Bus stop header

Prepared in Notepad by Ian Smith, updated 10th March 2024.
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The BUS-STOP is an outsider's view of London Transport buses, mainly in the 1930-1980 era.

Whats at the bus stop:

What's New Special Reports Archive Arriva the Shires Solo 2463 at Hertford Bus Station on 395: Sele Farm Estate & Fanham Common, June 2011
LONDON BUS CLASSES:
1920-30s: TTA1 G K LB D DS S PS O ADC NS LS
1920-30s: R AJS CH DE DM LN WLV NY BN
1930-40s: LT CC ST LTL T CB DL DT DA GF DC MY
1930-40s: TD TR STL STD BD MS C Q LTC TF CR
1940-50s: B G D TD
1950-70s: RT RTL RTW RTC SRT RF RFW BEA GS RLH
1950-90s: RM RMC RCL RML RMF RMA FRM RX RW RC EC
1960-70s: TT XF XA MB SM SMW SMA RP DMS DMO FS FT
1970-90s: AF AN MS LN LNB SNC SNB LS GSN GLS
1970-90s: BL BN BS BL MD PD3 LS LR BT P,D RN
1980s: RB RS DV DL PL TL TD TP TPL LRC BTL
1980-00s: T M A V Dominators L LR C DA LE1
1980-00s: Volvo Citibuses Scanias Lynxes midibuses Volvo B10s
1990-00s: Leyland Olympians Volvo Olympians DAF d/d DAF s/d
1990-00s: Lances Arrows Darts Falcons Volvo B6 MV
1990-10s: Dart SLFs Optare Excels Scania SLFs MAN Solo
2000-10s: Lance SLFs Cadets DLA DLP Tridents Presidents Omnis
Links to other L.T. sites The sources used About the bus-stop
GREEN ROVERS Central Garages Country Garages "Arriva the Shires Solo 2463 at Hertford Bus Station on 395: Sele Farm Estate & Fanham Common, June 2011."

What's New:

28th March 2024

More Solos: Regal Transport, Mullany's.

10th March 2024 Green Rovers 2024 dates.

More Solos: Docklands Minibuses, Nostalgiabus/Northdown, F.E.Thorpe and Metroline, Mullany's,

22nd February 2024 More Solos: Crystals, T-GM (Dartford) and Metrobus, Mitcham Belle & Centra, Travel London, Limebourne, Connex, Travel London/Surrey, abellio surrey, First Essex, First London, First Berkshire, First Capital.

24th January 2024 My Christmas task this year was to make a start on Optare Solos, a fascinating bus that I had rarely seen and only once travelled on (from Hertford North Station to the Bus Station). I started with Arriva the Shires, where I had most of my encounters, and found that I had bitten off a great mouthful to chew on - especially as I included Milton Keynes. What with Arriva's corporate writhings the history was complicated and diverse - little consistent policy here, but fascinating! But here it is: Epsom is ready too: other companies to follow.

13th October 2023 I have had a fresh look at the RTW class, with a rather fuller text, and details of their introduction, road-testing and development. I am currently slogging through the individual bus histories, but these will take at least a month to do. And then I will have to dfind data to fill the gaps. Enjoy!

19th September 2023 Two more classes of pre-war buses have received updates courtesy of Ken Blacker's excellent book: the pre-war STDs , and the luxury coach LTCs.

I have also been doing sketches of some of the pre-war single decker Guys, largely relying on books by Ken Glazier and Ken Blacker. Their contributions to London bus history is immense.

You may have noticed a lack of special events reports. Since Covid I have been travelling much less, and seldom get down to London, and then only fleetingly for family reasons. So no bus meets, sorry!

7th August 2023 I have spent quite a while working on the London Buses in service during 1950, and have reached December. That year saw an enormous number of new buses of the RT family, as the tram replacement programme got under way. Nearly all the pre-war double deckers were displaced too, and a start made on the wartime austerity classes. The STLs were shunted from pillar to post, sometimes filling small niches between the disposal of STs and LTs and the arrival of the RTs, so there were thousands of transfers. It has taken me some time. I will not guarantee that all the data is accurate: I have come across some discrepancies as I worked.

In between times, when I needed something lighter to stop brain atrophy, I have been greatly enjoying Ken Blacker's book on "London's Pre-War Smaller Classes", which I thoroughly recommend as a good read as well as informative. It has enabled me to improve my histories of the CR class.

17th May 2023 Green Rovers have a renewed programme for this summer.

A little while ago I had a query about the pre-war single decker Guys, I think prompted by a reference on the redRF bus site. When I followed it up, there were rather more small Guys, of several types, some of which came to Central Buses (G1-8) and rather more to LGCS or the Country Area (un-numbered). I have compiled some text and histories, but have not yet done the drawings, which I hope will follow.

1st April 2023 Arriva also used President bodies on its DAF chassis, the DLP class. Many of these, after some years with Arriva London North , were converted to open-top or part open-top for use by The Original Sightseeing London Tour (TOLST).

10th February 2023 Updates to the London DLA histories, and pages on those for Arriva the Shires and Arriva Southern Counties. These two have been complicated, with the Shires having both its own buses and also ex-London DLAs, with country conversions to both, and Southern Counties having different batches from London for red routes, and then conversions for Kent Thameside, Medway Towns and Kent and Surrey. With the latter mostly falling outside the remit of LOTS, information on these allocatins has been sketchier, and largely based on internet searches.

16th January 2023 I spent much time last summer working on the 1950 histories, which are still not complete. I have loaded up some of it on relevant pages.

Then I started work on Arriva London's DAF/Alexanders, London first low-floor double deckers, the DLA class. With 389 buses, this has been quite a task. I still have some more researching to do for the histories, but I have put up the work so far. It has taken a while, as I have spent half of November and December away from home installing and tiling a kitchen for my daughter and son-in-law in Salford.

19th July 2022 I am pressing on with the 1950 histories. There is a lot of data to process!

5th July I have spent of months in a fairly boring way, interesting in others, working on the January and February 1950 changes: many LTs, STs and STLs disappearing, while RTs, RTLs and RTWs arrive, with the displaced STs and STLs moving around to full gaps. I have not put the changes to histories up yet, but will. It has filled the days while recovered from Covid. Yes, its still around, even among us careful older types.

Important News: from the end of April 2016 Virgin Media have ceased to support my web-space. So this page, the bibliography and the Country Bus Rallies front pages have moved across to countrybus.org, ie front page, bibliography, and Country Bus Rallies.

I know this will not be welcome new to those of you who have difficulty accessing www.countrybus.org, but I don't have much choice: eighteen years of loyal customer and Virgin just dumps me.

It will take me some time to change every page that I have written, so that the back-link to the index page points to the right place, so I ask your patience. (My Google links will also take some time to catch up with the move, I expect. Similarly the links to the bibliography page will take time to change.)

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About Ian's Bus Stop: Dreadful warnings!

Ian does not pretend to be an expert: any corrections, additional information, flattery or news gratefully welcomed. Rivet-counters can make their own web-sites!

Most BUS-STOP pages contain:

  • drawings or photos (when I can get them) of a class of London bus;
  • a potted class history;
  • some history of individual buses;
  • a list of photographic sources, and
  • a bibliography.
The histories are not complete. They are assembled from data from a variety of sources, that do not always agree with each other. In some cases I have much more data than I have displayed, and just need time to fill in the gaps. They are are offered as a help to your own researches, not as a complete entity.

I do not attempt to keep the histories up-to-date. If you want the latest information, there are plenty of special interest groups on the net. For comprehensive monthly updates, subscribe to LOTS to get "The London Bus".

The plan drawings by Ian Smith are NOT scale drawings from originals, but based on a few known dimensions and (usually) a variety of photographs. In places inferences have been drawn where the photographic evidence is poor.
In particular adverts shown on buses may have incorrect colouring where I have guessed wrongly from black & white pictures, or may be inappropriate to the livery worn by the bus.
They may be of use to modellers if printed at an appropriate scale. You'll have to experiment to find the right printer settings.

Pages are designed for use on the Firefox browser, on 800*600 resolution. Other resolutions may give odd results. If a display ratio is not 4:3 the photos and drawings may be distorted. Using other browsers may also give odd results at times, especially if they do not follow the rules, like Microsoft's Explorer, which does its own thing. I am trying to amend pages so that they show properly on 4:3 ratio pages other than 800*600, but this may take some time, and you may need a good pair of reading glasses.

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