|
|
Red RF routes
Route
251
A remarkable route that has covered the same roads from the
days of the General up to today. RF operation moved in 1963
from Muswell Hill garage, also home to the 210 and 212, to
Edgware, which had just replaced the last TDs in service with RFs
on the 240A.
Dates of RF
operation
1 Dec 56 (but see below) to 22 Jan 77
Converted to OMO 27 Jan 65
(total 20 years 2 months, of
which 12 years crew operation).
Destinations
ARNOS GROVE – BURNT OAK (to 6 Sep 68)
ARNOS GROVE – STANMORE STN (from 7 Sep 68)
Edgware-based OMO RF445
stands at Arnos Grove in 1972. Compare the scene eleven years
earlier, below. Photo Ian Armstrong collection
Route
history
LTL-operated General route 551 was shortened in the early
1930s to run from Burnt Oak to Arnos Grove Station, which
itself opened in September 1932. The route became the 251 in
the 1934 renumbering. It shared the weak bridge at Mill Hill
with the 240 (later split, with the 240A becoming an RF
route).
The LTLs continued trundling through the country roads until
after the war, when they were replaced at Muswell Hill in
spring 1949 by new TDs. These continued as the mainstay of
the route until the mid-50s.
RFs were used on the route before their formal introduction in
December 1956. Sources indicate that RFs ran on Saturdays and
winter Sundays from 1953 to December 1956, when the RFs were
introduced full time and the TDs largely withdrawn (see also
David Mitchell's comments under 'Memories', below). This
is consistent with the reduced requirement on Muswell Hill's RF
routes, the 212 at weekends and the 210 on winter Sundays, and
also with the allocation of only 6 RFs to convert a route with a
PVR of 9. However, LT's allocation schedules for 1955 show
only TDs allocated, so this appears to have been a local
arrangement.
Conversion was achieved in December 1956 by 6 additional buses
transferred into Muswell Hill from Sidcup, where they were
replaced by 6 green buses transferred in from the Country area and
added to the Country vehicles loaned to permit red RF
overhauls. Whilst in theory fully RF by now, the winter 1957
allocation schedule still shows the requirement for a single TD on
Monday to Friday. By then, no other TDs were scheduled at
Muswell Hill.
On 27 February 1963, the route moved unchanged to Edgware
garage as part of a reorganisation involving Enfield and Potters
Bar garages; Muswell Hill gained the balance of the 134.
Edgware had only four months earlier replaced the last TDs by RFs
on its long-standing route 240 A. OMO conversion of
the 251, still with RFs, came in January 1965, in the second phase
along with the 237. The
240 A remained crew-operated and lost its RFs in
favour of RTs (as a Sunday-only route) in 1966.
In September 1968, the 251 was extended to Edgware and
Stanmore to cover part of trolleybus replacement route 245, except
for Sundays when certain journeys were extended only as far as
Edgware Station. Another period of stability followed until
the RFs were finally replaced by BLs in January 1977, the same day
as another very long running RF route, the 234A, and leaving RFs
running only at Hounslow and Kingston.
Whilst BLs lasted until 1990, the route itself continues
still, cut back now from Stanmore to Edgware but still covering
General route 551.
Doorless RF478 at the same
terminus on 28 August 1961, when the route was shorter and operated
by Muswell Hill. Photo ©
Gerald Mead
RF route in
detail, with timing points
ARNOS GROVE STATION, Bowes Road, Oakleigh Road South,
Oakleigh Road
Woodman, Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone Griffin, Totteridge
Lane, Totteridge War
Memorial, Totteridge Lane, Highwood Hill, Highwood Hill Marsh Lane,
Highwood Hill, Lawrence Street, Mill Hill Broadway, Mill Hill Stn, LMR (later
Mill Hill Broadway Stn), Bunns
Lane, Woodcroft Avenue, Watling Avenue, Barnfield Rd (return via
Edgware Rd), BURNT OAK Edgware Road (to 6 Sep
68)
When operating from Muswell Hill garage, buses entered and left
service at Whetstone, suggesting that garage journeys ran via
Friern Barnet Lane and Colney Hatch Lane. When the route
moved to Edgware, buses entered and left service at Burnt Oak
or Highwood Hill. It is not known whether any garage journeys
ran in service.
ARNOS GROVE STATION, Bowes Road, Oakleigh Road South,
Oakleigh Road
Woodman, Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone Griffin, Totteridge
Lane, Totteridge War
Memorial, Totteridge Lane, Highwood Hill, Highwood Hill Rising Sun,
Highwood Hill, Lawrence Street, Mill Hill Broadway, Mill Hill Broadway Stn, Bunns Lane,
Woodcroft Avenue, Watling Avenue, Burnt Oak Bald Faced Stag (Sunday
jnys terminate Burnt Oak
Barnfield Rd), Edgware Rd, High St Edgware, EDGWARE
STN (Suns), Edgware High
St, Edgware Rd, London Rd, STANMORE STN (MS)
Garages
MH Muswell Hill to 26 Feb
63
EW Edgware from 27 Feb 63
Vehicle allocation (but see notes)
PVR 1955: Mon-Fri 9 TD, Sat 9 TD, Sun 7 TD
PVR 1957 winter: Mon-Fri 8 RF + 1 TD, Sat 9 RF, Sun 6
RF
PVR 1960 summer: Mon-Fri 9, Sat 7, Sun 5
PVR 1963 (EW): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 7, Sun 4
PVR 1963 winter: Mon-Fri 9, Sat 5, Sun 4
PVR 1965 (OMO): Mon-Fri 11, Sat 9, Sun 5
PVR 1968: Mon-Fri 14, Sat 7, Sun 4
Memories
David Mitchell lived in Oakleigh Road North, Whetstone,
until his family emigrated to Australia in September 1956. He
recalls:
'I regularly used the 251 route to school at Mill Hill and
latterly to Stanmore. I can certainly recall RFs running on
the 251 before we left. Although they certainly had not
completely replaced the TDs by September 1956, as suggested
they probably did so on Saturdays and Sundays. My memory
indicates they began running some 18-24 months before the above
date and I can remember being a most excited 12/13 year-old when
they did!'
Ian Rivett, on his website, recalls the early days of
RFs on the 251 from MH, running to the now defunct Barnfield Road
terminus in Burnt Oak. 'MH 5, I think was the first to arrive in
the morning followed by MH 6-9, then MH 1-4. The first four used to
go towards Arnos Grove and the rest towards Burnt Oak. This was
just on conversion after the TD's were withdrawn. MH 1, 4 & 7
used to depart to the garage after the morning peak only to return
out of sequence in the afternoon. MH 1 followed MH 2, 4 after 5 and
7 after 8.
Although some sources list the Saturday 251 allocation as being
mixed TD/RF from May 53 to May 57, I don't recall seeing a mixed
allocation on Saturdays, only TD's.'
|
|