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 bridge on Muswell Hill was removed.

Dates of RF operation

10 Feb 53 to 5 Jan 60

(total 6 years, 11 months, all crew operation).

Destinations

FINSBURY PARK - MUSWELL HILL BROADWAY

Express service M-F peaks introduced 12/10/55

RFs 411 and 352, plus one, lay over at Muswell Hill Broadway, 4 August 1959 Photo © KG Carr, Peter Gomm collection

Route history

Originally numbered the 111, the route was introduced in April 1914 from Finsbury Park to Muswell Hill. Initially worked by Holloway garage (J), the route was reallocated to Muswell Hill (MH) when that garage opened on 23 Sep 25. Using LT 'Scooters' from 1931, the route was renumbered on 3 Oct 34 into the new 200-series of single-deck routes.

The LTs lasted until 1946/7, when there was a phased replacement by new 14T12 Regals during 1946. However, the 7.7 litre AECs proved underpowered (presumably the burden of full loads up Muswell Hill was too much for them), 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. Meanwhile, Muswell Hill's 244 was still LT-operated (until at least 1950), and some joint allocation meant that one LT working reappeared on the 212, Mondays to Fridays in the late 1940s.

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

Photo Ian Armstrong collection

Providing important links for Muswell Hill and Crouch End, the 212 was always a very busy route, with a bus every two minutes in the 1930s to 1950s. LT would have dearly loved to run double-deckers - indeed, the LGOC was fined in 1921 for running double-deckers on the 111 over the weight-restricted railway bridges at Crouch Hill and Muswell Hill. The peak requirement increased steadily, to a maximum of 23 LTs, 27 when run by a mixture of LTs and Ts and finally 30 TDs in 1952, falling back slightly to 29 on the introduction of the larger RFs (but 29 41-seat RFs provided 20% more seats than 30 33-seat TDs).

The 212 was the second route at Muswell Hill garage operated by the RF class, from February 1953. The first was licensed on 4 February and the last few of the batch 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.

The route finally converted to RTs in January 1960, once the bridge on Muswell Hill over the abandoned railway was removed. The majority of the RFs moved overnight to Kingston for the 218/9, which needed 22 buses. RTs remained until the end on Monday to Friday, but operation switched to RMs at weekends in June 1963. Other than the express service, 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.

The W7 continues over the same route today. Still very busy, it is one of the few (the only?) suburban double-deck routes that is pay-before-you-board.

Red RF routes

Route 212