Prepared by Ian Smith,

These pages created in 1997, updated 7th February 1999.
Any corrections, additional information or news gratefully welcomed.
Drawings by Ian Smith are NOT scale drawings from originals, but based on a few known dimensions and (usually) a variety of photographs. In places inferences have been drawn where the photographic evidence is poor. They may be of use to modellers if printed at a suitable scale (load into a graphics package and adjust printing size to match the wheelbase).

Class History

STL469 at Covent Garden

In 1932 the overall length of four wheel double-deck buses was raised from 25 to 26 feet, and the gross weight from 9.5 to 10 tons. AEC produced a lengthened Regent chassis, 16ft 3in to replace the 15ft 6.5in version used on the LGOC ST class buses.
London General had just bought a large number of long 6-wheelers (LT class), so was slower to take advantage than some of the independents. But once the new class - the Short Type Lengthened or STL - was established it was built continuously by LGOC and the London Transport (LPTB) until the outbreak of war in 1939.
Bodies were mainly of a developing standard type, after initial trials and the absorption of oddities. Most bodies were built at the Chiswick works, but a few were unsatisfactorily contracted to Park Royal.
Spare bodies were built to enable the normal practice of swapping bodies at overhaul, the bodies taking longer to repair than the chassis. To enable this the chassis were type -numbered, and also the bodies, with swapping occurring within types.
The Country Area had low-bridge buses for the 410 built by Weymann; two batches of front entrance high-bridge bodies; a share in a batch of Chiswick -built wartime low-bridge bodies; and a post-war batch of non-standard Weymann provincial bodies.


Table of Contents

Each class of STL has its own section, each with a general class history; an individual bus history; pictures (either drawings or photographs , when available); and a list of photographic references.
It may take some time to complete all the sections, so initially some may be rather bare: your patience is requested, and your contributions invited, in terms of pics, histories or further references that I can look at)
  1. GENERAL STLs, STL 1-50, 151-202
  2. Tilling STLs, STL 51-130
  3. Leaning-back STLs, STL 203-552, 559-608
  4. Pickup STLs, STL 553-557
  5. The Red Line STL, STL 558
  6. Standard STLs, STL 609-958, 1060-1259, 1264-1463, 1514-1613
    7.
  7. Country STLs, First Series, STL 959-1043, 1056-1059
  8. Godstone STLs, STL 1044-1055
    9.
  9. The ex-Daimler STs, STL 1260-1263
    10.
  10. Country STLs, Second Series, STL 1264-1513
    11.
  11. Roof-box STLs, STL 1614-2013, 2189-2515
  12. Park Royal STLs, STL 2014-2188
  13. The Ultimate STLs, STL 2516-2647
  14. Tunnel STLs
    15.
  15. Austerity Lowbridge STLs
  16. The Unfrozen STLs, STL 2648-2681
    17.
  17. Pay As You Board STLs
  18. The Meccano set, STL 2477
    19.
  19. The Post-war Weymann Provincial STLs, STL 2682-2701
    20.
  20. The Leeds STLs
    21.
  21. The SRTs
    22.
  22. Bibliography: the list of sources
Photo of STLs at Cobham Bus Museum STLs come in a variety of shapes, as shown by this line-up at Cobham Bus Museum. These days, they also come in various stages of preservation!
Click on the image for a larger clearer version.
Photo, used with permission, by BusSpotter

Links to other sites with STLs

London Bus Preservation Trust: The Cobham vehicles: brief histories and some superb pictures.

Ian's Bus Stop STL contents contents The General STLs

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