Bromley Mini Running Day

Sunday 13th December 2015

Prepared by Ian Smith, 15th January 2016.

Part Three: RFs ?

Crystal Palace

I stood at the boarding stop on Crystal Palace Parade and watched the buses going by. 23108 was a Stagecoach Citaro on the 227, heading back for Bromley.

VLA69 was an elderly Volvo B7TL with the ALX200 body, dating from 2004. Presumably it is not long for London, or are buses lasting longer in these times of perpetual austerity/depression? Anyway, Arriva London was still using it on the 417 from Clapham Common.

DWS9 was even older. This short Cadet from 2003 still works the twisting 410 from Wallington, which entails turning into estate roads and twirling right round mini-roundabouts - the kind of route that London Transport would not have contemplated, but which can use Darts to bring transport to the doorstep.

Go-Ahead London's President PVL330 is even older (2002). It was heading for Elephant and Castle on the 363.

Rather newer was Abellio's 2425, a three-year-old hybrid Enviro400H working on long-standing route 3, today to Piccadilly Circus.

Those of us waiting at the Parade had received news that the replacement for TD95 was on its way, and had passed Sutton. It was to be UMP227, the Regal IV/Park Royal precursor to the RF, recently restored for the London Bus Museum at Brooklands. It had, in its early days, worked for London Transport in the St.Albans area and then Reigate, but not, as far as I know in the Central Area. This would be its debut, and what better route than the 227!

It suddenly appeared at the south end of the Parade, at the junction where the trolleybus roundabout used to be. It went straight over, onto Anerley Hill! There were hurried mobile phone calls. It was coming back! It reappeared at the top of the hill and came along to our stop: magnificent!

But it was no going into service immediately. It had only the one qualified driver. After the extensive shunt to extract it from Brooklands Museum after TD95 was found to be hors-de-combat, and the drive from Brooklands to Crystal Palace, the driver required a break. So they decided to take their lunch-break now, rather than an hour later. But they did allow me into the vehicle to see the interior - familiar, yet strange, RF-like but different.

Then RF368 arrived on the other side of the Parade, offering a classic photo. It unloaded and headed for the bus station to turn. A 227 came back - it wasn'y RF368 but a service bus, Citaro 23102.

RF368: Crystal Palace to Bromley North Station

RF368 has been restored to almost its original condition, with no doors, no conductor safety bar inside the front window, and 41 seats (with no luggage bin). It has however kept the trafficators. I climbed aboard and acquired a seat right at the nearside front, on the long transverse seat, giving me a good view out the front.

We set off along the parade, following PVL332 on the 363. It turned aside to head north, while we swooped round to the east down Crystal Palace Hill. We played tag for a while with Citaro 23108 on the 227.

We cruised down towards The Crooked Billet, meeting 23111 starting the long climb. Then at the south-east end of the High Street, by Kent House, we met RF486 heading into Penge pursued by DW32.

We trundled on to Clock House, and on into Beckenham. We were carrying a good load of passengers, so were pausing at nearly every stop. This is not a quick route! We negotiated Beckenham High Street, and turned up towards Beckenham Church. RF429 was just peeking round the corner.

After the pause at the bus-stop we headed on towards Shortlands, along Bromley Road. We crested the ridge, and rumbled down towards Shortlands. Citaro 23103 was growling uphill away from a stop on the gruelling hill up from the valley.

We ducked under the bridge at Shortlands Station and climbed the sinuous Swan Hill up to Bromley. We made our way round through the Market Place - no stop there now - and headed for Bromley North, where we terminated at Mitchell Way. I gave my thanks and alighted. It was time to visit the 94....

Part Four: Double-deckers on the 94

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

Ian's Bus-stop 1 2 3 4