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Notes About This Vehicle |
| Following the introduction of the 27ft 6ins long production Routemasters from 1959, a batch of longer 30ft vehicles, designated ‘RML’, received the fleet numbers 880 to 903. The experiment was regarded as successful and so it was a little surprising that the next vehicles to be built, from 904 upwards, returned to the earlier shorter ‘RM’ type. |
| Apart from the one-off experimental front entrance RMF1254, standard RMs continued to be built with fleet numbers reaching RM1452. |
| Following that, 68 luxury RMCs (RouteMaster Coach) further exemplified the versatility of the basic design. These carried the fleet numbers 1453 to 1520, reserved in advance, and were an evolution of the prototype CRL4 of 1957 which was later re-designated RMC4. |
| The RMCs entered service in a very smart dark ‘Lincoln green’ livery with light green relief bands. Other obvious external differences included twin headlamps and electrically operated platform doors. The door mechanism caused the nearside destination blind display to be raised, with access to that moving to the upper deck. |
| The interior was suitably upgraded as well, with luggage racks and fluorescent lighting. Seats were more generously upholstered and spaced, causing a reduction in capacity to 57 compared with 64 of the standard RMs and the 72-seater RMLs. |
| Designed specifically for use on the much longer distance Green Line coach routes, a larger fuel tank and upgraded suspension were also fitted. |
| This one and only batch of RMCs was introduced in four stages between August 1962 and January 1963. Though heavier than the standard Routemasters, the aluminium alloy bodied RMCs were nevertheless still lighter than the single-deck RF coaches they replaced. |
| When entering service, these vehicles still displayed stencil garage codes (‘HG’ for Hertford in this drawing), though these were soon to be replaced by painting them directly onto the vehicle body, a step already implemented on central area red buses. |
| The clean lines of these vehicles benefited from the lack of advertising, though by autumn of 1963 these curiously started to appear beneath the lower deck rear window obscuring the Green Line transfer. |
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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 entered service in August 1962. 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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