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Notes About This Vehicle |
| The life of what was to become a large fleet of RTs commenced just before the Second World War. The first such vehicles became known as ‘pre-war RTs’ though in truth this was a bit misleading with them actually entering service when the war had already started; the reference deferring to its design pedigree rather than implementation. |
| Following prototype RT1 built at Chiswick Works by the London Passenger Transport Board, further slightly modified vehicles reached RT151 in number with chassis from AEC and bodies still by the LPTB. The RT type was a very modern vehicle for its day despite its evolution from its forebears; strangely though, they retained a bulb horn in the cab. |
| Though not delivered at all in fleet number order, the first arrived at the end of December 1939 and the last of the majority by June 1940. A few more straggled on with the last in January 1942. |
| One of the more obvious features unique to the pre-war buses was the arrangement for the side and front cab windows which both had a downward curve to the corner. |
| Not obvious, though far more significant, the pre-war buses had a chassis that extended beneath, and in support of, the rear platform. The post-war RTs had a quite separate assembly for the platform and staircase, affixed to the rear bulkhead where it met the passenger compartment. |
| In reality, though the pre- and post-war RTs looked very similar, very little was interchangeable and this inevitably led to the early withdrawal of the pre-war buses when the entire fleet became due for replacement. Many were used as driver training vehicles. |
| The early buses had a horizontally mounted oblong mirror halfway along the front valance above the bonnet to allow the driver to see into the passenger compartment. Quite early on these were moved to the nearside corner and subsequently replaced by a (later conventional) circular one. When new, these buses had no front or rear indicators, being a later regulatory requirement. |
| Although prototype RT1 had a conventional offside front headlamp, oddly the early production buses did not, though this practice was rectified quite early on. |
| The bus depicted here is in wartime ‘blackout’ livery where the front sidelights and nearside headlamp were masked. The white tipped front mudguards and large white disk on the rear provided some visibility for other road traffic and pedestrians. Also of note in this wartime guise is the small route number stencil above the nearside window by the platform. This allowed some weak illumination from within the bus to the outside world. |
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Notes About This Drawing |
The early buses had a horizontally mounted oblong mirror halfway along the front valance above the bonnet to allow the driver to see into the passenger compartment. Quite early on these were moved to the nearside corner and subsequently replaced by a (later conventional) circular one. Though a later regulatory requirement, these buses had no front or rear indicators in London Transport days. |
Although prototype RT1 had a conventional offside front headlamp, oddly the early production buses did not, though this practice was rectified quite early on. |
The bus depicted here is in wartime ‘blackout’ livery where the front sidelights and nearside headlamp were masked. The white tipped front mudguards and large white disk on the rear provided some visibility for other road traffic and pedestrians. Also of note in this wartime guise is the small route number stencil above the nearside window by the platform. This allowed some weak illumination from within the bus to the outside world. The side windows have anti-splinter cotton mesh in place; on opening side windows this was only on the lower, fixed portion. |
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| © drawing copyright Douglas Rose – November 2019 |
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