The Flickr Vlt17 Image Generatr

not sure when, I presume this is Oxford Street

AEC Routemaster Park Royal in Willesden London August 1983, wearing a heritage livery to celebrate 50-years of London Transport 1933-1983.

Showbus 1993 @ Duxford

Sunday 26 September 1993
© Copyright Steve Guess MMXXII

London Transport celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1983. To mark the occasion, numerous LT garages chose favourite Routemasters in their allocations to receive special liveries. Two of them were captured together in this Hyde Park Corner scene. Riverside (R) painted its RM1091 (91CLT) with a gold cantrail band plus Jubilee decals while RM17 (VLT17) behind was given a retro-1933 livery by Willesden Garage (AC).

London Transport welcomed its jubilee year as an opportunity to restore an image that had been much tarnished during its latter years. Some of the problems had been of its own making, notably buying large rafts of vehicles that were destined for the scrap dealer after brief service lives, but the organisation had become a political football after overall control had been vested with the Greater London Council. Edgy labour relations were a further thorn in the provision of a public service.

The previous two years had brought further upheaval via the GLC’s Fares Fare policy of cheap but subsidised fares that the Courts had ruled illegal. Fares Fare had proved popular with the travelling public, stimulating ridership, but passenger numbers tumbled overnight once fares were raised to commercially viable levels. Large-scale withdrawals of Routemaster buses ensued, a process that continued with the abolition of the GLC in 1986 and legislation that required LT to put routes out to competitive tender.

London Transport was itself abolished in the aftermath of these mid-1980s upheavals, to be replaced by London Regional Transport, an essentially supervisory body that had no responsibility for daily operations. Riverside Garage was closed during this period, and the cherished RM1091 and RM17 departed the capital transport scene, the former going for scrap in 2/87, the latter for a second career with Clydeside Scottish in late 1985. RM17 however does survive in preservation today.

July 1983
Yashica FR1 camera
Kodak Ektachrome 100 film.

VLT17 was an AEC Routemaster R2RH / Park Royal H36/28R new as London Transport RM17 in June 1959. On disposal in October 1985, it was bought by Clydeside Scottish, and allocated number 251, although in practice it ran as RM17. Western Scottish merged with Clydeside in May 1989, and this bus was re-registered as
LDS214A, with the fleet number changed to C11. It was withdrawn in August 1990 and sold to PVS, Carlton. The following month it was bought for preservation by A&D Harlott, Ipswich and re-registered as WLT675. It moved to Rob Duker, St.Neots in January 2009.
It is shown at South Nitshill in Glasgow, while carrying an advert for Westcars SAAB.

VLT17 was an AEC Routemaster R2RH / Park Royal H36/28R new as London Transport RM17 in June 1959. On disposal in October 1985, it was bought by Clydeside Scottish, and allocated number 251, although in practice it ran as RM17. Western Scottish merged with Clydeside in May 1989, and this bus was re-registered as
LDS214A, with the fleet number changed to C11. It was withdrawn in August 1990 and sold to PVS, Carlton. The following month it was bought for preservation by A&D Harlott, Ipswich and re-registered as WLT675. It moved to Rob Duker, St.Neots in January 2009.
It is shown emerging from the gloom of The "Hielandman's Umbrella" in Glasgow, while carrying an advert for Westcars SAAB.

London 19-07-1983. London Transport VLT 17 (RM17), AEC Routemaster / Park Royal new in 06/1959.

RM17 VLT17
RCL2233 CUV233C

RM17 on route 52 under the canopy of Victoria Bus Station on 26th May 1984. The bus had worn "1933" livery for the London Transport Golden Jubilee the previous year. Here it has been partially repainted into standard livery but retaining gold fleetnames and numbers plus other "original" features that had been restored.

It's 1983, yes, that hot summer long ago...............and here we have RM17, which I think was Willesden's (AC) showbus at the time, leaving the garage on Route 52 to Victoria. The livery revived the old London General Omnibus Co.colours to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the formation of London Transport in 1933.
The 52 allocation was shared with dear old X at the time.
Not a flat fronted bus in sight, thank god.

Quite a sterile shot of RM17 tucked up on the apron of the erstwhile Gillingham Street Garage at Victoria. This along with the AEC Merlin in front of it, and several London Country RMC’s within close proximity had been demoted to driver training duties at the time. In later years the bus went North, sold to Clydeside for use in and around Glasgow.

April 1979.