Notes About This Vehicle

Great play was made when the then mayor of London announced that a new bus was to be designed to “bring back the Routemaster”. Putting to one side the nonsense of this statement we can note the fact that the new bus, fleet numbered with the prefix ‘LT’ by Transport for London, entered service in 2012. These buses had a diesel engine whose only job was to charge the batteries; it was the batteries that powered the bus and not the diesel engine. This was seen as a major step forward in reducing emissions. What was not said particularly loudly (if at all) was that similar technology had been used from over a century ago, albeit using a petrol engine (efficient diesel engines were still a little in the future).

The company of W.A. Stevens of Maidstone was formed in 1897 and had powered a petrol-electric vehicle by 1908. The petrol engine was connected to a dynamo which generated the current to drive two traction motors, one to each rear wheel. The first using this motive power fitted with a Tilling body was its double-deck TTA1 model, in 1911.

Thomas Tilling’s activities in the bus industry are recorded as far back as 1846, long before horses had been retired. The business passed to his sons, who with their father’s son-in-law formed a limited company in 1897. In 1909 Tilling entered a collaborative agreement in London with the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC), the two operating some routes jointly. Tilling continued independently outside London until nationalization in 1948.

The single-deck bus depicted here had a Tilling timber-framed body mounted on a chassis with petrol-electric running units from Stevens and designated as its model TS7. The electricity to the rear wheels still came from a dynamo, but with both powered from a single motor.

As can be seen in this drawing, there was a large fuel tank at the back. Motor buses of similar age relied on a stick being poked through the filler pipe to establish the level of fuel inside. This was not a problem as a full tank provided for a known distance that could be covered each day.

The drawing depicts fleet number 0172, one of twelve 30-seat single deckers of this type built specially for Thomas Tilling’s London fleet to work on route 109. These first appeared in General livery but were later painted in full Thomas Tilling livery, though still owned and operated by the LGOC. It was new in 1925 and had solid tyres; the pneumatics, as shown here, were not fitted until 1930.

After a short life in service, the bus was withdrawn in 1932 and sold to a showman at Godstone for use on a fairground. It was found in 1979 being used as a chalet by the riverside at Walton-on-Thames.

Having been rescued, the project of restoring the vehicle took ten years of fastidious work and involved locating an engine, dynamo and electric motor, as well as the construction of a radiator based on original drawings. In its present state, one or two modifications have been fitted to make it road legal and drivable in present-day conditions; these have been omitted from the drawing.

Notes About This Drawing

This drawing is based on about 250 general and close-up detail photographs of fleet number 0172, followed by extensive measuring of it. The vehicle is of course in heavily restored condition and in itself the result of much agonizing by its owner from years of research when re-creating much of detail. None of the detail here can be regarded as definitive and it must be kept in mind that vehicles of this time were hand built and varied notably anyway.

It should be understood that all four elevations are seen here as one would see all parts of the vehicle at a truly perpendicular angle. In real life this is of course impossible.