Red RF routes

Route 213

 

Another early single-deck route and one of the initial RF routes, the 213 operated from Kingston to Belmont via Sutton for many years.  Its last reason for being single-deck, the bridge at Worcester Park station, was removed when the road was lowered in 1963, whereupon the route converted to RT operation.

 

RF412, during its brief stay at Sutton from 1961 to 1963, arrives at Kingston followed by another RF and an RTW.  As the RTW allocation on the 85 did not officially overlap with RFs on the 213, this is probably one of the special Kingston journeys on the 14.

Photo: Peter Gomm collection

 

Dates of RF operation

12 Dec 52 to 7 May 63

(total 10 years, 5 months, all crew operation)

 

Destinations

KINGSTON Bus Station and BELMONT California (daily 12 Dec 52 to 2 Jan 62, Suns 3 Jan 62 to 7 May 63)

KINGSTON Bus Station and SUTTON GARAGE (Mon-Sat 3 Jan 62 to 7 May 63)

 

RF Garages

NB   Norbiton

A     Sutton

K     Kingston (Sun from 16 Aug 61)

 

Reason for single-deck operation

Low rail bridges on the route at Norbiton, New Malden and Worcester Park.  In 1962, the route was diverted to serve Kingston Hospital, thereby avoiding the Norbiton bridge.  Also at about this time, the road was lowered beneath the New Malden bridge, leaving Worcester Park as the only obstacle to double-deckers.  This bridge was rebuilt in 1962 and the route was double-decked the following year.

 

Route history

First introduced in September 1921, the General's route 113 ran from Kingston Horse Fair (near Bentalls) to Kingswood via Sutton, bringing buses to a large swathe of newly developing suburbia.  The route used some of the expanding fleet of B-type single-deckers.

 

The Kingswood section was soon replaced by the 80^A and in January 1923 the 113 was extended instead to Banstead Victoria.  In rapid succession, the route was operated by Putney (AF), Merton (AL), Kingston (K), Sutton (A), then from February 1924, by A and K jointly, the arrangement that continued until Norbiton (NB) opened in 1952.

 

The buses used were single-deck due to low bridges at Norbiton, New Malden and Worcester Park.  The B-types were replaced by S-types in 1922, then at Kingston by new K-types with pneumatic tyres, in 1925-26.  Operation was shared by Ks and Ss until 1929, the Ss meanwhile being fitted with pneumatic tyres, resulting in 1928 in the journey time being reduced from 70 minutes to 55 minutes due to the consequent raising of the speed limit from 12 to 20 mph.  New AEC Regal Ts were first introduced from Sutton in January 1930.

 

In May 1930, the Belmont to Banstead section was replaced by the rerouted 164 and the 113 terminated at Belmont California.  In June 1931, the route was restocked with new LT Scooters, still with one S (or later T) on Sunday.  The number 213 came into existence with the 1934 renumbering.  

 

Known on the timetable as Belmont California, the blinds referred to Belmont Station, just across the road.  Here Sutton's RF399 stops at Sutton Granada - and appears deserted, perhaps awaiting a new crew up from Sutton Garage.

Photo: Peter Gomm collection

 

With the Kingston terminus having changed from Horse Fair to the Bus Station in 1928, there were still some route changes to come at the Carshalton end.  First, in February 1935, the direct Belmont to Sutton routing was replaced by an easterly route using Banstead Road and Cambridge Road, but not yet serving Carshalton Beeches and the Windsor Castle, which came in May 1941. 

 

In 1938, the route was altered at the eastern end by sending every other journey down Sutton High Street to terminate at Sutton Garage.  At some later stage, possibly just after the war, that part of the route was adjusted to approach the garage via Vale Road rather than Bushey Road.

 

Whilst the Scooters provided the main bus allocation through until the RF era, other types were also officially allocated, including Ts then Qs from K in 1936 and Ts in 1939.  After the war, one T was used Monday to Friday from the 215 allocation and Sutton provided Qs, then Ts, in 1948/49.  However, before the RFs the route was well known for running almost any single-deck type - Ts of all classes (and condition), CRs, Qs, TDs.  Kingston's Scooters were replaced by Ts in early 1950 and the allocation moved to Norbiton on the opening of the new garage on 14 May 52.

 

An example of the wide range of buses that worked the 213 in the years after the war and before the RFs arrived in 1952, CR47 works out of Sutton Garage.

Photo credit unknown

 

That winter RFs were introduced, at A between 12 Dec 52 and 20 Jan 53 and NB 13 Dec 52 and 1 Jan 53.  The route was selected for an experiment with semaphore trafficators, for which 24 RFs were so fitted.  However, it was soon found that these were dangerous to cyclists (or, in Colin Curtis's words, it was found that cyclists broke them), so the experiment was discontinued.  To this day, RFs carry a plated-over aperture for semaphores (as do many RTs).

 

Alongside the RFs, a supplementary allocation of Ts continued from NB at weekends until October, and on Saturdays until 1955 when they were briefly replaced by TDs.  Unofficially, it seems that TDs also worked prior to then.  A reallocation between A and NB in November 1957 saw one T again scheduled for six months.  Kingston regained an (RF) allocation on Sundays in August 1961, when Norbiton took on part of route 14 on that day. 

 

Shortly afterwards, in the changes of 3 Jan 62, the route was diverted to serve Kingston Hospital and, except on Sundays, curtailed at Sutton Garage, the Sutton to Belmont section being covered by an extension of RT route 151.  The diversion to Kingston Hospital had the effect of avoiding the low bridge in Coombe Lane, which is still there, and was perhaps prompted by the benefit of having drivers used to the new routing before the route converted to double-deck the following year.  At about this time, the road was lowered beneath the New Malden bridge, leaving Worcester Park as the only obstacle to double-deckers.

 

Over the winter of 1962/3, the road was lowered under the bridge at Worcester Park station enabling another high traffic route to be double-decked with RTs.  This duly came about on 8 May 63, along with the introduction of the 213^A, which took a slightly different route between Norbiton and Malden and took over the Sunday Belmont workings, and the reintroduction of Kingston as one of the operating garages.

 

In January 1966, Routemasters made their appearance on the route on Sundays, working from NB, until the Sunday service was withdrawn in 1969.  Weekdays remained RT-operated until the route converted to OMO with DMSs on 5 Aug 72.

 

RT3308 crosses the Kingston By-pass at New Malden in the last months of RTs on the 213.  For some of us, it comes as a surprise to find that RTs worked the route for less than 10 years.

Photo © John Parkin

 

The original 213 shrivelled and died in 1978, being replaced by the 213^A.  In 1984, this was renumbered 213, and apart from some early variations eastwards from Sutton Garage, the route has run with double-deckers between Kingston and Sutton ever since.

 

Based on 1955 bus map © London Transport

RF route in detail, with timing points

Belmont stand on 2 Aug 53. Merton's RT2958 and Norbiton's RF293 await departure on the 88 and 213 respectively.  RF293 was one of the two 'second-hand' RFs delivered to Norbiton for the conversion of the 213.  The fifth red RF, it was one of the batch delievered to Muswell Hill for the 210, soon replaced by a further batch and sent out as trainers prior to the introduction of the remainder of the fleet.  RF293 went to help prepare Sidcup; later, it was one of the batch converted to Green Line (but not renumbered).

David Roland-Shrubb (below) refers to the staff canteen at Belmont.  Here 693J, the former Tilling ST922, sits in the background.  Both the RT and the RF are less than a year old, illustrating the renewal of the bus fleet after the war that enabled the withdrawal of buses such as the ST, which dates from 1930.  ST922 is now restored and resides at the London Bus Museum ('Cobham').

Photo © Alan Cross

Memories 

Derek Fisk provided an excellent history of buses in North Cheam, including most importantly the 213, for outr Worcester Park running day.

David Roland-Shrubb commented on a previous version of this page - where I had said “in 1938, some journeys were terminated at Sutton Garage” - 'it almost reads as if this happened on a whim - the conductor needed the loo, the driver fancied a cigarette, or neither fancied the tea on offer in the ex-Tilling ST staff canteen at Belmont.  In fact every alternate bus terminated inside Sutton Garage, normally entering through the refuelling/washdown bay and parking adjacent to the offices just inside the garage exit facing the direction of the High Street to which they returned via Bushey Road.

Originally they travelled to the garage this way also, but sometime in, I think, the late 1940s all buses returning to the garage were diverted along Vale Road - possibly to avoid the 654 trolleybus turning circle at the junction of High St and Bushey Rd. However, I seem to recollect that for some reason the 156 was excluded from this diversion.

As a boy I lived in Cheam (1939 – 1955) and the 213 and 156 passed our house on Malden Road. I knew that if a Belmont bus came along the next one would be going to the garage and (more important) would be passing the Marks & Spencer’s bus stop on the High Street where us Grammar School boys would alight.  In those days the headway between Kingston & Sutton was 4 – 6 minutes and 8 – 12 minutes between Sutton & Belmont.

I remember once coming out of the Granada cinema in North Cheam (where Sainsbury's is now) to discover a blanket of fog so dense that when a 156 did appear the conductor was walking in front of it holding a flare!  I also remember the top shed of Sutton garage (it might well have been 1947) full of Daimlers all with their engines running at around midnight to prevent the radiators from freezing. The night staff apparently had to start them all up every two hours but I don't know for how long they ran them. The atmosphere thus created is better imagined than experienced!'

Re-creation

The 213 was operated by RFs at our Worcester Park running day in 2008.