My local independent operated 2 Arabs dating from the mid 40s. They were still in service until 1972. One had a very rough sounding engine while the other was much smoother running. I’m not sure if that was the result of an upgrade to one or a retro fit of an older engine to the other. Silcox had a very mixed fleet but some talented fitters 😂
As a boy in West Yodks, we had to wait for the RELL before we experienced the S.C.G. whine. Our Lodekkas were crash box. Also as I was young, I was so much in awe of these beasts that I never cottoned on to just how painfully slow and under powered they were. Never mind. I practically learned to drive by spending many hours knelt on the bench seat watching the driver and learning engine sympathy. Good (if slow) days.
I personally love the sound of the Cummins engine in the Dennis Dart, but in all honesty nothing sounds as good as an AEC engined bus, like the routemaster, not sure if the Leyland Titan PD 2 or 3(RT) ever had an AEC engine. To be honest, I recently had a ride in one of the new BYD double deckers and it's just weird being on a bus and hearing just a little whirring sound instead of a beautiful sounding 6 or 4 cylinder diesel engine.
Lovely music! RMs are OK but there's nothing like an RT! In LT days, once the bus was in top, third was pre-selected; I don't ever recall the lever being left in the top position. (Observations from decades of sitting where the camera operator sat).
I've never seen a red interior "FS".... It looks really nice. I know you could get the earlier "K" types in red or green, but I thought that by the time the "F" series Lodekka had started "ECW" had standardised on Green interiors regardless of the exterior colour scheme.
I used to go to school in the late 60s early 70s on Lodekkas there was a mix of front and rear door models that did the run. This brings back many happy memories.
For me this was an authentic eastern counties drive! I used to visit the library in town most Saturdays and counties had a stop outside. There was a continuous procession of Lodekkas, SC4LKs etc all pulling away and the poor driver almost at a stop before next gear could be found! Their buses seemed so much more primitive than the Ipswich corporation buses with their pre selectors (1-24) or miniature remote gear controls. I would love to return to those days.
Lovely to hear the old bus again . I would often travel on these buses when they ran on the 197 route . Norwood junction caterham valley that must have been quite a nice run really heading towards the valley on the godstone road . That was 1969 to 1971 . I would always sit with my dad on the long seat at the rear . funnily enough I became a night shunter at Thornton heath bus garage From 1983 to 1995 The old girls had gone by then but the route masters were just as good lasting at T H until 1987 . I would often let the odd kid jump in the cab & sit on the bell box as I drove through the wash ! Clive chad
I think that five-speed gearbox may have been fitted at a later date, because the gear positions 'dial' on the 'dash' (to the front of the handbrake) shows only four and reverse positions. Or has it got the wrong gear position indicator fitted !!
Thanks for this. It takes me back to 1967 when my mum would take my brother and I on one of these from the bus stop at the top of The Knares, into Basildon Bus Station on a Saturday morning whenever my dad was driving the bus. This was the view I remember.
In 1958 during my college vacation I worked as a conductor out of long-gone Totnes garage, Every bus had its own personality: all the drivers dreaded no. 953. Starting one shift I found Gilbert, my driver in a foul mood: on an overtime stint that morning, returning fronm Pontin's Holiday Camp near Paignton, he had had to ask some of the passengers to get off because he'd got stuck on a hill! Apparently 953 had a five-cylinder engine: most of the others had six. I went on to be a teacher, and often regretted not staying on the buses in idyllic Devon.
Hi i'm viatron from Sheffield, I remember that Sunderland corporation crossley dd42/3 double deck bus from that time via it were painted in a green & cream livery at the time when it were in passenger service when a very strange thing had happened during that time when the original crossley HOE7/4 8.6 litre 6-cylinder diesel engine were replaced with a Gardner 5LW 5-cylinder compression-ignition diesel engine what sounded completely different & also featured in an early edition of 'Bus Fare' magazine of the late-70s. But I'm glad it's now back in an original condition when new. Thank you for your co-operation on this very special subject on my very own favourite bus, the crossley dd42 type from the very famous legendary vintage bus enthusiast & historian David Viatron Esquire of crookes in Sheffield.
If you’d have followed this road to the West, picking up the Uxbridge Road at Shepherds Bush Green, you’d eventually have driven past Windmill Lane at Southall Middlesex, site of the AEC Factory until 1979. I served my apprenticeship their in 1969, and in 1981 I got to drive the RM’s out of Uxbridge LT Garage on route 207, (Hanwell Garage operated RML’s. ) During the early 1980s ALDENHAM BUS OVERHAUL WORKS were still delivering refurbished Routemasters to garages. A refurbished RM was a dream to drive❤️
My dad drove these in London throughout most of the fifties until we emigrated to New Zealand in 1958. I have the Sun Star model of ( RT10 -FXT 185) My dad (Charlie Thackeray) was based at Merton Garage and regularly drove the Shepherd Bush to Crystal Palace route. We left the UK in 1958 when I was only ten.
No wonder there was less stress years ago - when an RT sang to it's passengers like this! Still remember visiting relatives in London and catching an RT from Blackheath Station and that beautiful melody as it made it's way up Shooters Hill Road - had such an impression on me as a kid that I'd spend hours imitating the whine whilst riding my bike......can still do a reasonable impression now! Does anyone know why they were quite so tuneful - even more than a Routemaster I think?
My Dad used to drive these in the 60's, and the Clippy would lift me up and pass me through the little access window where I would sit with him on his route, and he let me operate the doors sometimes. Happy days with my hero.
