Reason for single-deck operation

Not known.  Double-deck route 90 previously covered the section to Chertsey with first Bs then Ks, but by 1932 the Ks were obsolete.  Ken Glazier states that their high chassis frame meant that they were at the time the 'only type of double-decker which could then cross the heavily humped Chertsey Bridge' (the bridge itself is unchanged today, although perhaps the road profile is different).  The 90 was therefore curtailed and replaced between Sunbury and Chertsey by new Dart-operated route 137.  However, it is unclear why double-decking did not occur later.

 

LT1057 running AV1 outside a public house on a village green (?) in January 1949.  The Scooters were already 11 years old when they were introduced to the route in 1942; the load in this shot certainly justifies the conversion to bigger buses.

Photo © Alan Cross, Peter Gomm collection

 

The route was introduced by the General as the 137 in June 1932, replacing the 120 between Hounslow Heath and Feltham and the 90 between Sunbury and Chertsey.  The route was one-man operated daily by Dennis Darts (the early 18-seat version) and was obviously popular at weekends; the Sunday allocation doubled over the two years after introduction. 

 

Becoming 237 in the route renumbering in 1934, the route was then host for two years to the prototype C-class Leyland Cub, the 20-seat Chiswick-built class.  At the beginning of the war, all the remaining Darts were withdrawn and the route converted fully to Cub operation, initially with the rear-engined CRs, then from 1941 with Cs when the CRs were put into store, in both cases still OMO.  But the focus in wartime was to maximise capacity and bigger buses in the form of the LTL Scooter were introduced in November 1942.

LTLs ran the 237 for 10 years, with a little help from Ts on Sundays between 1946 and 1950 and on Saturdays in 1949; these must have been borrowed as Hounslow worked no other single-deck routes.  The Scooters were over 20 years old when the route was converted to RFs in 1952, one of the first batch of routes using brand-new buses.  The first two were licensed on 3 Dec 52 and conversion completed on 9th, the spare bus RF367 being licensed on 10th.  The two trainer buses (ex-MH) were licensed in February 1953, allowing a summer increase in the Sunday allocation.

 

Apart from the rebuilding of Hounslow Garage and the opening of the bus station in 1954, the route ran unchanged for the nearly 25 years of RF operation.  Half way through RF operation, on 27 Jan 65, the 237 became OMO again. 

In April 1977, Hounslow lost its RFs from both the 237 and 202, leaving only Kingston operating the class.  They were replaced on the 237 by BL-class Bristols for 9 months, before Routemasters took over a transformed route in January 1978.

 

Gone was the semi-rural section from Sunbury Village to Chertsey, which became London Country route 459.  The 237 instead headed east from Hounslow over the 117 roads to Shepherds Bush, overnight becoming an important trunk route.  Turnham Green, later Stamford Brook (V) provided extra RMs on Saturdays.  Crew Metrobuses made an appearance in 1986 and the following year the route became OPO for the third time.

 

1996 saw the Hounslow Heath to Sunbury Village section transferred to new route 235, which converted to single-deckers two years later, with the main 237 continuing to this day, now operated by Metroline from Brentford garage.

 

 

New RFs delivered Dec 52: 357, 361-367, 376 (total 8 + 1 spare)

 

PVR 1952 (Dec): Mon-Fri 8, Sat 8, Sun 6

PVR 1953 (May): Mon-Fri 8, Sat 8, Sun 10

PVR 1953 (Oct): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 6

PVR 1954 (May): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 10

PVR 1955 (May): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 8

PVR 1956 (May): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 8

PVR 1957 (May): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 8

PVR 1958 (Nov): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 7

PVR 1959 (May): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 8

PVR 1959 (Oct): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 7

PVR 1960 (May): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 8

PVR 1962 (Oct): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 4

PVR 1966 (Feb): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 8, Sun 6

Then unchanged to 1977