Red RF routes

RF445 at Arnos Grove in 1972Route 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on Saturdays and winter Sundays from 1953 to December 1956, when the RFs were introduced full time and the TDs largely withdrawn (see also David Mitchell's comments under 'Memories', below).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 240A.  OMO conversion of the 251, still with RFs, came in January 1965, in the second phase along with the 237.  The 240A 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
RF478 at Arnos Grove
 
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.'