Bus stop header

Prepared in Notepad by Ian Smith, updated 3rd August 2012.
Best on Mozilla Firefox, screen size 800*600.

The BUS-STOP is an outsider's view of London Transport buses, mainly in the 1930-1980 era.

Whats at the bus stop:

Bus of The Week What's New STL441 at Chessington Zoo, 6th Sept.2009.
Special Report: Hertford Running Days, 2-3 June 2012
Special Reports Archive Sevenoaks Running Day, 13th May 2012
LONDON BUS CLASSES:
1920-30s: O NS LS R CH DE
1930-40s: LT CC ST LTL T CB DL DT DA GF DC
1930-40s: TD TR STL STD BD MS C Q LTC TF CR
1940-50s: B G D TD
1950-70s: RT RTL RTW RTC SRT RF RFW BEA GS RLH
1950-90s: RM RMC RCL RML RMF RMA FRM RX RW RC EC
1960-70s: TT XF XA MB SM SMW SMA RP DMS DMO FS FT
1970-90s: AF AN MS LN LNB SNC SNB LS GSN GLS
1970-90s: BL BN BS BL MD PD3 LS LR BT P,D RN
1980s: RB RS DV DL PL TL TD TP TPL LRC BTL
1980-00s: T M A V H DD DDN L LR C DA LE1
1980-00s: Volvo Citibuses Scanias Lynxes midibuses
1990-00s: Leyland Olympians Volvo Olympians DAF d/d
1990-00s: Dennis Lances Dennis Dart Volvo B6 MV MM
1990-10s: Dart SLFs Optare Excels
Links to other L.T. sites The sources used About the bus-stop
COUNTRY BUS RALLIES GS62 Garages STL441 at Chessington Zoo, 6th September 2009. Photo: Ian Smith.

What's New:

3rd August 2012.

I have been fleshing out the histories of the standard non-roofbox STLs.

26th July 2012.

More Dart SLF pages: those for Sullivan Buses, and Limebourne (Q-Drive), Limebourne (Independent Way), Durham Travel Services, East Thames Buses, and Carousel.

29th June 2012. Partial histories of RT4100-4199 have been added

Also a page on Ensignbus' Dart SLFs.

5th June 2012. I have started on a report on the Hertford Route Recreation and Running Days. As usual, more as I write it.

17th May 2012. The Sevenoaks report is going up. As usual, more as I write it.

I have added two more Dart SLF pages: those for Reg of Hertford, and Regal Busways of Chelmsford.

Another year (1958) of the RTL histories has been added too.

18th April 2012.

I have started to put up a report about the East Grinstead Running Day. More will follow over the next week or so.

11th April 2012. Also by way of a change from Dart SLFs I have spent a couple of weeks doing a suite of pages on the Optare Excels, that were used by Metrobus, Capital Logistics, Tellings Golden Miller, Travel London, Travel London (again), Limebourne, Connex, Thorpes, London United, Harris Bus, East Thames Buses, Town & Country, Tillingbourne, and Safeguard.

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About Ian's Bus Stop: Dreadful warnings!

Ian does not pretend to be an expert: any corrections, additional information, flattery or news gratefully welcomed. Rivet-counters can make their own web-sites!

Most BUS-STOP pages contain:

  • drawings or photos (when I can get them) of a class of London bus;
  • a potted class history;
  • some history of individual buses;
  • a list of photographic sources, and
  • a bibliography.
The histories are not complete. They are assembled from data from a variety of sources, that do not always agree with each other. In some cases I have much more data than I have displayed, and just need time to fill in the gaps. They are are offered as a help to your own researches, not as a complete entity.

I do not attempt to keep the histories up-to-date. If you want the latest information, there are plenty of special interest groups on the net. For comprehensive monthly updates, subscribe to LOTS to get "The London Bus".

The plan 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.
In particular adverts shown on buses may have incorrect colouring where I have guessed wrongly from black & white pictures, or may be inappropriate to the livery worn by the bus.
They may be of use to modellers if printed at an appropriate scale. You'll have to experiment to find the right printer settings.

Pages are designed for use on the Firefox browser, on 800*600 resolution. Other resolutions may give odd results. If a display ratio is not 4:3 the photos and drawings may be distorted. Using other browsers may also give odd results at times, especially if they do not follow the rules, like Microsoft's Explorer, which does its own thing. I am trying to amend pages so that they show properly on 4:3 ratio pages other than 800*600, but this may take some time, and you may need a good pair of reading glasses.

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