2014 is Transport for London's Year of the Bus. It's well-chosen, as this year is also the centenary of London's motor buses being sent to the Western Front, the 75th anniversary of the RT-Type, and the 60th birthday of the beloved Routemaster.
To mark the year, London Transport Museum, TfL and the various operating companies have organised a series of events. These include a series of bus garage open days, and it was impossible to resist the chance to have a look behind the scenes at Catford Bus Garage.
The Museum had brought along a number of vintage buses; there were stalls, refreshments and a cake; and of course, the opportunity to wander around the garage itself. One of the most popular activities was the chance to ride on a bus through the bus wash.
In fact, having been through the soap and water every quarter hour throughout the day, I'm fairly sure that by the end, this Special Service was the cleanest bus in London!
There are more bus garage openings to come:
7 June - Alperton Bus Garage
21 June - Stockwell Bus Garage
28 June - Fulwell Bus Garage
5 July - Potters Bar Bus Garage
19 July - Walworth Bus Garage
2 comments:
When the RT was phased out and replaced by the Routemaster, no one described it as 'beloved'. I met an ex-RT driver who said it had the heaviest steering of any vehicle he had encountered. It also had a weird 'pre-selector' gearbox where you selected a gear in advance, and then it changed with a neck-snapping jerk the next time you pressed the clutch pedal. No fewer than five redundant RTs were used in the making of Cliff Richard's 1963 film Summer Holiday.
Gosh is it that long since Summer Holiday came out, I remember seeing it at the local ABC cinema. A sign of the times the cinema gas gone and has been replaced by apartments designed for retired people,
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