Routemaster Engine
1957 Leyland Routemaster prototype bus – RML3
RML3 is one of four prototype Routemasters built and tested between 1954-1958 before full-scale production began. It was taken into stock in July 1957 and entered service in January 1958, allocated to Willesden garage for use on route 8 into and across central London. One of the two prototypes to have a Leyland engine, it became the only Routemaster to have a body built by Weymann of Weybridge/Addlestone in Surrey at their now long-gone factory just up the road from today’s Museum.
In January 1959 it was involved in a severe collision in the Edgware Road and suffered extensive frontal panel damage. After repair in London Transport’s experimental workshop at Chiswick Works, it was returned to service until November 1959 when its service career ended after only 18 months. It then became a driver-training vehicle in preparation for the introduction of production Routemasters to replace London’s electric trolleybus fleet. In 1961, the bus was re-classified as ‘RM3′ to allow the ‘RML’ designation to be used for the new longer Routemasters.
After 1963, the vehicle became disused and saw parts removed to keep its fellow Leyland prototype (the Green Line version) roadworthy. In 1965, however, the bus was repaired and overhauled, losing its distinctive and unique design of bonnet, grille and nearside mudguard in the process and receiving a standard production version instead. In this form, it returned to training duties until April 1972. After a period of storage, it was acquired by the then Cobham Bus Museum in 1974, thus becoming the very first Routemaster to be privately preserved.
[London Bus museum]
Year of the Bus celebrates two centuries of buses with Regent Street Bus Cavalcade
22 June 2014, 48 buses from "the earliest horse-drawn model of the 1820s right up to the New Routemasters" paraded along Regent Street.
Routemaster Engine
1957 Leyland Routemaster prototype bus – RML3
RML3 is one of four prototype Routemasters built and tested between 1954-1958 before full-scale production began. It was taken into stock in July 1957 and entered service in January 1958, allocated to Willesden garage for use on route 8 into and across central London. One of the two prototypes to have a Leyland engine, it became the only Routemaster to have a body built by Weymann of Weybridge/Addlestone in Surrey at their now long-gone factory just up the road from today’s Museum.
In January 1959 it was involved in a severe collision in the Edgware Road and suffered extensive frontal panel damage. After repair in London Transport’s experimental workshop at Chiswick Works, it was returned to service until November 1959 when its service career ended after only 18 months. It then became a driver-training vehicle in preparation for the introduction of production Routemasters to replace London’s electric trolleybus fleet. In 1961, the bus was re-classified as ‘RM3′ to allow the ‘RML’ designation to be used for the new longer Routemasters.
After 1963, the vehicle became disused and saw parts removed to keep its fellow Leyland prototype (the Green Line version) roadworthy. In 1965, however, the bus was repaired and overhauled, losing its distinctive and unique design of bonnet, grille and nearside mudguard in the process and receiving a standard production version instead. In this form, it returned to training duties until April 1972. After a period of storage, it was acquired by the then Cobham Bus Museum in 1974, thus becoming the very first Routemaster to be privately preserved.
[London Bus museum]
Year of the Bus celebrates two centuries of buses with Regent Street Bus Cavalcade
22 June 2014, 48 buses from "the earliest horse-drawn model of the 1820s right up to the New Routemasters" paraded along Regent Street.