Thank you John. We still own RCL2233 and she still purrs along with that wonderful AEC 11.3ltr AV690 engine giving a superb performance. Cheers for you comment. Michael.
I remember the RMC on the 715 route through Camden Town as a child. We took it sometime to Epping. Love the older LT vehicles. There were Bus/Coach stops everywhere too, great memories.
Love RF's and many classic buses really including french designs and innovations. Always thought the RF was a beautiful vehicle. When RT's and RMs were the main London bus, the only RFs I saw were on the 701/702 route passing Lambeth North where my nan lived. Would love to see photos of Green Line RF's through Blackheath, never seen any.
Buses today don't give anywhere near the same enjoyment as buses of the past. Love Routemasters, sadly all gone, but, at least many are preserved. Nice run bringing back many memories.
There were no passengers chatting on this one, which was nice. Many a time sat here on RM's throughout London and Green Line when I was a kid, 718 to Epping from Camden Town.
those were the days. I'd love to have a crack at driving one of them. I remember when one would have a driver change at Thornton Heath Bus Garage and I'd wait for the new driver to arrive and be so excited to hear the engine fire up. As I recall the starter was like a light switch at the level of the driver's head. Am I right ? I was like 3 years old at the time.
I used to love sitting in that seat as a young boy in the 60’s and try to learn what the driver was doing. Occasionally a driver would turn to his left and wink.
I think the gears here were used very well and good timing aswell like on the roundabout dropping into second gear to go around it, a lot of drivers in service before didn't use the gears very well atall they would cause jolting on it massively
Great drive with a careful driver. Interesting about the gearbox; these "country area" (Green) Routemasters had a preselector gearbox, where you chose the gear first and then pressed the gear-change pedal (clutch to the ordinary mortal!) to activate the selected gears. Not as easy as it sounds, especially changing down. The red London Routemasters did have an automatic option, but this was not available on the country area buses. Hope this clarifies things a bit.
Brian Gentle The country area buses did not have pre select boxes, these were fitted to the RT and RF. The auto option on the Routemaster was isolated, so they were a semi auto.
Interesting; I always thought it was a preselector! You live and learn. If I could, I would scan what it said in my Ian Allan British Bus Fleets book, but I am sure you're right. Thanks for the comment.
Indeed... oops! I just went to take a look. You are absolutely right of course. BTW you aren't the John Piper I have known in Brussels via Scouting by any chance?
I’m 99.9% sure that no RM (or any of its variants) had a pre-select gearbox. The country RMs would probably not had the “auto” option though. The previous design to the RM (RT) had a pre-select gearbox. I believe all RMs had air operated semi (or including auto option using top gear selected position) using either Simms or Westinghouse electric control gear.
When trained by LT in the seventies we were taught to primarily drive in 'auto' mode. First gear was only to be used when heavily loaded, or pulling away uphill. The other gears were only to be changed manually when fully loaded, or in undulating areas. The plain-clothes DMIs (District Mechanical Inspectors) would kick you in the rear if caught using first and manual changes gratuitously. Upchanges in 'auto' were much smoother if you lifted off the accelerator slightly mid-change.
Thanks for explaining that to me sounds interesting. The number 7 and 23 bus run by First group they always used gear 2 to pull away and never first, I've been on that route many times in my youth and only 3 drivers have ever used first gear to pull away
Bus And Tube Train Lover I drove route 22 out of Clapton which travelled through London's most congested areas; Homerton, Bishopsgate, Bank, Cheapside, St Paul's, Chancery Lane, Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge, Sloane Square, & Kings Road, to Putney Common. Passenger loadings were generally light outside rush hours, & I invariably just stayed in 'auto'. On the 253 which had some of the heaviest loadings in LT, we often started in first, & then went straight to 'auto'. Once, I was chipped by a DMI for overuse of first when trying to make up time.
You see I like That variable gear changes depending on Traffic 1st into auto the fourth position sounds like a good plan, on several routes alot of drivers pulled away in 1st to 2nd then back into 1st gear position for gear 3 and it would use Gear 3 I was amazed what I saw and he went back into 2nd for gear 4, but when slowing down it Engages automatically back into 2nd at about 22 mph but you get that reving changing down sound which sounds awesome. And the same for 1st gear from gear 3 changing down
Driving like that is not good atall for the gearbox on Semi Automatics slammimg it through the gate and the Gearbox system thinks your trying to use two gears at once. And eventually the Gears will slip like a clutch slipping effect when changing into any gear. And coasting isnt good for the bus either
Very nice, Live in Canada but spent many summers in England as a little boy. Whenever I smell Diesel I still automatically think of my time near double deckers in England 40+ years ago....Nice Memories.
On many RMs there was an automatic option by selecting 4th (top) gear, so probably the auto-changing causing the jolts in some cases and not the driver!
Graeme Wilson yes the RM had the ability to automatically go through the gears if top was selected. However, if the gearbox was not well set up, or the driver did not lift off slightly between changes, they often jolted between gear shifts. I have been on buses when this became very pronounced. It was exacerbated by the fact the engine produced maximum torque at 1,000rpm, meaning it had considerable pulling power between gear changes if not driven correctly.
@rcl2233 Yeah, but very very small.. A basic set when I was like 2 :P still works. A model of the old CN (Canadian National) frieght train diesel engine
Excellent, but my only complaint about the soundtrack is that for obvious reasons owners/ drivers of preserved vehicles do not 'slam' the gears like regular drivers used to in service!
