly 20 years old and therefore had seen much service and been through a few overhauls. The body nevertheless incorporated many of the features only found on later vehicles when they were new – the most obvious being the upper deck offside illuminated advert panel. Also of note are the reduced height front air intake for the ventilation system with consequential uninterrupted white relief band, blanked off front brake grilles, and the inclusion of the AEC badge on the radiator grille. |
| At that time, London Transport had eight operating districts and it was intended the bus would visit all of them. It commenced operation in Croydon on 30th April on route 190 as depicted here, authentically with no rear hub caps. |
| The bus suffered from a number of mechanical problems unfortunately and ended up at Clapham in September where it stayed until it was returned for re-painting red the following February. That said, it operated in this elegant colour scheme out of about a dozen garages on several routes during the spring and summer months of 1983. |
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Notes About This Drawing |
| The drawing is based on a Chiswick Works general arrangement drawing from 1963 ‘RM001.Z.1’, revised a few times to 1964. This type of black & white sketch drawing, as implied by the name, is not intended to define detail but as a specification guide to builders. |
| All the fine detail has been interpreted from several black & white and colour photographs of sufficient quality that could be found and attempts to show the vehicle as closely as possible to how it looked when it was in service in this livery. None of the detail can be regarded as definitive. |
It should be understood that all four elevations are seen here as one would see each part of the vehicle at a truly perpendicular angle. In real life this is of course impossible. |
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| © drawing copyright Douglas Rose – March 2018 |
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