40th Spring Bus & Coach Gathering

The 40th Spring Bus & Coach Gathering was held at the London Bus Museum at Cobham Hall Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey on Sunday last (21st April 2013)

Tim Major visited the event, formerly known as the Cobham Rally, which was located at the museum complex which also displayed motor racing heritage and aircraft history of the area

Tim reports that, as a part of the proceedings, the museum celebrated the arrival of three new vehicles

Firstly RT2657 was an early post-war AEC RT with Park Royal bodywork built in 1948 and features a roofbox route number box. This vehicle left London in 1965, bound for the Paris Transport Museum where it  resided for the next 48 years until it was donated to the London Bus Museum earlier this year. The LTPS and EATM have of course repatriated LT trolleybus 796 and Glasgow tram 488 from the same establishment.

Secondly there was RW3, one of three experimental AEC Reliance single deckes with Willowbrook bodies, purchased by LT in 1960 to test the concept of a separate exit door. 

The vehicle has been the subject of extensive restoration to original condition by private owners and the bus has been placed on long-term loan to the museum.

Finally RM2760 (not pictured) was the last Routemaster to be built. It retains an AEC engine and original interior and Stagecoach has placed it long-term loan to the museum

The only other vehicle photographed was an AEC tree-lopper. London Transport service vehicle 971J, was once a front-entrance STL-type bus in the Country Area.

My thanks to Tim Major for his report and pictures