London Buses 1987-Routemasters at Holloway Garage & Junction Road 

1983 spent a year driving out of Holloway. 8 routes. 4, 14, 19, 27, 29, 45, 74 and the 253. What an amazing job, loved every minute of it. RM an absolutely beautiful bus to drive. I remember you get 4 days to learn all of the routes. A route in the morning and another in the afternoon. Friday morning came, and i was on the 45 to South Ken. Good job. i had an on the ball conductor. She put a passenger in the front seat who guided me on important junctions. The problem was that most of the routes above crossed each other again and again. Had to concentrate. Great memories.

Great to see the 137 route in the Archway again! As a kid me old grandad used to take me on bus rides for a day out back in the days when the routes used to go right from one side of London to the other, and we used to get the 137 from right outside our old flat in Streatham Hill all the way to the Archway and back again. Brings back happy memories :)

137 was the best bus ever.

Blast from the past

Wow, This video brought back some great memories of driving RMs RMLs Ms out of HT ..... best garage I ever worked out of.....

Great video, used to love going on these buses when I used to visit my Uncle.

I was living in N.19 at the time and remember the surprising arrival of the Leyland RMs at HT - it was interesting as the garage had never been associated with the Leyland members of the fleet - unlike Rye Lane and Cricklewood, for example - and they rather stood out from the rest of the RMs there. RMs 1341 and 1733 were amongst the new Leyland arrivals., most of which had earlier received traditional cream between - decks bands. Interestingly, I believe that RML2295 shown early in the video also had at some point been fitted with Leyland running units - a bus I used to get on the 29 from time to time; there was no mistaking the characteristic thudding of the Leyland engine which I enjoyed listening to as I sat in the front seat downstairs on my journey home from work. By this time much of the LT fleet was looking uncared-for and shabby as priority was given to profit, tendering of routes and the impending sale of LT; the previously high standards of presentation for which LT was well-known were discarded virtually entirely. It was a sad experience to watch the decline. The arrival of the Leyland RMs was one bright point in a time of rapid decline fot LT.

Used to make a nuisance of ourselves there as kids around that time, got arrested with 3 mates for sleeping on a bus there new years eve 1987, went to juvenile court at Highbury, nothing happened. As a kid used to love buses, get chased out of Muswell Hill Garage too. Near Wood Green tube there was a yard that had a couple of old buses parked off Buller Road, at age 12/13 I used to sneak in early saturday mornings around 7-8am there was a hole in the corragated iron, those days wanted to drive a bus

Holloway was one of my garages that i looked after the plant equipment maintenance wise, I was a millwright. ii used to do it on Wednesdays

Great film. I grew up in Tufnell Park and this brings back many childhood memories.

Loved these old route masters I think the garage was round the back of upper Holloway road station.

I would say in some ways the RT and RM were a national treasure .

There used to be a bus spotter that was always hanging around there. Alan Dawson. Bit manic. If it wasn't nailed down he would pinch it. His favourite item was blinds.

Nice vid soz for being late

Upon rewatch I noticed the Bristol has a Wilson going by it's second gear melody as it drove away in front of the RML. Did some come specified with a manual and others with the CAV mono control shifter? It sounded awesome. You can easily pick the Leyland RMs as they're leaving the garage. The MANs I used to drive gave off and extra growly note much like an AEC RM when leaving the depot in the morning with cold engines. Great memories.

i recall driving the c11 out of holloway,proper rattler's,also remember one day there was only 2 c11's running,my bus got packed going to brent cross,good thing about it was kings cross got missed out,,lolol

At 1:20 , Reliant Robin, another vehicle almost extinct now, I see somebody's had a birthday smashing the RM windows in next to it

Like the three wheeler at 1:20. Class.

As I remembered them, some of those buses were in a state, not three in the yard at the start, seemed to me that HT didn’t want, as a problem.

I think the ministers should of put up more of a fight with LT, but again we were the first. All public services should be in public hands not private target driven firms. Bus traffic isn’t target driven it should be worked out so a bus can reach the end of a route and any and all eventuallities factored in to some degree; traffic can be monitored; in Berlin, Germany a bus has points where they’ll sit for 3 mins to allow for change of passengers; and trains wait too for the passengers. In London it’s a turn up and go (if it turns up). I remember Sunday service being very skeletal but London wasn’t so swamped by industry requiring it operate 24/7

Soi do have any vids of the RMs on the 65 and 71 around Chessington?

How did I not see this for 5 days??? Another great vid!

I used to love driving these RouteMasters great to handle compared to to RT’s and DMS

Would love to find an RM in the exact condition of those three neglected ones today. Here are some roaring 590s. 2:25, 3:33, 4:04, 4:48, 9:59 & 10:21. Tick over time 7:29.

RM1220 looked to be a transfer from Selkent, probably Catford or Plumstead.

Very interesting do you have any videos of Archway from around 1993? I was born in that year

Soi I saw a pic on Flickr of a 14 at the Archway terminus. Any idea why a 14 would end up off route? www.flickr.com/photos/134227013@N08/31761872284/in/album-72157677981896481/

6:11 Why is that car blowing out Smoke?

I worked at this garage and it was called Highgate not Holloway as did my Uncle John andmy grand father Bert Johnson only reason I left was to come to Australia as I married an Aussie loved my days here I visited here in 91 and there was only one guy I knew still there called Rufus