St Albans Running Days

Saturday & Sunday January 10th-11th 2009

Prepared by Ian Smith, 18th January 2009.

Sunday morning

The tram took me to West Croydon Station. I walked round through the bus station to the 726 stance. No RF600. However, one of their team was on hand to tell me (and others) that it had failed on Friday, but that RF28 would be operating the schedule from Victoria.

I walked round to East Croydon and caught a train to Victoria. I grabbed some breakfast as I passed through the station, and emerged to Grosvenor Gardens, where I found a group waiting. I told them that RF28 would call here, but that probably they would see it emerge from Eccleston Bridge, turn away from us and call at the GreenLine stop on Buckingham Palace Road first. Other buses passed. I snapped a bendibus - MAL46 - on the 436. I might as well get pictures of them while I can. More traditional fare was in the shape of Volvo / Alexander VLA 72, heading south on the 2 pursued by a new EnviroDart on the C1 to White City.

712 Victoria - St Albans, RF28

Just after 0930 RF28 duly appeared: turning out from Eccleston Bridge as expected. There was a mad dash down Buckingham Palace Road, so I followed along at my more sedate pace, to reach RF28 at the GreenLine stop. It was properly blinded with 712 blinds for St.Albans via Park Street. I recalled one of Bob Williamson's articles on blind oddities in London Bus Magazine. This was one, with via points given as via Park Street and London Victoria, apparently in the wrong order and of very different significance, Park Street being a village just south of St.Albans. But most of the 712 route was shared with the 713, only the northern sections diverging, via Park Street or Shenley.

I climbed aboard. Ahead of us was the blank back of Green Line 4066, a DAF / Van Hool coach, bound for Cambridge. The rear was not a pretty sight.

The journey north was uneventful. We turned left through the Bulleid Way coach stop, and headed up to Grosvenor Gardens, where there was no longer anyone waiting. We purred past the back wall of Buckingham Palace Garden, and up Park Lane to Marble Arch. We wriggled north along the old route, up past Baker Street and Finchley Road, occasionally stopping for a pickup. We climbed out of London and descended into Borehamwood. We took the quiet road through to Radlett, and continued through Park Street and up to St.Stephens, before dropping down to pass Abbey Station and climb the hill into St.Albans.

Up in St.Peters Street we met RF308, back on duty today, heading for City Station on the 365, pursued by LS444, a Leyland National Mk11, on the 84 to South Mimms. We pulled up the street to the far end of the stance, and I alighted for a while to see what else was around.

St.Albans

Standing at the edge of the low winter sunshine in St.Peters Street were a pair of LLU-registered RTs. RT3871, a red RT from the London Bus Company, had been intended to work the 338 to Harperbury Hospital, but availability of other buses seemed to be causing a change of mind. Ahead of it was sister RT3254, one of the GreenLine RTs, that had already worked in from Hertford on the long 341 route, and was soon to head out again on the 803 Express to Welwyn Garden City.

Meanwhile, normal bus activity in St.Albans continued: Arriva Dart SLF 3187 passed by on the 321: an ordinary bus rather than a prestige one for this Sunday service. It was followed by Uno Bus's reliveried ex-Centrebus Dart SLF 578 on local sevice S2.

RML2330 was standing in the line of double-deckers, preparing for a day on the 330 trunk route, this year running all the way from Welwyn Garden City to Hemel Hempstead.

SNB218, in its later guise as Southend 713, was on the joint services to City and Abbey Stations again, and pulled away to tackle the traffic along St.Peters Street.

It was approaching time for the services to Luton, so I wandered back towards RF28...

Part Three: Luton & Back

Photos by Ian Smith. Click on any of them for a larger picture.

Back to Ian's Bus-stop Part One Part Three: Luton & Back