Three Classic Bus Running Days in London:
​A Picture Gallery​

​13 April 2025
ABOVE: Preserved London Transport RTL 1105 (LUC 315), a Leyland Titan PD2, is seen at Finsbury Park station on the Route 19 Running Day on Saturday 29 March 2025.

Three Classic Bus Running Days in eight days felt like a bit of a tall order to me, especially with five days of work to fit in as well! But I managed to get to all three, so here are some photographic memories of the events.

Wood Green Running Day
Organised by North London Transport Events
​Sunday 23 March 2025
ABOVE: The most prolific service to be offered on the Wood Green Running Day was on route 29 (mainly the Mornington Crescent to Wood Green section), with around four buses an hour. All of the buses were AEC Routemasters, which ran for real on the service between 1968 & 1975, and again from 1977 until 1988 when driver-only operation was introduced. Here is the very first Routemaster, RM1 (SLT 56), outside Mornington Crescent Underground Station.

The station itself dates from 1907, and the building is one of architect Leslie Green's designs. Green was responsible for the design of around 50 stations on what are now the Bakerloo, Piccadilly and (including in this case) Northern Lines.

ABOVE: Just a few moments after the previous picture, two Routemasters can be seen outside Harrington Square Gardens at Mornington Crescent. On the left is RM1 again, whilst RML 903 (WLT 903, right) is on the stand awaiting its departure back to Wood Green. RML 903 was the last of the batch of 24 experimental longer Routemasters, extended by 2' 6" to 30 feet. Although production switched back to the standard version after this batch was built, a further 500 long Routemasters were built for London, as well as 51 forward-entrance versions - one for London, and 50 for Northern General.
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ABOVE: One hundred of the 500 production RMLs were initially allocated to the "Country" division of London Transport and painted green. Most of these passed to the new London Country / National Bus Company when that was formed on 1 January 1970. The vast majority then ended up back in service with London Transport from the 1980s, and many lasted until the end of regular Routemaster operation in 2005. RML 2440 (JJD 440D) is seen near Finsbury Park Station.

ABOVE: The downstairs front seat on a traditional London bus was the best seat in the house, giving a view both of the way ahead and of the driver! Seen from this angle on RML 903 is RM 1 overtaking. This is outside Finsbury Park.

ABOVE: Part of route 144 (Edmonton, Cambridge Roundabout to Muswell Hill Broadway) was also covered by the Wood Green Running Day, using AEC Regent III RT buses, including RT 3933 (LLU 732), which is seen in Lordship Lane, Wood Green. Reaching Muswell Hill Broadway will require a great effort by the RT (and its driver) as it climbs up Muswell Hill itself, with its average gradient of 8.8%. Of course, this, and the other RTs out that day, completed each climb with aplomb.


Route 19 Running Day
​Organised by the London Bus Museum
​Saturday 29 March 2025
The London Bus Museum's annual ventures onto a major Central London route are always highly memorable occasions. Normally, the service buses on the affected route are correspondingly quieter, but on this occasion, there seemed to be enough people around to keep both vintage and normal buses busy. The warm spring sunshine will have helped to generate interest too!

Route 19 (Battersea Bridge, South SIde to Finsbury Park Station) had its normal 21-bus allocation bolstered by more than 30 classic London buses, some of which are below, presented broadly south to north along the route.

ABOVE: Routemaster RM 1005 (5 CLT) has just dropped off a crowd at Battersea Bridge.
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ABOVE: RTL 554 (KGU 4), a Leyland Titan PD2, is seen arriving at the first stop at Battersea Bridge, where a queue typical of the ones seen all day at both ends of the route can be seen. Having been waiting a while, I was in a good position to board this bus for the long haul to Finsbury Park. The blonde lady in the centre of my picture will have got an even better picture of her own, as can be seen in her phone display!
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ABOVE: The view south-westwards from Battersea Bridge on a beautiful spring afternoon, with Wandsworth Bridge in the distance.
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ABOVE: AEC Routemaster RM 1962 (ALD 962B), on the King's Road in Chelsea, passes Sydney Street.

ABOVE: RT 714 (JXC 77) is a little further east along the King's Road.
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ABOVE: RT 4779 (OLD 566) is seen near Green Park station, accompanied by London General EH 93 (YY66 OYX), an ADL Enviro400H MMC working route 14 (Russell Square to Putney Heath).
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ABOVE: RML 2760 (SMK 760F), the very last London Routemaster, passs along Piccadilly, chased by Arriva London Wright New Routemaster LT 332 (LTZ 1332), the regular modern vehicles to be found on route 19.

ABOVE: RT 3183 (KYY 912) in Lincoln Green Country livery, turns out of Charing Cross Road into New Oxford Street, passing Tottenham Court Road station as it does so.

ABOVE: If the RT class can be described as the "Father of the Routemaster", what does that make RT 1 (EYK 396), the very first RT? The full load is not causing any issues for this 86-year-old bus, which first entered service in 1939. This is New Oxford Street again, at Tottenham Court Road station.

ABOVE: As well as traditional London buses, Ipswich Buses No. 9 (MRT 9P), a Leyland Atlantean bus with Roe bodywork, converted to open top, also provided some rides, as seen here in New Oxford Street.
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ABOVE: RT 961 (KGU 235) is seen in Upper Street, Islington, near Angel Underground station.

ABOVE: Only the cars, and a modern-day ambulance, give away that this picture, at Aberdeen Park in Highbury, has been taken in 2025. RML 3 (SLT 58) was one of the original four prototype Routemasters. In this case, the "L" stood for "Leyland" rather than "long", as this bus carries a Leyland engine. (This was the same principle used for the RTL class. )

The vehicle was subsequently renumbered RM 3, but has had the L restored in preservation, along with the original-style front grill that the prototype Routemasters carried when first delivered. RM 1005 is seen again on the left, carrying its "Games Vehicle" poster from the London 2012 Olympics.

ABOVE: On Blackstock Road, near Finsbury Park, is RTW 467 (LLU 957), one of 500 Leyland Titan PD2s that were built to a width of eight feet; that's six inches wider than the standard RT and RTL.

ABOVE: Journey's end for RTL 554 at Rock Street, just a short distance from Finsbury Park station. I didn't know at the time that buses were laying over in nearby Isledon Road. If I had know, I would have gone to have a look to see what was parked there!

There's a picture taken at FInsbury Park station at the top of this article. I found a legitimate way to jump the HUGE queues that had formed here for the vintage 19s, by getting onto a regular service 19 bus back to Tottenham Court Road. No-one wanted to get on one of those that day for some reason... I spoke to a lady who had been wanting to board a classic bus but had been unable to do so. Such is the popularity of these events!

ABOVE: Jumping back to New Oxford Street to finish, the star of the show (although not carrying passengers as far as I know) was 1934-built STL 441 (AXM 693), an AEC Regent I and one generation of bus before even the RT class! The bus is passing the entrance of Tottenham Court Road station, which was heavily rebuilt just a few years ago to accommodate the Elizabeth Line. This bus was a mere 88 years old when the Elizabeth Line opened!


Rickmansworth& Loudwater Village Running Day
​Organised by the Amersham and District Motorbus Society
​Sunday 30 March 2025

In South-West Hertfordshire, and around 17 miles from Central London, is the town of Rickmansworth, which once stood in the heart of the London Transport Country (green bus) area. London Tranport's Country area bus services were transferred to the National Bus Company as London Country Bus Services Ltd​ in 1970.

ABOVE: ​Leyland National SNB 449 (YPL 449T) was new to London Country (National Bus Company) in 1979. Here it is seen in York Road, Uxbridge, recreating the 321 service which, at its extremity, operated from Luton to Uxbridge (usually in two overlapping sections, though). Today's 321 only runs from Luton to Watford. Providing a contract behind is Transport UK London 3435 (LG22 APY), a BYD D8UR-DD ADL Enviro400EV, awaiting its next trip to Hayes on route U5.

ABOVE: Preserved London Transport Bristol LH/ECW BL 88 (OJD 88R) recreates the special "Hillingdon Local Service" 128 that ran from 1977 until 1991. I am planning a future article about this route so I won't go into too much detail about this complicated service here. The Bristol LH wasn't the biggest success story in London Transport history, so probably not a surprise that this journey to Rickmansworth wasn't trouble-free either. The vehicle kept conking out and eventually took a short-cut rather than the planned route, missing Ruislip and Mount Vernon Hospital. However it did recover sufficiently to keep going through the rest of the day.
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ABOVE: Here's a photo of AEC Regal III T 792 (HLX 462), taken from BL 88. This is outside Epic Insulation in Harefield Road, between Harefield and Rickmansworth. The narrow road here forced both buses to slow down, making this picture possible.
 
ABOVE: One of the AEC Regent Low-Height (RLH) buses that were operated by London Transport on routes with low bridges or other height restrictions was RLH 71 (MXX 271), seen here on Rectory Road outside Rickmansworth Station, having just carried a full load, including me, to Amersham and back. The slightly-raised angle of this picture, courtesy of a raised area outside the station, clearly shows the unusual arrangement of the upper deck seats, in benches of four across to the left-hand side. The dropped gangway on the right-hand side of the upper deck is designed to allow the conductor to pass through, but also intrudes into the lower-deck, resulting in some bumped heads downstairs! Reducing the height of the top deck, in a pre-Low Floor age, was the only way to reduce the height of the overall vehicle (by about a foot to 13' 4"). (Timebus has published some technical drawings of the RLH here.)
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ABOVE: The Running Day commemorated the 53rd anniversary of the withdrawal of the last GS-class vehicles. These "Guy Specials" were the London midbuses of the 1950s and 1960s. They finished their London careers, with London Country,​ in 1972, working the 336A service between Rickmansworth and Loudwater Village, a private estate. With special permission, the 336A was recreated for this event, using a number of GSs, although the number of people around meant that I didn't get a chance to try the route. GS 13 (MXX 313) wasn't playing ball, however, and broke down during the morning, spending much of its day parked on Rectory Road with its (huge) bonnet open.

ABOVE: A short-bodied Bristol LHS/ECW that has recently started appearing at Running Days is BS 5 (GHV 505N). These buses replaced the original FS Ford Strachan minbuses that were introduced by London Transport in the early 1970s as a way of getting buses deeper into areas not previously served by buses. Only 17 were built and only two survive. The bus is seen in Ruislip High Street, again recreating route 128.
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THANKS, as always, to the organisers of these events, which bring our special world to regular people to see and experience, as well as giving us the chance to relive our past (or see what things were like before we were born)!

The London Bus Museum has two further Running Days planned for 2025, on:
  • Route 418 (Kingston to Epsom) on Sunday 8 June
  • Route 54 (Woolwich to Elmers End) on Saturday 13 September

Amersham and District has three events planned, based around:
  • Dorking on Sunday 1 June
  • Hertford on Sunday 27 July
  • Chesham on Sunday 28 September

North London Transport Events will undoubtedly hold more Running Days - possibly in November. Keep an eye on the London Omnibus Traction Society's "Coming Events" section on its "News" Page, which is often updated ahead of other sources.

I can't fill this whole site with pictures from Running Days, but I hope to bring you some more at some point!
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