London Transport RM1

The prototype of the last generation of conventional rear-entrance double-deck London buses is RM1, the very first Routemaster, built in 1954 and brought into use after various modifications in 1956.

It still exists – and runs – in its 1960 condition at the London Transport Museum’s Acton Depot:  http://www.ltmcollection.org/vehicles/objects/object.html?IXtype=&_IXSR_=UnPctRYPqQC&_IXMAXHITS_=1&_IXFIRST_=20&_IXSESSION_=.

When you’ve seen one red bus you may feel you’ve seen them all, but this design was special.  Conceived after the war, when the London Transport RT type was in production, the Routemaster was custom-designed for service in the capital.

Its designers, Arthur “Bill” Durrant, Colin Curtis and Douglas Scott, set out to supersede the RT, so the Routemaster was built of aluminium, three quarters of a ton lighter than the RT, with independent front suspension, a fully automatic gearbox and more powerful brakes.  It seated 64, eight more than the RT.

It was intended to make the most of London Transport’s innovative Aldenham Bus Works, which ran a production-line overhaul system to inspect, refurbish and test vehicles in the shortest possible time.

2,876 of these splendid buses were built and nearly half of them still exist.  Their sturdy construction and sound design meant that, despite their disadvantages of limited capacity and accessibility and the need for two-man operation, they outlasted newer vehicles and remained popular with passengers and crews.

It’s no accident that the New Routemaster, [http://www.tfl.gov.uk/modes/buses/new-routemaster] sponsored by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has earned a place on the streets of 21st-century London:  a thousand of them were in service by the end of 2017.

London Transport RT1

The London Bus Museum [http://www.londonbusmuseum.com] at Brooklands, Surrey, exists to chronicle the development of the London bus from the earliest days of horse-drawn buses to the end of the twentieth century.

One of its most treasured exhibits is RT1, dating from August 1939, the prototype of nearly seven thousand classic post-war London double-deckers.  Its diesel engine, air brakes and pre-selector gearbox made it easy to drive and comfortable to ride.

It stands in a line of development that was pioneered by the London General Omnibus Company and its manufacturing arm, the Associated Equipment Company [AEC], that shed the horse-bus ancestry of early motor buses and was continued after the formation of London Transport in 1933 by the design-conscious CEO, Frank Pick (1878-1941), who insisted that every possible aspect of London’s public transport operations should be elegant and attractive.

RT1 remained in LT ownership until 1978, was sold for preservation and got into various scrapes, including time in the USA, before being scrupulously restored to 1939 condition at a cost of over £200,000.

The London Bus Museum acquired it in 2010 and displays it in a clear chronological sequence of vehicles dating from the mid-1870s to 1979.

HM The Sultan of Oman’s Royal Flight VC10 A4O-AB: interior

The Vickers VC10 aircraft had a distinguished career in both civil and military aviation.  Built at Vickers-Armstrong’s Brooklands plant from 1962 onwards, they were popular planes, designed to cope with short runways and “hot and high” airfields.  Fifty-four VC10s were built, of which nine survive in retirement.

Of these, A4O-AB is undoubtedly the most luxurious.  Originally sold to Freddie Laker’s British United Airways and registered G-ASIX in 1964, it found its way into the royal flight of the Sultan of Oman in 1974.  The Sultan, Qaboos bin Said Al Said (born 1940), understandably values his comfort, and his aircraft was adapted accordingly to provide  a lounge dominated by two large swivel chairs alongside a comfortable couch and walnut tables, two bedrooms, a commodious galley and a section seating 32 staff in an approximation to orthodox business class configuration.

During its thirteen years in the Omani Royal Flight A4O-AB inevitably gained its share of legends – flights to London purely to pick up fresh strawberries, and journeys to India in which the Sultan’s hawks travelled in the main cabin to the detriment of the carpets and upholstery.

When A4O-AB was replaced in 1987, the Sultan offered it to the Brooklands Museum as a memento of the aircraft that were built there.

This presented a practical problem, in that each of the fifty-four VC-10s had flown out of Brooklands when new, but very few had ever returned.  Though these planes customarily landed at 10,000-feet runways, at the disused but practical Brooklands airfield only 3,500 feet were available.  Return visits for maintenance had been directed to the nearby runway at Wisley.

The numerous precautions for this one-off landing were interesting, if slightly unnerving.  Following the pilot’s premise “if there’s any doubt, there’s no doubt”, the crew inspected the approach on the ground and by helicopter.  Various trees and lamp-posts were removed, police and fire-services were alerted, trains on the nearby London-Bournemouth line were paused and residents were warned to expect more noise than usual.

In the event, A4O-AB arrived on time and in good order, to be greeted by its designer, Sir George Edwards (1908-2003), on July 6th 1987.

The pilot of that final flight, Captain Richard King, gives an account of his encounters with G-ASIX/A4O-AB, including the final flight, at http://www.vc10.net/Memories/A4OAB_Royalflight.html.

Visitors to the Brooklands Museum [http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/index.php?/explore/vickers-1103-vc10-ex-g-asix-a4o-ab-1964] can board A4O-AB to admire the facilities, including the bathroom, and – by invitation – sit in the cockpit.