The London Country RN Reliance BusesThis page created 23rd November 2002 by Ian Smith
They must have proved useful, for although seven years old when bought they stayed on with London Country
and then London Country South-West until 1988-9, when sixteen-seventeen years old.
Most were then sold to Spence of Thorpe Bay,
who cannibalised some and hired out the others for contract work.
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In 1977 London Country raised a few of its observers' eyebrows
when it bought ten secondhand AEC Reliances from Barton Transport, Nottingham.
It wasn't that they were Reliances, nor that they had Plaxton Panorama Elite bodywork,
but that these were 64-seater buses, with 3+2 seating
(3 seats on the nearside, 2 on the offside of the gangway).
They were repainted in green with a white band, and numbered RN1-10.
London Country downseated them to merely 60 seats,
and understandably put the first two out to contract work from Dorking in September.
More surprising was that the rest went to work on bus duties from Leatherhead,
notably on the 418 (Kingston Stn - Bookham Stn).
They also appeared on other local services, as well as schools runs and private hires.
There were odd appearances on Greenline turns too.
They mainly were associated with Dorking and Leatherhead,
but odd examples spent periods at Reigate, Godstone, Chelsham, Addlestone and Guildford.
From Guildford RN3 would venture out once a month on the first-Wednesday only service to Chichester,
the 854, London Country's most outstretched finger, between September 1980 and September 1982.
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