Route 212

A significant route for us because our RF486 was delivered new to Muswell Hill garage in February 1953 for the 212. A high capacity route that used single deckers until the weak bridge on Muswell Hill was removed and was London's highest-frequency RF route.

RFs 411 and 352, plus one, lay over at Muswell Hill Broadway, 4 Aug 59.

Photo © KG Carr, Peter Gomm collection

Dates of RF operation

10 Feb 53 to 5 Jan 60

(total 6 years 11 months, all crew operation)

Express service Mon-Fri peaks introduced 12 Oct 55

Destinations

FINSBURY PARK Wells Terrace and MUSWELL HILL BROADWAY

RF Garages

MH Muswell Hill

Reason for single-deck operation

Unlike the effect of most rail bridges in this respect, it was a weight restriction on the bridge over the railway on Muswell Hill that caused the route to be operated by single-deckers until 1960, despite being one of the businest routes in London and losing London Transport substantial sums.

A B-type on route 111 climbing Muswell Hill, passing Muswell Hill Station and about to cross the offending bridge. B2706 was one of 30 'bentwood' single-decker Bs built in 1914 and soon commandeered by the War Office. Only three returned; this was not among them.

Photograph John Hinson collection

Route history

Originally numbered the 111, the route was introduced in April 1914 from Finsbury Park to Muswell Hill. Due to a weight restriction over the railway bridge on Muswell Hill, the route was operated by single-deckers until 1960, despite becoming one of the busiest routes in London. Providing a link to Finsbury Park Station for the tube-less residents of Muswell Hill and Crouch End, the route operated every 2½ minutes in 1924; this improved to every 2 minutes in 1931 with the introduction of faster Scooters and a reduction in the journey time from 19 to 16 minutes.

Initially worked by Holloway garage (J) using B-types, the 111 was one of the routes on which the new 26 seat type-7 Bs were introduced in 1921, only for the General to discover that the new buses were too heavy and have to resuscitate 20-seat pre-war buses. Indeed, in the same year, the LGOC and two drivers were fined at Highgate Police Court for running double deckers on the route over the weight restricted railway bridges at Crouch Hill and Muswell Hill (could The Times have their facts slightly wrong and be referring to the new Bs by any chance?).

The 111 was reallocated to Muswell Hill (MH) when that garage opened on 23 Sep 25 and the Bs were replaced by new K-types in 1925-27, still only with 20 seats and with solid tyres, unlike some of the single-deck Ks built at the time which had 22 or 24 seats and pneumatic tyres. The Metropolitan Police required the use of sprag gear as a safety measure on steep hills, and this was incompatible with pneumatic tyres (this problem was solved on later models by the introduction of four-wheel braking in 1926, pioneered by Dennis and the London independent Admiral, not by LGOC).

In March 1931, the prototype LT Scooter was moved from Edgware to Muswell Hill to be tried on the famously steep hill (up to 1 in 9, the steepest long hill that Scooters would operate on), followed in April by another 25, replacing all of the Ks by the end of that month.

The route was renumbered on 3 Oct 34 into the new 200-series of single-deck routes. Full blinds were provided for the 212, with the more familiar 'lazy' blinds only appearing around 1948; blinds for the garage journeys from Finsbury Park, run in service, stated 'Colney Hatch Lane Hampden Road via Colney Hatch Lane', ignoring all the points passed on the main route.

The coal-siding bridge over Wells Terrace, Finsbury Park, in full view above Muswell Hill's LT1164, rebuilt in 1949 by Marshalls of Cambridge, turning into Clifton Terrace. The bus retains its petrol engine, and is on temporary loan to MH (the bus was not allocated there after rebuild).

Photo © John Smith, Lloyd Rich collection

Officially, the LT allocation lasted until 1946/7, when there was a phased replacement by new 14T12 Regals during 1946. However, the 210 and 244 retained an official allocation of Scooters right through to 1952, and in practice they continued to be used on the 212 alongside the modern vehicles. Of these, the 7.7 litre AEC diesel engines of the 14T12s proved underpowered ascending Muswell Hill, so from December 1946 they were in turn replaced by the whole of the first batch of 31 TDs, with 7.4 litre Leyland engines and Weymann bodywork, a process completed in June 1947.

With a few now spare, the TDs also appeared on the 210 alongside LTLs. Meanwhile, Muswell Hill's 244 was still (officially) LTL-operated (until 1952), and some joint allocation meant that one official LT working reappeared on the 212, Mondays to Fridays, in the late 1940s.

At this stage, the Scooters still retained their petrol engines. Conversion of the majority of the class to diesel, using engines from scrapped STLs commenced in 1949 with buses allocated to Elmers End for the 227 and Croydon for the 234 group. However, when the first diesel Scooters arrived at MH, they were found to be unable to climb Muswell Hill without the use of first gear for much of the climb. Chiswick engineers conducted tests in 1950 and found that the fuel pumps required adjustment, resulting in changed settings being adopted across the fleet.

The postscript to this episode came in 1952. With the Scooters still unpopular, the union suggested that withdrawn Green Line 6Q6s, replaced on the 715 by new RFs, be used to replace them and this was accepted (even though their hill-climbing ability was unlikely to be better). The last 18 Scooters at MH were delicensed overnight on 18 Mar 52 and the Qs replaced them on the 210, 212 and 244, still in Green Line livery. This was a stopgap - LT delivered on their promise that MH would receive the first red RFs (for the 210, in September) and the Qs were withdrawn - leaving the TDs to work alongside the RFs.

The two-minute frequency on the 212 lasted into the 1950s. LT would have dearly loved to run double-deckers - by 1950, the route was losing £20,000 p.a. due to the higher staff cost per passenger of single-deckers. Following inconclusive correspondance with the railway company about strengthening the bridge on Muswell Hill, under which coal trains still ran, in 1953 this moved on to correspondence about possible closure of the line 'if the coal traffic could be redirected'.

The peak requirement of the 212 increased steadily over the years, to a maximum of 23 LTs, then 27 when run by a mixture of LTs and Ts and finally 30 TDs in 1952, falling back slightly to 29 after the introduction of the larger RFs (but 29 41-seat RFs provided 20% more seats than 30 33-seat TDs).

TD2 about to pick up in Muswell Hill Broadway once the driver resets the blind for its journey to Finsbury Park; the older full blind display is carried. Note the flared rear lower panels of the Weymann-bodied TD, classic Weymann and unlike the later Mann Egerton bodies.

Photo Ian Armstrong collection

The 212 was the second route at Muswell Hill garage operated by the RF class, from February 1953. The first of the second batch of RFs was licensed on 4 February and the last few were held back and not licensed until 1 March. The route required many more buses than the 210, but was busiest Monday to Friday, whereas the 210 was busier at weekends, particularly Sundays. Hence the 31 new buses allocated for the 29-bus peak requirement on the 212 also provided just enough (at least in theory) for the 210 to convert fully to RF at the weekends. In addition, there were enough buses to allocate some RFs to the 251 on Saturday and, when the winter schedules came in and the 210 requirement reduced, on Sunday as well. Meanwhile at Muswell Hill, the 244 kept its TD allocation. In practice, it seems likely that the picture was less clear-cut than this.

The route was still under pressure, despite the increase in capacity provided by the RFs, so to ease the plight of passengers at intermediate stops waiting in vain for a bus with room to board, a peak-hour express service was added from 12 Oct 55. This ran the full length of the route in both directions, stopping only at Alexandra Park (Muswell Hill Victoria Hotel) and Crouch End Broadway, but as the faretable shows, the morning peak journey to Finsbury Park was the key section. Blue blinds with white lettering were apparently used, but these journeys seem to have eluded the photographers - does anyone know of a picture of an RF-operated 212 Express? The Express was highly successful and continued right through the RT era until replaced by MBSs on the W2 in 1968.

Extra capacity. The later Routemasters (with offside illuminated advertisements) were delivered to Muswell Hill for the 134, but after a 1967 repaint, RM1965 is seen here, otherwise in original condition, after the use of an ultimate blind on the short 212 was abandoned. Stuart Perry comments that RM1965, a long term resident at MH, was a good bus but not quite as good as his favourite RM1640 (which is still at work on the Heritage service).

The route finally converted to RTs in January 1960, once the bridge on Muswell Hill over the abandoned railway was finally removed. The majority of the RFs moved overnight to Kingston to convert the 218/9, which needed 22 buses.

One of the additional burdens on the 212 was the Alexandra Park Racecourse, active until 1970. Just like Kenwood and the 210, this was a big attraction which would have seen exceptional RF loadings for the evening race meetings. Stuart Perry notes that by the mid 60s, all the routes serving the course (212, 233, 217 and 231) were double-deck RT operated, but earlier the first two routes would have been using the RF. 'The punters had the choice of leaving the Piccadilly Line at either Finsbury Park, Turnpike Lane or Wood Green, but from central London obviously Finsbury Park came first and I know we struggled to shift the crowds with the RT so it must have been even more hectic with the RF. On race nights there was an absolute priority that all the 212 duties were covered but no extras as far as I recall. But Wood Green Station crowds then used the 233, meaning of course that the 233 crews from WG and later WN had to cope with a double whammy as the punters could reach the course from both directions of travel on the 233. Having said that Finsbury Park remained the favourite option for most.'

RTs remained on Monday to Friday up to the end of the route, but operation switched to RMs at weekends in June 1963. Stuart comments that the RMs carried blue Express lazy blinds, even though the Express did not operate at weekends, so it is doubtful that they were ever used. The route converted to one-man flat-fare operation in the changes of May 1969, being renumbered W7 in the Wood Green series. The last 212 was an RT on 9 May 69.

The W7 continues over the same route today. Still very busy, it is the only suburban double-deck route that is pay-before-you-board, having hosted the 2001 trial of the roadside machine system before its introduction in central London

Red RF routes

Route 212