London Transport Buses in the 1960s: A Decade of Change and Transition

By Jim Blake

Just as life in Britain generally changed dramatically during the 1960s, so did London Transport's buses and their operations. Most striking was the abandonment of London's trolleybuses, once the world's biggest system, and their replacement by motorbuses. Begun in 1959 using surplus RT-types, it was completed by May 1962 using new Routemasters, designed specifically to replace them. They then continued to replace RT types, too. Traffic congestion and staff shortages played havoc with London Transport's buses and Green Line coaches during the 1960s, one-man operation was seen as a remedy for the latter, shortening routes in the Central Area for the former. Thus the ill-fated "Reshaping Plan" was born, introducing new O.M.O. bus types. These entered trial service in 1965, and after much delay the plan was implemented from September 1968 onwards. Sadly, new MB-types, also introduced in the Country Area, soon proved a disaster! Unfortunately, owing to a government diktat, Routemaster production ended at the start of 1968, forcing LT to buy "off-the-peg" vehicles unsuited to London operation and their in-house overhaul procedures. The decade ended with the loss of LT's Country Area buses and Green Line coaches to the National Bus Company. Photographer Jim Blake began photographing London's buses towards the end of the trolleybus conversion program in 1961 and continued dealing with the changing scene throughout the decade. He dealt very thoroughly with the "Reshaping" changes, and many of the photographs featured herein show rare and unusual scenes which have never been published before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781473867871

Jim Blake

Jim Blake was born at the end of 1947, and he soon developed a passionate interest in railways, buses and trolleybuses. In 1965, he bought a colour cine-camera, with which he captured what is now very rare footage of long-lost buses, trolleybuses and steam locomotives. These transport photographs have been published in various books and magazines. Jim also started the North London Transport Society and, in conjunction with the group, he has compiled and published a number of books on the subject since 1977, featuring many of the 100,000 or so transport photographs he has taken over the years.

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On the last day of trolleybus operation in North and North-West London, 2/1/62, Stonebridge Park-based N1-class trolleybus No.1621 stands at a snowy Craven Park with its booms down, having been in use on route 662 between Paddington and Sudbury.

The same occasion sees a group of Routemasters on delivery to Stonebridge Park, where they will replace the trolleybuses next day. RM991 is new, but the one following it is an earlier RM with non-opening front upper deck windows. It is one of a number that were transferred across from West Ham garage. This trolleybus conversion saw more than a thousand Routemasters at London’s service for the first time. Note the complicated overhead trolleybus wiring above them, used for those terminating here or running back to their depot.

8/5/62 was the very last day of trolleybus operation in London, and I ‘bunked’ school to be at Fulwell depot that Tuesday afternoon. In this view, L3-class trolleybus No.1496 leaves to take up an afternoon rush hour turn on route 667 for the last time.

One of the few faults with London’s trolleybuses was that they were prone to ‘dewirement’ in their overhead power wires if driven too quickly through junctions. This has happened to another L3, No.1489, as it leaves the depot’s rear exit to take up service on route 603. Just visible on the left is its driver or conductor manoeuvring the long bamboo pole that was carried beneath the trolleybus to put its booms, which are swinging wildly above it, back on the overhead wire.

L3-class trolleybus No.1521 was specially dressed up to mark the sad occasion. Here it is posed outside Fulwell depot after doing a tour of some of Fulwell’s routes, along with preserved trolleybus No.1. Ironically, London’s very first trolleybuses had also run from this depot only 31 years before and the tracks for the trams they replaced are still visible in the depot yard. Thankfully, No.1521 is preserved in running order today at the East Anglia Transport Museum, Carlton Colville.

On 29/8/62, the first production batch RMC-class Green Line coach Routemasters entered service. Brand new RMC1463, from Hertford garage, works a well-filled 715 approaching Manor House station. Wood Green RM650 follows on trolleybus replacement route 269. Also of note is the British Railways van on the right of the picture.

My local route 4A had been reintroduced in November 1961, replacing part of the 179. Here, also on 29/8/62, Holloway RT3561 stands at its Finsbury Park station terminus in the company of RT2542 on route 4. The structure behind the buses is the uncompleted façade and extra platforms for the extension of the Northern City tube line from here to Highgate and Alexandra Palace, begun in 1939 and abandoned in 1954. It remained a rusting eyesore until demolition in the early 1970s.

Next day, 30/8/62, I travelled to visit relatives who had ‘emigrated’ to Stevenage New Town in 1956. Here in the New Town’s bus station, very smart Green Line RF173, based at the nearby Country Area garage, calls on its long journey on route 716 from Hitchin to Chertsey. New RMCs replaced RFs on this route too a few months later.

Typical of buses serving new towns in the London Transport Country Area is RT1078, working route 392 which connected the growing Stevenage New Town with the distant Stevenage railway station on the Great Northern main line, which was to the north of Stevenage ‘old town’, itself north of the New Town. A new station, adjacent to the New Town centre and bus station, was not opened until 1973, a poor reflection on those who planned the New Town just after the war!

After they had replaced trolleybuses, Routemasters then went on to replace members of the huge RT family. However owing to objections by the busmen’s union regarding the conditions under which they would do so, it was not until early December 1962 that the process began. My local route 73 was one of the first to receive them. Here, Mortlake RM1311 calls at Essex Road station on their first day, 8/12/62. Of note is the incorrect via blind, showing points west of Hammersmith, and the ‘BESI bracket’ between decks above the RM’s nearside front canopy. This was a means of tracking where buses were electronically, by means of roadside scanners. The legal lettering ‘London Transport Executive’ may be clearly seen behind the RM’s front wheel – from 1 January 1963, the entity was renamed ‘London Transport Board’.

The first victims of the new RMs were RTs with the earliest Park Royal or Weymann bodywork, type RT3, dating from 1947/48. One of these, Leyton RT3296, is also seen at Essex Road station on 8/12/62. It was withdrawn six months later and exported to Ceylon in May 1964. The old lady in the foreground is completely unaware of the young lad of fifteen taking this picture on that cold December day!

Another RT3-bodied RT is Holloway’s RT4232, which passengers clamber aboard (or attempt to, since it already appears full) on weekend route 141A (which in effect was the old 179 renumbered when introduced in November 1961) outside St Mary’s Church, Upper Street, on 2/11/63. This one was withdrawn in March 1964. In later years, I would never have taken a picture of a bus with a roadsweeper’s cart and a cyclist obstructing the view, but somehow they add to the ‘period’ flavour of this picture taken nearly sixty years