Prepared on Notepad by Ian Smith,
This page created 25th January 1999, updated 22nd January 2007.
This page created 25th January 1999, updated 22nd January 2007.
The idea of the front entrance, rear-engined Routemaster
was a response to the pressures of staff shortages
and the pervasiveness of the new generation of rear-engined buses
that were all the fashion.
In 1964 London Transport started a collaboration with AEC and Park Royal to develop the bus.
With the Routemaster already being seen to be a good design with high reliability
and public acceptability, it seemed sensible to employ the RM technology.
In the event 80% of parts were from the RM standard parts list.
The upper deck was essentially simple stretched Routemaster,
incorporating an extra full bay, making the bus 31ft 3in long.
Below that, of course, the stairs, cab, doors, engine, running gear needed re-arrangement or redesign.
The staircase was based on a Park Royal design for Stockton Atlanteans.
The driving position was high, which pleased the drivers. The front doors were electrically operated, opening to give two doorways. There was a normal emergency exit at the rear of the upper deck, and a RML-style pushout window at the offside rear downstairs. Unusually there was also a conventional emergency door behind the staircase.
The Routemaster seating was 41 up, 31 down,
giving the same total as an RML at 72.
The running gear used components from standard Routemasters, re-arranged to suit the rear engine,
but with air suspension at the rear.
The wheelbase was distinctly longer than that of an Atlantean, at 16ft 10in,
with overhangs of 7ft 2in at the front and 7ft 3in at the rear.
Destination displays comprised a standard RM display at the front,
with route and final destination displays centrally at the rear.
Livery was standard red with cream band,
but the fleetnames were in the new block letters without underline,
and the fleet numbers were in minute white lettering on both sides.
New open roundels were on front and rear.
FRM1 first appeared in public at Christmas 1966,
after nearly two years in build.
Enthusiasm for the project had obviously died at a high level:
London Transport had its sights set on single deckers for its salvation,
and AEC/Park Royal, both part of the Leyland organisation,
were no longer enthusiastic about a bus that would compare well with Leyland's
flagship product, the Atlantean, and similarly saw single deckers as the way forward.
Back in the Chiswick experimental shop it was fitted with opening quarterlights:
two at the front, two on each side upstairs and three altogether in the lower saloon.
It returned to Tottenham in December, and worked there until August 1969,
when the XAs were shifted away to Croydon.
FRM1 returned to Chiswick, but after a brief holiday there followed the XAs to Croydon.
It couldn't share their OMO workings because their fare-boxes were incompatible with the high driver position.
But route 233, West Croydon - Roundshaw, had just a single vehicle requirement.
FRM1 was labelled for one person operation, and draped with adverts,
and took up a quiet suburban existence in Croydon in December 1969.
June 1970 found it at Aldenham for a repaint,
which repeated the same pattern as before.
The fleetnames were replaced by open bullseyes, DMS style, in 1971.
Oddly, gold fleetnumbers of decent size were applied too.
By now FRM 1 had had a slight change in occupation. The 233 had been taken over by Swifts in March 1971, so FRM1 moved onto the 234, working alongside Atlantean XAs. That lasted until January 1973, when the XAs, well out of favour, were displaced by DMSs. Again it was deemed unsuitable for the single door FRM to cohabit with dual door DMSs, so FRM 1 retired to Chiswick for an overhaul.
A new job for FRM 1 was found, again a single bus operation.
This was the 284 Potters Bar Station - High Street.
FRM 1 emerged from overhaul with a white cantrail band and white bullseyes,
and with a small air intake on the front panel.
It had the yellow doors that were all the rage too.
Fleetnumbers were now in white, but of a legible size.
The garage plate holder on the nearside was moved back to allow a Pay As You Enter
sign to be located just behind the doorway.
As elsewhere, it was a popular bus at Potters Bar Garage,
and was treated with extra-ordinary care.
Not many buses at this period emerged each day with polished chrome wheel-nut covers!
FRM1 stayed at Potters Bar from October 1971 until September 1976.
Its job was about to disappear again, as the subsidy for the 284 was not being renewed by Hertfordshire,
but even before its expiry FRM1 settled the matter by ramming SNB92 belonging to London Country.
It went for repair, followed by a year of inactivity and another repaint in the same style.
But in December 1977 it was fitted with Public Address equipment for tour work,
ready to take up duties on the Round London Sightseeing Tour, from February 1978.
Once again, Stockwell Garage took it to their collective bosoms,
and it became the unofficial flagship of the tour fleet.
At its February 1981 repaint it received a cream band again,
with gold fleetnames (underlined this time), as well as its white bullseye above the door!
A real note of distinction was conferred by the award of a London Transport Medal:
a red and gold metal bullseye on the front.
The tour fleet moved to Victoria in November 1982.
FRM1 was withdrawn the following spring, in February 1983,
not because of any failure but because its face no longer fitted in the
eighties scheme of things that went for "corporate image" and the suppression of individuality.
It was handed over to the London Transport Museum in April 1983,
and forms part of the Reserve collection.
From time to time it comes out to play, to the delight of those who get to drive it.
FRM1 KGY4D
7/66 new into LT stock for trials.
12/66 GM first public appearance (Victoria)
6/67 AR transfer for 76, 34B (Tottenham)
8/67 AR fire in service: windows smashed by Fire Brigade
9/67 Chiswick overhaul: windows fitted
12/67 AR from overhaul
8/69 AR into store
8/69 Chiswick, stored
11/69 NX change store
12/69 TC transfer for 233 (Croydon)
6/70 TC Aldenham repaint
3/71 TC reallocated to 234
6/71 TC white bullseyes replace fleetnames
1/73 TC withdrawn, into store
2/73 Chiswick overhaul: air intake,
repaint, red/white, yellow doors
8/73 PB transfer, trainer (Potters Bar)
10/73 PB service on 284
9/76 PB accident damage: withdrawn for repair
10/76 CS to Chiswick
11/77 Aldenham repaint: red/white, bullseyes
12/77 p/a system fitted
1/78 SW transfer for Round London Tour (Stockwell)
11/78 CS into Chiswick
12/78 SW ..and out
8/80 SW into store
2/81 Aldenham repaint, red/cream,
gold badge, fleetnames
3/81 SW return to Sightseeing Tour
11/82 GM transfer (Victoria)
2/83 GM withdrawn
2/83 EM transfer into store (Edmonton)
4/83 LT transfer to LT Museum
12/98 AT transfer to Acton Depot (Museum Reserve Collection)
3/02 AT at RM Open Day, Acton
7/04 active at RM50, Finsbury Park
9/04 used on last crew day on 73
4/06 active at East Grinstead Running Day (409)
9/06 used on 9,15
FRM 1 KGY 4D: BM3RM p50 1966 BM3RM p51 1966 rear view CB35 p44 12/66 GM Victoria Gar ALoLBWp112 at MIRA BPRM p63 1967 at MIRA RM_1 p136 1967 Chiswick RM_1 p137 1967 Chiswick, interiors, various RMB p42p4 1967 Chiswick display, 6 views CB35 p44 1967 AR on 76 to Victoria RLB p22 1967 AR on 76 to Victoria LBiC60 p09 6/67 AR on 76 to Tottenham Garage, Victoria BAnn78 p23 6/67 AR on 76 to Tottenham Garage, Victoria RM_1 p134 6/67 AR on 34B to Walthamstow, Enfield AIHLB p66 1967 AR on 76 to Waterloo, rear o/s BM3RM p51 1967 AR on 76 to Tottenham Garage, Victoria LSubB p73 1967 AR on 34B to Ponders End Garage, Tottenham LT RM_1 p138 1967 AR on 76 to Tottenham Garage, Victoria garage RM_1 p138 8/67 AR on 76 to Victoria, Princes St, after fire RM_1 p139 10/68 AR on 76 to Tottenham Garage, Waterloo LBP&P p45 1969 AR on 76 to Westminster, Tottenham LT LBiC p69 1969 AR on 76 to Stoke Newington, Waterloo CBY95 p34 1970 TC on 233, West Croydon & Roundshaw AIHLB p66 1970 TC on 233 to West Croydon, Roundshaw LT6395p18 1970 TC on 233, West Croydon & Roundshaw, open bullseye HeyLB3p30 1970 TC on 233 to Roundshaw, W Croydon RM_1 p139 TC on 233, West Croydon & Roundshaw LT6395 p4 TC on 233, Purley Way LSubBp118 1971 TC on 234 to Selsdon, Hackbridge, open bullseye RM_2 p48 TC on 234B to South Croydon Garage HeyLB p48 PB on 284, Potters Bar Garage RLB p94 10/73 PB on 284 to Potters Bar Station LB&TA p40 1974 PB on 284, Potters Bar Station RM_2 p49 1975 PB on 284 to Potters Bar Station RMB p40 1978 Chiswick display LCityB p47 1978 SW on Sightseeing Tour, Parl Sq RM_2 p28 1979 Chiswick BM3RM p52 SW on Sightseeing Tour BPRM p32 1981 SW on R-L sightseeing tour CBY95 p33 1982 SW on Sightseeing Tour, Victoria ABC80 p71 SW on Sightseeing Tour, Parl.Sq. RM_2 p49 7/82 SW on Sightseeing Tour, Marble Arch Bus412p316 4/89 at Cobham Museum RMH p79 10/94 AR showing 76 to Westminster, Canvey Island, LT Museum Buses476p25 9/94 LT on 40R to Victoria Dock, RM40 celebrations RMB p02 showing 220 to Park Royal, Chiswick:display CB59 p30 3/02 at RM Open Day at Acton TLB480 p0 7/04 on X50 at RM50 TLB506 p41 9/06 on 9 to Royal Albert Hall, Pall MallGraham Hill's FRM page, with photos
Ian's Bus Stop
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