From the Editor

A remarkable  sight in London this week was an RML EV, also two Citaro EVs 26 plates on demo.

A shorter page which I believe still contains  much of interest.

In this issue

An electric RML

 Aldridge Bus Rally with Andy Milwood

Reading update by Martin Dowling

Uxbridge uncertainty from Andrew Webb

Grahame Wareham remembers COMS 387

Fleet News and developments

London operations

Gordon Scott in Edinburgh

Adrian Small visited Devon

 

An electric RML

with photos by Nigel Eadon-Clarke via Gavin Francis

On Thursday morning the very first ever all electric Routemaster was unveiled at The London Eye by it's operator Golden Tours. It was last seen in London back in 2003 when it was operated by London United on Rte 94 until it was converted to Trident operation.. It was then exported to Ireland and has spent the last 20 years on tourist work there.

RML 2646 at Acton Green on 31st December 2003 on one of the last days of Routemaster operation of Rte 94.

 Nigel Eadon-Clarke went along to record the event and has supplied the pictures. 

   
RML 2646 

Aldridge bus rally with Andy Millwood

14^th March 2026 at the Aldridge bus running day.

   
The 3^rd picture is a newer bus that was a west midlands bus but now belongs to Dundee.  

   
3^rd picture is a metroline London bus the others are all west midlands buses from various era's.

 

 
including Courtney, Newbury & District & Thames Valley

from Martin Dowling

In Reading a lot of changes are going on at the moment.  New electric buses 1-24 are running on purple route 17 and claret 21 and the next batch is due to arrive soon to convert route 16.   

The ex-route 17 Enviro 400 gas buses released by the new buses are being repainted and refurbished.  Some are having their centre doors removed and will be used on pink Caversham routes 23 and 24 others are being repainted into Blue or generic colours. 

Many of the displaced earlier Enviro 400s are already sold or up for sale and several other buses are being repainted as a result of this cascade.   

Robert Williams has provided details of recent changes in his March Update ...  

21 was delivered on 6 March and entered service on 17 March. 

The next batch of Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV’s have been delivered pending expected entry into service in April, with details as follows: 

Fleet	Registration	Chassis No	Body No	Livery	Delivered
25	RG25 ZEB	SFD212AR1SGD10587	R406/01	Yellow 26	25/03/2026
26	RG26 ZEB	SFD212AR1SGD10588	R406/02	Yellow 26	25/03/2026
27	YX26 JZG	SFD212AR1SGD10589	R406/03	Yellow 26	26/03/2026
28	YX26 JZH	SFD212AR1SGD10591	R406/04	Yellow 26	26/03/2026
29	YX26 JZJ	SFD212AR1SGD10592	R406/05	Yellow 26	26/03/2026
30	YX26 JZK	SFD212AR1SGD10593	R406/06	Yellow 26	27/03/2026
31	YX26 JZL	SFD212AR1SGD10594	R406/07	Yellow 26	27/03/2026
32	RG26 BUS	SFD212AR1SGD10590	R406/08	Generic Silver	28/03/2026

451 entered service on 9 March in Buzz livery, completing the deployment of the former Stagecoach vehicles. 

416 returned from interior refurbishment on 6 March, returning to service on 9 March.

415/417 went away to Bus & Coach World, Blackburn for interior refurbishment on 14 March.

700 returned from repaint into pink 22/25 livery (ex royal blue) and interior refurbishment on 7 March, returning to service on 12 March.

753/754 went away to Bus & Coach World, Blackburn for repaint into orange 13/14 livery (ex claret and Sky advertising livery) and retrim on 6 March.

752 went into reserve on 5 February pending departure for repaint and retrim on return of 753/754. This will also be going into orange 13/14 livery (ex claret). 

211, 219, 222, 227, 1202, 1210 have been sold to Notts & Derby, with 222/1202 departing on 8 March, 227 on 9 March, 219 on 12 March, 1210 on 30 March, 211 on 31 March. Four further vehicles are expected to follow once repaints return.

1208 has been sold to Stotts, departing on 18 March.

201, 213, 233 have been sold to Chartwell Bus Sales, 233 leaving on 19 March, and 201/213 on 30 March. 201/213 have subsequently appeared with Nolan Coaches.

901 was withdrawn following a low bridge accident on 9 March pending a decision about its future.

212, 213, 806, 1211 remain on site pending collection by new owners. 

Here is a photo of newly repainted 700 taken from RB's website which is in pink to provide extra capacity, mainly for school times, on Pink routes 22 and 25. 

Uxbridge uncertainty by Andrew Webb

Bus passengers and shoppers in Uxbridge town centre on 1 April could be forgiven for questioning if they were in the correct town as many of the buses on country routes carried branding or fleet names for places far away. 

Following First's withdrawal from Cornwall several Enviro 400MMCs have joined the Berkshire fleet where they have found use on routes M40 and X74 which both link the suburb with High Wycombe, the latter running via Slough.  Unfortunately no time has been found for a visit to the paintshop so the buses continue in their Cornish livery complete with Kernow fleetnames and Transport for Cornwall logos. 

33307 has just arrived from High Wycombe on route M40. 

Cornwall is well known for tin mines, but also has reserves of lithium and copper.  It is this latter metal
which inspired the branding on 33450 as it arrives in Uxbridge having come 'the long way round' on route X74.

Carousel also had vehicles running with incorrect branding. 

80226 has just arrived in Uxbridge on route 101 from Amersham, although its branding is a reminder of a previous life around Didcot. 

80456 arrives from Slough with a journey on route 458, although the branding betrays its usual home on route 37 linking High Wycombe with Windsor. 

80480 is branded for town routes around High Wycombe, but was another vehicle on route 101.

Amongst all of this geographical confusion Arriva bucked the trend and operated route branded vehicles on their correct routes. 

Enviro 200MMC 4127 is branded for route 725. 

This is the sister route to 724 which celebrates 60 years of operation during 2026. 

To mark this milestone Arriva have repainted 4106 into traditional Green Line livery with modest anniversary branding at the rear.

A useful expose of happenings in this town. Ed. 

Grahame Wareham

H387  OFC387 1949 AEC Regent III 9612A with Weymann H30/26R high-bridge body. 

 

From new H387 was allocated to Chipping Norton depot spending its entire COMS operational life there. In 1952 H387 was renumbered to H886. H886 was sold to J.Deacon (dealer), Dorchester on Thames in November1960 passing to Smiths of Reading the same month, where it was fitted with platform doors. It was withdrawn in June 1969 finally being scrapped during the April 1970.

 

387 MJO387H 1969 Daimler Fleetline CRG6LX  with Northern Counties H41/28D low-height body. Part of an initial batch of  fifteen these were used on newly converted OMO operated duties, mainly 2 road for the first few months of their lives and then spread out to most City routes with some migrating to Witney and Wantage to operate into the City on cross City services. 387 was allocated to Cowley depot initially then finding its way to Wallingford, Bicester and finally Chipping Norton depots. Because of window supply problems there were two types of window fitted, some with slider units, as in the 1968 batch, and some with full length hoppers. the vehicles were delivered as follows: Slider windows  382,385,387-389,395,396. Hopper windows:  383,384,386,390,391-394. Also 383,385,387,389,393-396 had a ventilator in the front dome as per the previous batch, but the remaining vehicles were not fitted.383-385,388,389,391,393-395 all received the simplified two colour red and green livery from 1971 onwards, the first being treated 394 in 8/71. The remainder were repainted into NBC corporate poppy red which eventually covered the whole batch during overhaul in 1976/7. The overhaul of this batch was completed at Midland Red Carlyle Works and the vehicles had their rear engine shrouds removed at the same time.387 lasted in the COMS fleet until November 1981 when it was sold.

     

387  GUW445W  Leyland National 2 NL10AL11/2R  B41F. Originally new to London Buses as B36D Red Arrow LS445 in 1981, it was transferred to London General as LS445 when privatisation forced a split in the operations of services in London. It was converted  to B41F by OBC and was eventually transferred through the Go-Ahead Group to Oxford for Wycombe Bus duties in April 1996. By then LS445 had received a TL11 engine in place of its naturally asprirated L11 (Leyland 690) unit and it ran in High Wycombe until the advent of low floor bus replacement in February 1999. It was withdrawn and sold to Nash (dealer), Thames Valley Bus Sales at Chertsey and quickly resold to local operator White Rose of Staines in April 2000. It was later sold to PVS (dealer) Carlton for scrap in February 2002.

( I have no images of 387 or LS445)

Neil Gow adds

Like Grahame I failed to get any pictures of the ex Brighton & Hove Leyland Nationals 385 and 386 but for your issue 387 I do have his picture of COMS (Wycombe Bus Company) former London General Leyland National-2 387 (GUW 445W), pictured in Wycombe on 12^th February 1997 and not yet repainted into WBC livery.