When London General Country Services was set up in 1932 it acquired from LGOC all the Private Hire and GreenLine coaches, including the Ts. East Surrey, the forerunner of LGCS, had its own Regal coaches, and acquired more by takeovers before the formation of London Transport. Quite naturally it numbered these following on from the GreenLine Ts, ie from T307 upwards. When London Transport was formed in July 1934, further Regal coaches were taken over, and were numbered onto the end of the T numbering system. The Country Regal buses, that had not been numbered by LGCS, were also added onto the end. The Country Area continued maintaining the buses and coaches, and no-one seemed to know or care that London Transport had TWO sets of Regals with fleet numbers between T307 and T318. However, when Chiswick works took over the Country records in February 1935 they discovered the AWFUL TRUTH.
The logical thing to do would have been to renumber the Tilling buses,
leaving the Country coaches as a block. Chiswick, of course,
did the other thing. They renumbered T307-T318 of the Country series to
T391-T402, thereby splitting the coach series, and even one type.
But then, they had already mangled the renumbering of the
Amersham & District and Lewis Omnibus Regals, so this increase in entropy was hardly surprising.
Anyway, having explained why the numbering scheme is rather weird, onto the buses:
I shall use the London Transport numbering.
These were East Surrey's second set of touring Regals
(the first lot, and the first few of these having been renumbered),
and were rather nicer than the first batch.
They were 27 feet long
(not being bound by London's stage carriage regulations),
but still used the standard 17ft 0in wheelbase chassis.
Their bodies were by Hall-Lewis,
and unlike the first batch had full canopies at the front,
above Chiswick-style rounded cabs.
They also sported GreenLine style route indicators at the front.
But coaches they were, with a nearside forward swing door,
offside emergency door, luggage carrier and fold-back opening roof.
The only purpose LT could use them for was for private hire and sightseeing:
they were unsuitable for GreenLine use,
and LT was prohibited by law from using them for long - distance touring.
So the luggage racks came off,
and they were allocated to the GreenLine Private Hire depot at Brixton.
They worked from there until the spring of 1938,
when they were replaced by the
LTC Renowns.
One escaped being sold, and began a rather different career with the London Trolleybus fleet
as a wire greaser.
T320 acquired a specialist double-decker body and trolleybus style livery,
and as service fleet number 114W
spent the years between 1938 and 1957 keeping the wires lubricated,
eventually being sold in 1959.
As has often proved the case with the premium GreenLine market, the body amenities were considered old-fashioned in a very short time, and by 1935 LT had to consider rebodying them as too old-fashioned for the market.
All six had their chassis upgraded to 1931 specification,
but retained their petrol engines.
The bodies were replaced by all-metal Weymann bodies very similar to those
built for Reliances that later ended up on Regals as the
11T11 class.
However, they had heavier new metal-framed seats, and were classified 5T4.
With their new bodies they went initially onto GreenLine work,
but newer buses displaced them in 1936 and they were demoted to Country bus work.
During the war they were fitted with producer gas units, but later reverted to petrol.
They all went abroad in 1945,
when they were bought by the War Department for use in Germany
by the Allied Control Commission.
Their history with LT matched those of the Blue Belles. They too had chassis upgrades in 1935, and new Weymann bodies, making them too 5T4. Again the rejuvenated buses had a year on GreenLine, followed by Country bus work, producer gas operation during the war, and export to Germany for the ACC in 1945.
T351 was then bought for service in Douai, France, along with several other ancient Ts.
Amazingly, one seems to have survived. T357 moved to France after the war, and was converted to a mobile caravan. In this form it has survived for over fifty years, until recently coming to light again after a period in store. It has been repatriated in early 2003 to join its class-mates with the London Bus Preservation Trust at Cobham.
LT continued to use it in GreenLine service until it was displaced by the new wave of coaches in July 1938.
GreenLine supplied Amersham & District with 7T7s for their London service at the start of GreenLine operations, but the company - and its coaches - was taken over by LT in November 1933. LT used the Strachans coaches on the Amersham - London service, classifying them 1/8T8/3. The roof racks were removed, and they were repainted, first into "General" green livery, then to "London Transport" with "Green Line" tags. They continued on this duty until early 1938, when they were spruced up and transferred to the Central Area's Private Hire fleet for a season.
At the end of 1938 they were given a make-over, or "mid-life refurbisment". This consisted of a new diesel engine and a nearly-new second-hand body. These bodies were built by Weymann in 1935 to rebody the Reliance R class. They suited the Regals much better. The rebuilt 11T11 buses went on to long lives with LT, lasting until displacement by new RFs in mid 1953.
Lewis Omnibus of Watford provided LT with four touring coaches at their takeover in October 1933.
These two had 27ft Harrington bodies, with half canopies, two nearside swing doors
and a folding roof.
LT naturally put them into the Private Hire fleet at Brixton, where they worked until the spring of 1938. Displaced by the Amersham coaches, they were then sold off.
This pair were 1932 additions to the Amersham & District fleet,
and similarly were 27ft stage coaches bodied by Strachans,
with a sliding door at the nearside rear.
Like the earlier coaches, they continued to be employed from Amersham, on the London - Amersham greenline service, until spring 1938, when they went to Brixton (BT) for a season of sightseeing.
They too were candidates for conversion to 11T11,
and seem to have been fitted with the new bodies in November 1938.
For some reason this decision was reversed,
they were refitted with their original bodies and sold early in 1939.
Lewis' second pair were also by Harrington,
but this time to a more conservative full canopy design,
with a nearside sliding door at the rear, and a sliding roof.
The sliding door allowed their use on GreenLine services, and they were so used from their takeover in October 1933 until early 1938. Then T368 was sold and T367 went to Brixton for a season's sightseeing. T367 was then apparently fitted with an 11T11 body, but was then refitted with its Harrington body before being sold the following year.
In 1938 it was rebodied with the secondhand body from T300,
and was reclassified 1/7T7/1.
This body was simultaneously modified to bus standard, with a tall destination box.
During the war T369 was reallocated to Addlestone garage (WY),
and painted grey for operations around the Vickers works in Weybridge.
In 1945 it was transferred to the Central area and repainted red.
Duties in the Romford and Kingston areas kept it busy until the end of 1949.
In September 1936 the old body was removed and replaced by the spare Tilling body.
It thus became a 4/1T3. This lasted until October 1939,
when the whole bus was scrapped.
After the 1932 reorganisation into London General Country services
the buses were taken over by LT in July 1933, and used in the Country Area
until 1939, when they were all withdrawn.
Some were sold during 1939, and others used as service vehicles during the war,
for instance as snowploughs.
All those remaining by 1945 were sold to the Allied Control Commission.
These too were carried forward into LGCS and then LT Country Area stock as buses,
and worked away until 1939, when
although of superior specification to the shorter Country buses
they too were delicensed.
Country Buses
T369: the Peruvian demonstrator
This bus had a colorful history both before joining LT and after.
It started life as a demonstrator for AEC.
Chiswick fitted it with a 26ft bus body, rather like the 1T1,
but with a rounded cab and an offside open rear platform.
The roof was rather squarer, and overhung the cab considerably.
AEC shipped the bus to Peru at the start of 1931, bringing it back to England in 1932.
It was converted to nearside open platform (probably by Park Royal),
and sold to the Watford Omnibus Company.
July 1933 saw it taken over by London Transport,
who used it as a Country Area bus (4/1T6)
in the north-west of the doughnut.
T370: the St.Albans bus
The chassis for T370 was built by AEC in 1932 for stock,
but remained unsold at the year-end.
In 1933 St Albans & District bought it and fitted it with a secondhand bus body.
A month later it was taken over by London Transport,
who operated it as a Country bus in this form for just over three years.
T371: the Watford bus
T371 also started existence as an AEC demonstrator in 1930,
fitted with a rather nice Shorts forward entrance bus body.
Watford Omnibus Co. bought it in 1932,
and London Transport took it over in July 1933.
It was used as a Country bus until 1939,
when in common with the other 1930 Country Regal petrol buses
it was delicensed.
T372-379, 383-390: the East Surrey short buses.
These sixteen buses were East Surrey's standard 1930 single decker,
and closely reflected the design of the company's larger partner, the General.
Six of them were actually owned by the LGOC.
The design was basically the same as the 1T1: rear entrance 26ft Regal bus.
They were built by Hall-Lewis rather than Chiswick,
so had double beading round the waist rather than the broad Chiswick band.
T380-382: the East Surrey long buses.
East Surrey bought a further four buses in 1931,
this time having them bodied by Weymann.
By now forward entrances were in fashion, and they were given an extra bay
by stretching them to 27ft.
The small company of Buck's Expresses bought two 26ft Regals with bodywork
very similar to that on the 1/7T7/1s, only slightly taller.
They were taken over by General on behalf of Greenline in February 1932,
and became part of GreenLine stock.
LGCS numbered them T307 and T308 in their GreenLine series.
London Transport took control in July 1933, and renumbered them to T391, 392
when the number duplication was noticed in early 1935.
It also classified them as 1/7T7/1.
They worked alongside the other GreenLine coaches until 1938, when both were demoted to bus work and fitted with bus destination blinds.
During the war T391 had its door removed, and was officially transferred to the Central area, with a red/white/black/brown livery to suit. It was allocated to Kingston, and worked there, mainly on the 218, until withdrawal in 1949.
T392 remained as a Country bus until 1945, when it was sold to the Allied Control Commission for post-war work in Germany. It became the team bus for the combined forces football team with the British Army of the Rhine in Hannover.
East Surrey bought both Regal buses and coaches in 1930.
These touring coaches were in the current style, with high waists, half canopies,
dual swing doors, full-drop windows and a fold-back opening roof.
T319-402: bus histories
Bus Stop
T contents
Tilling Ts
Country Ts