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Six Liveries for the Same Fleet T207 to T306:
The six liveries portrayed in this set are the result of a request from the London Transport Museum in March 2025. The work took nine months and I wish to acknowledge the help willingly provided by Laurie Akehurst, Ian Dyckhoff and Richard Hussey. |
Historical Background:
The London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) began express services on 2nd October 1929, following earlier trial services operated by its subsidiary company East Surrey. On 9th July 1930, Green Line Coaches Ltd. was formed, subsequently operating these services, until transferred to the London General Country Services (LGCS) on 29th July 1932. Control of these went to the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB – or LT for brevity) from its formation on 1st July 1933. Legal lettering was applied to both sides at the outset though this was later omitted from the offside. Both Bell Street, Reigate and Broadway, Westminster have been identified on photographs, though which and when is not at all clear; from February 1935 it was LPTB. |
For these services, batches of 100, and then 50, rear-entrance coaches based on the AEC 662 Regal chassis were ordered. More Green Line services were being introduced in early 1931, requiring another 100 similar vehicles. These, though, had forward entrance bodies with an internal sliding door and rear emergency exits and were required with some urgency. As a result the order for bodies was shared – 50 from Duple, 25 from Weymann and 25 from Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies. They were numbered T207 to T306 with a random sequence of fleet numbers and registrations. The vehicles were built with a tinted glass panel above the windscreen was soon removed and panelled over, possibly at first overhaul. |
From 21st February 1931 routes were lettered, becoming numbered from December 1940. The network ceased from September 1942. When re-introduced from February 1946 a coherent 700 series of numbers was introduced. |
On the formation of the LPTB, LGCS, and therefore also Green Line, were passed to this new undertaking with maintenance at garages and overhauls at its Reigate premises. This control of the vehicles and overhaul practices did not pass back to LT’s principal works at Chiswick until 25th February 1935. Owing to poor record keeping whilst under LGCS, Chiswick began to issue replacement body numbers at next overhaul. From overhauls resuming at Chiswick, the hinged wooden ‘inspector’s seat’ (also called a ‘tester’s seat’) by the nearside of the bonnet was removed. These had been in place since K-types. |
The styles and shapes of the side route boards varied over time and the single rear roof-mounted ones were later replaced by three separate ones below window level, to make changing them easier. The earliest radiator caps were of a threaded flattened metal dome shape with a taller design used later, though the two types seem to have been used randomly. These were fitted to the T-types and others until they were replaced by hard rubber ones with a bayonet fitting from 1936. It is known that rear corner bumpers, probably sprung, were fitted to some of these vehicles (and other types), perhaps all of them, though they only lasted a few years. |
London Transport introduced a striking style for its fleetname with a large leading ‘L’ and trailing ‘T’ punctuated by an underline in between, all with black outlines characters and a gold infill. A version of this was later applied to Green Line coaches with a large ‘G’ and ‘E’. Before this, the Green Line fleetname, in yellow with black outline, was positioned at various locations, sizes and styles on the coaches, though it seems to have settled down with an underline below the whole name in capitals all the same size. As inferred from a lot of black & white photographs, the underline was distinctly lighter and some show a smaller name below the cab window. |
Country Area buses had a ‘B’ suffix added to their fleet numbers on new or re-painted vehicles from 1935 whilst coaches received a ‘C’. This was phased out after the War. |
The second design of Green Line coaches appeared in various liveries during its lifetime. With the passage of time and largely only contemporary black & white photographs as evidence, it is very difficult to infer the fine detail of them with any level of certainty. Broadly speaking it has been concluded the original livery comprised a dark green, black window surrounds and with a broad black band containing twin light green pinstripes, orange wheels and silver canvas-covered roof. From March 1931 a brighter green was used. During the Chiswick overhauls from February 1935 a new two-tone green livery was applied, with a lighter green for the window surrounds and only a thin black band below the windows. These were subsequently re-painted in Lincoln Green with white/off white window surrounds. |
With the likelihood of War, there was a perceived need for emergency ambulances for the Staff Welfare Department to use at key properties. After a prototype, fifteen other similar vehicles were converted and added to the service vehicle fleet. The conversion involved stripping out the interior and widening of the rear emergency door to let stretchers through more easily. Seats were removed with space provided for ten stretchers instead. |
Converted ambulances were painted all over in ‘Chiswick Green’, including the windows for internal privacy – this drab olive green was used widely on the service vehicle fleet. The coaches later transferred for bus use had the twin front blind boxes changed to a standard single one. |
Research Sources:
No photographs of these coaches in their original livery have been found so far. The livery and many features have been inferred from historical records which, at best, are unsurprisingly not to the detail required to produce this set of drawings. |
Many London Transport photographs have been inspected, though the reason for which the photographs were taken must always be considered. Mostly, photographs would have been taken to record, perhaps, a new design or an experiment. Only photographs of vehicles in service can be regarded as reasonably representative of the fleet and these are seldom detailed enough and never show all four elevations. |
Some secondary sources have been used but only those regarded as reliable, these include: The London T-Types by Ken Blacker, the website of Ian Smith Ian’s Bus Stop and various writings of Laurie Akehurst. LGOC and LT individual record cards have been examined too. Significant input on many points of mechanical and structural details have been provided by Ian Dyckhoff and Richard Hussey. |
The bodies from Duple, Weymann and Ransomes were all to a supposedly identical design, though inevitably there were many minor constructional differences from manufacturer to manufacturer. The London Transport Museum’s photographic collection unfortunately revealed a disproportionate bias against Duple, which has made many of the evolutionary detail inferences difficult as T219 had/has a Duple body. |
From much time spent inspecting the vehicle and a great deal more on research into its life, it has been concluded that T219 existed in six different liveries when in service. It has also been concluded that its current state of preservation does not represent any of these accurately and can be regarded as a seventh. |
London Transport Museum Photographs Analysed:
1998\78871 Feb31*
1999\8467 Feb31*
1999\10555 Feb31*
1999\10581 Feb31*
1999\10594 Feb31*
1999\10601 Feb31*
1999\10602 Feb31*
1999\11857 Feb31*
1999\10383 Apr31
1998\73274 Nov33
1998\73276 Nov33
1998\73279 Nov33
1998\89885 Nov33
1998\89886 Nov33
1998\73288 Jul34
1998\73289 Jul34
1998\44418 Sep34
1998\44428 Sep34
1998\73293 Jul34
1998\87865 Nov35
1998\87866 Nov35
1998\87867 Nov35
1998\87869 Nov35
1998\44410 Dec36
1998\73305 Jun36
1998\87862 Jun37 |
* This is a set of posed photographs of T302 at Chiswick Works before entering service. It is clearly not finished, with no registration plates or licence plate – and roof boards not seen on any of this class in service. Having inspected these photographs we have disregarded them. |
Other Photographs Analysed:
The London T-Types, Blacker, pp 55 and 63 [Alan B. Cross];
The London T-Types, Blacker, pp 64 lower [Denis Battams];
Green Line 1930-1980, Jones and Davis, inside front cover and p5;
thirteen from the Laurie Akehurst collection. |
General Points:
Green Line logos both before London Transport and subsequently seem to have had variable positions, also some vehicles with and without them applied to the front offside corner below the cab. |
There are too many finer points of detail to list that are conjectural on this drawing. |
Conclusion:
T219 has had at least seven different liveries since new. It carried none of the first six for more than a few years each. It has carried its present livery for over seventy. |
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