Shown on ITV London in 2007. This programme tells the story from four places in the world Londons famous Routemaster buses have ended up after retirement.
My bus! I bought RML2650 from Ralph in 2011. Then toured the USA on it for a year and now live in Texas on my bus. Been looking for this documentary for several years, very happy it is now on youtube!
I lived in south africa , I can still remember seeing two RML,s coming down the road in a town in the old transvaal still in there London Transport livery . The whole road just seemed to stop still . I was so proud to see them . One things for sure Britain may of built the likes of the Rolls Royce but when it comes to a national british icon the Routemaster takes it all . It's a nation gem , and for me the greatest bus ever built . Long may they be seen by future generations.
I drove the Routemaster on London routes. 5 Becontree Heath - Waterloo 8 Bow Church - Willsden Garage. 25 Ilford - Victoria 69 Woolwich Ferry - Chingford Mount. And loved every minute of it. Then came OPO buses ( one person operated) or when it wasn't politically correct OMO. One man operated) And then it all went down hill. What great a bus the Routemaster is.
The routes have changed a lot since RMs. It’s now 5 Canning Town - Romford Market 8 Bow Church - Tottenham Court Road 25 Ilford - City Thameslink 69 Canning Town - Walthamstow Central
Such a fantastic bus, probably one of the most successful buses ever. They were part of my childhood growing up in Tottenham. Have a 1 24 scale model of an RML I am going to build and it will be no 41 to Tottenham Hale. Sorry a London bus has to be Red, a cab has to be black and Big Ben has to sound unique because it cracked. These things ARE LONDON.
+steven rowe To be honest i would say a bus like a dennis trident is more succsessful as its been in production 17 years and is still made to this day, only 2k route masters where ever made, where as 14K dennis tridents have been built and are still built to this day, more to note the routemaster was outdated even for its time. most of the double deck buses in the uk/honkong/north america are tridents even germany has a few. So technically the route master it no where near the most successful buses ever made as there was so little of them and they did not catch on as much outside London. I dont dislike them i just disagree with your statement.
+steven rowe to add to what i said above 14 thousand Olympians were built ( thats 12 thousand more than the routemaster) and they can also be found in every corner of the world.
I often thought about doing the same as Mark and applying to drive RMs again at Niagara Falls. Not sure that it would be the same buzz though as racing around London, with many incidents that wouldn't be out of place in 'On The Buses'.
The Routemaster is one of those great success stories. The design, the practical use, maintenence, reliability and the love for this vehicle makes it the most enduring PSV in the world. Not like the crap today, although geared to modern laws such as DDA, it is a sad thing they don't run any more.
LT had 2760 Routemasters, withdrawal in large numbers began in 1982, and over 2000 have been scrapped, the earliest being RM11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20. The last survivors in LT service were the final longer RMLs 2261-2760 plus just over 100 earlier short RMs. There were also a bit more opulent Greenline coaches for express routes to towns in the home counties being short RMC1453-1520 and long RCL2218-2260 but many were repainted red and used as ordinary buses.
The Routemaster was wonderful, it never failed to make me smile... until I ended up paralysed and realised that it’s completely inaccessible to wheelchair users and those of us with physical disabilities (for whom the BendyBus worked quite well actually!) So whilst I understand the nostalgia, the past wasn’t always better.
Sydney has an RM and an RML. I was happy to hear the Sri Lankan one stl with a healthy sounding AEC power plant. Are any of the Niagra Falls units still AEC or Leyland powered? It's nice to see they keep a stash of parts for them. I hope they can keep the gearboxes going. They require specialised knowledge.
It's so heartbreaking to see The gorgeous London Routemaster being used in Canada. Equally very happy that these buses were not sent for scrap. The crazy thing is Man sends Man to the moon but sadly couldn't retrofit these buses to run cleaner.
It wasn't just about clean engines. The buses needed to comply with disability legislation, and couldn't be adapted to carry wheelchairs., so had to go.....
There was a couple stashed in our local chicken farm down here in North Dorset and other side of Shaftesbury were the two "Saddam-masters" for ages being a pair of charity event RM's heading to Iraq. Back in the 70's I had stacks of papers where I managed to spot virtually every Merlin, AEG, RT and RM in use in London including the green line ones and a saturday or sunday would see me lurking outside a bus garage or wandering in with permission from the foreman. I think it was an act of corporate self harm when they were abolished, instead of all that stupid money spent on new stock they should have refurbished these and kept them on.
What a brilliant film. Built when we sold stuff around the world and AEC was a global brand. And loved the Barmy Army of Brits at Le Mans. "Back in the day" when I drove trucks across the Continent I drove down the Mulsanne Straight as it is a public road normally. (Its actually a curve btw). I was in my artic a couple of weeks before the race and had two Ferraris go past me at about 180 mph ... I read later they were 'tyre testing'! I also drove the rig round a part of Spa Francorchamps on my way to Malmedy as again its a public road normally. I thought I'd just drive up to Eau Rouge no bother. But halfway up the hill I realised it was a lot steeper than the TV shows. And why there is a side road that eases the slope! The old girl got up it OK. Nowt beats a Volvo F12.
@@gary96397 Maybe. Depends on what gearbox it had. I owned a 141 after my very first owned truck a 110. The shift on a Volvo was a lot faster and had 16 speeds and you didn't get tennis elbow finding 1st / 5th in the 10 speed range change.
Great Fun to Drive with a 'crash double declutch gearbox".. Easy to change an engine in a day.. Takes three days in a bendy bus.. Up into to top gear, she will still accelerate from 10mph.. E.U. said bendy buses were safer, no bendy buses in London City 2020.. Great Buses for Crews + Passengers..
You've got the wrong bus Tim, 'crash double declutch gearbox' is on a Bristol Loddeka. Quite a different beast but passed off as a Routemaster to those who are none the wiser. Routemasters have an automatic gearbox with manual overide. No clutch, just the gear selector directly below the left hand side of the steering wheel. They also had power steering and dual hydraulic brakes. We used to start off in 'automatic 2nd' which was also the top '4th' position, when it changed to third, we would push it forward to the '3rd' position manually so that it wouldn't change up too early. Get the most out of that gear then pull back into '4th' top. Run rings around modern buses if they were well maintained. We were only given an automatic PSV licence on London Transport and I had to upgrade mine to a manual on a 'crash double declutch gearbox' Loddeka when I joined Wilts & Dorset back in 1986. The fitters at my garage Westbourne Park (X) said that they could change an engine in half a day unlike two days for a Metro or Titan.
Ive driven modern RMs or LTs as they are known as now on 76, 15, 11 & 453 Tottenham hale - waterloo Blackwall- Trafalgar sq Liverpool st - Fulham bdwy New cross - oxford circus
Bendy buses didn't last long, There are none left on London's streets, They have all been sold on to airports over country, Bendy buses was a terrible idea for London...
They work very well in cities similar to New York or Vancouver were they have the grid system, but they always seem to hold up the traffic due to their balk, they also took up more room than a double-decker bus. Someone (who's parents came from southern Italy), I worked with taunted me back in 1989 about the crappy old British engines, on the London buses, I found out latter that they were on the AEC buses, have been replaced with wonderful new Italian Iveco ones. How comes that when I brought a Revell model kit of the AEC Routemaster bus, featured the option of fitting either an AEC or a Scania motor, and no mention of the wonderful Iveco engines was mentioned, thus they couldn't have cut the mustard. Ha!
Nigel Charlton-Wright see the notion the routemaster was unreliable are untrue, speaking to mechanics who worked on them said they were reliable and if something went wrong it was an easy fix a fuel pump took 30 mins to replace , once a year everything was serviced regardless if it needed it or not
When I was young, living in London in the 1970's. LT was still running AEC Regents alongside the Routemaster, both these buses were meant to be replaced by the Daimler DMS and AEC Merlin/Swifts (which always seem to breakdown), both buses were withdrawn in the late '70's, whilst the Routemasters were still being used well into the 1990's. These were wonderful buses to travel on especially jumping on and off the rear platform, health and safety would rule this out of course. Pure magic!
People are buying them up and making a good living out of the router master hiring them out for weddings and parties, I count myself lucky I get the chance to drive Routemasters
Hello There my name is Mr Cannadine T. Boxill-Harris I was wondering, why couldn't you Rebuild a nice fresh shiny Scania N113, Leyland TL11, Volvo TD102KF, Cummins L10, Gardner 6LXC and Gardner 6LX 4 Speed Leyland Hydra cyclic Automatic Alexander RH’s and Repaint them to a Grey Green Colour's just like the original Scania Grey Green's which were in the East London bus route's such as 24, 141, 168, 210, 275, 125, 173, 179, 167, 313 and also the bus route 103, if you guys would like to Rebuild about 187 of Those Scania N113, Leyland TL11, Volvo TD102KF, Cummins L10, Gardner 6LXC and Gardner 6LX 4 Speed Leyland Hydra cyclic Automatic Alexander RH Buses please could you Repaint them in the Exact Grey Green Bus Colour's and put them on the London Bus Routes witch are the 341, N41, 34, 123, N29, 149, 221, N73, 121, 86, 30, 262, 147, 396, 41, 56 and N26 for all of us because it would be a Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Interesting Buses to see them Repainted to a Grey Green Colour's and I'am a Big Fan of all of those Scania N113, Leyland TL11, Volvo TD102KF, Cummins L10, Gardner 6LXC and Gardner 6LX 4 Speed Leyland Hydra cyclic Automatic Alexander RH Buses Please?
Because the regulations require wheelchair access for busses in passenger service, & they're just not suitable even to be adapted for it. You *might* be able to use them for chartered excursions in the UK, but not as a service bus, they literally made it illegal.
Years ago the BBC ran a series of bus programmes. It ran for one night and they called it bus night. Anyone know where I'll find it? I've been looking for these programmes for years.
I'll second that . I was the only mechanic for a Tour company in Sault Ste Marie Ontario for 2 years . Parts and information was a daily struggle ! One bus the Leland diesel engine gave up so i converted it to a 351 Cleveland Ford truck engine and transmission . Our last Double Decker bus was a 1972 . Shortly after the purchase the rear differential gave up the ghost . I ended up salvaging a rear differential out of a MCI city bus and fitting it to the Double Decker . Everything was an absolute chore but i did enjoy the retrofitting making something work and fit where it wasn't meant to be .
The best London bus was WITHOUT DOUBT the RT - a much more iconic bus that the cheaply made Routemaster. Check it out for yourself and you will see the beauty of the RT and the cheapness of the RM - mind you, the buses that followed the RM were absolute junk.
The RTs, Leyland Titans and others were the last of the dinosaurs. The RM was innovative and set the blueprint for modern buses. There was even a front entrance/rear engined prototype, which is now the standard layout all over the world.
I guess you have the impression from watching this video all were scrapped, no. Some were retained for a heritage route, some given to tour bus companies, other bus companies and private owners all over the world, some were put into museums. Only a percentage of routemasters were scrapped