Red RF routes
Route
240A
Page last updated 19 January 2013
Much more famous for being the last route to operate the last
TDs, London's last half-cab single deckers, the 240A
became RF operated for a few years before the road was lowered
under the bridge at Mill Hill.
RFs 410 and (right) 473 at
Edgware in November 1962. The RFs show a mix of
old and new - they still carry the route plates over the entrance,
but have painted garage codes.
Photo © MA Sutcliffe,
Peter Gomm collection
Dates of RF operation
10 Oct 62 to 22 Jan 66
(total 3 years 3 months, all
crew-operated)
Destinations
EDGWARE STATION and MILL HILL EAST
STATION
Reason for single-deck operation
The low railway bridge at Mill Hill Broadway, before it was
reconstructed along with the building of the M1, meant the
double-deck 240 terminated east of the
bridge and the 140 to the west.
Earlier, the low bridge at Mill Hill East station (then Mill Hill
LNER station) restricted double-deck workings on the
240 to the section between Holders Circus and Golders Green,
until the road was lowered during the war.
 The
low bridge at Mill Hill which caused single-deck operation of the
240 A. TD104 heads into Mill Hill Broadway from
Hale Lane. See also here for a
picture of the reconstruction in progress. Another picture of
the bridge is in John Hambley's 1962 book, showing TD101 coming the
other way.
Photo © Mike Beamish
Route history
On the same day in April 1922 as the 110 (later 210) was introduced to Golders Green, the General
introduced new route 104 linking Golders Green with Mill Hill,
both rapidly developing areas. The route was extended in
July alongside the new LCC Watling Estate via Deans Lane and
Deansbrook Road to Edgware and on to South Harrow. The
route was operated by Hendon garage (AE), this being some three
years before Edgware (EW) opened. The route
was single-deck operated due to the low railway bridge at Mill
Hill, but a supplementary double-deck service operated by
Cricklewood (W) ran between South Harrow and Harrow Weald, all
buses being B types.
In 1924, the double-deck section was extended, first to Stanmore
and then to Edgware, being renumbered 114 in December that
year. This replaced this section of the 104, which then
terminated at Edgware Station, with both routes now being operated
by W.
In October 1926, LGOC registered a route which extended the 104
beyond Golders Green along the 110 (now 210) as far as Highgate
Village. Although the full route (which ran north to
Elstree) never operated, the route ran between Edgware and Highgate
Village in summer 1927 only. Under the Bassom system, the previous 104 was
renumbered 104E and the Highgate route was numbered
104C. Perhaps in lieu of 104C, summer
1928 saw short workings on the 110 between Golders Green and
Highgate Village. Various other permutations of the 104 were
registered, ensuring confusion to historians and no doubt also to
passengers.
The present routing along Hale Lane to Edgware was introduced in
February 1929, when the route was extended in an S-shape to Burnt
Oak. The section of Hale Lane between the station and
the Green Man had been first used only in 1927 (by an
extension to the 114), before which the road had a watersplash at
Deans Brook and was unsuitable for buses.

TD124 in smart suburbia on
2 Apr 62.
Photo © Geoff Plumb
Two years later, and a year after Edgware garage (EW) started
working on the route, the 104 was the first to operate the new
single-deck LT Scooter, in January 1931. LT1001 was delivered
to EW (the parent garage was AE, so this was the official
allocation), enabling comparison with the Ts from EW and W as well
as the experimental single-deck London Six LS6 at W.
LT1001 moved to Muswell Hill for the 111 (later the 212) in March, but six and seven Scooters
respectively were delivered to EW and W for the route in June 1931,
replacing the Ts. By that time, the route again featured
a double-deck section, this time between Mill Hill East (south
of the station) and Golders Green, operated on Saturdays by
Chalk Farm (CF).
As primarily a single-deck route, the 104 was renumbered 240 in October 1934, when it operated
a fascinating mix of buses – as well as 3 Scooters from EW and 2
from W (and a Sunday allocation of 3 from Holloway (J)),
Cricklewood allocated one T and the LS, with NSs for the
double-deck section. These ran alongside STs from Edgware but
were replaced on Saturdays by STLs from Chalk Farm (CF).
The outbreak of war saw the allocation simplified, with just W
providing LT Scooters and STLs. A diversion via Sanders Way in Mill
Hill East was introduced in 1940, meaning the route no longer
served the LNER station, which had closed in 1939.
Mill Hill East station opened in 1867, on the GNR line from
Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate. This line became part
of the pre-war Northern Heights project, under which the Northern
Line would be extended beyond Highgate (the station now known as
Archway) over existing steam-operated rail lines. The line
from Finsbury Park had branches to High Barnet and Alexandra
Palace, and the plans also envisaged an extension north of Edgware
to Bushey Heath. Steam services ceased in 1939 and were
replaced (in part) by rail-replacement buses from Finchley Central
to Edgware.

RF407 on the short-working to Mill Hill
Broadway.
Photo © Michael Rooum, Peter Gomm
collection
The war meant that the Northern Heights project was never
completed. The extension from Archway to High Barnet opened
in 1940, and to serve the Mill Hill Barracks the branch to Mill
Hill East was electrified and opened, still as a single track, in
1941 – the last element in today’s Northern Line. The
Alexandra Park branch, which passed under Muswell Hill by a weak
bridge that forced London Transport to work the busy 212 with single-deckers, continued to operate a
shuttle from Finsbury Park until 1954, but the section between Mill
Hill East and Edgware was freight only and never reopened to
passenger traffic; it closed completely in 1964. Despite
considerable work, including the building of the depot (which later
became LT’s Aldenham Works), the extension north of Edgware was
never built.
Returning to the 240, later in 1940 the single-deck section was
shortened to run only to Mill Hill Hendon Way, and the
allocation for this section moved back to EW; the double-deck
section was extended to run to Mill Hill (the Sanders Way diversion
avoiding the low bridge at Mill Hill East station). When Mill
Hill East station reopened in May 1941, the single-deck section was
extended to terminate there and the rail replacement service from
Finchley was withdrawn. By 1944, the road had been lowered
under the railway and the double-deck service resumed the former
through route. From 1945, the single-deck extension became
peak-hours only.
Being effectively a rail replacement service, Underground
tickets were available for travel on this service. At the time,
most Underground tickets were of the "station of origin" type,
which showed only the issuing station and the fare paid (for
example "Edgware to any LT station at a single fare of 6d").
Underground tickets that could be used on the 240A bus
had the name of the issuing station underlined, to identify them to
the 240A conductors as tickets valid for travel on the
bus (whilst remaining obscure to passengers!). Tickets were
available to and from all Northern Line stations on the Barnet
branch north of Highgate. So for example an
Underground ticket could be purchased at East Finchley, for a
journey to Edgware which would be valid by Northern Line to Mill
Hill East and then by bus.
This arrangement continued long after the proposed extension
from Mill Hill East to Edgware had been abandoned. Acceptance
of Underground tickets was not withdrawn until about the early
1960s, after which the facility remained only for existing season
ticket holders. It died out a few years later when the last
regular season ticket holder ceased travelling, apparently before
the 221 took over. [Thanks to David Carpenter for these
details. The only other instance we know where rail tickets
were accepted on buses was after the wartime closure of the
West London Line, when tickets were accepted on trolleybus routes
626/628/630 between Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction.
Again, the facilitiy was reduced to season-ticket holders and later
died out. Further contributions welcome - please e-mail us.]
From being largely open country in 1930, the area around Mill
Hill was now becoming built up and new roads required new
services. In consequence, part of the 240’s single-deck
service was extended (using the same Scooters from EW) on 12 Nov 47
to Page Street, at the end of Bunns Lane, as new weekday route
240A.
In May and June 1949, Edgware's Scooters on the two routes were
replaced by nine new TDs, a year after Cricklewood's STLs on the
240 had been replaced by new RTs. The following year, the LMR
station at Mill Hill was renamed Mill Hill Broadway, but still only
offered the north-south service that is now Thameslink (officially
'First Capital Connect').
RT4772 (which in 2010 returned to the UK from Canada)
on the 240A and RM516 on the 240 share the stand at
Edgware Station.
Photo © N Rayfield, Ian
Armstrong collection
In July 1951, the 240’s single-deck section was withdrawn
completely and the 240A was extended (and made daily)
over the new Bittacy Rise and Pursley Road to Mill Hill East
Station. The new TDs were highly prized and thinly spread, so
when the service was increased on the 240A in November
1951, a pair of former Green Line 10T10s were required until a
couple more TDs could be found after the winter. Apart from
this period, the TDs settled into a routine throughout the
1950s.
The introduction of the RFs and in particular the service
reductions after the 1958 strike saw the TD fleet diminish so that
by late 1959 they were working only at EW and at Kingston, where
the 215A was deemed too tight
for RFs. These latter finally gave way in February 1962,
leaving the 240A to run London's last half-cab
single-deckers on 9 October 1962.
Throughout this period, the route had run a more frequent
service between Edgware and Mill Hill Broadway than further east,
with the short-workings described in the timetable as Mill Hill
Watford Way and on the blinds as Mill Hill Broadway.
The RFs continued this arrangement, running for just over three
years until more changes came to the 240 and 240A in
1966.
The road
under the railway was lowered, permitting through operation by
double-deckers. This was introduced by the extension daily of
the 240 over its 'natural' routing through to Edgware, using a
mixture of RMs from Hendon, RTs from Edgware and RTLs from
Cricklewood. In addition, trolleybus-replacement route
221 was extended on Mondays to Saturdays
from North Finchley to Edgware over the full route of the
240A, replacing it on those days. The
240A remained as a Sunday-only route, now RT-operated.
The RFs last ran on 22 Jan 66.
This rather fragile arrangement lasted a further nine years,
with the RTs giving way to OMO SMSs in January 1971 and the route
finally being replaced by Sunday operation of the 221. The
last day of operation was 25 Mar 79.
SMS773 at Golders Green on a Sunday in the
1970s.
Photo © Paul Davis, Ian Armstrong
collection
RF route in detail, with timing points
EDGWARE LT Station, Station Road, Hale Lane,
Mill Hill Green Man,
Hale Lane, Mill Hill Broadway, Mill
Hill Broadway Flower Lane, Flower Lane, Bunns Lane,
Page Street Bunns
Lane, Page Street, Pursley Road, Sanders Lane, Bittacy
Rise, Engell Park, Bittacy Hill, MILL HILL EAST STATION

RF allocation
PVR 1962 (Oct): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 7, Sun 3
PVR 1963 (Oct): Mon-Fri 9, Sat 6, Sun 3
Re-creation
RFs operated the 240A at our Colindale Running Day in 2010.
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